First Cheque

Stage focus

Multi-stage

Primary sector

IT / SaaS / Enterprise Software

City

Bengaluru

HQ / office

No physical street address published on the official site. HQ is Bengaluru (Bangalore), Karnataka, India per LinkedIn and multiple press sources (Business Standard, Inc42, Tracxn). The fund originated under India Quotient in Mumbai (2018). Exact street address not verifiable from primary sources.

Fund registered

2018

Investments on record

120

Corpus (as reported)

~$5M second fund (INR 38 Cr) closed July 2022; total AUM reported ~INR 90 Cr (2022, confirmed by Business Standard and Inc42). No newer fund/AUM figure verified as of 2026.

Website

firstcheque.vc

LinkedIn

Profile ↗

First Cheque is an Indian pre-seed / micro-VC firm founded in 2018, conceptualized under the India Quotient seed-fund umbrella to back first-time founders at the ideation/MVP stage via a network of founder-angels ("venture partners"). It was originally led by CEO Kushal Bhagia and later ran investments under Investments Lead Prateek Agarwal; it operated as an AngelList syndicate before raising institutional capital. It closed a ~$5M second fund (INR 38 Cr) in July 2022, taking total AUM to ~INR 90 Cr, and has backed 120+ startups across all sectors. Standard cheque sizes are ~Rs 75 lakh (~$90K), up to ~$500K. Headquartered in Bengaluru.

Stage: Pre-seed / paper-plan / pre-product / MVP stage (writes the "first cheque" from ideation). Sector: sector-agnostic / all sectors (SaaS, fintech, edtech, consumer, spacetech, web3, D2C, etc.). Standard cheque ~Rs 75 lakh (~$90K at current FX), up to ~$500K. NOTE: the official site labels Rs 75 lakh as "approximately $500k," which is an inflated/dated conversion — Rs 75 lakh is roughly $90K; treat $500K as the upper cheque ceiling, not the standard.

Up to USD 500K; standard cheque ~INR 75 Lakh (pre-seed/MVP stage)

As compiled from public sources — verify with the investor.

Registration category not stated — reported as “Pre-seed / micro-VC”

None found

Fashinza; Giva; Rocketlane; Wint Wealth; FleetX; Rigi; Drink Prime; Bellatrix Aerospace; GroMo; SpeakX

Small core team (founder/CEO Kushal Bhagia) plus a network of venture partners (successful founders); exact count not disclosed

Pre-seed/micro-VC; AngelList-India-structured fund + syndicate (single cap-table entity 'AL Trust', ~200+ syndicate backers); originally conceptualized by India Quotient Seed Fund; venture-partner-led co-investment model

What does First Cheque invest in?

Stage: Pre-seed / paper-plan / pre-product / MVP stage (writes the "first cheque" from ideation). Sector: sector-agnostic / all sectors (SaaS, fintech, edtech, consumer, spacetech, web3, D2C, etc.). Standard cheque ~Rs 75 lakh (~$90K at current FX), up to ~$500K. NOTE: the official site labels Rs 75 lakh as "approximately $500k," which is an inflated/dated conversion — Rs 75 lakh is roughly $90K; treat $500K as the upper cheque ceiling, not the standard.

What cheque size does First Cheque write?

As compiled from public sources: Up to USD 500K; standard cheque ~INR 75 Lakh (pre-seed/MVP stage)

How do I pitch First Cheque through iHub India?

Create a free startup account, open a funding round, and send a structured pitch from this profile. If the investor accepts, contact details are shared and the conversation moves into a tracked deal room.

VC fund (Cat II)

021 Capital Trust

Seed · IT / SaaS / Enterprise Software · Bengaluru

USD ~1 Mn (below USD 1 Mn per cheque; up to USD 2 Mn reported for earlier fund); INR ~8-16 CrContact on file

VC fund (Cat II)

100Unicorns

Multi-stage · Deep Tech (AI/ML/Robotics) · Mumbai

INR 3-5 Cr initial cheque at pre-seed/seed with follow-on capacitySIDBI FFSContact on file

VC / investor (non-AIF or offshore)

100X.VC

Pre-seed / Idea · IT / SaaS / Enterprise Software · Mumbai

Angel fund (Cat I)

1Funds Trust

Multi-stage · Pharma & Life sciences · Mumbai

Pre-seed to Series A+ stage; specific cheque size not disclosedContact on file

VC fund (Cat II)

3IPARTNERS FUND

Multi-stage · Deep Tech (AI/ML/Robotics) · Bengaluru

USD 150k-1M (INR ~1-8 Cr) per startup for 5-15% stake; pre-seed/seed/pre-Series AContact on file

VC fund (Cat II)

3one4 Capital

Multi-stage · IT / SaaS / Enterprise Software · Bengaluru

Early-stage seed to Series A; firm does not publish exact cheque range on siteContact on file

All Multi-stage investors →

• ⚑ Founder/leadership change: original CEO Kushal Bhagia left to start a separate fund, All In Capital (2022) — DO NOT conflate the two. First Cheque originated "under India Quotient's umbrella" (an established private VC) and now runs as an independent brand — fund-affiliated but PRIVATE, no government/DFI/public-university concern. Name-collision risk: "first cheque" is a generic VC term — verify any reference points to firstcheque.vc specifically (100X.VC and others also market "first cheque" language). HQ ambiguous (Mumbai origin vs. Bengaluru current); no street address on official site. Cheque-size discrepancy on own site (Rs 75 lakh labelled "~$500k" — overstated; ~$90K is correct). Latest AUM data is from 2022 — confirm current fund status before reliance.

Compiled from public sources as of 2026-07. iHub India lists investors neutrally and does not endorse, rank, or verify investment terms — confirm all details directly with the investor before transacting.

Sources: https://firstcheque.vc/; https://medium.com/first-cheque/introducing-first-cheque-60cff00b464c