South Park Commons, a Silicon Valley collective comprising engineers, founders, and researchers, is in the process of raising a fund specifically for India more than six months after venturing into the South Asian territory in June, as indicated by a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently. The precise magnitude of the fund remains undetermined, although the filing targets a sum of $40 million.

Established by Facebook’s pioneer female engineer, Ruchi Sanghvi, in the year 2016, South Park Commons made its Indian debut last year by collaborating with Flipkart co-creator Binny Bansal. The Indian division, headquartered in Bengaluru, marked the platform’s initial international expansion, which had previously established three funds to support startups in initial phases across the United States.

In the year 2018, Sanghvi was joined by her spouse and business collaborator, Aditya Agarwal, who had formerly held the position of VP of engineering at Dropbox.

Unlike conventional venture capital firms and incubators like Y Combinator, South Park Commons seeks technologists with firm ideas who might not yet be prepared for fundraising — the stage they refer to as “-1 to 0,” according to their FAQ section. The organization operates two distinct programs: Community Membership for entrepreneurs not intending to raise funds and Founder Fellowship to support founders with a complete funding of $1 million ($400,000 upon entering the program and an additional pledge of $600,000 for the subsequent venture phase).

South Park Commons lists around 175 current members and over 800 former participants on its site. Approximately 80% are founders, with the remainder constituting domain specialists and researchers.

In September, the consortium appointed Angel One executive director and CBO Prateek Mehta as the inaugural partner for its Indian branch.

The Indian startup landscape has posed challenges broadly. The nation, which per government figures houses upwards of 149,000 new enterprises, boasts merely 117 unicorns — startups valued at a minimum of $1 billion. This situation has led international VC funds, among them Accel, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed, to maintain their confidence in India’s ecosystem, whereas others like SoftBank and Tiger Global have faced difficulties. Y Combinator selected only four startups from India in its 2024 winter and summer batches, down from 8 in 2023 and 47 in 2022.

Sanghvi and Agarwal did not provide an immediate response when asked for their comments.