firstcheque.vc

What It Is

First Cheque (First Cheque LLP) is an early-stage venture capital fund based in India that positions itself as the "earliest backer" for founders, specifically investing in early startup teams at the paper-plan, pre-product, and MVP stages. Per data disclosed on its official website, it has invested in more than 120 companies backed by over 250 founders, covering industries including B2B marketplaces, D2C, SaaS, FinTech, creator economy, consumer internet, EdTech, and more.

Core Features

• Fast decision-making: The typical process only requires 2-3 calls, with a term sheet delivered within 10 days, and funding can be disbursed within 30 days of the first call — extremely founder-friendly for teams that need to move quickly.
• Investment terms: The standard check size is around 75 lakhs INR (≈ ₹7.5 million rupees), with a maximum investment size of up to $500,000 USD, and valuations adjusted based on the startup's stage. It uses fairly standard terms including convertible preferred stock, non-participating liquidation preference, and broad-based weighted average anti-dilution protection.
• Post-investment support: This includes Demo Day (connections to 120+ investors), a community of 250+ founders, a mentorship program with VCs and experienced founding CEOs, and Expert Connects to match startups with industry experts.
• Dealbook: Aggregates exclusive perks from service providers including AWS ($25,000 in credits), Google (up to $100,000 in credits), Notion, Razorpay, MongoDB, Freshworks, and more, to help portfolio companies cut operating costs.

Pricing

As a investment firm rather than a paid service, it charges no fees to founders; due diligence and legal costs are capped at 2% of the transaction amount (borne by the company in practice).

Pros & Cons

Pros: Fast decisions, transparent terms, solid post-investment community and service provider resources, and the public sharing of standard documents demonstrates respect for founders. Cons: Geographically focused almost exclusively on the Indian startup ecosystem, so it is basically irrelevant for non-India teams; the website's copyright is dated 2022, so there are questions about how up-to-date its information is; the term sheet includes a number of investor-protective clauses (veto rights, tag-along rights, priority exit rights, etc.) that founders need to evaluate carefully.

Who It's For

Best suited for first-time founders and pre-seed stage teams based in India, especially founders who have not yet scaled their product and are looking for their first institutional check plus access to a supporting ecosystem and network.

Access from China

The website is a standard informational site that can be accessed directly with no obvious restrictions, but its business only serves the Indian startup ecosystem, so it has limited reference value for Chinese founders.