A first cheque, written by people who were in the room.
The gap we kept running into was never talent. It was the institutional cheque that arrives before the metrics do.
The name
10x, compounded.
The C is for capital, and for compounding. A ten-times outcome is arithmetic, not ambition: most cheques return nothing, so the rest must return a great deal.
That cuts both ways. We want companies that could plausibly return a hundred times, and we owe a straight answer to good businesses that are not that shape.
The people who build software to an international standard here already exist. What is missing is the first person willing to fund it instead of renting it by the hour.
The reason 10xC exists
Principles
How we intend to behave.
Hold us to these, especially if we decline you.
Answer quickly
A yes or no in weeks, not a quarter of polite silence. A fast no beats a slow maybe.
Give the real reason
If we pass, we say why in writing, and what would change our mind. Then you can argue with it.
Own a minority
Early money, not a controlling shareholder. You still own the company after the round.
Do the unglamorous work
Incorporation, cap table, first contracts, hiring letters. This is where early companies actually get damaged.
Reference honestly
When another investor asks about a portfolio company, they get the same view we hold internally.
Stay in scope
Outside what we understand, the useful answer is a referral rather than a small cheque and vague help.
Answer quickly Weeks, not a quarter
In writing The real reason, every time
In scope A referral beats a vague cheque
In practice
What we do and do not do.
Early-stage investors are vague about their own behaviour. Here is ours, specifically, so you can decide whether to spend an hour with us.
First hour What the product does, and who pays for it
Write the first institutional cheque We do
Help structure the offshore topco We do
Work the first outbound customer list We do
Introduce the next round, warmly We do
Take a board seat at pre-seed We do not
Require a Western co-founder We do not
Ask for exclusivity while we decide We do not
Invest in direct competitors We do not
Team
Who is actually writing the cheque.
The people behind the fund: a founder who built and financed companies from Pakistan, and the partnerships lead who connects portfolio companies to the programmes around them.
Nadeem Hussain
Co-Founder
Founded Tameer Microfinance Bank in 2005 and led it to Telenor ownership by 2016, one of the country's first large financial-inclusion outcomes. Chairs the Pakistan Fintech Network and the Pakistan Microfinance Network board. Executive Chairperson and CEO of Planet N Group.
The part of this fund that is not theoretical: regulated financial infrastructure, built here, sold to a foreign strategic buyer.
Leads partnerships at 10xC, working with the programme partners, advisers and corporate relationships that sit around each portfolio company. Was 10xC's programme manager when the HubSpot for Startups programme launched for portfolio companies in 2018.
Role Partnerships Manager, 10xC
Based Pakistan
Adviser and limited-partner relationships are set out on the partners page.
We would rather meet early.
Before the round, before the deck. Too early to raise is a good time to talk.
