India, Nov. 10 -- In the heat of a bull market, even the largest funds start behaving in unexpected ways. When everything is booming, the patterns only become clear later.

One trend seen is how often big funds write very small cheques.

Founders see this and feel validated, believing that if a large fund is backing them early, their idea must be exceptional.

But most of the time, it is not conviction driving these bets. It is a calculated guess driven by FOMO.

In 2024, several large funds in India quietly participated in pre-seed rounds with cheques below one crore, often without any follow-on support.

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