The new fund, with an initial investment of Rs 100 crore and final corpus of Rs 200 crore, has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The firm is aiming for a final close over the next three to four months.
“In addition to our five exits, there are a handful of companies that are doing very well and have progressed beyond the early stage from our portfolio — Agnikul, ePlane, CynLr (Cybernetics Laboratory) and GalaxEye Space… We are not going to find new deals in Series A, B or C. The goal is to invest in the follow-on rounds in the best companies coming out of our first fund,” Arjun Rao, general partner, Speciale Invest, told ET in an interaction.
Investment plans for the new fund
Speciale Invest Growth Fund I will invest $1 million to $2 million, Rao said, adding that the new fund would make about 1-2 investments in 2023 and then one every few months from 2024.
The new fund will provide series A and above funding to technology startups in its portfolio. Its focus areas of investments include spacetech, aerospace, green hydrogen, robotics, batteries, quantum tech, artificial intelligence-led software-as-a-service, developer tools, data infrastructure, and Large Language Model (LLM) applications or infrastructure.
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The Bengaluru-based venture capital firm was founded in 2017 by Vishesh Rajaram and Arjun Rao. “Deep science and enterprise technologies have the power to revolutionise industries and solve some of the world’s most pressing problems,” said Rajaram, managing partner, Speciale Invest. “Our newly launched Growth Fund I is a testament to our commitment to investing in high-potential technology startups, and we look forward to working closely with founders building for the world from India.” First fund
In 2018, Speciale Invest had raised its first fund of Rs 60 crore. The fund backed 18 companies, with an average deal size of under $500,000, and scored five early exits.
In April 2022, it announced the final close of its second fund, at Rs 300 crore, with plans to invest in over 20-22 early-stage companies through pre-seed and seed rounds. It has so far completed 10 deals from this fund. The average cheque size ranged from $500,000 to $1 million.
Late last month, the erstwhile seed stage-only firm had appointed Vishnu Rajeev as Investment Principal. Rajeev previously served as Investment Principal at Avaana Capital, and as mobility and climate lead at Micelio and Axilor Ventures.
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