Saurav L. Chaudhari

India’s Venture Capital (VC) firms are roping in domain experts to strengthen their big bets on deeptech, Disha Acharya and Vaibhavi Khanwalkar report for The Economic Times (ET). As the deeptech landscape expands, funds such as TDK Ventures, Kae Capital, and BlueHill VC are adding specialists with strong academic and industry credentials to their advisory boards. Reason? “While making deeptech investments, unlike those in e-commerce or fintech companies, funds need to go deeper into the tech to be able to understand the company’s problem statement and global technology trends,” Ravi Jain, Investment Director, TDK Ventures, told ET. BlueHill recently appointed Vinod Dham, known as the "Father of the Pentium Chip", to its advisory board, while TDK Ventures hired IIT-Delhi graduate and PhD scholar Vasan Churchill for his expertise in 3D printing and robotics. All in Capital is leaning on deeptech founders and professors from the IITs to assess whether technologies can be engineered and scaled commercially. Kae Capital, too, looks for candidates with advanced degrees and cross-domain agility in fields like cybersecurity, energy tech, and material science, the report says further. This approach is also a response to challenges in the sector. About 45% of deeptech founders cite “lack of investor understanding” as a funding hurdle, according to a recent survey by TDK Ventures and Kae Capital. Despite that, investor confidence is rising — deeptech investments doubled in the first four months of 2025 to $324 million across 35 deals, from $156 million across 21 deals a year ago, Venture Intelligence data shows. “Deeptech is entering an incredibly competitive yet exciting phase, and at the stage where we meet founders, the risks are high, and the signals are often hard to interpret. That’s why expert input is critical,” Kushal Bhagia, Founder and Partner at All in Capital, shared with ET. How do you think this new hiring playbook from VCs will impact the deeptech sector? Share your thoughts in the comments section. ✍ : Nakul Ghai 📷 : Getty Images Source: The Economic Times: https://lnkd.in/g9nAPi6j #Venturecapital #Deeptech #Startups

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Elevation Capital has just launched a $400M late-stage fund to back IPO bound Indian startups. This fund runs alongside Elevation’s $670M early-stage Fund VIIIis giving the firm full lifecycle coverage from seed to pre-IPO. With global late stage capital tighter than ever, Elevation is stepping into a crucial gap to fuel India’s next wave of public market champions. 📉 Vaas Bhaskar Ravi Adusumalli Ashray Iyengar Pankaj Ghai Chirag Chadha Mukul Arora #BreakIntoVC #VentureCapital #Startups #IPO #Funding #Investment

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VC Firm a99 VC To Launch Third Fund With $100 Mn Corpus India’s venture capital ecosystem is buzzing with yet another major announcement. A99 Capital, one of the country’s emerging #VC firms, is set to roll out its third fund with a corpus of $100 million (~₹830 crore), strengthening its position as a growth enabler for Indian startups. https://lnkd.in/gpCUtcAA

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🌍 Equilibrium raises $3M seed round to scale carbon removal projects across India Equilibrium, a digitally-enabled full-stack carbon project developer, has secured $3 million in seed funding from Kalaari Capital, Peak XV Partners, and Avaana Capital. The startup integrates carbon science, digital monitoring, and community-led execution to deliver high-quality, verifiable carbon removals while strengthening resilience in India’s food systems. Its portfolio spans agroforestry, regenerative agriculture, mangrove restoration, and biochar—solutions that sequester carbon, diversify farmer incomes, and convert agricultural and biomass waste into valuable products. The fresh capital will accelerate eight pipeline projects across nine states, covering 120,000 hectares and engaging 150,000+ smallholder farmers. Collectively, these initiatives are expected to generate 20M+ tonnes of high-quality carbon removal. 🚀 A big step forward for India’s climate-tech and sustainable agriculture ecosystem. 📩 For investment banking queries, reach us at 👉 [email protected] #ClimateTech #CarbonRemoval #Sustainability #AgriTech #CleanTech #ImpactInvesting #VC #Startups

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Advanced manufacturing-focused VC firm a99 VC (formerly Artha99) is raising its third fund with a target corpus of $100 million (~Rs 850 crore), an 8X jump from its previous fund. The firm aims to back early-stage startups from pre-Series A to pre-Series B, focusing on companies developing ancillaries to sunrise industries such as EVs, med-tech, and advanced manufacturing. Founder and Managing Partner Vignesh Shankar said around 20% of the new fund will be reserved for follow-on rounds, while 80% will be used for fresh investments. Fund III is expected to start deploying capital from April 2026, with cheque sizes ranging from Rs 20–80 crore per startup. #a99ventures #venturecapital #sunriseindustries #startupfunding #earlystageinvesting #advancedmanufacturing #evstartups #medtechstartups #preseriesa #preseriesb #fundraise #startupinvestments #chequesize #entrepreneurship #innovationindia #chennaistechtalent #startupgrowth #vcindia #portfoliofunding #fundiii

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Proud to share that our portfolio company, Uravu Labs, has raised fresh funding from ENRISSION INDIA CAPITAL INC. to scale their innovative water-from-air technology powered by renewable energy. Founded by Swapnil Shrivastav, Venkatesh RY and BALAJI GB, #UravuLabs is building a climate-resilient water infrastructure using a unique system that extracts clean drinking water from the air using solar, biomass, or waste heat. Their solution is already being used by leading players in the hospitality and beverage sectors, with plans to expand into broader commercial and industrial markets. Huge congratulations to the founders and the entire team for this important milestone! Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dzbXPwtz Aditya Arora Karan Verma Dr. Dinesh Singh Shivani Khare Vansh Mittal Abhilash Gupta Sanyam Jain Aadya Khullar Rhidhima Sindhwani Gunjan Verma Anurag Jain #ClimateTech #SustainableFuture #CleanWater #StartupFunding

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🚀 Gurugram-based home services startup Pronto has raised $11 Mn (Series A), co-led by General Catalyst & Glade Brook Capital, with participation from existing investor Bain Capital Ventures. 💰 This comes just months after a $2 Mn seed extension from Bain Capital Ventures. 📍 What’s next for Pronto? ✅ Expansion to Mumbai & Bengaluru in 12–18 months ✅ Onboarding & training 10,000+ service professionals ✅ Scaling its 10-minute on-demand home services platform 🏠 Pronto offers instant, scheduled & recurring house help — sweeping 🧹, utensil washing 🍽, laundry 👕, kitchen cleaning 🍳 & more. 💬 Anjali Sardana, Founder: “We’re building a new era of trusted, rapid home services for India’s urban households.” #StartupNews #Funding #SeriesA #Pronto #househelp #seriesA #funding #IndiaEconomy #viralpost #scoopearth #scoopearth.in

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PeakAmp, a battery circularity startup, has raised Rs 12 crore (approx $1.37 million) in a seed funding round led by Caret Capital, with participation from IIM Ahmedabad Ventures, renowned angel investor Basant Sharma and Group, and other prominent investors in cleantech, mining, and recycling. Founded in 2024 by Vijay Gond and Aditya Sudhanshu, PeakAmp is building what it calls India’s first full-stack, tech-enabled solution focused on the collection, segregation, and recycling of lithium-ion batteries, including second-life repurposing and high-purity material recovery. Read the full story here:👇 https://lnkd.in/dknBWWxw #energytech #batterytech #cleantech #funding #investors #investment #startup #indianstartupnews

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