Speciale Invest Raises Rs 600 Crore Fund III to Back Indian Deeptech Startups
• Speciale Invest closes Rs 600 crore Fund III, exceeding target to back 18–20 Indian deeptech startups.
• Fund focuses on sectors like spacetech, AI infrastructure, quantum systems, healthtech, and climate resilience.
• Plans to increase average equity stake to 15%, supporting strategic autonomy and global market readiness.
Venture capital company Speciale Invest based in Chennai has closed its third fund at Rs 600 crore, beating its original target of Rs 500 crore. The fund will invest in 18 to 20 pre-seed and seed-stage deeptech startups within a period of four years, with around half of the capital dedicated to follow-on investments.
Speciale Invest aims to raise its average equity interest in portfolio companies to about 15%, a level higher than 5% in its first fund and 10% in its second fund. The fund has been supported by returning limited partners such as domestic family offices, high-net-worth individuals, strategic investors, as well as institutional and corporate venture capital participants.
Fund III’s investment strategy focuses on five key areas: supporting startups aligned with India’s strategic autonomy in sectors like space, dual-use defence, energy, semiconductors, and climate resilience; ensuring early compliance with global certification standards; incubating capital-efficient startups with strong founder-market fit; and fostering intellectual property development in India for global markets.
The fund targets sectors including AI infrastructure, spacetech, quantum systems, advanced manufacturing, computational biology, climatetech, healthtech, and defence technology.
We think that India's laboratories, R&D facilities, and workshops will churn out the next set of world champions. In a multi-polar world with high complexity in geopolitics and technology, creating resilience and sovereign capacities is a national imperative as well as an investment opportunity for a generation," said Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner, Speciale Invest.
Arjun Rao, Partner at Speciale Invest, further stated, "Deeptech is one of the most exciting venture capital sectors in India, fueled by the best technical talent, enabling policies, and access to international markets. This presents a wonderful opportunity to invest in startups that are solving some of the most pressing issues of the world from India."
Established in 2017 by Arjun Rao and Vishesh Rajaram, Speciale Invest has invested in early-stage ventures like Agnikul Cosmos, GalaxEye, The ePlane Company, QNu Labs, and Fermbox. The company has seen nine exits in the form of mergers and acquisitions and has consistently expanded its investment corpus from Rs 60 crore in Fund I to around Rs 300 crore in Fund II. In 2023, it also started a Rs 185 crore growth fund to invest in subsequent rounds of its portfolio companies.
Though growing, India's deeptech ecosystem has issues such as scant patient capital, regulatory challenges, challenges in commercializing research, and talent emigration overseas. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal recently pointed to concerns regarding the performance of the sector and asked founders to focus on global competitiveness rather than incremental business models.
