Anicut Capital has set up the Grand Anicut Seed Fund, targeting a corpus of Rs 175 crore with a Rs 75 crore greenshoe option, to invest in early-stage startups.
The fund, a SEBI-registered Category I Alternative Investment Fund, will focus on pre-seed to Series A investments in deep-tech, enterprise-tech, consumer and financial services startups.
Anicut plans to back more than 20 startups through the fund, with cheque sizes typically ranging from Rs 5 crore to Rs 8 crore.
Three deals have already been closed, and the fund is targeting a first close of about $10 million in the coming month, drawing from institutional investors, high-net-worth individuals and family offices.
This is Anicut Capital’s second early-stage fund, following the Grand Anicut Angel Fund, which has made 68 investments since 2021.
Startups from that earlier fund have collectively raised over Rs 6,000 crore in follow-on capital, with portfolio revenue growing tenfold.
Ajay Anand, Partner at Anicut Capital, said the firm’s early-stage strategy had been validated through its previous fund and that the new fund would build on that approach.
The launch comes amid a broader shift among Indian early-stage investors toward sectors beyond artificial intelligence, including manufacturing, deep-tech and enterprise software.
The fund’s launch arrives in a week when Indian startups raised $209 million collectively, with manufacturing, aerospace, enterprise software and healthtech emerging as the top investment themes.
Anicut plans to deploy the fund over about three years, with roughly 70 per cent earmarked for new investments and 30 per cent reserved for follow-on funding rounds.
Category I Alternative Investment Funds registered with SEBI are typically used by venture capital and angel investment vehicles in India to pool capital from institutional and high-net-worth investors under a regulated structure.
India’s early-stage funding environment has seen investors increasingly diversify beyond artificial intelligence in recent months, with manufacturing, deep-tech, enterprise software and healthtech drawing larger allocations.
(Image: Photo by Libreravi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
