- Speciale Invest, a specialist VC focused on pre-seed & seed funding, is increasingly looking to support its existing portfolio companies through their growth across Series A and above funding rounds
- The fund has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and expects to close the corpus at INR 200 crore in the next 3-4 months
Speciale Invest, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in deep science and enterprise technologies has today announced the launch of its Speciale Invest Growth Fund I. The new fund has an initial investment of INR 100 crore and has received approval from SEBI to provide series A and above funding to high-potential technology startups, supporting India’s enterprise and deep-tech startup ecosystem.
Speciale’s investment philosophy is centered around providing capital to startups with the potential to disrupt and transform their industries, with a focus on emerging technology areas such as SpaceTech, Aerospace, Green Hydrogen, Robotics, Batteries, Quantum Tech, AI led SAAS, Dev tools, Data Infrastructure, and Large Language Model (LLM) Applications/Infrastructure amongst others.
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“Deep science and enterprise technologies have the power to revolutionize industries and solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. At Speciale Invest, we are proud to support and nurture the next generation of innovative startups that are driving this change forward. 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,” said Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner at Speciale Invest.
Speciale Invest, was founded in 2017 by Vishesh Rajaram and Arjun Rao, who have had a successful track record of investing in pioneering deep-science & tech companies including Ultraviolette, Agnikul Cosmos, ePlane Company, Cynlr, Qnu Labs, Galaxeye Space, Uravu Labs, NewTrace, e-TRNL Energy, Wingman, StreamAlive, Airboxr, Trainn, and more. Led by a strong leadership team with decades of experience in building tech products and managing technology funds, Speciale Invest is committed to working closely with founders to guide, mentor, and help them scale and grow their businesses.
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“Speciale Invest has established a niche for itself as early stage start-up investors in innovative startups that are solving large real-world problems and have the potential to create a positive impact in the Indian startup ecosystem. Our new Growth Fund I is an extension of our vision and commitment to expand our investment strategy to support high-performing technology startups from our portfolio at the Series A and beyond stages. With an initial investment of INR 100 crore and plans to increase it further in the coming months, we look forward to partnering with promising startups and providing them with the resources and guidance they need to achieve their full potential. We see immense opportunities in the start-up ecosystem in India and would continue to empower the young change makers in our capacity” said Arjun Rao, General Partner at Speciale Invest.
In 2018, Speciale Invest raised its first fund of INR 60 crore, which backed 18 companies with an average deal size of sub-USD 0.5 million and scored five early exits. On April 6, 2022, the company announced the final close of its second fund at INR 300 crore, with plans to invest in more than 20-22 early-stage companies through pre-seed and seed rounds. The average cheque size ranged from USD 500,000 to USD 1 million.
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About Speciale Invest
Founded in 2017 by Co-founders Vishesh Rajaram and Arjun Rao, Speciale Invest is a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in founders building technologies of tomorrow. The firm backs ingenious entrepreneurs that use disruptive technologies to find innovative solutions that make an impact.
The fund’s interests include Enterprise Software Products (emerging from deep tech in Data Infrastructure, Cloud, AI led SAAS, Developer tools) and Industrial Hardware Products (emerging from deep tech in Propulsion tech, Robotics, Rocket engines, Battery tech, Micro-electronics, Optical Communication tech).
