Deep Tech Startups Emerge as Key Focus for Speciale Invest in Their Third Venture Capital Fund
Speciale Invest, a Chennai-based venture capital firm founded by Vishesh Rajaram and Arjun Rao in 2017, has successfully closed its third fund with commitments totalling Rs 600 crore ($68.5 million). The fund surpassed its initial target of Rs 500 crore.
The fund primarily targets pre-seed and seed-stage startups aligned with sectors such as space, dual-use defense, energy, semiconductors, climate resilience, advanced manufacturing, and robotics. It also includes AI infrastructure, quantum systems, computational biology, health tech, and defense technology as key deep-tech sectors for investment.
More than half of the new fund's Limited Partners (LP) are returning investors, including family offices, institutions, and strategic investors. Approximately 90% of the capital for the third fund is from domestic LPs.
The fund emphasizes supporting startups that develop critical and capital-efficient technologies locally to build India's sovereign edge. It plans to back 18 to 20 startups over four years and aims to increase its average equity stake in these companies.
The focus areas reflect a national priority on technologies like global navigation satellite systems, drones capable of operating in GPS-denied environments, and innovations that meet global certification standards.
So far, Speciale Invest has secured 7 exits from its first fund and 2 from its second fund. It has made investments in 18 companies from its first fund, with an average investment of less than $500,000 per company. The firm's portfolio includes companies such as Ultraviolette, Agnikul Cosmos, The ePlane Company, Cynlr, Qnu Labs, Galaxeye Space, Uravu Labs, NewTrace, e-TRNL Energy, Wingman, StreamAlive, Airboxr, and Trainn.
With the third fund, Speciale Invest aims to continue its mission of backing early-stage deep-tech startups that contribute to India's strategic autonomy and technological sovereignty.
Speciale Invest intends to invest in deep-tech sectors such as artificial-intelligence infrastructure and defense technology with its third fund, demonstrating a focus on technology-based startups. The fund's aim is also to back these startups with capital-efficient and critical technologies that contribute to India's technological sovereignty in areas like investing in local innovation for global navigation satellite systems or drones operating in GPS-denied environments.
