Speciale Invest raises Rs 140Cr in second fund; to invest in 18-20 seed-stage startups

Domestic micro-venture capital fund Speciale Invest — which invests in seed-stage startups — on Friday said it raised Rs 140 crore in its second fund. According to the VC firm, the second fund exceeded its target and received backing from the limited partners of its first fund.

Founded in 2017 by Vishesh Rajaram and Arjun Rao, Speciale Invest launched its first fund of Rs 60 crore in 2018. It invests in deep tech and frontier technology startups with capital up to $0.5 million in each startup.

In the first fund, it invested in 14 startups in the areas of enterprise software, SaaS, and frontier technologies.

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With this second fund, Speciale Invest is looking to invest in 18-20 startups in the same thematic areas as in the first fund.

Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner, Speciale Invest, said the second fund will also allow the VC firm to invest in follow-on funding of high performing startups in its portfolio.

Speciale Invest's portfolio companies include enterprise software companies Wingman, True Lark, TotalCloud, Scapic, iauro, and Pocket52, and hardware startups such as The ePlane Company, Agnikul, Astrogate Labs, CynLr, and Kawa Space.

Speaking on the development, Vishesh said, “The oversubscribed round of funding and interest in our subsequent round demonstrates the support of our investors in our team in creating a long standing venture institution.”

As part of its investment in frontier technology, Speciale has funded startups that are into space, robotics, electric vehicles, etc., sectors. With the second fund, it looks to add newer sectors, including photonics and alternative energy, to its portfolio.

Arjun Rao, General Partner, Speciale Invest, said, “We take the learnings and progress from the first fund portfolio as motivation to double down on our core deep tech thesis, and strive harder to explore newer areas of tech and science-led disruption.”