Aum Ventures raises Rs 225 Cr first close for new deeptech fund

Aum Ventures has raised Rs 225 crore in the first close of a new Rs 750 crore fund aimed at backing Indian deeptech startups, adding more private capital to sectors that are also receiving growing policy support.

The India Innovation Fund II will target pre-seed and seed-stage companies in spacetech, semiconductors, defence-tech, AI, robotics, energy transition, and advanced manufacturing.

The Mumbai-based venture capital firm said more than 65% of commitments in the first close came from international limited partners (investors that commit capital to venture funds), across the US, Middle East, and other markets.

The fund is targeting about $80 million (Rs 750 crore) and expects to invest in 25 to 30 companies. Initial cheques are expected to range from $750,000 to $2 million, with capital reserved for later Series A and Series B rounds.

The new fund builds on Aum’s first fund, launched in 2023. Aum says Fund I has produced a gross MOIC of 2.23x, a multiple of invested capital, and a gross IRR of 53%, a rate-based return measure. It also notes two portfolio companies have increased in valuation by more than 14 times their entry values.

Skyroot Aerospace highlights the type of company Aum is seeking to back. The firm was an early institutional investor in the rocket company. On July 18, Skyroot’s Vikram-I became the first privately developed Indian rocket to reach orbit from Indian soil. Before that in May, Skyroot became India’s first space-tech startup to reach a $1 billion valuation after a $60 million funding round.

Chetan Mehta, founding partner at Aum Ventures, said the investment landscape has changed since the firm began backing deep tech.

“With Fund II, our ambition is to back exceptional Indian entrepreneurs from the earliest stages and help them build global companies; companies that don’t just solve for India, but solve for the world. We want to play a meaningful role in taking Indian innovation from the laboratory and engineering floor to global markets,” Mehta noted.

That ambition comes as India expands public support for research-intensive technology. The Rs 1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation Fund, approved in 2025, is designed to increase private-sector participation in high-risk R&D and includes quantum computing, robotics, space, AI and energy transition. By July 2026, the Technology Development Board had approved 22 projects with a combined project cost of Rs 4,744 crore, including Rs 2,192 crore of RDI support.

Startup India Fund of Funds 2.0 has a Rs 10,000 crore corpus and includes deep tech and innovative manufacturing. In February, the government also created a dedicated Deep Tech Startup category, extending the recognition age limit to 20 years and the turnover limit to Rs 300 crore, reflecting the longer development cycles associated with such businesses.

Meanwhile, in July, the Cabinet approved Semicon 2.0 with an outlay of Rs 1,27,500 crore. The government said in May that 12 semiconductor fabrication and packaging projects and 24 design projects had been approved under the wider programme.

Private capital is moving in parallel. Piper Serica raised Rs 300 crore in the first close of its Rs 800 crore Bharat Tech Fund in August, after launching the vehicle to invest in areas including semiconductors, AI, defence and space.

The broader picture is one of deeper institutional support for Indian deeptech, rather than simply a boom in venture funding. These businesses can require long development periods, heavy R&D spending and specialised talent before reaching commercial scale.