Aavishkaar plans six deeptech bets by December, targets ₹2,000 crore fund

New Delhi: Impact-investment platform Aavishkaar Group plans to announce at least six investments in deeptech startups by December 31, spanning technical textiles, deep agritech, tissue culture, material science and space technology, among others. The Mumbai-based group operates through several subsidiaries, including venture capital and impact investing firm Aavishkaar Capital.

Aavishkaar Capital’s sixth fund, launched in 2023, has a corpus ₹1,200 crore and usually invests ₹20 million crowns ₹100 crores per company. Fund deployed ₹800 million of the total investable capital so far ₹1,000 million crowns. As part of its deeptech push, the group plans to launch its seventh fund next year with a targeted corpus of approx ₹2,000 million crowns.

“The general fundraising process was started last year. We hope it will be closed by March-June,” said Vineet Rai, founder and vice-chairman of Aavishkaar Group.

“As the world changes, Aavishkaar must constantly ask himself whether his investment style and his desire to ensure impact will remain relevant in 2026. When I started in 2001, there was no spacetech, deeptech, fintech or agritech. I did not invest in these sectors,” he added.

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Aavishkaar’s investment focus comes at a time when deeptech investments are on the rise in the country. Mint reported in September that deeptech companies have raised $2.3 billion so far in just under 200 deals in 2026, according to data platform Tracxn, compared to $1.62 billion in 453 deals for all of 2025.

Aavishkaar Group, which has assets under management (AUM) of $1.2 billion, does not consider its interest in deeptech to be the last. Its focus on space technology is relatively new, as the sector has only recently opened up.

“We have been exploring technology and deeptech since 2003-04. We invested in Vortex Engineering, which developed low-cost ATMs for rural areas. We invested in several other ventures that were quite groundbreaking,” added Rai.

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Rai was speaking to Mint at the third edition of the Sankalp Bharat Summit, a two-day impact investment summit organized by the Aavishkaar Group in Lucknow, which concluded on October 28.

Rai’s approach to deeptech stems from his belief that technology enables businesses to leapfrog the challenges posed by physical infrastructure.

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) will impact more lives than anything Aavishkaar has done so far. We believe deeptech can reach more people at a fraction of the cost of physical engagement,” Rai said.

Aavishkaar Capital has invested in Gnani.ai, an artificial intelligence startup developing a speech-to-speech model as part of the government’s IndiaAI mission. ₹10,372 crore initiative to build India’s AI ecosystem. Aavishkaar has also backed other companies, including debt relief platform Freed, precision metalworking company Poshs Metal Industries Pvt. Ltd and climate startup Newtrace.

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The investment firm, which earlier raised all its capital from foreign investors, now expects Indian investors to contribute 40-60% of its new capital. ₹2000 million corpus, the rest comes from overseas. This shift reflects the growing depth of India’s domestic capital.

“Furthermore, the rupee has weakened against the dollar. Raising capital in rupees can help hedge against currency risks as a weakening dollar can reduce returns when investments are measured in dollars,” Rai said.

Cooperation with other funds

In October 2025, Aavishkaar Group partnered with Jamwant Ventures to launch a ₹500 million venture capital fund focused on seed and growth defense and deeptech startups in India.

Founded by former Indian Navy officers and public sector veterans including Commanders Navneet Kaushik and Kartik Gopal, Jamwant Ventures focuses on seed and Series A investments of $1 million to $5 million in defense, aerospace and deeptech.

“People may ask, ‘Vineet, Aavishkaar is an impact fund. How do you understand deeptech?’ Well, we don’t necessarily understand deeptech ourselves. There are better and smarter people who understand the sector,” said Rai.

Aavishkaar’s second partnership is with Riceberg Ventures, a global early stage deep tech venture capital firm founded in 2023. Its investments include EtherealX and Manastu Space.

“As part of this arrangement, we conclude a contract with a fund manager who has some investment experience and wants to expand the business fivefold, tenfold or twentyfold. In this sense, we are more of a partner than a joint general practitioner. They remain general practitioners (general partners),” he added.