Anicut Capital unveils Rs 175 crore seed fund for startups

Anicut Capital has unveiled the Grand Anicut Seed Fund, an early-stage vehicle with a target corpus of Rs 175 crore and a Rs 75 crore greenshoe option.

The fund, registered as a Category I Alternative Investment Fund with SEBI, will invest in pre-seed to Series A startups across deep-tech, enterprise-tech, consumer and financial services.

Anicut plans to invest in over 20 startups through the fund, with cheque sizes typically between Rs 5 crore and Rs 8 crore.

Three deals have already been closed, with the fund targeting a first close of roughly $10 million in the coming month, drawing from institutional investors, high-net-worth individuals and family offices.

This is the firm’s second early-stage fund, following the Grand Anicut Angel Fund, which has backed 68 startups since 2021.

Companies from that earlier portfolio have raised more than Rs 6,000 crore in follow-on funding collectively, with portfolio revenue growing tenfold.

Ajay Anand, Partner at Anicut Capital, said the firm’s early-stage investment strategy had been validated through the previous fund and that the new vehicle builds on that track record.

The launch comes as Indian early-stage investors increasingly look beyond artificial intelligence toward sectors including manufacturing, deep-tech and enterprise software.

The launch comes in a week that saw Indian startups raise $209 million in total, with manufacturing, aerospace, enterprise software and healthtech leading investor interest.

The fund is planned for deployment over roughly three years, with about 70 per cent directed toward new investments and 30 per cent reserved for follow-on funding.

Category I Alternative Investment Funds registered with SEBI are typically used by venture capital and angel investment vehicles in India to pool capital from institutional and high-net-worth investors under a regulated structure.

India’s early-stage funding environment has seen investors increasingly diversify beyond artificial intelligence in recent months, with manufacturing, deep-tech, enterprise software and healthtech drawing larger allocations.

(Image: Photo by Libreravi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)