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)

Indian markets opened on a strong note on Wednesday, with the Sensex up 657.85 points, or 0.85 per cent, at 77,423.77, and the Nifty 50 higher by 191.3 points at 24,176.65.

The gains were led by IT stocks, with Infosys up 3.89 per cent, while L&T, TCS, Hindustan Unilever and Tech Mahindra also rose in early trade.

Sectorally, the Nifty IT index gained as much as 2.51 per cent and the Nifty FMCG index rose 1.52 per cent, even as most Asian markets traded weaker.

Power Grid was the biggest loser in early deals, down 0.67 per cent, with InterGlobe Aviation, Asian Paints, Maruti and Titan also among the decliners.

Market breadth favoured advancing stocks, with 1,837 gainers against 550 losers and 103 unchanged counters on the BSE.

The rally followed a rebound in crude oil prices after a roughly 14 per cent decline over three sessions amid heightened US-Iran tensions.

Institutional buying supported sentiment, with foreign institutional investors purchasing ₹755.33 crore worth of shares and domestic institutional investors buying ₹1,664.16 crore on July 28.

Traders were closely watching the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision expected later in the day, even as domestic indices posted solid opening gains.

The rise followed Tuesday’s flat finish, when the Sensex closed at 76,765.92 and the Nifty at 23,985.35 amid a fragile pause in US-Iran hostilities.

The India VIX volatility gauge had eased to 12.56 on July 28, down 0.79 per cent, with a firmer rupee and cooling geopolitical tensions supporting calmer sentiment ahead of Wednesday’s session.

Market watchers said the rebound in crude oil, after three straight sessions of sharp declines, had eased some of the concerns that had weighed on Indian equities earlier in the week amid the ongoing US-Iran tensions.

Sustained buying by domestic institutional investors in recent sessions has also been credited with cushioning Indian markets against bouts of volatility driven by global cues.

(Image: “BSE building at Dalal Street” by BSEINDIA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Sensex closed at 76,765.92 on Tuesday, down 69.86 points or 0.09 per cent, on a mixed trading day.

The Nifty 50 ended at 23,985.35, a decline of 10.60 points or 0.04 per cent.

Bank Nifty fell further, losing 331.60 points, or 0.58 per cent, to close at 56,755.60.

IT stocks were the bright spot, with the Nifty IT index gaining 3.32 per cent on the strength of TCS and Tech Mahindra.

Hindustan Unilever was the biggest drag, dropping nearly 7 per cent after its quarterly earnings fell short of estimates.

Coal India slipped more than 4 per cent following a weaker-than-expected quarterly profit, blamed on lower production and higher operating costs, while Bharat Electronics was also among the top losers.

The Nifty Midcap index edged up 0.08 per cent, while the Nifty Smallcap index eased 0.22 per cent.

The mixed close came a day after the indices posted sharp gains, snapping a five-day losing streak driven by rising crude oil prices.

Hindustan Unilever’s fall came after the company reported quarterly numbers that fell short of analyst estimates, with investors reacting sharply to the miss given the stock’s weight in the consumer goods space within the benchmark indices.

The rally in IT stocks was broad-based, with several other companies in the sector also posting gains during the session, as investors responded positively to the outlook shared by some of the larger firms during recent earnings updates.

Coal India’s decline reflected wider concerns among investors about production volumes at state-run mining companies, a theme that has recurred in past quarters and continues to weigh on sentiment around the stock.

Analysts tracking the session noted that the muted overall movement in the headline indices masked sharper swings at the sector and stock level, with earnings reactions driving much of Tuesday’s price action.

(Image: Niyantha Shekhar (CC BY 2.0))