Latest news with #SpecialeInvest
Mint
6 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Yali Capital raises $104 million in debut deep-tech fund
Yali Capital, a deep tech-focused venture capital firm, has closed its ₹ 893 crore (~$104 million) maiden fund. The firm had set out to raise ₹ 500 crore with a ₹ 310 crore greenshoe option but managed to raise more than that from its limited partners, which the founders believe is a sign that India's appetite for deep tech is growing. In fact, the firm raised 78% of its maiden fund from Indian firms and individuals, while the rest was raised from outside sources. Yali Capital's investor base includes corporate entities like Infosys Ltd, Qualcomm Ventures, Tata AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd, Madhusudhan Kela's Singularity Fund of Funds, Kris Gopalakrishnan's family office Pratithi Investments and notable individuals like ideaForge founders Ankit Mehta and Rahul Singh. 'The involvement of family offices has been a significant tailwind,' said Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner at deep-tech-focused venture capital firm Speciale Invest. 'Their longer capital horizon does make them good partners for deep tech founders. Many are moving beyond traditional sectors, actively co-investing in batteries, space, dual-use defense applications, and more.' Overall, Yali Capital is bullish on six sectors within deep tech: chip design, aerospace and surveillance, robotics, genomics, artificial intelligence, and smart manufacturing. The firm is allocating 50% of the fund to chip design and aerospace, while the other 50% will go towards the remaining four sectors mentioned above. The firm's cheque sizes will range from $2 million to $10 million. 'We're allocating 70% of the fund towards early stage (pre-seed, seed and Series A) investments and 30% will go towards late stage (Series D and beyond) companies from the fund,' Yali Capital's founding managing partner Ganapathy Subramaniam told Mint in an interview. He founded the firm with Mathew Cyriac, the former co-head of Blackstone India PE, which managed $3 billion in assets. The $104 million fund is the largest deep tech-focused fund to close so far this year. According to private company data platform Venture Intelligence, Endiya Partners and Triton Fund have raised $92 million and $14 million, respectively, in 2025 for their new deep tech-focused funds. Other than these two, there are five other firms working on raising capital for the sector, including Speciale Invest ($35 million), Mela Ventures ($117 million) and IIMA-CIE's Bharat Innovation Fund II, which is targeting a $150 million fund. India has only about 50 or so deep tech-focused venture capital firms, according to data from market research and data platform Tracxn. The largest deep-tech deals happened in 2023, Venture Intelligence data showed. Hyperspectral satellite imaging firm Pixxel raised the most at $36 million, followed by drone startup NewSpace at $33 million and AgniKul Cosmos at $25 million that year. Yali believes that the government's 2021 Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme to boost semiconductor chip design will help push more and more startups in the chip design and surveillance sectors. 'The DLI scheme is crucial to attract talent back to India to build an Indian chip company. The scheme has a very important role to play,' said Subramaniam. One of Yali Capital's investments, C2i Semiconductors, a fabless chip company, received DLI approval from the ministry of electronics and information technology earlier in January. For deep-tech firms such as Yali Capital, entering at the seed and pre-seed stage allows them to exit companies having made a large return on their investment. 'We believe that India's deep tech ecosystem has matured and, as a result, exit cycles have also shifted. An exit in 7-8 years is highly possible,' Subramaniam said. Yali Capital has made two other investments apart from C2i Semiconductos, robotics startup Perceptyne and oncology genomics startup 4baseCare. Two more are in the pipeline, with the firm planning to make eight investments by the end of the year. Overall, through the fund's lifecycle, the firm plans to make 18 investments: 15 early-stage startups and three late-stage startups. While entering late-stage startups, Yali Capital plans to put in at least $10 million, mostly targeting primary deals and not secondaries. 'If I stay with my late-stage investments for two to three years, then I will almost return the entire capital to investors,' said Subramaniam. Traditionally, deep-tech firms need to give their investments time to mature since timelines for their portfolio companies are longer than traditional bets in sectors like fintech or consumer tech. On average, deep tech startups take between 9 to 10 years to really get going, having spent the years prior investing in their intellectual property and technology. Many investors in the deep-tech sector allude to a phenomenon called the 'Valley of Death', where startups achieve proof-of-concept of their ideas but fail to commercialize them, making it harder for them to get funding after a Series A round. 'What's been missing in deep tech has been scale and monetization because startups haven't found enough domestic customers yet. The government as a customer is still a new phenomenon. Once these patterns are better established and deep-tech firms start generating predictable revenue like peers in SaaS or fintech, growth capital will become available," said Pranav Pai, founding partner and chief investment officer at3one4Capital. Speciale Invest's Rajaram highlighted the need for more patient capital at the Series B and C stage from sovereign funds and corporate VCs, public procurement and anchor customers, and more policy-enabled demand aggregation, similar to the government's Innovations for Defence Excellence programme. 'Bridging this gap is not just about helping startups survive—it's about enabling India to build sovereign capabilities in areas that matter for the future," he said.
Entrepreneur
6 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Inbound Aerospace and Bharatsure Raise Early-Stage Funding
The following startups have disclosed their latest funding rounds. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Inbound Aerospace Secures USD 1 Mn Funding Inbound Aerospace, a space-tech startup incubated at IIT Madras, has raised USD 1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Speciale Invest, with additional support from Piper Serica. The funding will be used to accelerate research and development of the company's autonomous re-entry spacecraft, validate key subsystems, and reach critical design milestones. Co-founder and CEO Aravind I B said the spacecraft is designed to address a growing need in microgravity infrastructure as the International Space Station approaches retirement. "Microgravity environments are difficult to replicate on Earth. Our spacecraft enables repeatable, cost-effective return of payloads from orbit, supporting in-space manufacturing and research," he said. Founded in 2025 by Aravind I B, Vishal Reddy, and retired Indian Navy Captain Abhijit Bhutey, Inbound Aerospace focuses on developing reusable vehicles that support in-orbit experiments and manufacturing. These spacecraft are aimed at facilitating breakthroughs in life sciences and material sciences through extended exposure to microgravity. Initially pre-incubated at IITM Nirmaan, the company now operates from the IIT Madras Incubation Cell. It was the only Indian finalist at Japan's S-Booster 2025 competition. With its first mission scheduled for 2028, Inbound Aerospace is positioning itself as a key enabler of space-based innovation for Earth-bound industries. Bharatsure Raises INR 6 Cr Led by Inflection Point Ventures Bharatsure, an insurtech startup, has raised Rs 6 crore in a funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures, with additional participation from Capital A and Atrium Angels. The funding will be used to strengthen the company's insurance infrastructure and expand its embedded and group insurance offerings across the country. Co-founder and CEO Anuj Parekh said, "These station partners play a frontline role in advancing sustainable mobility, and we are proud to design coverage that genuinely addresses their needs. The funding allows us to further develop our infrastructure too." Founded by Anuj Parekh and Sanil Basutkar, Bharatsure was established to provide insurance infrastructure as a service. The platform enables businesses, small enterprises, and partner ecosystems to integrate group and modular insurance products into their offerings. Bharatsure supports organisations with insurance distribution, employee benefits, and wellness solutions while generating revenue through policy sales, commission on premiums, and insurance-related technology services. The company recently partnered with Battery Smart to offer natural calamity insurance for electric vehicle station partners. This coverage includes protection against events such as fires, floods, earthquakes, and personal accidents. Bharatsure claims to have reached over two lakh lives and processed ten thousand claims through a network of 1,500 stations and 70,000 drivers across fifty cities. The startup aims to scale operations further in the coming years.
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Business Standard
23-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Inbound Aerospace raises $1 mn pre-seed round led by Speciale Invest
Inbound Aerospace, a space technology startup incubated by Indian Institute of Technology Madras, has raised more than $1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Speciale Invest and participation from Piper Serica. The company is developing autonomous and reusable re-entry vehicles for in-orbit experiments, microgravity experiments, and commercial space research. It was founded by Aravind I B, Vishal Reddy, and Abhijit Bhutey in 2025. Inbound will use the funding for developing re-entry spacecraft, 'validating key sub-systems, and achieving critical design review milestones', it said. The company's technology is 'uniquely positioned' for microgravity infrastructure as the International Space Station (ISS) nears decommissioning in 2030. (Microgravity is not a complete absence of gravity, but rather a state of continuous freefall, commonly experienced by astronauts and equipment aboard orbiting spacecraft.) 'Microgravity environments are extremely hard to recreate on Earth. Our spacecraft is designed to enable cost-effective, repeatable, and safe return of payloads conducting in-orbit experiments and manufacturing — a capability that's critical to unlocking the next wave of growth in the space economy,' said Aravind, cofounder and chief executive officer of Inbound Aerospace. 'We believe re-entry vehicles will become foundational infrastructure for the microgravity economy. Inbound's deep technology ambition spanning autonomy, material science, and systems engineering is bold and timely. We're backing this team because they are not just thinking of access to space, but access back from space, which is equally critical for a sustainable orbital economy," said Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner at Speciale Invest. This marks Speciale Invest's sixth investment in space tech, reinforcing its position as a leading early-stage investor in India's new-space movement. With the Government of India's Bio3E policy (2024) and the growing interest in space-enabled pharma, biotech, and material science research, Inbound's re-entry vehicles could become key enablers of in-orbit experimentation and commercial-scale manufacturing. Inbound was the only Indian finalist at Japan's S-Booster 2025, a prestigious space-business idea competition hosted by the cabinet office of Japan. It aims to launch its first re-entry multi-use variable-gravity platform mission by the first quarter of 2028.
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Business Standard
23-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Inbound Aerospace raises $1 mn to build reusable re-entry spacecraft
Inbound Aerospace, an IIT Madras-incubated space-tech startup, has raised over $1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Speciale Invest, with participation from Piper Serica. Founded in 2025 by Aravind I B, Vishal Reddy, and Abhijit Bhutey, the company is developing autonomous and reusable re-entry vehicles designed to support in-orbit experiments, microgravity manufacturing, and commercial space research. The fresh capital will be used to accelerate the R&D of its re-entry spacecraft, validate key sub-systems, and achieve critical design review milestones. Inbound's technology is uniquely positioned to address a growing gap in microgravity infrastructure as the International Space Station (ISS) nears decommissioning in 2030. 'Microgravity environments are extremely hard to recreate on Earth. Our spacecraft is designed to enable cost-effective, repeatable, and safe return of payloads conducting in-orbit experiments and manufacturing — a capability that's critical to unlocking the next wave of growth in the space economy,' said Aravind I B, co-founder and chief executive officer, Inbound Aerospace. 'We believe re-entry vehicles will become foundational infrastructure for the microgravity economy. Inbound's deep-tech ambition spanning autonomy, material science, and systems engineering is bold and timely. We're backing this team because they are not just thinking of access to space, but access back from space, which is equally critical for a sustainable orbital economy,' said Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner, Speciale Invest. This marks Speciale Invest's sixth investment in the space-tech sector, reinforcing its position as a leading early-stage investor in India's new-space movement. With the Government of India's Bio3E policy (2024) and the growing interest in space-enabled pharma, biotech, and material science research, Inbound's re-entry vehicles could become key enablers of in-orbit experimentation and commercial-scale manufacturing. Initially pre-incubated at IITM Nirmaan, Inbound Aerospace is now formally housed at the IIT Madras Incubation Cell. The startup was the only Indian finalist at Japan's S-Booster 2025, a prestigious space-business idea competition hosted by the Cabinet Office of Japan. It aims to launch its first re-entry MVP mission by Q1 2028. Inbound Aerospace is focused on providing a spacecraft platform that utilises the unique microgravity environment of space to manufacture revolutionary products that profoundly impact and improve lives on Earth. 'We take pride in assisting our customers in producing these innovative products in space and bringing them back to Earth, delivering life-transforming benefits. By harnessing the power of space, we aim to bring the advantages of the cosmos right to our planet. Our recoverable spacecraft platform enables customers to conduct in-orbit technology demonstrations and microgravity experiments, accelerating their product development timelines,' said a statement.
Entrepreneur
25-06-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
The Capital Push Powering India's Defence-Tech Leap
India's defence-tech landscape is undergoing a revolution, driven by a mix of policy liberalisation, heightened geopolitical urgency, and an emerging breed of deeptech startups. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. India's defence-tech landscape is undergoing a revolution, driven by a mix of policy liberalisation, heightened geopolitical urgency, and an emerging breed of deeptech startups. Since 2020, the Indian government has actively encouraged domestic innovation in critical technologies through initiatives such as the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 and the iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) framework. These are aimed at reducing India's reliance on imports, which still account for around 36 per cent of India's total defence procurement, according to SIPRI data as of 2023. Venture capital firms like Speciale Invest have seized the moment. "We saw a generational opportunity," says Vishesh Rajaram, pointing to a strategic shift where private capital is beginning to back first-principles engineering in a sector historically dominated by government labs and public sector undertakings. Startups such as GalaxEye Space. QNu Labs, Astrogate Labs, and Kawa Space are technologies that previously lacked domestic equivalents. Startups like these are not only aligning with India's Indigenisation List (MoD, 2023) but are also exploring dual-use commercial applications across telecommunications, logistics, and energy. "At Speciale Invest, we invested early on India's defence-tech sector because we saw a generational opportunity, one where innovation is not just encouraged, but imperative. The convergence of deeptech capabilities in AI, autonomy, space, and advanced manufacturing, combined with a supportive policy environment, convinced us that India was ready to build mission-critical technologies from first principles," said Rajaram. Navigating defence's characteristically long development and procurement cycles, which often stretch more than half a decade, remains a hurdle. Yet, according to the Ministry of Defence's iDEX progress report, over 150 contracts have been signed with startups since its inception, signalling an unprecedented openness to private-sector innovation. Rajaram said, "Navigating long sales cycles and regulatory complexity requires patience, strategic alignment with defence end-users, and partnering with founders who understand the unique duality of this sector, where innovation must meet both operational reliability and sovereign requirements." Looking ahead, India's ambitions are global. The Ministry of Defence has set a target to increase defence exports to INR 35,000 crore (~USD 4.2 billion) by 2025, up from INR 15,920 crore in 2023. As Rajaram observes, India is poised to become a net exporter of cutting-edge technologies, particularly in Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT), ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) systems, and drone warfare, areas that are increasingly vital in both conventional and hybrid conflict scenarios. "The current geopolitical climate has accelerated demand for indigenous solutions, and we believe Indian startups will not only serve the domestic market but also become key players in allied export corridors," noted Rajaram. The evolving geopolitical landscape, from border tensions with China to maritime rivalries in the Indo-Pacific, has only intensified the need for self-reliance and export-oriented innovation.
