Nilekani-backed Fundamentum launches third fund of ₹2,200 crore

Nilekani made his largest personal commitment to a venture firm as Fundamentum expanded its leadership team and reaffirmed its focus on backing Series B startups

The Fundamentum Partnership, the venture capital firm cofounded by Infosys cofounder Nandan Nilekani and veteran investor Sanjeev Aggarwal, said it launched a ₹2,200 crore third fund, betting that India's growth-stage startups still need dedicated capital. 

The fund, which includes a ₹400 crore greenshoe option, makes Fundamentum the only pure-play Series-B investor in India to reach a third vintage. Nilekani has made his largest personal investment yet in any venture firm as the fund's anchor investor, the company said. 

Fund III marks the continuation of Fundamentum’s thesis-led Series-B investment strategy. The early-growth stage -- where companies have achieved product-market fit and are preparing to scale -- remains a critical funding gap in India’s startup ecosystem. 

 

“This new fund is being launched at a significant moment as India's startup ecosystem enters a new phase, driven by technology, formalisation, expanding domestic demand and a robust digital public infrastructure that was practically absent a decade ago,” said Nilekani, who is also known as the architect of Aadhaar. “Indian startups in the coming decade will scale at a pace unlike any previous generation, and Fundamentum with its expanded leadership team, is well positioned to enable that journey.” 

Fund III will remain a multi-sector vehicle focused on consumer technology, fintech and AI. It plans to invest ₹100 crore to ₹150 crore in each company on average. The fund will target digital commerce, content, healthcare and education technology in consumer tech. In fintech, it will back companies in credit, wealth management, insurance and financial infrastructure. It will also invest in AI-native and AI-enabled startups, which Fundamentum expects to drive the next wave of growth across industries. 

Fund III will be led by Aggarwal, Prateek Jain, Mayank Kachhwaha and chief financial officer Sanjay Chaturvedi. Jain and Chaturvedi have been with Fundamentum since its launch, while Kachhwaha joined during Fund II to build the firm's fintech investment practice. 

“Fund III is a continuation of what has been built. The team has been here together for close to a decade, most of us. We have established a playbook,” said Jain. 

Jain has led the firm's thesis around India's next 400 million internet users, backing startups, including Kuku, ProcMart and ApnaMart. Kachhwaha has focused on fintech investments, including FlexiLoans, Stable Money, Olyv and TransBnk. Chaturvedi has overseen more than 30 exits and helped build the firm's institutional platform. Together, the four general partners bring experience spanning entrepreneurship, investing, company building and finance. 

“We are building a generational firm. Our goal is to build a firm which outlasts all of us. As we launch Fund III, we are excited to see the evolution of home-grown leaders within the firm take on the mantle of General Partners,” said Sanjeev Aggarwal. “With this expanded leadership team, Fundamentum Partnership continues to be bullish in identifying the next generation of enduring tech-led businesses from India.” 

Aggarwal, an early investor in India's startup ecosystem, has spent more than two decades backing startups and growth-stage companies across six fund vintages. Before co-founding Fundamentum, he helped build Helion Venture Partners, one of India's earliest venture-capital firms, which invested about $600 million across three funds. His investment portfolio includes companies such as MakeMyTrip, redBus, BigBasket, Amba Research, Azure Power, Livspace, Axtria, Spinny and PharmEasy. 

“When we launched Fundamentum, we wanted to establish a benchmark for early-growth-stage investing in India,” said Aggarwal. “As former entrepreneurs, Nandan and I wanted to draw upon our operator experience to help founders navigate the scaling journey, going beyond capital to add value through deep post-investment engagement. Over the years, we've built an incredible investing team, with several ex-entrepreneurs joining us, sharing this ‘operator-first’ mindset.” 

Over the past decade, Fundamentum's portfolio has produced several fast-growing companies. Kuku,  whose investment was led by partner Prateek Jain, has grown to more than 400 million downloads and 10 million paid subscribers. Spinny generated more than ₹4,600 crore in revenue in fiscal 2025. 

Other portfolio companies have also expanded rapidly. PharmEasy has become a major digital healthcare platform, while AppsForBharat's Sri Mandir has surpassed 40 million downloads. Stable Money has grown assets under management to more than ₹6,000 crore, more than tripling since Fundamentum invested in 2025. 

Since launching its first fund in 2017, Fundamentum has invested in 17 technology companies across consumer internet, fintech, B2B commerce, enterprise software and other emerging sectors in India. 

The firm follows a concentrated investment strategy, taking board seats and working closely with founders as they scale. Its partners advise portfolio companies on fundraising, leadership hiring, organisational design, market expansion and founder development, reflecting Fundamentum's strategy of backing fewer companies with deeper, long-term support. 

Fund II has delivered a gross internal rate of return of 26 per cent, while its portfolio companies recorded average growth of 123 per cent over the past year. The performance reflects Fundamentum's strategy of backing high-growth businesses at the early-growth stage and supporting them as they scale up.