Speciale Invest raises ₹600 crore fund to back Indian deep-tech start-ups

Fund targets space, defence, and AI companies as firm bets on India's 'sovereign tech' capabilities amid global supply chain shifts

Venture capital firm Speciale Invest has closed its third fund at Rs 600 crore, surpassing its Rs 500 crore target as investor appetite grows for early-stage deep-technology companies. The fund will make 18–20 investments over the next four years in space, advanced manufacturing, energy, health, and artificial intelligence start-ups. 

The closing positions Speciale among India’s largest pre-seed deep-tech investors. The firm plans to lead early funding rounds and support founders through the extended development cycles typical of hardware and science-based ventures. 

“We believe the next generation of global champions will emerge from India’s labs, R&D centres, and workshops,” said Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner, Speciale Invest. “In a geopolitically complex and technologically interdependent world, building for India’s resilience and sovereign capabilities is not just a national imperative—it is also a generational venture opportunity.” 

 

With Fund III, the firm will double down on sovereign-tech and deep-tech bets across space-tech, dual-use defence innovation, frontier computing, and sustainable energy, ensuring these innovations are globally competitive from day one.

 

The fund is backed by a strong base of returning limited partners (LPs), including family offices, institutions, and strategic investors, who share long-term conviction in India’s deep-tech potential. 

 

“Deep-tech represents one of the most exciting frontiers for venture capital in India,” said Arjun Rao, partner, Speciale Invest. “The combination of world-class technical talent, increasing policy support, and global market access has created an unprecedented window to back companies solving some of humanity’s most complex challenges from India.”

 

In an era marked by rapid technological disruption, supply chain realignments, and geopolitical complexities, Speciale said the ability of a nation to independently design, develop, and deploy critical technologies is a strategic imperative. For India, this means building capabilities in space-based infrastructure, secure communications, quantum technologies, advanced manufacturing, clean energy, and dual-use defence innovations. These technologies are foundational to economic stability and national security. The Covid-19 pandemic, semiconductor shortages, and conflicts that disrupted global supply chains have underlined the risks of overdependence on external sources for critical technologies.

 

Since its inception in 2018, Speciale Invest has been the first institutional investor in several of India’s leading deep-tech start-ups. These include Agnikul Cosmos (orbital-class launch vehicles), the ePlane Company (electric aerial mobility), and GalaxEye (multi-sensor satellite intelligence). Others include QNu Labs (quantum cybersecurity), Fermbox (synthetic biology for industrial bioprocessing), Inspecity (in-orbit infrastructure), and Newtrace (next-generation electrolysers).

 

Speciale said it has not only invested capital but also helped founders navigate policy frameworks, global certification pathways, and dual-use markets, ensuring that Indian technologies meet and exceed global standards.