Chennai: Speciale Invest, a venture capital firm backing deep-tech startups has raised Rs 600 crore for its third fund. It aims to invest in pre-seed and seed rounds in 18 to 20 startups designing and building critical technologies locally in what it calls a sovereign edge.
The funds are expected to be deployed in four years with a ticket size of Rs 7 crore to Rs 10 crore, and keep the 50% of the funds for follow-on investments.
Speaking to TOI, Speciale’s Founder Vishesh Rajaram said the focus will be on space, energy, advanced manufacturing including, defense, robotics, semiconductors and quantum.
“We are definitely going to double down on India’s sovereign edge. We are looking for areas like global navigation satellite systems, drones that can operate in a GPS-denied environment. In select cases, where the technology aligns with our thesis, we will participate in Series A rounds,” he said.
Rajaram, who has backed notable deep-tech startups such as Agnikul Cosmos, The ePlane company, GalaxEye Space at early stages, said they will look for founders with academic research background and building solutions.
Speciale’s first fund has raised Rs 61 crore in 2018 with 18 investments and seven exits, followed by its fund 2, which secured Rs 300 crore in 2021 and a total of 17 investments and two exits.
