Deeptech-focussed Navam Capital marks first close of its maiden fund

Navam Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in frontier technology startups, has announced the first close of its alternative investment fund (AIF) called Navam Venture Fund I at Rs 50 crore. The fund aims to raise a total of Rs 250 crore and invest in early-stage frontier tech ventures across various sectors including aerospace, climate tech, electric mobility, biotech, materials science, agritech, robotics, artificial intelligence, and industrial automation.

Navam’s current portfolio includes several promising ventures such as Ather Energy, a startup in the electric vehicle space, Agnikul Cosmos, a spacetech venture, Alyssum Therapeutics and Vyome Therapeutics, both biotech firms, Aereo, a drone startup, and Ornagewood Labs, a robotics venture. The firm has recently participated in the Rs 100 crore Series A funding round for agritech startup Fasal, led by TDK Ventures and British International Investment (BII).

Founded by Rajeev Mantri, who is also the co-founder of Vyome Therapeutics and director at Kolkata-based GPSK Investment Group, Navam has roped in eminent scientist and former Director-General of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dr Raghunath A Mashelkar, as the chairman.

Meanwhile, Ather founder Tarun Mehta continues to be a venture advisor to the fund.

The initial commitments have come in from diverse groups of family offices, corporates and ultra-high net worth individuals, the company said.

“The successful launch milestone underscores the confidence of the limited partner universe in India’s formidable science and technology capabilities, and reaffirms the trust Navam has built as an early partner for ventures in frontier technology innovation,” said Mantri.

The fund will lay more focus on intellectual property-rich ventures having strong engineering orientation and technical differentiation.

“I am delighted to be associated with the team, as Navam expands the canvas of its activities and helps to build out the next generation of IP-driven ventures in a diverse set of industries, including sectors of national strategic importance,” said Mashelkar.

To be more applicable for startups and venture capital, frontier technology -also called deep tech and hard tech includes a focus on artificial intelligence, The Internet of Things, quantum computing, space, neuroscience, genomics, robotics/drones, blockchain, augmented and virtual reality, bioinformatics, energy, autonomous vehicles.

As per a recent report by Ankur Capital, deeptech investments in India have crossed $1 billion since the beginning of this decade (2021–2023).

Investment has doubled every 3 years, with significant growth in larger investment rounds, i.e. over $5 million.

According to a Nasscom-Zinnov report, more than 3,000 deep tech startups in India are growing at over 53 percent CAGR in the last decade.

Besides dedicated funds, global VC firms are looking to place more bets on the deeptech ecosystem.

Last year, the government floated a draft for The National Deep Tech Startup Policy (NDTSP) to help startups overcome the challenges relating to funding and scaling their research and development operations