Rs 600 Cr fund III closed by Speciale Invest to support early-stage deeptech startups
Speciale Invest, a venture capital firm based in Chennai, closed its Fund III at Rs 600 crore, surpassing its initial goal of Rs 500 crore. The fund will make investments in Indian intellectual property that is globally scalable and in sovereign technology.
Speciale intends to invest in 18–20 early-stage deeptech companies in fields like advanced manufacturing, dual-use defense, spacetech, climatetech, quantum systems, and AI infrastructure.
The initial investment will be between Rs 7 crore and Rs 10 crore, with the possibility of larger sums. There is about Rs 300 crore set aside for follow-up investments.
Recurring Limited Partners provided more than half of Fund III’s capital, according to the firm, with corporate venture capital funds and new institutions also contributing. It will keep making investments in “zero to one” pre-seed startups.
Agnikul Cosmos, GalaxEye, ePlane Company, Ultraviolette, CynLr, and QNu Labs are among the companies in Speciale’s portfolio. To date, the company has documented nine M&A exits. It wants to raise its average investment in startups from 5% in Fund I and 10% in Fund II to roughly 15% in Fund III.
Speciale stated that it will continue to focus on early-stage deeptech with scalable, defendable intellectual property while pursuing global-first startups that intend to sell in foreign markets from the start.
