Nandan Nilekani-backed Fundamentum Partnership has launched a tech-focused investment platform – Fundamentum Frontier Advisors (F2A) – with a target corpus of ₹2,000 crore.
F2A will manage Fundamentum’s Fund III, which will focus on AI-native and deeptech companies. Infosys co-founder Nilekani is the anchor investor in the fund.
While the ₹2,000 crore corpus is being raised in India with both domestic and foreign investors, ₹1,000 crore investment vehicle will be set up outside India. Both these vehicles will be managed by F2A to create a portfolio of 12-15 startups.
The announcement comes at a time when investors in the country have become bullish on both deeptech and AI. With , investors are writing larger cheques. Meanwhile, with AI, investors have become more selective but are more willing to write larger cheques to , as long as their core IP is sustainable in the long term.
“F2A is a continuation of our effort to partner with founders building enduring, technology-led businesses, with the same disciplined, long-term approach that has defined Fundamentum,” said Ashish Kumar, co-founder of Fundamentum, in a statement.
During his tenure at the firm, Kumar has sourced and invested in consumer technology companies, including Spinny, Kuku, AppsForBharat, and Wishlink, as well as enterprise technology companies FarEye, Whizzo, and GenieMode.
F2A said it will continue to build on the investment approach that has defined Fundamentum’s previous funds. “Technology-led innovation continues to create new opportunities across sectors. Platforms combining long-term thinking with strong execution capabilities can play an important role in supporting this evolution,” said Nilekani in a statement.
As part of the new fund, the firm has roped in former Sidbi Venture Capital senior fund manager Debraj Banerjee as general partner to co-lead its AI and deeptech strategy alongside Kumar.
“Having seen similar adoption cycles in more mature markets such as the US, across industries including utilities, BFSI, manufacturing and frontier , I believe India is poised to build globally relevant technology-led businesses over the next decade,” said Banerjee in a statement.
Founded in 2017, Fundamentum acts as a growth-stage investment firm with a focus on backing technology-driven companies operating in large and evolving markets.