A leg-up for the India growth story

“We don’t just invest in companies — we invest in ideas that can define India’s future,” says Vikram Gupta, founder and Managing Partner at IvyCap Ventures. With 55 investments under its belt, the homegrown early-stage venture capital firm’s portfolio includes Bluestone, Snitch, Biryani By Kilo, Eggoz, GradRight, and Dhruva Space. The VC firm is also known for its endowment-based model, wherein it channels a part of its profit to leading institutions like the IITs and IIMs. Edited excerpts:

What is IvyCap Ventures’ current ‘assets under management’ value?

We’ve raised four funds to date, including an initial angel fund. Our assets under management is now ₹5,000 crore across 55 firms.

What is your funding strategy, and which sectors are in focus?

We invest across stages, from seed to Series B, with a primary focus on Series A. While we remain sector-agnostic, our investments are guided by three core verticals. The first is the India growth and consumer story, which includes sectors like e-commerce, fintech, health-tech, and logistics — essentially businesses driven by the expanding Indian consumer base.

The second vertical is ‘India for the world’, where we back startups that leverage India’s talent and cost-efficiencies to serve global markets, particularly in B2B SaaS, and consumer-tech. The third vertical is deep-tech and emerging-tech, where we invest in high-risk, disruptive ideas across areas like space-tech, robotics, semiconductors, and agentic AI.

What made you launch your endowment-based model?

When we launched IvyCap in 2011, we built it around a simple but powerful idea — to give back. We decided that a significant portion of our carry, our share of profits, would be directed toward creating endowment funds at institutions like the IITs, IIMs, BITS, and ISB. We helped launch India’s first institutional endowment fund at IIT-Delhi in 2019.

Since then, several IITs and IIMs have followed suit, using these endowments to support innovation, entrepreneurship, and research.

How do you select startups for funding?

We engage with startups that have already raised a seed or angel round, or founders from IITs and other strong backgrounds, even before their first fundraise. Our team of 50 includes 20 investment professionals who assess the business model, scalability, capital requirements, and potential to hit benchmarks like $1 billion in revenue (or $100 million for B2B SaaS). A key part of our diligence is founder motivation — we focus deeply on the “why” behind the startup, to ensure they’re solving a meaningful problem for the right reasons.

How many startups do you typically invest in annually?

This year, we expect to invest in around 20 companies.

Are there any segments you’re extra bullish on?

Yes, we see strong potential in defence-tech, space-tech, semiconductors, AI, machine learning, IoT, and blockchain. Traditional sectors like healthcare will see greater tech adoption with a rise in healthcare spending and insurance penetration.

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