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Early-stage focussed VC firm Unicorn India Ventures has reached the final close of its third fund at INR 1,200 Cr, exceeding its initial target of INR 1,000 Cr post exercising a green shoe option of INR 200 Cr. The capital for the fund has been netted from limited partners (LPs) such as SIDBI, SBI, along with undisclosed US-based investors, Indian UHNIs and family offices.
Cofounder and managing partner Bhaskar Majumdar told Inc42 that the firm has already backed 17–18 startups through the fund, with an average ticket size of INR 10–15 Cr each. As of now, the firm has about three more investments at various stages of completion in the pipeline.
Of the total corpus, around 20–25% (roughly INR 250 Cr) will be deployed towards initial portfolio creation, while the remaining capital has been earmarked for follow-on rounds.
The fund has already enabled it to participate in select follow-on investments, taking the overall portfolio valuation to over $1 Bn. Recent follow-on investments include Netrasemi’s INR 107 Cr Series A round, where the firm claims to have seen a 7X jump on its initial investment, and Aurassure’s INR 25 Cr funding round.
Unicorn India Ventures’ third fund marks a pivot towards deeptech, with investments primarily spanning semiconductors, quantum sensing, defence tech and spacetech. Earlier, key focus segments for the firm included sectors such as SaaS, fintech, cybersecurity, healthtech, proptech, mobility and consumer internet.
However, to balance the portfolio, around 25% of the fund has been allocated to consumer-led sectors. Its fintech bets from the third fund include PeLocal and regulation-focused startup Cube, both of which, Majumdar said, have seen strong growth.
On exposure to India’s fast-growing AI ecosystem, Majumdar said the fund will avoid enterprise AI applications and instead focus on infrastructure layers.
“My view is that whenever an industry is changing very fast, it becomes very difficult to know who the winners will be in the front-end layers. So the focus is on infrastructure, because irrespective of who the winners are, the infra has to succeed as the industry grows,” he said.
The firm’s broader portfolio includes early-stage startups such as Daalchini, Finsall, Finin, Chitmonks, Open App and SmartCoin. However, its most recent investments—TakeMe2Space, OrbitAID and BonV Aero—underscore its sharpened focus on deeptech-led innovation.
Majumdar also pointed to a favourable policy tailwind for deeptech startups, with the Union Budget 2026 outlining a strong push for semiconductor and electronics manufacturing services (ECMS), alongside initiatives such as the Design-Linked Incentive (DLI) and Research Development and Innovation (RDI) schemes. These measures, he said, are likely to drive significant transformation in the deeptech ecosystem over the coming years.
On exits, Majumdar said the Indian startup ecosystem is mirroring China’s trajectory. While the first wave of IPOs was dominated by consumer internet companies, India is now entering a second phase marked by enterprise SaaS listings, as seen in Fractal’s recent RHP filing. Deeptech startups, he added, are likely to hit public markets only in the next seven to eight years, once they achieve sufficient scale and maturity.
The post Unicorn India Ventures Closes Third Fund At INR 1,200 Cr appeared first on Inc42 Media.
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