Chennai-based Speciale Invest closed its third deeptech-touted fund at ₹600 crore ($70 million) in just two months, exceeding its original target of ₹500 crore. Funded predominantly by Indian HNIs, family offices, and strategic investors, the fund will have 18–20 pre-seed and seed startups as its investments for the next four years with cheque sizes ranging between ₹7–10 crore. Fifty percent of the fund is set aside for follow-on investment, guaranteeing continued support.
Supporting India’s Sovereign Tech Aspirations
Fund III focuses on enhancing India’s strategic autonomy in areas such as spacetech, quantum security, semiconductors, climatetech, dual-use defense, and advanced manufacturing. Speciale Invest looks to offer more than equity, enabling startups to get early access to blended capital, grants, and strategic relationships. They target IP-rich companies of global standards that have the ability to scale globally to markets such as the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
In a recent conversation with Inc42, Arjun Rao, a partner of Special Invest said “We will start making investments immediately. For this fund, domestic HNIs, ultra HNIs and family offices form the biggest chunk of LPs. There are some small institutions and strategic players as well. However, the majority is domestic capital,”.
Portfolio Wins and Track Record
Established in 2017 by Arjun Rao and Vishesh Rajaram, Speciale Invest has a strong portfolio consisting of Agnikul Cosmos (private orbital-class rockets), The ePlane Company (electric urban air mobility), GalaxEye (satellite imaging technology), and QNu Labs (quantum security). Some of the other prominent high-growth startups are Airboxr (data integration platform), Fermbox (fusion energy), InspeCity (smart urban technology), and Tonbo Imaging (high-end defense imaging). With nine M&A exits till date, the firm is a continued supporter of India’s best deeptech startups.
Check all portfolio companies here.
VC Momentum Across the Ecosystem
Speciale Invest’s funding reflects a wider spike in Indian deeptech investments. Between the first four months of 2025, funding more than doubled to $324 million in 35 transactions. With Speciale, other players like Yali Capital (₹893 crore deeptech fund) and Peak XV Partners are making bigger cheques, investing in startups like Netradyne (AI fleet management) and SpotDraft (contract AI). Academic-linked vehicles, such as IIT Madras alumni funds, also drive early-stage deeptech capital inflows.
Government Initiatives.
Government efforts are no less ambitious. The Centre’s ₹1 lakh crore R&D fund—equally distributed over six years with ₹20,000 crore for FY 2025–26—funds AI, quantum, robotics, spacetech, biotech, and chip designing. Flagship programmes like the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) and the Indian Semiconductor Mission create crucial infrastructure. In parallel, 25 Technology Innovation Hubs at IITs and IISc fast-track commercialisation of lab innovations.
The Bigger Picture
Speciale Invest’s model of capital efficiency, founder-market fit, and international scalability represents a mature Indian deeptech ecosystem. With growing VC interest and unmatched government support, Indian-born deeptech companies are ready to shift from potential to market domination, competing globally in the next several years.
