Equirus InnovateX Fund (EIF), the early-stage venture arm of Equirus Group, announced the final close of its maiden B2B tech fund at ₹166 crore. The fund’s first close was announced in February 2024.
EIF backs seed and pre-series A companies building in Deep Tech, SaaS and Fintech, typically teams that are post-product and working toward product-market fit. The fund aims to partner with founders who solve complex problems with clear distribution and defensibility, and who are building for long-term sustainability from day one.
The close attracted both domestic and global investors who bring operational experience and market access in addition to capital. True to its ethos – “by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs” – EIF counts a number of founders and operators among its backers, including Girish Gaitonde (Founder & Board Member, Xoriant), M.R. Jyothy (Chairperson & MD, Jyothy Labs), Dhimant Bhayani (Founder & CEO, iRevo), Raj P. (Founder & Executive Chairman, Zaggle), Shankar Vailaya (Former Director & Co-Founder, Sharekhan) and Nitin Seth (Vice Chairman, GD Foods).
The Fund is led by Krishna Jha, Sunder Nookala and Sadhika Agarwal, experienced founders and investors with strong operational backgrounds, and is responsible for driving investments and managing the portfolio across the fund’s focus areas.
Beyond capital, EIF partners with founders on access to enterprise, regulatory navigation, senior hiring, and capital-raising preparedness. The fund emphasises strong governance and long-term value creation rather than short-term value maximisation.
EIF has deployed over one-third of the corpus, backing seven startups from Fund I, with a target portfolio of up to 15 companies. Active investments include Pointo, Datazip, GreenStitch, CtrlB, Consuma AI, RSPL and NeverInstall. The remaining capital is expected to be deployed over the next 12-18 months.
Sunder Nookala, Partner, Equirus InnovateX Fund, said, “At the seed and pre-series A stage, capital alone is not the differentiator – context and conviction are. Having built and backed companies ourselves, we understand the inflection points founders face around product-market fit, enterprise access and organisational build-out. With Fund I fully closed, our commitment is to work closely with portfolio companies to help them scale responsibly, strengthen fundamentals and build institutions that stand the test of time.”
Krishna Jha, Partner, Equirus InnovateX Fund, said, “As India’s startup ecosystem matures, we are seeing a new generation of audacious founders solving structurally complex problems. As a firm of ex-operators, our focus is on partnering with these founders as they walk the long road from early idea to enduring, category-defining company.”
