Speciale Invest, a deep-tech venture capital firm, has launched a ₹1,400 crore Growth Fund II to support early-stage startups in India.
The fund targets deep tech startups past technology validation but lacking stable revenues, helping them scale operations and build sustainable businesses with market-ready solutions.
The fund aspires to address a critical gap in India’s deeptech funding ecosystem for startups that have moved beyond technology validation, but are yet to build predictable revenues.
The new fund plans to back 12–15 startups with average cheque sizes of $5–8 million. These investments will support companies in transitioning from deployable technology to commercially sustainable businesses.
The fund will invest in Series A and later stages and will provide the patient with execution-focused growth capital needed to take proven technology to commercial scale.
Speciale Invest said the fund will continue to focus on sectors such as spacetech, advanced manufacturing, energy storage, quantum computing, health and biosciences, and defence technologies. A significant portion of capital is expected to be allocated to areas including unmanned systems and maritime surveillance.
The firm has also onboarded Vijay Jacob as general partner to lead growth-stage investments. Jacob, a former founding member of NewQuest Capital, stressed that the new fund will focus on backing deeptech firms that have largely mitigated scientific risk and are ready for capacity building and global competition.
The launch of Growth Fund II comes four months after Speciale closed its Fund III at ₹600 crore, exceeding its original target of ₹500 crore. Fund III is focused on early-stage investments and plans to back 18–20 startups in areas such as AI infrastructure, spacetech, climatetech, quantum systems, advanced manufacturing, and dual-use defence, with cheque sizes ranging from ₹7 crore to ₹10 crore.
Across its last three early-stage funds launched in 2018, 2021 and 2025, Speciale Invest has backed around 35 startups. Its portfolio includes companies such as Agnikul Cosmos, GalaxEye, ePlane Company, Ultraviolette, CynLr and QNu Labs. The firm has recorded nine M&A exits to date and has been steadily increasing its ownership in portfolio companies, targeting an average stake of about 15% in Fund III, up from 5% in Fund I and 10% in Fund II.
