Pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm AUM Ventures, which is currently raising a ₹750 crore fund, is targeting March 2027 as the timeline to complete the fundraise. Recently, the firm announced the first close of the fund and has raised ₹250 crore so far.
The deep-tech-focused venture capital firm plans to make six to seven investments from the fund this year. Its latest investment is in Bengaluru-based space-tech company OXG Space, where it led a ₹17 crore round. The startup is building edge cell towers in space for Earth-observation (EO) satellites.
Chetan Mehta, founding partner of AUM Ventures, said the firm was established with the objective of supporting Indian innovation at the pre-seed stage and helping founders build globally competitive businesses. The investment thesis was shaped in part by Mehta’s earlier experience managing a global single-family office, through which he invested in deep-tech ecosystems in Israel, the United States (US) and other markets, including SpaceX.
Founded in 2022, AUM Ventures began its investment journey with a ₹200 crore first fund. The firm backs intellectual property (IP)-based, innovation-led businesses across space-tech, semiconductors, defence-tech, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, advanced manufacturing and energy transition.
From its maiden fund, the firm backed 24 companies. Some of its portfolio companies include Skyroot Aerospace, Cosmoserve, Sanyark Space, Gimbal Space, Latent AI and Helogen, among others.
The firm's first investment was in Skyroot Aerospace, the Hyderabad-based space technology company. Mehta said his earlier exposure to SpaceX and the opportunity created by India's opening up of the space sector helped shape the investment decision.
AUM Ventures' maiden fund was backed largely by global family offices, technology entrepreneurs who had built and sold billion-dollar businesses in the US, and high-net-worth individuals. With Fund II, the firm is looking to broaden its limited partner base by approaching institutional investors in India and overseas. These include government-backed investment programmes and fund of funds such as SIDBI's Fund of Funds for Startups and the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund. Mehta said the firm had not applied to the RDI Fund during its initial application window but intends to apply when the next application window opens.