The investment platform Aurrevia has introduced its Category III Alternative Investment Fund (AIF). The fund's launch is supported by a $10 million anchor commitment from Kothari Family Office through Aarii Ventures, aligning with the company's goal to capitalize on growing investor interest in India's alternative investment market.
This public equity fund is actively managed and is based on Aurrevia's proprietary two-strategy system, TechnoValue. This system combines deep value investing with momentum-based strategies. The fund aims to achieve risk-adjusted long-term returns through a combination of fundamental research, disciplined portfolio construction, and active risk management.
The launch comes amid the rapid expansion of the alternative investment ecosystem in India. According to the company, total commitments for AIFs exceeded 16.9 lakh crore as of March 2026, with Category III AIFs accounting for over 3.14 lakh crore, reflecting increased demand for actively managed products.
Aurrevia stated that its investment approach integrates value-oriented investing with the identification of market trends to seek opportunities across various sectors and market capitalizations. Furthermore, the fund employs a negative screening system, excluding investments in businesses related to tobacco, alcohol, gambling, meat, and leather, thereby aligning its strategy with principles of stewardship investing.
The fund was co-founded by Sagar Nishar, Co-founder and Chief Investment Officer, and Suyog Dhawan, Co-founder of Aurrevia and Founder and CIO of Strategic Alpha. Previously, Nishar served as CIO at Aarii Ventures, overseeing investments in public and private markets, while Dhawan developed the firm's TechnoValue framework, which combines fundamental metrics, technical indicators, valuation metrics, and event triggers.
Commenting on the launch, Nishar noted that the company's focus will remain on capital preservation and ensuring sustainable, long-term returns through disciplined investing. Dhawan added that Aurrevia aims to become a research-driven, managed, and consistently investing institution as the allocation to alternative assets continues to grow in India.
Venture capital firm Fundamentum Partnership, co-founded by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and seasoned investor Sanjeev Aggarwal, announced the launch of its third fund, raising ₹2,200 crore. The firm maintains its conviction that India's growth-stage startups require sustained capital injection.
This new fund, which incorporates a ₹400 crore greenshoe option, establishes Fundamentum as the sole pure-play Series B investor in India to reach its third vintage. The company noted that Nilekani has made his largest personal investment to date in any venture firm, acting as the fund's anchor investor.
Fund III continues Fundamentum's established approach of investing in Series B companies. The early-growth phase, characterized by companies achieving product-market fit and preparing for expansion, remains a significant funding gap within the Indian startup environment.
Nandan Nilekani, who is also recognized as the creator of Aadhaar, commented on the timing of the launch, stating that the Indian startup ecosystem is entering a new era fueled by technology, increased formalization, growing domestic demand, and a strong digital public infrastructure that was largely absent a decade prior. He predicted that Indian startups will expand at an unprecedented rate in the coming decade, and Fundamentum, bolstered by its expanded leadership team, is ideally positioned to facilitate this progress.
Fund III will operate as a multi-sector vehicle concentrating on consumer technology, fintech, and AI. On average, the fund intends to allocate between ₹100 crore and ₹150 crore to each company. Within consumer tech, the focus areas include digital commerce, content, healthcare, and education technology. For fintech, investments will target entities involved in credit, wealth management, insurance, and financial infrastructure. Furthermore, the fund plans to support both AI-native and AI-enabled startups, anticipating that these will drive the subsequent wave of industry growth.
The leadership of Fund III will be managed by Sanjeev Aggarwal, Prateek Jain, Mayank Kachhwaha, and Chief Financial Officer Sanjay Chaturvedi. Jain and Chaturvedi have been part of Fundamentum since its inception, while Kachhwaha joined during Fund II to develop the firm's fintech investment practice. Jain stated that Fund III represents a continuation of existing work, noting that the core team has collaborated for nearly ten years and has developed a proven operational playbook.
Prateek Jain previously spearheaded the firm's strategy centered on India's next 400 million internet users, backing companies such as Kuku, ProcMart, and ApnaMart. Kachhwaha has specialized in fintech investments, including FlexiLoans, Stable Money, Olyv, and TransBnk. Sanjay Chaturvedi has overseen over 30 successful exits and contributed to building the firm's institutional framework. Collectively, these four general partners possess extensive experience across entrepreneurship, investment, company development, and finance.
Sanjeev Aggarwal emphasized the ambition to create a lasting institution, aiming for a firm that will endure beyond its current members. He expressed excitement about seeing homegrown leaders within Fundamentum assume the roles of General Partners as Fund III launches. Aggarwal, an early supporter of the Indian startup scene, has dedicated over two decades to backing startups and growth-stage enterprises across six different fund vintages. Prior to co-founding Fundamentum, he was instrumental in establishing Helion Venture Partners, one of India's initial VC firms, which invested approximately $600 million across three funds. His investment history includes companies like MakeMyTrip, redBus, BigBasket, Amba Research, Azure Power, Livspace, Axtria, Spinny, and PharmEasy.
Aggarwal recalled that when Fundamentum began, the goal was to set a standard for early-growth-stage investing in India. Both he and Nandan aimed to leverage their operational expertise to assist founders throughout the scaling process, providing value beyond just capital through intensive post-investment involvement. Over time, they have cultivated an exceptional investment team, incorporating several former entrepreneurs who share this 'operator-first' philosophy.
Fundamentum's portfolio has yielded numerous rapidly expanding companies over the last decade. Kuku, an investment led by Partner Prateek Jain, has surpassed 400 million downloads and secured 10 million paid subscribers. Spinny achieved revenues exceeding ₹4,600 crore in FY25. Other portfolio successes include PharmEasy becoming a prominent digital healthcare platform and AppsForBharat's Sri Mandir exceeding 40 million downloads. Stable Money has grown its assets under management to over ₹6,000 crore, representing more than a threefold increase since Fundamentum's investment in 2025.
Since its inaugural fund in 2017, Fundamentum has backed 17 technology companies across various sectors in India, including consumer internet, fintech, B2B commerce, and enterprise software. The firm employs a concentrated investment model, securing board seats and collaborating closely with founders during their scaling phases. Its partners offer guidance on fundraising, executive recruitment, organizational structure, market penetration, and founder development, aligning with Fundamentum's strategy of providing deep, long-term support to fewer companies. Fund II achieved a gross internal rate of return of 26 percent, while its portfolio companies demonstrated an average growth rate of 123 percent over the preceding year, underscoring the success of the firm's strategy to support high-growth businesses at the early-growth stage.
