Aum Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund, has officially announced the first close of its new vehicle, the India Innovation Fund II, for initial commitments worth ₹225 crore. The total corpus of the venture capital firm has been set at ₹750 crore (approximately $80 million) under this fund. India Innovation Fund II’s core objective is to find and invest in early-stage start-up firms creating IP-driven Indian-centric technology enterprises and expanding to global markets.

Capital allocation model and global ecosystem connectivity

This announcement represents a pivotal step in Aum Ventures’ efforts to expand its investment focus into frontier technologies and game-changers. The fund will focus on IP-based startups to build a bridge between Indian technical research and commercialization in the international market. The first closing of ₹225 crore gives the fund instant capital deployment powers to back groundbreaking tech innovators.

The VC startup revealed that the founding round included strong participation from both existing and new investors. One key success highlight of this capital raise is that over 65% of all commitments came in from international LPs across major geographies, such as the United States, the Middle East, and other global financial markets. The LP membership includes family offices, key entrepreneurs, and strategic corporate investors.

Beyond financial investment, Aum Ventures will provide its portfolio companies with comprehensive operational and strategic support. The firm plans to help them by providing direct access to international markets, assisting in strategic industry partnerships, sourcing best-in-class talent on an across-the-board basis, and providing domain knowledge across important geographies such as India, the US, Israel, and the Middle East.

India Innovation Fund II is designed with an emphasis on frontier tech domains that require significant proprietary technological input. The fund will focus its investments on high-impact areas that encompass space tech, AI, semiconductors, aerospace, defence tech, robotics, energy transition, advanced manufacturing, and other niche IP-driven innovations.

The firm will invest mostly at the pre-seed and seed stages in terms of capital deployment. Initial investments will be in the range of $750,000 to $2 million per startup business. The fund structure is designed to provide adequate follow-on capital as needed to support stand-out portfolio companies in Series A and Series B funding rounds. The venture capital fund has plans to launch a portfolio of 25-30 groundbreaking businesses across the entire duration of Fund II.

Fund performance and launch of Fund II

Fund II follows on the strong track record established by Aum Ventures’ predecessor fund, originally launched in 2023. Its first fund showed robust operational numbers, including a gross MOIC of 2.23x and a cumulative gross IRR of 53% to date, the firm reported. One of the more interesting strategic departures from the first fund has been Sharang Shakti, which the company acquired from LAT Aerospace.

Aum Ventures was also among the first institutional investors in Skyroot Aerospace, a company that would go on to become India’s first space tech unicorn, and recently successfully launched its rocket Vikram-1. In addition to Skyroot Aerospace, the company has invested across multiple other prominent frontier tech ventures, such as Azimuth AI, Cosmoserve Space, Sanyark Space, Sully.ai and Latentai.

The launch of Aum Ventures’ India Innovation Fund II follows the trend in capital investment for deep tech ventures throughout the Indian VC landscape. As India strengthens its research and development capabilities, investors are increasingly turning their sights toward AI, defence tech, space tech, semiconductors, robotics, and climate tech.

This structural change is evident in several venture firms in recent market activity. In May 2026, Shastra VC announced $100 million for deep tech and AI startups. The IIT Madras Unicorn Frontline Ventures Fund I, with an additional ₹400 crore to deploy for a green shoe for 25-30 frontier technology ventures, was unveiled by IIT Madras Research Park and Unicorn India Ventures. 

Under the Bharat Tech Fund targeting artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced materials, and space technology, Piper Serica closed a round worth ₹300 crore. Other venture capital investors are keen to launch dedicated venture capital deep tech ventures, of size above ₹500 to ₹600 crore and above ₹300-400 crore, respectively.

Conclusion

Investor confidence in India’s emerging deep tech capabilities is reflected in the first closing of the Aum Ventures India Innovation Fund II at ₹225 crore. The fund’s supportive stance for early-stage startups, combined with its emphasis on IP-led innovations, aligns well with the space tech, AI, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing sectors that have been receiving significant backing from international LP firms.

Venture capital investing in deep tech keeps growing and appears across the nation, and Aum Ventures’ systematic approach to funding and global market expansion will produce high-value technical research into scalable global companies.