Aum Ventures raises a ₹750 crore bet on India's deeptech founders

Aum Ventures has launched its second fund, the AUM Ventures India Innovation Fund II, targeting a corpus of ₹750 crore, or roughly $80 million, to back early-stage deeptech startups. The announcement, made in mid-June, lands at a moment when investor enthusiasm for India's hard-tech sectors has shifted from rhetoric to real cheques.

The fund is registered with the markets regulator as a Category II alternative investment fund and plans to back 25 to 30 companies over a five-year investment window. Its first close is expected in July, according to founding partner Chetan Mehta, putting fresh capital within reach of founders working on some of the country's most technically demanding problems.

Where the money is going

Aum is concentrating on sectors that require deep scientific and engineering expertise rather than quick consumer plays. The firm has earmarked the new fund for areas including space technology, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and defence technology, fields where India has set ambitious national goals and where startups are increasingly central to delivering them.

The cheque sizes are calibrated for the earliest stages. Aum plans initial investments of between $750,000 and $2 million, with room to follow on through later Series A and Series B rounds as its winners scale. That structure lets the firm get in early on promising teams and double down on the ones that prove out.

A track record in hard tech

Founded in 2022, Aum Ventures has already deployed around $30 million across 24 early-stage startups. Its portfolio reads like a tour of India's emerging deeptech scene:

• Skyroot Aerospace, one of India's best-known private launch-vehicle companies
• Cosmoserve Space and Sanyark Space, both in the space sector
• Azimuth AI, working in artificial intelligence
• Sharang Shakti, in the defence-adjacent space

Why deeptech, why now

The fund reflects a broader maturing of India's startup ecosystem. For years, the bulk of venture money chased consumer apps, e-commerce and fintech, businesses that could scale quickly on the back of cheap data and a vast user base. Deeptech, with its long development cycles and heavy capital needs, struggled to attract patient money.

That is changing. Investors increasingly see space, chips, AI and defence as strategic sectors where India can build durable advantages, helped along by government programmes and a growing pool of domain-expert founders, engineers and researchers rather than pure app builders. The policy environment has moved too, with deeptech firms now eligible for startup benefits over a far longer horizon.

The challenge ahead

Hard tech is not an easy bet. The path from a working prototype to a commercially viable product can take years, and the failure modes are technical as well as financial. Funds like Aum's are wagering that the long timelines are worth the upside of backing companies that, if they succeed, are difficult for rivals to displace.

For founders, more specialised early-stage capital is unambiguously good news. It means investors who understand the science, can stomach longer roads to revenue, and can write the kind of cheques that let a deeptech idea survive long enough to become a business. Fund II's first close in July will be an early read on how much appetite the market really has.

The NE Times View

Capital chasing semiconductors, space and defence is a welcome correction after years of money pouring into yet another delivery app. But deeptech rewards patience over hype, and a 25-to-30 startup spread is a portfolio bet, not a moonshot. The question is whether Indian founders can find the long-horizon talent and follow-on funding these sectors demand, or whether this becomes another well-meaning fund waiting on outcomes that take a decade.

This article is original commentary and analysis by The NE Times. Background facts were referenced from Indian Startup News and YourStory.