New Delhi, Feb. 17 -- Equirus Group has marked the final close of its maiden B2B technology fund, Equirus InnovateX Fund (EIF), at Rs 166 crore ($18.3 million). The first close of the fund was made in February 2024.
The SEBI-registered Category-I alternative investment fund (AIF) invests in seed and pre-Series A rounds of companies focused on deeptech, SaaS and fintech. It typically invests in post-product teams working towards product-market fit, with a focus on founders solving complex problems with clear distribution and defensibility.
The final close saw participation from a mix of domestic and global investors, including several founders and operators.
The company's backers include Girish Gaitonde, founder and board member at Xoriant; MR Jyothy, chairperson and MD of Jyothy Labs; Dhimant Bhayani, founder and CEO of iRevo; Raj P, founder and executive chairman of Zaggle; Shankar Vailaya, former director and co-founder of Sharekhan; and Nitin Seth, vice chairman of GD Foods.
The fund is led by Krishna Jha, Sunder Nookala and Sadhika Agarwal, who bring operating and investing experience across technology businesses and oversee investments and portfolio management.
"At the seed and pre-Series A stage, capital alone is not the differentiator-context and conviction are," said Nookala, partner at EIF. "Having built and backed companies ourselves, we understand the inflexion points founders face around product-market fit, enterprise access and organizational build-out. With Fund I fully closed, our commitment is to work closely with portfolio companies to help them scale responsibly, strengthen fundamentals and build institutions that stand the test of time," he added.
EIF has deployed over one-third of its corpus so far, backing seven startups. It is targeting a portfolio of up to 15 companies. Its investments include Pointo, Datazip, GreenStitch, CtrlB, Consuma AI, RSPL and NeverInstall. The remaining capital is expected to be deployed over the next 12-18 months.
Beyond capital, EIF said it works with founders on enterprise access, regulatory navigation, senior hiring and capital-raising preparedness, while emphasizing strong governance and long-term value creation.
With the maiden fund now fully closed, EIF plans to focus on scaling its existing portfolio, selectively adding new investments and deepening relationships with founders and long-term capital partners as it prepares for the next fund.
Separately, partners Ajay Garg, Jha and Nookala have made angel investments in companies such as Druva, Kwench, Adpushup, Sirona, Wow! Momo, Credgenics and GoComet.
Equirus Group operates across investment banking, institutional securities, wealth and asset management, HNI broking, NBFC and insurance. The firm said it has completed over 330 transactions across M&A, private equity, IPOs, QIPs, rights issues and structured finance, raising around $15 billion over the past 18 years.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.