India’s AI and deeptech ecosystem received a major capital push after venture capital firm Fundamentum Partnership, co-founded by Nandan Nilekani and Ashish Kumar, announced the launch of a new frontier-technology investment platform called F2A (Fundamentum Frontier Advisors). The platform will operate with a planned investment capacity of around ₹3,000 crore, making it one of the larger India-focused pools dedicated specifically to AI and advanced technology startups.
The structure of the platform combines a newly approved ₹2,000 crore fund named ‘Fundamentum III – AI and DeepTech’ along with an additional ₹1,000 crore expected through parallel co-investments and strategic participation from institutional investors. The fund has already secured approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), allowing the platform to formally begin deployment. According to company executives, the platform plans to invest in around 12 to 15 companies over the next three years, with cheque sizes ranging between ₹40 crore and ₹90 crore per startup. The platform has also entered active deployment mode and is expected to close investments in four to five companies within the next nine months.
A major highlight of the announcement is the direct involvement of Nilekani as an anchor investor. Nilekani, who helped build Infosys into one of India’s largest IT companies and later led the Aadhaar digital identity initiative, has increasingly focused on technology infrastructure and digital public systems over the last decade. His broader technology vision has shaped projects like Aadhaar, UPI, ONDC and India Stack, all of which transformed India’s digital economy architecture. Fundamentum itself was launched in 2019 by Nilekani, Sanjeev Aggarwal and Ashish Kumar to back technology-led businesses, primarily at growth stages. The firm’s previous investments include companies like Spinny, FarEye, AppsForBharat, Wishlink and GenieMode. Earlier, Fundamentum largely focused on software and consumer internet businesses, but F2A represents a strategic expansion into frontier technologies and deep research-driven sectors.
The new platform will invest across three broad categories – consumer AI, enterprise AI and physical AI. The platform is also expected to evaluate opportunities in semiconductors, quantum computing, aerospace systems, energy-transition technologies and space-tech.
Another important development within the new platform is the appointment of Debraj Banerjee as General Partner. Banerjee previously worked at SIDBI Venture Capital and has experience backing frontier-tech startups across quantum computing, AI healthcare, aerospace intelligence and industrial deeptech.
The timing of the launch is significant. Venture capital funding slowed sharply across most sectors after the post-pandemic startup boom cooled in 2022 and 2023, but AI remained one of the few categories where investment momentum accelerated.
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Ashutosh is a Senior Writer at The Tech Portal, largely reporting on new tech, and intersection of technology and business. Ashutosh’s career spans across nearly a decade of technology writing across multiple platforms and languages.
