Early-stage venture capital firm Capital-A has secured the first close of its second fund at Rs 160 crore, as it looks to back early-stage startups across aerospace, robotics, energy transition, industrial hardware, among other sectors.
According to Capital-A, the fund is targeting a base corpus of Rs 300 crore, with a greenshoe option of Rs 100 crore.
The first close was anchored largely by indigenous investors such as Srikar Reddy, Siddharth Bafna, Sekhar Boddu, Chamaria Group, Steel House Family Office, Avyay Jhunjhunwala, the family office of Vijayalakshmi Agarbathi Works, and the Anand Rathi Group.
Capital-A has started deploying capital from the new fund, with seven investments completed and three more in advanced stages. It has backed companies such as Manastu Space, Agrileaf, Misochain, and CraftifAI.
With Fund II, the firm plans to back 15-18 companies, doubling down on an execution-heavy model that involves working closely with founders on operations and scaling.
The firm is also setting its sights on areas such as aerospace components, where India continues to rely heavily on imports. Beyond core manufacturing, it is betting on emerging sectors such as shop floor digitisation, particularly for MSMEs.
The Bengaluru-based VC firm states that startups are taking a different shape compared to traditional industries. These startups are beginning in a modular way, using contract manufacturing, piloting products, and then scaling, with strong engineering and software capabilities from day one.