US-based VC firm Golden Sparrow Ventures, which primarily invests in the early-stage deeptech sector in India, has marked the first close of its $20 Mn (INR 180.8 Cr) Fund II.
The VC firm said in a statement that over half of the fund has already been committed, where more than 60% of its Fund I limited partners have participated in the ongoing fund.
With its second fund, the VC firm plans to invest in around 22 Indian startups at the pre-seed and seed stages, writing cheques of about $650,000 on average.
The fund will split its bets evenly, with 50% of the capital earmarked for deeptech startups and the rest for enterprise AI ventures. In addition, around 12% of the corpus has been set aside for follow-on investments in portfolio companies that show strong early traction.
The firm mentioned that it has already made its first investment in an enterprise data platform, without disclosing its details.
This is the second fund for the firm, which was founded by Rishaad Currimjee in 2023, after its $8 Mn maiden fund. Between 2023 to 2025, the firm invested in 18 deeptech startups like Ethereal, Theranautilus and Morphing Machines, among others.
Describing the broader investor interest in backing deeptech startups, Currimjee said, “We made 10 deeptech investments when it was still a contrarian bet. Now the space is getting crowded - and founders should ask who actually deployed capital versus who is riding the wave.”
After prolonged lull in activity, the Indian deeptech segment has become one of the most consistently backed segments. In recent times, investors have doubled down on this segment, which spans startups operating in defencetech, dronetech, semiconductors, AI, etc., rolling out dedicated funds to deepen their exposure.
Notably, of the 90-plus new funds announced in 2025, about 21% carry explicit deeptech mandates, underlining an early-stage shift towards longer-duration bets in the segment.
Meanwhile, the central government has also been showing its encouragement to boost the deeptech space, where the Cabinet approved a research development and innovation (RDI) scheme with a corpus of INR 1 Lakh Cr to fuel capital in the sunrise sector.