Science and technology-focused venture capital firm Inflexor Ventures has announced the first close of ₹400 crore for Fund III, with a target size of ₹1,250 crore. According to reports from the company, the fund is anchored by the Self-Reliant India (SRI) Fund, HDFC Asset Management Co. (HDFC AMC) and HDFC AMC Select AIF FoF (HDFC FoF), as well as international institutions. With the first close in place, the fund has begun deploying capital into a set of high-conviction opportunities and expects to announce its first investments in the coming weeks.
The first close comes as India's venture capital market recalibrates towards capital-intensive, IP-driven sectors over pure consumer internet plays, with deep-tech and science-led startups increasingly demonstrating global scalability. As reported by Inflexor Ventures, the firm is seeing a growing pipeline of globally ambitious companies built on differentiated science, engineering and technology, creating a compelling opportunity to partner with founders earlier in their scaling journey. Investing primarily at the pre-Series A and Series A stages, Inflexor writes cheques of ₹15-45 crore and Fund III will consist of a portfolio of 22-25 companies. Building on the firm's earlier funds launched in 2016 and 2021, Fund III will place greater emphasis on Series A investments, reflecting the increasing number of Indian startups achieving early product-market fit and demonstrating global growth potential.
According to the company's website, Inflexor Ventures was launched by Venkat Vallabhaneni, alongside Jatin Desai and Pratip Mazumdar, with Fund I back in 2016. Its second ₹350 crore fund was launched in 2021, with the second fund raising more than ₹600 crore in 2021. Notably, the firm was an early investor in Bellatrix, before the space sector was opened up to the private sector. The firm's assets under management are $120 million (around ₹1,300 crore), and so far, it has managed 27 exits. Over the past decade, Inflexor Ventures has invested in more than 25 technology companies, including Atomberg, Bellatrix Aerospace, CloudSEK, CredFlow, Kale Logistics and PlayShifu. Last year, a ₹350-crore Opportunities Fund bought the first funds portfolio, allowing existing investors to cash out.
The raise comes at a time when early-stage capital has been outperforming the broader market, with seed-stage funding booming even as late-stage deals cool off across Indian startups in 2026. This favorable backdrop provides funds like Inflexor's with a supportive environment to raise fresh capital. Deep-tech and AI-first startups have become one of the more resilient corners of Indian venture capital, with AI startups alone raising $676 million across 57 deals in India in H1 2026, up 317% year-on-year. The fund's focus on science, engineering and technology startups at the pre-Series A and Series A stages positions it well within this resilient sector, targeting businesses with high barriers to entry that are harder to replicate quickly.
