Key Takeaways
- • Peak XV Partners, Lightspeed, General Catalyst, Activate, Stellaris Venture Partners and Blume are reportedly in advanced stages of investing in at least six Indian AI startups, according to people aware of the developments cited by Moneycontrol.
- • Peak XV is in advanced talks to invest $8-10 million in a new AI agent startup being built by former Zomato COO Rinshul Chandra, alongside Lightspeed and Blume, with a focus on merchant-side AI agents.
- • Peak XV is in talks to invest $4-6 million in Spark Labs and about $3 million in Erid Bio alongside General Catalyst, with Erid Bio reportedly valued at around $30 million.
- • General Catalyst is in advanced stages of investing around $4 million in Dvar AI, an AI deployment partner for Indian enterprises.
- • Activate, the $105 million fund founded by Aakrit Vaish and Pratyush Choudhury, is reportedly preparing about $4 million each in Blackbird and Pathnovo.
Summary
Venture capital firms Peak XV Partners, Lightspeed, General Catalyst (GC), Activate, Stellaris Venture Partners and Blume are in advanced stages of investing in at least half a dozen Indian artificial intelligence startups, according to multiple people aware of the developments who spoke to Moneycontrol. The targets include Rinshul Chandra's new venture, Erid Bio, Spark Labs, Dvar AI, Blackbird and Pathnovo, with individual deals ranging from roughly $3 million to $10 million across AI agents, biotech and enterprise software.
Peak XV is in advanced stages of investing $8-10 million in Chandra's new startup, a former Zomato chief operating officer's company, alongside Lightspeed and Blume. The company is building merchant-side AI agents that can interact with consumer-facing AI assistants to handle requests, transactions and other tasks on behalf of businesses, distinguishing it from consumer-focused AI concierge products such as Instinct. Peak XV is also in talks to invest around $4-6 million in Spark Labs with other investors, and, alongside General Catalyst, is in advanced stages of investing around $3 million in Erid Bio. Erid Bio uses AI and laboratory technology to design and test new biological molecules; a source told Moneycontrol it is being valued at around $30 million during ongoing talks.
General Catalyst is in advanced stages of investing around $4 million in Dvar AI, which fine-tunes open-weight AI models on customer data and hosts them on Indian infrastructure for enterprise deployment. Activate, the $105 million venture fund founded by Aakrit Vaish and Pratyush Choudhury, is in advanced stages of investing in Blackbird, alongside Stellaris Venture Partners, and in Pathnovo, an AI-native SaaS and engineering software company, with each company looking to raise about $4 million.
Peak XV is separately investing $20 million in Empirical Machines, founded by a former OpenAI researcher, alongside Mettle Capital, and has recently invested with Blume in Dunzo founder Kabeer Biswas's AI startup. Moneycontrol also reported that MStack AI is raising around $30 million with a possible extension to $40-50 million, and Simplismart is assembling a $50 million round.
All parties, including Lightspeed, Peak XV, Blume, Chandra, Spark Labs, General Catalyst, Dvar, Erid Bio, Activate, Blackbird, Stellaris and Pathnovo, did not respond to Moneycontrol's queries. The article notes India's AI market remains at an early stage relative to the US, where Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta and Google collectively raise in a single year what the Indian AI startup ecosystem has raised over more than a decade.
Peak XV is in advanced stages of investing $8-10 million in Chandra's new startup, a former Zomato chief operating officer's company, alongside Lightspeed and Blume. The company is building merchant-side AI agents that can interact with consumer-facing AI assistants to handle requests, transactions and other tasks on behalf of businesses, distinguishing it from consumer-focused AI concierge products such as Instinct. Peak XV is also in talks to invest around $4-6 million in Spark Labs with other investors, and, alongside General Catalyst, is in advanced stages of investing around $3 million in Erid Bio. Erid Bio uses AI and laboratory technology to design and test new biological molecules; a source told Moneycontrol it is being valued at around $30 million during ongoing talks.
General Catalyst is in advanced stages of investing around $4 million in Dvar AI, which fine-tunes open-weight AI models on customer data and hosts them on Indian infrastructure for enterprise deployment. Activate, the $105 million venture fund founded by Aakrit Vaish and Pratyush Choudhury, is in advanced stages of investing in Blackbird, alongside Stellaris Venture Partners, and in Pathnovo, an AI-native SaaS and engineering software company, with each company looking to raise about $4 million.
Peak XV is separately investing $20 million in Empirical Machines, founded by a former OpenAI researcher, alongside Mettle Capital, and has recently invested with Blume in Dunzo founder Kabeer Biswas's AI startup. Moneycontrol also reported that MStack AI is raising around $30 million with a possible extension to $40-50 million, and Simplismart is assembling a $50 million round.
All parties, including Lightspeed, Peak XV, Blume, Chandra, Spark Labs, General Catalyst, Dvar, Erid Bio, Activate, Blackbird, Stellaris and Pathnovo, did not respond to Moneycontrol's queries. The article notes India's AI market remains at an early stage relative to the US, where Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta and Google collectively raise in a single year what the Indian AI startup ecosystem has raised over more than a decade.
Go deeper than the headline
Research every firm in this story, track the ones that matter and get the daily briefing — free for 7 days.