While many venture firms seem to be focused solely on AI these days, Nexus Venture Partners is intentionally splitting its focus for its new $700 million fund.
The company will support AI startups and look for India-focused startups in the consumer, fintech and digital infrastructure sectors.
AI has absorbed most of the venture capital raised globally, and the 20-year-old venture capital firm also sees it as a defining technological change. But they argue that focusing on a single overheated category comes with its own risks. India's digital economy offers a balance with an expanding market where AI adoption is on the rise and opportunities remain diverse.
For Nexus, that balance is rooted in its origins. Headquartered in Delaware with offices in Menlo Park, Mumbai and Bengaluru, the company has operated as a single fund and integrated team in the U.S. and India since its founding in 2006.
We back early-stage software and India-focused startups from the same pool of capital. Over time, the company's cross-border software investments have ranged from infrastructure and developer tools to AI agent startups. The US portfolio includes companies such as Postman, Apollo, MinIO, Giga, and Firecrawl that are widely adopted in developer tools and AI infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the company's portfolio in India spans consumer, fintech, logistics and digital infrastructure. Companies betting there include Zepto, Delhivery, Rapido, Turtlemint, and Infra.Market.
Jishnu Bhattacharjee, managing partner at Nexus Venture Partners in the US, told TechCrunch in an interview that “AI is a major turning point and we are firmly focused on that.” “But we're also seeing a lot of these AI innovations being leveraged to actually better serve the public.”
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Nexus manages $3.2 billion in capital across funds and has invested in more than 130 companies over the years. The company has recorded more than 30 exits to date, including several IPOs, highlighting the depth of its long-term approach in its early stages.
Abhishek Sharma, managing partner at Nexus Venture Partners in the US, told TechCrunch that the company's sweet spot is still in the seed and Series A launch stages, which often start with checks in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or around $1 million.
Managed by an eight-person investment team, Nexus started with a $100 million fund and has maintained its fund size at $700 million since launching Fund VII in 2023. We typically raise money every 2.5 to 3 years. Mr. Bhattacharjee said he kept the eighth fund the same size because the firm believes $700 million is an appropriate amount for an early-stage strategy.
“We don’t want to raise money for the sake of raising money,” he said.
Although India's AI efforts are not as advanced as the US in many areas, Nexus believes India has the potential to leapfrog in several parts of the AI ecosystem.
Mr. Bhattacharjee highlighted India's rich talent pool, growing digital infrastructure, and demand for localized models that support India's many languages and service needs. These dynamics are pushing Indian startups to build AI applications and agents faster, often based on open source tools and emerging AI infrastructure companies in the country, he said.
The partners cited Nexus-backed companies such as Zepto and Neysa to explain how AI is taking shape in India. They say quick commerce platform Zepto uses AI extensively across its operations, from customer support to routing and fulfillment, demonstrating how consumer businesses are becoming AI-native. Additionally, infrastructure players like Neysa are emerging to address India-specific needs, such as sovereign AI workloads, localized data processing, and support for India's many languages.
Nexus did not share the fund's metrics. Partners said the firm's fund has generated good returns over the years and the return of limited partners will fill most of the fund. The company's LP locations span the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Japan.