Aakrit Vaish’s Activate Closes Maiden VC Fund At $105

What happened

Activate has closed its debut fund at $105 Mn (₹1,000 Cr), comprising an $85 Mn early-stage fund and $20 Mn deployed through growth investment vehicles. The fund positions Activate as India’s largest VC platform focused exclusively on AI, as AI-focused funding and dedicated investment vehicles gain traction in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Vaish had said the investment was the firm’s largest capital commitment to a company at the time, although the exact amount was not disclosed. In February, Activate partnered with NVIDIA to provide its portfolio founders with access to the chipmaker’s Nemotron family of open-source models, along with technical training, compute resources and support.

Beyond capital, the firm said its ecosystem includes a GenAI community of more than 15,000 technical practitioners across over 40 groups. It has also forged partnerships with NVIDIA, OpenAI, Anthropic, ElevenLabs, AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Notion, with portfolio companies eligible for up to $1 Mn in credits and other benefits.

AI has become one of the fastest-growing areas of venture investment in India, with startups in the segment raising $676 Mn across 57 deals in the first half of the year, an over 4X YoY jump, according to Inc42’s Indian Tech Startup Funding Report, H1 2026. Amid this growth wave, institutional investors are also sharpening their AI focus.

Why it matters

Founded by Aakrit Vaish and Pratyush Choudhury, Activate has made 10 AI investments in nine months, including seven early-stage bets and three growth investments in Sarvam AI, ElevenLabs and Wispr Flow. Former Haptik CEO Aakrit Vaish-led VC firm Activate has announced the final close of its maiden fund at $105 Mn (around ₹1,000 Cr).

The fund, which was closed within a year of its launch, comprises an $85 Mn flagship early-stage fund and $20 Mn deployed through dedicated growth investment vehicles. Activate said the flagship fund closed at 125% above its original target. Activate’s LP base includes more than 50 founders and AI researchers, around a dozen global VC general partners and more than 50 family offices, enterprises and corporates.

Notable backers include Vinod Khosla, General Catalyst, Raghu Raghuram, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Bhavin Turakhia, Ronnie Screwvala and Ranjan Pai, among others. Founded in December 2025 by Vaish and former Together Fund partner Pratyush Choudhury, Activate aims to back AI-native startups at the pre-seed or idea stage.

It is targeting to back 25-30 startups operating across AI applications, foundational models, physical infrastructure and related areas, with initial equity investments in the range of $500K-$3 Mn. The fund reported its first close at $75 Mn in December, and has since made 10 investments. Through its early-stage strategy, called Inception, Activate has backed seven startups across consumer AI, AI-led services and frontier technology. All seven remain in stealth.

The firm said it works with founders from as early as the ideation stage, including in some cases before incorporation, and supports them across product development, technical architecture, hiring, go-to-market and subsequent fundraising. Beyond early-stage investments, Activate has also backed Sarvam AI, ElevenLabs and Wispr Flow. Activate’s investment in Sarvam came amid the Bengaluru-based AI startup’s ongoing $300 Mn Series B round.

What to watch

For instance, Bajaj Finserv chairman and MD Sanjiv Bajaj said earlier this year that the firm is planning to launch a dedicated ₹450 Cr fund focused on AI ventures. Prominent startup investors are also doubling down on the nascent tech as of now. Accel recently closed a $550 Mn fund to back AI and deeptech startups while Elevation Capital launched its $500 Mn AI-focused Fund IX in July.

Alongside, there is an emergence of dedicated AI and deeptech investment vehicles. For instance, Fundamentum cofounder Ashish Kumar launched Fundamentum Frontier Advisors, which is targeting consumer, enterprise and physical AI through its investment vehicles.