Nexus isn’t going all-in on AI, keeping half of its new $700M fund for India startups

While galore task firms look to lone person eyes for AI these days, Nexus Venture Partners is deliberately splitting its absorption for its caller $700 cardinal fund.

The steadfast volition backmost AI startups and question retired India-focused startups successful consumer, fintech, and integer infrastructure.

AI has soaked up astir of the task superior raised globally and the 20-year-old VC steadfast besides sees AI arsenic a defining technological shift. But it argues crowding into a single, overheated class carries its ain risks. India’s integer system provides a counterbalance: an expanding marketplace wherever AI adoption is rising and opportunities stay much diverse.

For Nexus, that equilibrium is rooted successful its origins. The Delaware-headquartered firm, with offices successful Menlo Park, Mumbai and Bengaluru, has operated arsenic a azygous fund and an integrated U.S.–India squad since its founding successful 2006.

It backs early-stage bundle and India-focused startups from the aforesaid excavation of capital. Over time, its cross-border bundle bets person encompassed a scope from infrastructure and developer tools to AI cause startups. U.S. portfolio includes companies specified arsenic Postman, Apollo, MinIO, Giga, and Firecrawl, which person go wide adopted successful developer tooling and AI infrastructure.

Meanwhile its India portfolio has broadened crossed consumer, fintech, logistics, and integer infrastructure. Some of its bets determination see Zepto, Delhivery, Rapido, Turtlemint, and Infra.Market

“AI is simply a immense inflection point, and we are anchoring connected that,” Jishnu Bhattacharjee, a managing spouse astatine Nexus Venture Partners successful the U.S., told TechCrunch successful an interview. “But we are besides seeing that galore of these AI innovations are really getting utilized to service the masses better.”

Nexus manages $3.2 cardinal successful superior crossed its funds and has invested successful much than 130 companies implicit the years. The steadfast has recorded much than 30 exits to date, including respective IPOs, underscoring the extent of its early-stage, long-horizon approach.

Abhishek Sharma, a managing spouse astatine Nexus Venture Partners successful the U.S., told TechCrunch the firm’s saccharine spot remains inception to effect and Series A, often opening with checks arsenic tiny arsenic a fewer 100 1000 dollars oregon astir $1 million.

Nexus, which operates with an eight-member concern team, began with a $100 cardinal money and has kept its money size astatine $700 cardinal since launching Fund VII successful 2023. It typically raises each 2.5 to 3 years. Bhattacharjee said the crushed for keeping the eighth money the aforesaid size was the steadfast believes $700 cardinal is the close magnitude for its early-stage strategy.

“We don’t privation to rise wealth for the involvement of raising,” helium noted.

Even though India’s AI travel is not arsenic precocious arsenic the U.S.’s successful galore areas, Nexus believes India could leapfrog successful respective parts of the AI ecosystem.

Bhattacharjee underlined the country’s ample endowment pool, rising integer infrastructure, and request for localized models that enactment India’s galore languages and work needs. These dynamics, helium said, are pushing Indian startups to physique AI applications and agents faster, often atop open-source tools and emerging home AI infrastructure companies.

The partners pointed to companies backed by Nexus, specified arsenic Zepto and Neysa, to exemplify however AI is taking signifier successful India. They said Zepto, the quick-commerce platform, uses AI extensively crossed its operations — from lawsuit enactment to routing and fulfillment — demonstrating however user businesses are becoming profoundly AI-native. Besides, infrastructure players similar Neysa are emerging to code India-specific needs, including sovereign AI workloads, localized information handling and enactment for the country’s galore languages.

Nexus did not stock money metrics. The partners said its funds person been realizing important capable returns implicit the years to mostly capable this money from returning constricted partners. The firm’s LP basal spans the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Japan.