Nexus Venture Partners, one of India’s most prominent early-stage venture capital firms, today announced the close of its eighth fund-a massive $700 million pool that will go towards backing high-potential startups across India and the US. The firm, known for early bets on unicorns such as Delhivery, Zepto, Unacademy, Postman, and Druva, consolidates its position as one of the most active cross-border VC firms in the world. The new fund signals a renewed confidence in the next wave of startups emerging from India’s bustling entrepreneurial ecosystem and the booming US AI market.
This newest fundraise comes at a critical juncture for the global startup landscape. In the last couple of years, investors have become increasingly choosy. Macroeconomic uncertainty has forced founders to tighten belts and extend their runways. Yet, Nexus believes this period marks the beginning of a generational shift-especially with the rapid rise of AI, deeptech, and enterprise SaaS solutions. Targeting early-stage companies, the firm wants to tap into innovation at the seed, Series A, and Series B levels-places where many transformative ideas are taking shape.
According to the partners at Nexus, the $700 million fund will be deployed across sectors where the firm already has deep conviction: artificial intelligence, enterprise software, financial technology, consumer brands, and frontier tech. India’s expanding digital economy is continuing to provide fertile ground for new ventures in sectors like logistics, D2C brands, healthcare technology, payments infrastructure, and SME-focused SaaS platforms. In the United States, Nexus plans to double down on next-generation AI infrastructure startups and tools being developed for the enterprise and developers.
One of the firm’s key differentiators is its US-India cross-border model. Be it maintaining teams in both regions, Nexus enables Indian founders to reach global markets sooner and helps US startups tap into India’s engineering talent and cost-efficient scaling opportunities. This cross-pollination has produced success stories like Postman, which grew from a side project in Bengaluru to a global API development powerhouse headquartered in San Francisco, valued at over $5 billion. The new fund will be used to nurture more such globally relevant companies.
The timing is especially notable considering that India has become a hotbed for AI innovation globally. Enterprise adoption across industries is driving demand for AI tooling startups in areas such as natural language processing, predictive analytics, automation, and generative AI. Nexus believes Indian founders are uniquely positioned to build scalable AI companies serving global markets as India produces one of the world’s largest pools of AI engineers and data scientists. The firm also expects greater regulatory clarity in areas such as fintech and digital payments to accelerate this innovation even further.
To startups, the new fund means access not only to capital but also to Nexus’s wide network of founders, advisors, and operators. The firm is known for working closely with entrepreneurs in the early days, often helping them refine product-market fit, build hiring strategies, scale engineering teams, and tap global markets. In this fund, Nexus is planning to back 25-30 new companies over the next few years while continuing support for its current portfolio.
Investors and analysts say this fundraise reinforces a broader trend: global venture capitalists are regaining confidence in India. Despite the funding environment cooling down since 2022, India is still adding thousands of fresh startups annually, while sectors like manufacturing, climate tech, edtech 2.0, healthtech, and agritech show strong signs of resilience. With the government of India pushing initiatives related to digital public infrastructure, semiconductors, and AI innovation, VCs believe that the next decade could see more global-scale Indian companies than ever. Nexus’ expansion in the United States comes amidst the explosive growth of AI-native startups. Looking ahead, as enterprises now need automation, better data tools, and secured AI integrations, early-stage founders have more opportunities than ever to create high-impact solutions. For this reason, Nexus says it will continue to identify such opportunities very early through its Silicon Valley presence. With this $700 million fund, Nexus Venture Partners has signaled unequivocally that the next chapter of innovation has only just begun. Whether in a coworking space in Bengaluru or a garage in the Bay Area, Nexus will be there, backing founders building audacious, scalable companies for the world.
