Ex-Kae Capital Partner Natasha Malpani Floats INR 200 Cr AI-Focused Fund

SUMMARY

The investment vehicle will back 20-30 startups, with cheque sizes ranging from $200-400K

Boundless has already invested in six companies, including SuperHealth, Armatrix, Piersight, and Knot

At Kae Capital, Malpani led the GenAI thesis and worked closely with companies such as Knot, eXlens.ai, Grapevine/Round1, Supernova, BPR Hub and Fondant

Former Kae Capital partner Natasha Malpani has launched Boundless Ventures, an early stage fund with INR 200 Cr earmarked for AI-native startups from India.

Malpani told Inc42 that the investment vehicle will back 20-30 startups, with cheque sizes ranging from $200-400K, while keeping reserves for follow-on investments.

Boundless has already invested in six companies, including healthcare delivery startup SuperHealth, last-mile industrial automation venture Armatrix, satellite-powered ocean intelligence platform Piersight, and AI-native fashion discovery and logistics startup Knot.

Two additional bets are in stealth across AI infra and consumer applications.

“We are systematic and selective. Every investment is a bet on a founder’s ability to bend reality, not follow consensus,” Malpani said.

She added that India has a unique advantage with its talent density, digital rails, and ambition to build globally competitive companies from day one. But to stand out, founders need more than just technology.

At Kae Capital, Malpani led the GenAI thesis and worked closely with companies such as Knot, eXlens.ai, Grapevine/Round1, Supernova, BPR Hub and Fondant.

India Sees Uptick In AI-Focused Entrepreneurship

With this launch, Boundless joins a cluster of AI-centric venture funds in India, including Tenacity Ventures, Trident Growth Partners and Stellaris Venture Partners.

At the same time, Malpani’s investment firm adds to the growing roster of Indian entrepreneurs and individual investors who have floated funds to back startups.

For instance, former X India chief Manish Maheshwari’s BAT VC made its India debut in May with a $100 Mn fund to back early stage ventures.

Following that, in April, entrepreneur Hitesh Ahuja, along with IndigoEdge, launched their maiden secondaries fund, PixelSky Capital, with a target corpus of INR 400 Cr.

As per an Inc42 report, Indian VCs launched 23 funds totalling over $3.2 Bn in the first three months of 2025, with this trend continuing into the second quarter. This surge in funding activity reflects a positive outlook for the Indian startup ecosystem, particularly for homegrown AI startups.

Since 2020, India’s AI ecosystem has been on a growth trajectory, with more than 140 domestic AI startups securing upwards of $1.5 Bn in funding. This surge is expected to push the country’s GenAI market beyond $17 Bn by 2030.

Meanwhile, to bridge the gaps in the existing AI ecosystem and enable India to emerge as a hub for developing AI technology and applications, the Union Cabinet approved the IndiaAI Mission in March 2024, with an outlay of INR 10,372 Cr spanning five years.

The mission aims to build an AI ecosystem, offering supercomputing capabilities comprising over 10K GPUs to various stakeholders, including startups, academic institutions, government agencies and research institutes.

While Indian AI startups such as Sarvam AI, Krutrim and Observe.AI make notable strides, the global market remains largely led by OpenAI’s GPT-4, Meta’s Llama and Google’s Gemini.