Former X India Head’s VC Firm Floats $100 Mn Fund To Back Indo-US Startups

Former X India head Manish Maheshwari’s venture capital (VC) firm, BAT VC, has announced its India foray with the launch of a $100 Mn fund to back early stage ventures in the country. 

In a statement, the VC firm said that its Fund II will focus on startups operating both in India and the US across sectors such as AI, fintech and SaaS. 

The fund is cofounded and led by social media platform X’s former India head Manish Maheshwari, ex-Yahoo executive Aditya Mishra (also MD) and former Finastra CTO Ravi Metta (US head). While the trio serve as general partners at BAT VC, Maheshwari will lead the VC firm’s regional expansion in the country.

The US-based investment firm claims that the Fund II has already attracted interest from “top-tier” institutional limited partners (LPs), strategic investors, and family offices in both India and the US. 

“Most VCs approach the US-India opportunity superficially, treating India primarily as a talent source rather than a massive market in its own right,” said Maheshwari. 

Chiming in, Mishra added, “India has shifted from being a back-office engine to a front-stage innovation powerhouse… The convergence of US innovation capital with Indian AI talent represents the most significant arbitrage opportunity in global technology today”.

Elaborating on its investment thesis, BAT VC cited three differentiated aspects:

• Investing in startups before product-market fit (PMF) and de-risking the execution with active support and internal frameworks 
• Helping founders access customers, capital, and talent in both India and the US
• Prioritising startups that place AI at the centre of their product and business model

On why it was focussing on artificial intelligence startups, BAT VC said that India’s AI sector is entering a “golden era”, adding that the country is home to 4.5 Lakh AI and machine learning (ML) professionals and an “ecosystem ripe for global scale”. 

The convergence of talent, capital, and market access has created a uniquely compelling investment landscape, added BAT VC.

Citing a report, the VC firm also sees Indo-US dual-market startups raising more capital on average than single-geography peers, adding that SaaS companies with operations in both the nations demonstrated 1.8X higher median revenue growth. 

Founded in 2021, BAT VC is a New York-based cross-border VC firm that backs AI-first early stage startups in sectors such as fintech and SaaS. The VC firm claims to help founders achieve PMF and scale globally. 

BAT VC launched its maiden fund in 2022, which claims to have clocked an internal rate of return (IRR) of 30% and multiple on invested capital (MOIC) of 1.61X. It also claims that the portfolio startups in its inaugural fund have clocked an average revenue growth of 210% within 18 months.

Some of its notable investments include StockGro, Uptiq AI, Nickelytics (acquired in 2024 by Kiwibot for $25 Mn), Accern (acquired by WandAI), among others. 

This comes at a time when investment firms continue to accumulate dry powder and are launching funds to back homegrown new-age tech companies. As per Inc42 data, as many as 23 funds totalling over $3.2 Bn were launched in the first three months of the calendar year 2025. And the momentum has continued into the second quarter of the year too. 

In April, Bengaluru-based investment bank IndigoEdge and entrepreneur Hitesh Ahuja launched their maiden secondaries fund, PixelSky Capital, with a target corpus of INR 400 Cr. A few weeks later, Mumbai-based growth stage investment firm A91 Partners marked the final close of its third fund at $665 Mn.

Last month, private equity (PE) firm Trident Growth Partners also marked the first close of its maiden fund at over INR 1,000 Cr.