Pavestone VC Bags INR 15 Cr From Colruyt Group India For Its INR 900 Cr Fund

Hyderabad-based Pavestone VC’s maiden fund has secured INR 15 Cr (around $1.8 Mn) from Colruyt Group India, the engineering arm of Belgian food and grocery retailer Colruyt Group.

Founded by Sridhar Rampalli, Srikanth V J Tanikella and Laxmikanth V in 2021, Pavestone VC primarily backs growth stage startups across deeptech and enterprise tech sectors through its maiden fund Pavestone Technology Fund.

Pavestone Technology Fund is a SEBI-registered alternative investment fund (AIF) with a target corpus of INR 900 Cr (around $107.7 Mn).

With the latest investment, the fund has raised a total capital of around INR 800 Cr and is on track for its final close in a couple of months, Sai Manohar, director of finance and investments at Pavestone, told Inc42.

Pavestone VC will invest in 12-15 growth stage startups through the fund, which has a target corpus of INR 900 Cr.

The average ticket size will range between INR 25-60 Cr.

The VC firm further plans to invest in five early stage firms, with a primary focus on spacetech, 5G infrastructure, blockchain, quantum computing and EV components.

Till date, it has backed startups such as E42, NewSpace Research & Technologies, LivNSense and Bellatrix Aerospace, said Laxmikanth V, managing partner at Pavestone VC.

“We are delighted to welcome Colruyt Group India as a strategic investor. They invest heavily in-house, to accelerate the digitalization, automation, and robotization of their retail operations across their organisation. Their extensive industry experience will undoubtedly enhance our ability to pursue and capitalize on promising investment opportunities,” Laxmikanth added.

The development comes at a time when the deeptech and enterprise tech startup ecosystem in India is experiencing phenomenal growth on the back of rapid digitalisation, tech adoption and favourable government policies.

Prior to 2014, India had fewer than 100 deeptech startups, but between 2014 and 2023, this number jumped more than 4X to over 400 startups, as per Inc42 data.

Despite the ongoing funding challenges, the sector has continuously grown in the last three years. In 2023, deeptech startups raised $496 Mn compared to $397 Mn in 2022.

Overall, between 2014 and 2023, deeptech startups in India have secured over $1.5 Bn in funding across 343+ deals. 

Meanwhile, enterprise tech startups raised $1.3 Bn in 2023 across 157 deals and a whopping $7.7 Bn across more than 540 deals in 2021 and 2022.