Aum Ventures makes Rs 225 Cr first close of Fund II

Aum Ventures announced the first close of its India Innovation Fund II at Rs 225 crore. The target corpus is Rs 750 crore, or about $80 million, so the first close covers 30% of the fund. Entrackr’s headline names the Rs 750 crore total fund size while the money committed so far is the smaller Rs 225 crore. More than 65% of that capital came from international limited partners across the US, the Middle East and other global markets, including family offices, entrepreneurs and strategic investors.

The fund writes initial cheques of $750,000 to $2 million at pre-seed and seed, and reserves follow-on capital for Series A and B. It plans 25 to 30 companies over the fund life. The mandate is hard technology: space tech, AI, semiconductors, aerospace, defence tech, robotics, energy transition, advanced manufacturing and IP led technologies.

Fund I launched in 2023 and reports gross MOIC of 2.23x and gross IRR of 53%. Both figures are gross, and the article carries no net of fees number. Its portfolio includes Skyroot Aerospace, Azimuth AI, Cosmoserve Space, Sanyark Space, Sully.ai and Latentai. Sharang Shakti exited via acquisition by LAT Aerospace.

Two things here matter to a consumer or D2C founder, and neither is the headline. First, read the mandate before you pitch. Nothing in this fund’s stated sectors is a consumer brand, so a Rs 750 crore India fund announcement is not new capital for your category. The pattern worth tracking is that fresh early stage rupees are being earmarked for IP led businesses, which means consumer rounds keep competing for a shrinking share of the same LP pool.

Second, first close is not final close. A fund at 30% of target is still fundraising while it deploys, so its follow-on reserves are a plan rather than a balance. Any founder taking a first cheque from a fund in this position should ask for the reserve ratio per company and what happens to it if the target corpus is not reached.