Nexus won’t invest everything in AI, reserving half of its new $700 million fund for startups in India

While many investment firms seem only interested in artificial intelligence these days, Nexus Venture Partners is deliberately splitting its focus on its new $700 million fund.

The company will support AI startups and look for India-focused startups in the areas of consumer, fintech and digital infrastructure.

AI has absorbed most of the venture capital raised globally, and the 20-year-old venture capital firm sees AI as a defining technology shift. But she believes that crowding into one hectic class carries its own risks. India’s digital economy offers a counterbalance: an expanding market where AI adoption is increasing and opportunities remain more diverse.

For Nexus, this balance is rooted in its origins. Headquartered in Delaware, with offices in Menlo Park, Mumbai and Bengaluru, the company has operated as a single fund and integrated US-Indian team since its founding in 2006.

It backs early-stage programs and India-focused startups from the same capital pool. Over time, its bets on cross-border software have ranged from infrastructure and developer tools to AI startups. The US portfolio includes companies such as Postman, Apollo, MinIO, Giga, and Firecrawl, which have become widely adopted in developer tools and AI infrastructure.

Meanwhile, its portfolio in India has expanded to include consumer, fintech, logistics and digital infrastructure. Some of its bets there include Zepto, Delivery, Rapido, Turtlemint, and Infra.Market.

“AI is a big inflection point, and we are building on that,” Jishnu Bhattacharjee, US managing partner at Nexus Venture Partners, said in an interview with TechCrunch. “But we also see many of these AI innovations already being used to better serve the masses.”

Nexus manages $3.2 billion in capital across its funds and has invested in more than 130 companies over the years. The company has recorded more than 30 exits to date, including several IPOs, underscoring the depth of its long-term early-stage approach.

Abhishek Sharma, managing partner at Nexus Venture Partners in the US, told TechCrunch that the sweet spot for the company is still in the beginning for seed and Series A, often starting with small checks of up to a few hundred thousand dollars or around $1 million.

Nexus, which works with an eight-member investment team, started with a $100 million fund and has maintained its fund size at $700 million since launching its seventh fund in 2023. It typically raises every 2.5 to 3 years. Bhattacharjee said the reason for keeping the eighth fund the same size is that the company believes $700 million is the right amount for its early-stage strategy.

“We don’t want to raise money for the sake of raising money,” he noted.

Although India’s AI journey is not as advanced as the US’s in many areas, Nexus believes India can advance in several parts of the AI ​​ecosystem.

Bhattacharjee emphasized the country’s large talent pool, growing digital infrastructure, and demand for local models that support India’s many languages ​​and service needs. These dynamics are driving Indian startups to build AI applications and agents faster, often on top of open source tools and local AI infrastructure startups, he said.

The partners pointed to Nexus-backed companies, such as Zepto and Nysa, to illustrate how AI is taking shape in India. Zepto, the express commerce platform, uses AI extensively in all its operations — from customer support to routing and fulfillment — demonstrating how consumer businesses have become increasingly reliant on AI, they said. Moreover, infrastructure companies like NISA are emerging to address India-specific needs, including sovereign AI workloads, local data processing and support for the country’s many languages.

Nexus was not involved in the fund’s metrics. Its funds have generated large enough returns over the years to largely fill that fund from returning limited partners, the partners said. The company’s LP base extends to the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Japan.