Bharat Tech Fund is Piper Serica’s new growth-stage vehicle for Indian deeptech startups.
The Mumbai-based asset manager has launched the fund with a target corpus of ₹800 crore, made up of a ₹600 crore primary raise and a ₹200 crore green shoe option, at a time when a lot of IP-led startups in India still struggle to find investors comfortable with hard tech, longer R&D cycles, and bigger Series A and B rounds. Piper Serica, founded in 2004 by Abhay Agarwal, will focus the fund on companies building in semiconductors, AI, space and defence technology, fintech infrastructure, and biosciences. Ajay Modi, director at Piper Serica, is one of the public faces of that thesis.
What is Bharat Tech Fund and how will it work?
Bharat Tech Fund is a Category II AIF built to back Indian startups at the Series A and Series B stage, with cheque sizes of ₹25-50 crore. That’s a meaningful jump from seed-style capital. It puts the fund in the part of the market where deeptech companies usually need money for pilots, product hardening, certifications, and sales hiring. In some cases, they also need early manufacturing or deployment capacity.
The investing process is part software and part ground work. Piper Serica uses a proprietary AI tool called Yoda.ai to screen opportunities, then adds direct diligence through researchers, founders, academic networks, and government-linked innovation channels. The firm is already active around IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IISc Bengaluru, and programs tied to iDEX, IN-SPACe, and DRDO.
For founders, that changes the pitch. Instead of explaining a semiconductor, defence, or space stack to a generalist investor who may not underwrite long product cycles, they’re pitching a manager that has chosen those cycles on purpose. Piper Serica is also setting an aggressive goal here — a gross IRR of 30% over 6 years. This isn’t meant to be a patient-but-modest outcome fund. It wants venture-style upside.
Who is behind Bharat Tech Fund at Piper Serica?
How Piper Serica got here
Piper Serica didn’t start as a startup investor. It began as a Mumbai-based asset management firm focused across public and private markets, and it has grown to more than ₹1,400 crore in assets under management. The startup push came later.
The firm started backing startups in 2022 through a Category I AIF aimed at early-stage companies. That first pool targeted sectors a lot of Indian generalist funds have historically treated carefully — semiconductors, AI, spacetech, defence technology, biosciences, and fintech infrastructure. Bharat Tech Fund is the next step. Same broad conviction. Much larger cheques.
Why the leadership fits this thesis
Piper Serica was founded by Abhay Agarwal, who came into the business after investment roles at Citibank India and JP Morgan’s private equity group in India. That matters because Bharat Tech Fund isn’t being run like a fresh first-time VC experiment. It’s being built by a manager that already knows how institutional capital behaves and how portfolio construction changes when the holding period gets longer and the underwriting gets tougher.
Ajay Modi brings the sector-facing edge. He’s an engineer by training and has become the clearest voice for Piper Serica’s deeptech argument — that India is shifting from consumption-led startup stories to capability-led ones. The wider leadership team has experience across firms including JP Morgan, Citibank, SBI Mutual Fund and Reuters. That gives Piper Serica a more traditional investing spine than many younger venture outfits.
What the first fund already proved
This new Bharat Tech Fund isn’t arriving with a blank sheet. Piper Serica has made 35 investments so far through its earlier startup vehicle. And the firm isn’t just pointing to activity. It’s pointing to outcomes.
Within 3 years, that first fund recorded 2 exits. One of them was a partial exit in Alt Mobility at roughly 10.2x. It has also participated in 8 follow-on rounds, while 14 portfolio companies have gone on to raise their next institutional round. That’s not a full proof point yet. Deeptech exits take time.
Modi’s thesis is blunt and clear: “For the first time, Indian founders are building IP-led, engineering-first businesses that are globally competitive, not just domestically relevant.” That line explains why Piper Serica is willing to move up the round ladder. If the founders are stronger and the tech is more defensible, the next bottleneck isn’t talent. It’s growth capital.
How Bharat Tech Fund compares with other India deeptech funds
This is where things get interesting.
India already has specialist deeptech investors. Speciale Invest has built a name in early deeptech and sovereign-tech bets. YourNest has spent years focusing on pre-Series A deeptech. pi Ventures has long backed AI and deeptech at early stages. Navam Capital and Unicorn India Ventures have also raised newer vehicles aimed at semiconductors, space, robotics, AI infrastructure, and other IP-heavy areas.
But Bharat Tech Fund is trying to sit a little differently. A lot of those rivals are most active at seed or very early institutional entry. Piper Serica is pushing harder into Series A and B with ₹25-50 crore cheques. That’s a useful slot if you believe India has already done enough on startup creation and now needs more conviction capital for commercialization.
The old alternative for many founders in this bracket has been messy — a mix of smaller VC checks, strategic investors, family offices, or generalist funds that like the story but hesitate at hardware timelines. Piper Serica’s edge, if it works, is that it wants to be the investor already comfortable with those constraints.
Why does Bharat Tech Fund matter for Indian founders?
The simple answer is cheque size.
A founder building in chips, aerospace, defence systems, or industrial AI usually doesn’t need just another seed extension. They need a round large enough to support long sales cycles, deeper engineering benches, testing, and often a second or third version of the product before scale kicks in. Bharat Tech Fund is designed for that phase.
It also matters because Piper Serica is moving from scouting to conviction. Launching an early-stage fund is one thing. Launching a larger Bharat Tech Fund after 35 bets, 2 exits, and several follow-ons says the firm thinks it has seen enough signal to write bigger tickets. That’s a more serious commitment than generic deeptech enthusiasm.
But let’s not pretend the target is conservative. A 30% gross IRR over 6 years is ambitious in any venture strategy, especially in sectors where commercialization can slip by quarters or years. Piper Serica is saying Indian deeptech is mature enough for that return profile. The next few investments will show whether that confidence is earned or just nicely packaged.
How big is India’s deeptech market for Bharat Tech Fund?
India’s timing here isn’t random.
In 2025, Indian tech startups raised $9.1 billion, up 23% year on year. Deeptech alone pulled in $2.3 billion, a 37% jump, and the country now has more than 4,200 deeptech startups, including 550-plus founded in 2025. That’s the strongest factual case for why a fund like Bharat Tech Fund can exist at this size.
There’s another important number buried in that broader shift. About 74% of total deal activity still sits in seed and early-stage rounds, while the seed-to-Series A jump remains the biggest progression gap in the market. That gap is exactly where Bharat Tech Fund wants to operate.
Sector trends also line up with Piper Serica’s shortlist. AI is swallowing a huge share of deeptech capital, while semiconductors, defence, and spacetech are getting more policy support and more founder attention than they did a few years ago. India’s startup market still has plenty of consumer and software energy, sure. But more investors now want companies with real IP, not just fast distribution.
What to watch next for Bharat Tech Fund
Bharat Tech Fund is really a bet on one idea: that Indian deeptech has moved past the stage where specialist capital can stay tiny.
Piper Serica has the early signals, a recognizable thesis, and enough prior portfolio history to justify trying. What matters now is execution — first close, first few Series A and B deals, and whether those larger cheques go into companies that can turn engineering depth into real revenue. If that starts happening consistently, Bharat Tech Fund won’t look like a niche launch. It’ll look early.
Read how Oister Global launched ACE Fund III with a ₹500 crore target to buy existing stakes in late-stage Indian startups and bring more liquidity to India’s growing private-market ecosystem.
FAQ
– What is the size of Bharat Tech Fund?
Bharat Tech Fund is targeting ₹800 crore in total. That includes a ₹600 crore primary raise and a ₹200 crore green shoe option, and it has been launched as a Category II Alternative Investment Fund.
– How does Bharat Tech Fund work for startups?
Bharat Tech Fund is built for Series A and Series B startups and plans to invest ₹25-50 crore per company. Piper Serica uses its internal Yoda.ai screening tool and then does deeper diligence through founder networks, research institutions, and government-linked innovation channels before making a bet.
– Who founded Piper Serica?
Piper Serica was founded in Mumbai in 2004 by Abhay Agarwal. Before starting the firm, he worked in investing roles at Citibank India and JP Morgan’s private equity group, while Ajay Modi now helps shape and articulate the firm’s deeptech investment strategy.
– Why are investors launching more India deeptech funds now?
Because the market finally has enough scale to justify them. India had more than 4,200 deeptech startups and $2.3 billion in deeptech funding in 2025, but a lot of that market still needs stronger Series A and B support for companies in semiconductors, AI, defence, space, and biosciences.
