Nexus Splits New $700M Fund Between AI & India

Nexus Venture Partners, a prominent venture capital firm, has announced its latest $700 million fund, strategically dividing its investments between cutting-edge AI startups and promising India-focused ventures. This balanced approach sets Nexus apart in a venture landscape increasingly dominated by AI, with half of the new capital earmarked for Indian startups across consumer, fintech, and digital infrastructure sectors.

While artificial intelligence has undeniably become the dominant force in global venture capital, Nexus acknowledges AI as a transformative technological shift but cautions against the risks of an overheated, singular investment focus. The firm views India's burgeoning digital economy as a crucial counterbalance, offering a rapidly expanding market with diverse opportunities and growing AI adoption.

This balanced strategy is deeply embedded in Nexus's DNA. Founded in 2006, the Delaware-headquartered firm operates with an integrated U.S.-India team and maintains offices in Menlo Park, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. It has consistently deployed capital from a single fund to back early-stage software and India-focused startups. Its cross-border software investments span from infrastructure and developer tools to advanced AI agent startups, with notable U.S. portfolio companies including Postman, Apollo, MinIO, Giga, and Firecrawl. In India, Nexus has cultivated a diverse portfolio covering consumer, fintech, logistics, and digital infrastructure, featuring successful ventures like Zepto, Delhivery, Rapido, Turtlemint, and Infra.Market.

“AI is a huge inflection point, and we are anchoring on that,” Jishnu Bhattacharjee, a managing partner at Nexus Venture Partners in the U.S., told TechCrunch. “But we are also seeing that many of these AI innovations are actually getting used to serve the masses better.”

With $3.2 billion in capital under management across its funds, Nexus has invested in over 130 companies, achieving more than 30 exits to date, including several IPOs. This track record highlights its successful early-stage, long-horizon investment philosophy. Abhishek Sharma, also a managing partner in the U.S., emphasized that Nexus's focus remains on inception, seed, and Series A rounds, with initial investments typically ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars to approximately $1 million.

Operating with an eight-member investment team, Nexus started with a $100 million fund and has maintained its fund size at $700 million since launching Fund VII in 2023. The firm typically raises new funds every 2.5 to 3 years. Bhattacharjee explained that keeping the eighth fund at the same $700 million size reflects their belief that this amount is optimal for their targeted early-stage strategy.

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

Despite India's AI landscape being less mature than that of the U.S. in certain aspects, Nexus is confident in India's potential to "leapfrog" in various segments of the AI ecosystem. Bhattacharjee highlighted India's vast talent pool, rapidly expanding digital infrastructure, and the critical demand for localized AI models capable of supporting the country's diverse languages and service requirements. These factors, he noted, are accelerating the development of AI applications and agents by Indian startups, often leveraging open-source tools and nascent domestic AI infrastructure firms.

To illustrate AI's evolution in India, Nexus partners cited portfolio companies like Zepto and Neysa. Zepto, a quick-commerce platform, extensively integrates AI across its operations, from customer support to logistics and fulfillment, showcasing how consumer businesses are becoming inherently AI-native. Concurrently, infrastructure providers such as Neysa are emerging to cater to India-specific demands, including sovereign AI workloads, localized data management, and multi-language support.

While Nexus did not disclose specific fund metrics, the partners confirmed that consistent significant returns over the years have led to the new fund being largely subscribed by returning limited partners. The firm's LP base is geographically diverse, spanning the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Japan.