Early-stage focused VC firm a99 (formerly Artha99) has announced plans to raise its third fund with a target corpus of $100 million (~Rs 870 crore).
The Chennai-based firm will deploy the fund to back 12-15 startups in the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors, writing checks in the range of $5M–$10M. The focus will remain on Pre-Series A to Series B stage companies.
The fund has already received soft commitments of $30M from both existing and new investors. a99 aims to announce the first close by April 2026, with no green shoe option.
Founded in 2021 by Vignesh Shankar, a99 previously launched Fund II in 2022 with an initial corpus of Rs 50 crore, later upsized to Rs 105 crore through a greenshoe option.
Through Fund II, the VC has invested in startups such as Aditya Avartan, Intangles, Innocule, EzerX, Lyzr.ai, and Raptee. From Fund I, portfolio companies included Vajro, Intents Mobi, and Sarva.
The firm has also recorded a successful exit from Futurice UK (subsidiary of Futurice Finland), delivering 7X returns.
With this new fund, a99 aims to deepen its role in scaling India’s manufacturing and infrastructure ecosystem, while maintaining a disciplined early-stage investment strategy.
By: Arushi Agarwal
