The people who built one of India’s largest edtech companies are now looking to bankroll the next generation of technical founders.
Unacademy co-founders Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini are reportedly raising a vehicle targeting roughly $73.5M, pointed at AI and deep-tech startups. The shift moves them from running a consumer learning platform to writing early cheques for harder technology.
Indian startup capital has been rotating toward compute-heavy ventures for two years, and operators who already know the local hiring and scaling playbook increasingly fund their own. Munjal has been discussing AI experiments publicly since stepping back from day-to-day edtech work.
Why operator funds keep appearing
Founder-investors move faster than institutions on small tickets and carry credibility with engineers who watched their own sector turn. The trade-off is governance: a first-time vehicle still has to show limited partners that conviction travels with process.
India’s AI seed market is crowded. Peak XV, Accel and Lightspeed all write early cheques, while family offices and angels chase the same deals. A fund at this size needs a distinct edge, and deep tech, where capital intensity and long timelines deter generalists, is the obvious place to look for it.
Reporting on the plan did not detail limited partners or cheque sizes. If it closes as described, it would rank among the larger debut vehicles launched by Indian operators this year.
For deep-tech teams in Bengaluru, the real question is whether the money arrives with patience for hardware cycles, or whether it arrives hunting another consumer app.
