Team StartupCity

• Nexus Venture Partners closes its eighth fund at $700 million for early-stage AI, enterprise, consumer, and fintech startups.
• The fund will invest equally in India and the US, backing both digital India and global software companies.
• Nexus expects key wins in enterprise AI and Indian digital businesses to drive strong returns.

Nexus Venture Partners has raised its eighth fund, a $700 million vehicle that will invest in early-stage startups across India and the United States. The fund will focus on artificial intelligence, enterprise software, consumer technology, and fintech, continuing Nexus’ long-standing strategy of supporting both Indian and cross-border software companies.

This new fund follows the firm’s previous $700 million raise in 2023. Nexus said its US team is led by general partners Abhishek Sharma and Jishnu Bhattacharjee, while Anup Gupta and Sujan lead operations in India. The firm plans to deploy capital equally across the two regions typically backing around 30 startups per fund, split evenly between India-focused digital businesses and global software ventures.

The firm reported returning around $700 million in cash through partial and full exits in recent years, with total liquidity between $1.5 billion and $2 billion since inception. Its notable exits include Delhivery, PubMatic, Cloud.com, Mezi, and Gluster. Nexus is also an early backer of companies such as Zepto, Rapido, Postman, Turtlemint, and Apollo, where it holds roughly 13-14% stakes.

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General Partner Sujan said the firm’s goal is to identify one or two major global enterprise AI winners and a similar number of strong digital India successes enough to return the fund multiple times. Nexus expects operationally intensive businesses like Rapido, Zepto, and Snabbit to shape its next phase, and it is exploring new opportunities in wealth management, payments, and lending.