A New Era For Indian VC Funds

by · Inc42

SUMMARY

  • India’s venture capital landscape is seeing a wave of new funds launched by so-called rainmakers. Will they succeed in backing the next big things?
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When Ashish Agrawal, Ishaan Mittal and Tejeshwi Sharma quit Peak XV Partners earlier this year, it revived the debate around carry-share and power dynamics in the VC ecosystem. The departures came on the back of a monumental year for Peak XV which saw it get exits from notable portfolio companies, including Groww.

Agrawal in fact led Peak’s first ₹30-35 Cr investment in Groww in 2019. Overall, Peak XV invested close to $50 Mn (around ₹400 Cr) over many years in Groww, which delivered more than 50X returns at the time of its IPO in November 2025.

Despite this success, all of a sudden, Agrawal was stepping away, along with two other partners. 

This past week, the trio announced their next VC firm, Mettle Capital, just a few months after the Peak XV departure. It’s the latest in the line of new funds from fund managers at established firms breaking away to wrest more control on where they invest and who is calling the shots. 

As highlighted in past reporting by Inc42, the VC ecosystem has seen several such cycles where fund managers break away to launch new funds. The first one came about in 2022 and 2023 when the post-Covid frenzy resulted in several notable exits. 

Then came the early 2025 wave, where more new funds were floated for early stage investing. And now there’s another wave; notably, the exodus of partners and investment analysts from Peak XV has resulted in multiple new funds sprouting up.  

Another former Peak XV trio has launched Ambition Capital and is looking to raise $250 Mn for the maiden fund.  

And it’s not just Peak XV of course. Over the past two to three years, India’s startup ecosystem has witnessed a steady stream of senior partner exits from top-tier VC firms, including Peak XV Partners, Z47, Elevation Capital and others.