Theia Ventures announces first close of $30 million fund to back 20 Indian startups in these sectors

Theia Ventures, an early-stage fund, today announced the first close of its maiden $30 million fund. Notably, the fund has secured commitments exceeding 50% of its target corpus and has begun deploying capital.

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The anchor investor is British International Investment (BII), alongside corporate venture arms, fund-of-funds, and family offices.

Apart from BII, other global investors include Allocator One (Germany), Cisco Foundation (US), and Vitality Capital Partners (Australia). Domestic and global family offices backing the fund include Anand Mahindra, Meher Pudumjee (Thermax Group), JM Financial, Vimson: Shivanand Salgaocar Group, Pramit Jhaveri (former CEO of Citibank India).

With a focused investment thesis, Theia Ventures Fund I aims to back 18-20 early-stage startups developing differentiated technologies to decarbonize critical sectors such as heavy industry, manufacturing, material science, mobility, and supply chains.

The firm typically invests between $500,000 and $1 million, with over 50% of the corpus reserved for follow-on investments.

Through Fund I, Theia Ventures invested in Sarla Aviation, an Accel-backed electric air taxi startup, and recently led a pre-seed round in Climitra Carbon, a biocoal company catering to the steel industry, run by a Stanford GSB, IIT-Bom & IIT-Dhanbad team. The fund has also signed on two additional companies in precision fermentation (biotech) and AI-based energy data modelling, with further investments expected to be announced in early 2026.

The final close of the fund is expected by the end of the current financial year.

Priya Shah, Founder & Managing Partner of Theia Ventures, said, "We are thrilled to officially announce Theia’s first close and to partner with BII as our anchor investor, as well as other incredible stakeholders. Theia’s objective remains clear: to unlock much-needed, early stage capital towards Indian companies building transformative technologies to disrupt the energy status quo."

"Petroleum or coal-based products and processes are now being rapidly replaced by cleaner fuels and energy sources, which presents a huge opportunity for startup innovation and growth, particularly in emerging sectors such as carbon removal, novel materials, data centres, clean mobility, renewable energy and biotech. It’s fantastic to see international capital flowing into India to support talented founders building bold solutions that will shape the future," Shah added. 

Shilpa Kumar, Managing Director and Head of Asia at BII, said, "Through our partnership with Theia, we are delighted to support early-stage companies developing unique climate technologies that can protect the planet and vulnerable groups in India. The climate emergency affects every aspect of life. Our investment will help accelerate technology development to reduce emissions and enhance climate resilience among low-income groups. This is aligned with our goal of contributing to India’s clean energy transition."