Activate: A $75 Million Fund for Early Stage AI Founders in India

Activate is a pioneering initiative launched by Aakrit Vaish, co-founder of Haptik, alongside Pratyush Choudhury, former principal at Together Fund. This $75 million venture fund is dedicated to supporting early stage AI founders throughout India. The announcement was made by Vaish on X.

Investment Focus of Activate

Activate aims to invest amounts between $500,000 and $3 million in companies right from their inception, including those still in the ideation phase.

Network of Limited Partners

The fund has assembled a diverse global network of limited partners, featuring prominent figures such as Vinod Khosla from Khosla Ventures, Aravind Srinivas of Perplexity, Ashish Vaswani of Essential AI, and members from renowned organisations like Tesla and Meta. Other notable contributors include Ramesh Raskar from MIT Media Lab, Shyamal Anadkat of OpenAI, Shailendra Singh from Peak XV, Srikanth Velamakanni of Fractal, Vijay Shekhar Sharma from Paytm, and Vishal Misra from Columbia University. This respected network will provide Activate’s portfolio companies with crucial guidance in AI research, infrastructure, and global growth.

Investment Model and Principles

Activate’s operational model adheres to four key principles: rapid product iteration, profound technical expertise, sound product judgment, and dedicated support for founders. This approach helps to nurture and propel innovative AI companies towards success.

Initial Investments

Activate has commenced its initial investments. Prior to establishing the fund, both Vaish and Choudhury were angel investors in various companies, such as Composio, Sri Mandir, Spry, ZuAI, Emergent, Park Plus, Rapidclaims, and Spendflo.

Background of the Founders

Aakrit Vaish previously founded Haptik, which was acquired by Reliance Jio in 2019. Pratyush Choudhury has an impressive background, having worked at AWS and being actively engaged in the GenAI community within the Asia Pacific region.