Private equity and VC firms in India: list with contacts

Where to find PE and VC firms in India

People look for a list of venture capital and private equity firms in India for two reasons: founders want investors for their company, and service firms want funds as clients. Both start in the same place. Most PE and VC funds raised in India are registered with SEBI as Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), and SEBI's website lists them among its registered intermediaries, with registration numbers and addresses. The AIF category tells you what a fund does:

• Category I: venture capital funds, including angel funds, SME funds, social venture funds and infrastructure funds. Early-stage startup investors are here.
• Category II: private equity funds, real estate funds and private credit funds. Most growth and buyout investors sit here.
• Category III: funds that trade listed securities and may borrow to do so, such as long-short funds. They rarely invest in startups.

The SEBI list has gaps for anyone selling or pitching. It names the fund, often a trust, not the team, and a large PE firm may run several funds under different names. Many foreign investors invest through offshore funds and keep only an advisory company in India, so they are not on the AIF list at all. Funds set up in GIFT City register with the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) instead. The industry association, IVCA, startup events and accelerators' demo days fill in more names, one at a time.

How private equity and venture capital invest

Venture capital funds back young companies, usually for a minority stake, in rounds called pre-seed, seed, Series A and later. Private equity funds put larger amounts into established, often profitable companies, sometimes buying control. Between them sit growth funds, family offices and the venture arms of large companies. A few things hold for almost all of them:

• Each fund has a thesis: the sectors, stages and cheque sizes it invests in. A fund that backs B2B software at seed stage will not look at a restaurant chain raising growth capital.
• They see far more companies than they fund, so many deals come through introductions from other founders, angel investors, lawyers, bankers and accelerators.
• Decisions go to an investment committee after due diligence on the finances, legal matters and, for tech companies, the product and code.
• Funds have a fixed life, so they also need exits: sales to larger companies, sales to other funds, or IPOs, where investment banks come in. Our investment banks guide covers that side.

Our PE and VC firms list

Our Venture Capital & Private Equity Firms list has 141 firms in 8 cities. 78% have a mobile number, 74% an email address and 80% the name of a person at the firm; 27% also give that person's designation. Most are in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi. It is a list of firms and their offices, not of individual angel investors, and a list this size is best worked by hand: read each firm's website and portfolio before you write. Teams change often, so confirm the person before you send anything important.

Funds, bankers and investment companies

Investment banks advise on many of the same deals, and investment and holding companies can include group investment arms that take stakes in other businesses:

• Venture Capital & Private Equity Firms 141 contacts · 74% email · 78% mobile ₹499
• Investment Banks & Merchant Bankers 708 contacts · 73% email · 86% mobile ₹499
• Investment & Holding Companies 2,739 contacts · 58% email · 82% mobile ₹499

How founders approach investors

1. Shortlist by fit, not fame. Pick the funds whose stage, sector and cheque size match your round. Their websites list portfolio companies; if a fund has backed a direct competitor, it may not back you.
2. Find a warm introduction where you can: a founder the fund has backed, an angel in your round, your lawyer or CA. Give the introducer a short note they can forward as it is.
3. If you write cold, write short. Five or six lines: what you do, for whom, the numbers that matter, the round and the ask. For example: "Subject: Seed round for a B2B ordering app used by 300 pharma distributors in Gujarat. Distributors take chemists' orders through us on WhatsApp. Revenue is ₹18 lakh a month and growing 9% a month. We are raising ₹4 crore. May I send our deck?"
4. Write to the right person, a partner or principal who covers your sector if the website names one, rather than the general inbox.
5. Follow up once or twice, about a week apart, with real news: a new customer, a key hire, a month's numbers. Then move on.
6. Keep a tracker of who you wrote to, who replied and what they asked for, so the next round does not start from zero.

Avoid mass emails to every fund on a list; investors spot them at once, and they hurt your name. Our cold email templates help with the first note, and the CIN and DIN search guide shows how to check a fund's Indian company and its directors.

Who sells to PE and VC firms

• Fund services: fund administrators and accountants, trustee companies, custodians, valuers for the regular valuation of holdings, and tax and regulatory advisers.
• Deal support: law firms, financial and tax due diligence teams, technology due diligence, background checks and market research.
• Portfolio help: executive search firms, interim CFOs and consultants a fund brings into the companies it backs. Our CEO and senior management list guide covers the leaders of those companies.
• Software and data: deal flow CRMs, portfolio monitoring tools, startup databases and investor reporting.
• Events and offices: venues for annual investor meetings, travel, and serviced offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi NCR.

When you sell to a fund, call the COO, CFO or head of operations rather than an investment partner, and expect confidentiality terms before you see any portfolio data. Sales calls must follow the DND rules.

Questions people ask

Is every VC firm in India registered with SEBI?

No. Funds raised in India register as AIFs, but foreign funds investing from abroad, family offices investing their own money and individual angels do not need AIF registration. The Indian advisory office of a foreign fund appears as an ordinary company on the MCA portal.

What is the difference between private equity and venture capital?

Stage and size. Venture capital funds young companies for minority stakes and accepts that many will fail. Private equity buys larger stakes in established companies and expects steadier returns. In India many firms do both, and the line between late-stage VC and growth PE is blurry.

Can I get a list of angel investors?

Starleads sells lists of firms, not of individual investors. To reach angels, apply through angel networks, which screen startups and present them to their members, or ask founders in your sector who raised from angels to introduce you.

How many funds should a founder contact?

Enough to run a real process, often a few dozen well-matched funds over a few weeks, rather than hundreds at once. A short, matched list gets more replies than a long one.