About Us

We are keen to bring science to society and believe this can be achieved by nurturing the tech startup ecosystem.

Here's 5 things you need to know

What We Do

We back bold, early-stage founders building disruptive innovations deeply rooted in science, engineering, and technology—ideas with the power to redefine entire industries. From space and alternative energy to advanced manufacturing, AI,

robotics, and semiconductors, we invest in transformative technologies shaping the world today, not just tomorrow.

We prioritize exponential over incremental change, and as a people-first, patient institutional investor,

we often come in early and stay committed - globally, with a strong focus on India.

What We Bring To The Table

We’re long-term partners to our founders, supporting them beyond capital:
Customer Access – We connect startups to early customers and industry leaders.
Team Building – We help hire the first critical team members.
Follow-on Capital – We leverage our VC network to support future fundraises.
Industry Intel – We share insights on market trends and competition.
Always-on Support – We’re just a call or text away—through every stage.

Investment Size & Focus

Our sweet spot is $750K–$1M, though we’ve gone higher or lower depending on the company. We reserve 60% of our corpus for follow-on investments so we can back our winners as they scale.

DeepTech Hardware & Software

We back DeepTech hardware and software companies building science- and engineering-first solutions to tackle large, meaningful problems. Our portfolio includes startups in Space, Energy, Climate, AI, Robotics, Semiconductors, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Mobility, and more. If you’re building something ambitious—even if it doesn’t fit neatly into these buckets—we’d love to hear from you.

What We Look For In Founders

Bold Innovation: Confident yet humble founders pushing the limits of imagination through science and tech.

Clear Vision: Visionaries who can tell powerful stories and communicate the strength of their ideas.

Relentless Execution: Hustlers who outwork us—driven by urgency, deep curiosity, and a bias to learn fast.

No Playbook Needed: We believe the only real playbook is hard work, clarity of thought, and iteration.

How We Invest

Long-Term Partners: We invest time upfront and stay close throughout the journey—we’re in it for the long haul.

First-Principles Thinking: We evaluate tech deeply, seeking high-impact solutions with real-world relevance.

Operator Mindset: As former builders, we move fast, stay pragmatic, and put founders first.

Founder Fit: We back those with deep domain insight and relentless execution drive.

The team at Speciale brings deep experience across entrepreneurship, engineering, and technology - having built and backed ventures from family businesses to global MNCs. We’ve lived the zero-to-one journey, and learned just as much from failures as from wins. That’s why we show up as patient, long-term partners - active from the moment we invest. We serve as sounding boards, advisors, and vocal champions of the products and founders we believe in.

The Speciale Team

Vishesh Rajaram

Managing Partner

Arjun Rao

General Partner

Vijay Jacob

Venture Partner

Krishnaswamy Srinivasan

Chief Financial Officer

Dr Mridula Menon

Chief of Staff | Head - Investor Relations

Vishnu Rajeev

Investment Principal

Dhanush Ram

Investment Principal

Sunil Cavale

Investment Principal

Nithish Kumar

Investment Manager

Ahammad Shibil

Investment Analyst

Pramoth Arun

Investment Analyst

While we invest across DeepTech hardware and software, our focus is clear: science- and engineering-first solutions tackling large, meaningful problems. We’ve backed companies in Space, Energy, Climate, AI, Robotics, Semiconductors, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Mobility, and more. If you’re building something ambitious and technical—even if it doesn’t fit neatly into these buckets—we’d still love to hear from you.

Do you only invest in select verticals?

Startups have come to us when they are as small as 2-3 people with an idea. We are often the first investor for our startups. So, even if you don’t think you’re ready, we’d still like to get to know you.

When should I approach you?

Our process is fairly standard with:

Initial review: We study the materials you have shared with us to determine if they meet our investment criteria.
First meeting: We want to hear you out. Let's get on a call!
Follow-up: We like you and your idea interests us. We'll get at least one partner to listen to you.
Partner meeting: If we are happy with you until now, we'll invite you to meet both our partners. This is followed by an internal IC (investment committee) discussion.
Final meeting: We invite founders to present to the entire team at Speciale Invest.

Cognizant of the founder's time, we keep our processes quick and transparent. We decide as a team at each stage and usually give you an answer in ~48 hours.

From here, we proceed with term sheets and due diligence processes.

What is the investment process like?

Frequently Asked Questions

We are serious about supporting our companies with follow-on investing and reserve 60% of our corpus for follow-on investments.

Do you do follow-on investments?

No, we are a seed stage VC only, sorry!

Raising my Series A. Should I approach you?

We have been part of rounds ranging from $100K to $1M, which should last the startup up to 24 months.

What is the average round sizes you participate in?

We are usually a lead in the first investment round, but we have also collaborated with co-investors in the past.

Will you lead my investment round?

We are usually the first institutional investors in our start-ups but we have worked with companies that have raised small rounds (<$200K) from accelerators or friends and families. A caveat here, if you have already raised a million or two, we are unlikely to be a fit.