Venture capital firm Elevation Capital has closed its ninth India-focused fund at $500 million, with a focus on backing early-stage startups building AI-led products and applications.

Key Highlights

• Elevation Capital closed its ninth India-focused fund at $500 million, targeting early-stage AI startups.
• The fund will invest primarily in seed and Series A startups building AI application-layer products.

The new fund will invest primarily in seed and Series A startups, particularly those building on the application layer of artificial intelligence. The firm believes the next wave of AI companies will emerge by solving business and consumer problems using AI technologies.

Alongside Fund IX, Elevation Capital also manages a separate $400 million fund, launched in August last year, targeting late-stage, IPO-bound startups. Together, this takes the firm's total deployable capital to around $900 million.

Elevation Capital has been one of the most active early-stage investors in India, backing startups across consumer internet, fintech, SaaS, and AI. The firm said India is entering a phase where AI-native startups can build products for both domestic and global markets. Partners at the firm noted that while foundational AI models are largely being developed by global technology companies, significant opportunities exist for Indian founders to build AI applications and businesses on top of these models.

Also Read: Indian Startup Funding Falls 95% to $70.4 Million in the Latest Week

Elevation Capital has invested in several listed firms, including FirstCry, Ixigo, MakeMyTrip, Paytm, Swiggy, Meesho, and Urban Company. The fund has also made back-to-back partial exits from travel-tech firm Ixigo, underscoring its strategy of realising returns from earlier bets even as it deploys fresh capital toward the next generation of startups.