DeVC Research
Investment Thesis
DeVC (Decentralized Venture Capital) is a Bengaluru-based early-stage investment collective built on the premise that the best signal on a founder and a market comes from people who have actually operated in that market. Rather than a traditional partnership of full-time investors, DeVC is anchored by Matrix Partners India ($1.5bn+ AUM) and organized around a "collective" of 50+ founders, operators, and executives who have built and scaled companies like CRED, Haptik, Park+, OfBusiness, Razorpay, and Swiggy. The firm's stated approach favors "ground reality" research over trend-chasing, and pairs capital with hands-on involvement from operators who have recently lived the problems a founder is solving.
Sector Focus
DeVC invests broadly across seven stated focus areas: AI, DevTools & Infrastructure, Consumer, Fintech, Hardware & Deeptech, Gaming, Web3, and Industrial & Manufacturing. In practice the portfolio also includes healthcare AI, hospitality software, aerospace/spacetech, and biotech, reflecting a generalist early-stage mandate driven by wherever a Collective member has relevant operating depth.
Stage Focus
DeVC is a pre-seed and seed investor. Tracxn data shows the large majority of its ~80 investments cluster at seed stage (average round size ~$1.66M), with DeVC entering as a smaller check alongside a lead.
Check Size
The firm writes checks of $50,000 to $500,000 per company, consistent with a non-lead, collective co-investment model rather than a lead-investor fund.
Lead Tendency
DeVC does not appear to lead rounds. Across every deal identified in this research (InspeCity, Mandrake Bio, Realfast, Ambak), DeVC is one of several participants alongside a named lead (e.g., Ashish Kacholia leading InspeCity's seed; Activate and Antler co-leading Mandrake Bio's pre-seed; Peak XV leading Ambak). This fits its identity as a collective co-investment vehicle rather than a traditional lead fund.
Recent Activity
DeVC has been steadily active through 2025 and into 2026: Tracxn reports 26 investments in 2025 and continued deployment in 2026, including a $5.6M seed round for InspeCity (in-orbit satellite servicing, March 2026) and a ~$1.9M pre-seed round for Mandrake Bio (AI-powered gene-editing/protein design, July 2026). The firm's portfolio has grown to 70-80+ companies since its 2022-2023 founding, with a public "DeVC Dugout" collective announcement of 30+ startups in mid-2023 marking an early inflection point.
Portfolio Highlights
Notable portfolio companies span sectors: CodeAnt AI (AI code review/security), Kintsugi (AI sales tax automation), RapidClaims (AI medical coding), Confido Health (AI healthcare receptionist), Kreo (gaming peripherals hardware), Ambak (fintech home loan marketplace, since raised to Series A), Smallest.ai (voice AI models, since raised to Series A), Morphing Machines (reconfigurable processor IP), Realfast (AI-native Salesforce implementation), and InspeCity (satellite servicing). Several portfolio companies have gone on to raise meaningfully larger follow-on rounds from marquee investors (Peak XV, Surge, Z47), suggesting DeVC's early checks have picked up genuine outliers.
Team
DeVC's core investment team, drawn from the founder collective, includes:
- Aakash Kumar — Deeptech, AI & Fintech. Former SVP Growth at Hotstar (scaled to 40M+ subscribers), founder of gaming startup Wings Intellect, IIT Bombay, 100+ angel investments.
- Krish Bajaj — AI. Founding member of Verak Insurance (YC W21, acquired), ex-Deutsche Bank Chief Risk Office; builds DeVC's internal AI stack.
- Rahul Mathur — Fintech, AI, Deeptech, Consumer. Founded Verak Insurance (acquired by InsuranceDekho, 2023); Master's in Statistics, University of Warwick.
- Rajat Agarwal — Fintech & Consumer. Former McKinsey consultant to consumer/financial services clients; IIT Delhi, ISB.
- Trinika Kaushik — Consumer. Former JP Morgan analyst covering consumer names like Nike and Walmart; BITS Pilani.
- Yashasvi Madhogaria — Deeptech & Manufacturing. Former consultant at Kepler Cannon; evaluates physical AI, aerospace, robotics, and semiconductors.
Beyond this core team, the broader 50+ member Collective includes operator-investors such as Miten Sampat (CRED), Aarthi Ramamurthy, Paras Chopra, Vishesh Rajaram, and Arjun Rao, who source and diligence deals in their domains of operating expertise.
Decision Process
Decisions run through the small core investment team in partnership with relevant Collective members who bring domain-specific operating judgment on a given deal — a distributed, partnership-style process rather than a solo GP or formal IC.
Founder Preferences
DeVC's own language backs "relentlessly resourceful founders," and its check size and collective structure suggest a preference for founders at the earliest, most uncertain stage of company-building who benefit from hands-on operator input (GTM, hiring, fundraising narrative) as much as from capital.
Geographic Focus
Primarily India (Bengaluru-centered), with a growing set of US-based portfolio companies (e.g., Answers.ai, Confido Health, Alter AI), reflecting the Collective's mixed India/US operator base.
Fund Structure
DeVC's investing vehicle is structured as DeVC India I AIF, a SEBI-registered Category II Alternative Investment Fund (SEBI registration IN/AIF2/22-23/1131), managed by DeVC India I Manager LLP. Fund size/AUM is not publicly disclosed.