Equanimity Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Equanimity Investments (operating as Equanimity Ventures Trust, Trust II, and Trust III) is a Mumbai-based venture capital firm founded in 2017 that partners with early-stage Indian startups to help them scale into disruptive, profitable businesses. Their public framing draws on chaos theory: they argue that "a small change in the conditions of a newborn business can have a huge effect on the business's success or survival," and position their role as staying calm ("equanimity") amid market chaos in order to identify and support the winners. Investment decisions run through a proprietary "SPEED" framework — Selection Criteria, People + Processes, Environmental/Social/Governance, Engagement, and Design — aimed at backing technology-enabled, scalable, sustainable business models rather than chasing hype cycles.
Sector Focus
Equanimity is a generalist early-stage investor with recurring activity across:
- Healthcare / digital health (Monitra Health)
- Consumer tech and D2C brands (Renée Cosmetics)
- Supply chain and logistics (Navata Supply Chain Solutions, FreshVnF agri-logistics)
- EV mobility (Neuron Energy batteries, GrEL Cabs)
- Education technology (Edept)
- AI-driven fraud and risk management / enterprise software (Consint.ai, Biva Analytics)
- Insurtech (Insurance Samadhan)
- Defense and surveillance tech (Optimized Electrotech)
- Food tech (Samosa Singh)
- Consumer social apps (Hi Hello, Thinkly)
Stage Focus
Primarily Seed and Pre-Series A, with occasional participation deeper into a company's life (e.g., Renée Cosmetics' $25M Series B in 2022). Third-party trackers (Tracxn) describe them as investing "primarily in Seed rounds" of India-based startups.
Check Size
Not disclosed publicly on the firm's website or in press coverage reviewed. No specific check-size range could be confidently extracted.
Lead Tendency
Mixed evidence: press releases describe Equanimity as having "led" or "co-led" several rounds (BIVA Analytics seed, Edept seed co-lead, FreshVnF seed), while others are described simply as "invests in" without specifying lead status (Consint.ai, Navata, GrEL, Hi Hello). Treated as "both" given the mix.
Recent Activity
Fund is actively deploying. Per the firm's own press page, the most recent disclosed new investments are Edept (seed, co-led, January 2025), Neuron Energy (fundraise participation, September 2024), Consint.ai (July 2024), and Navata / GrEL (both April 2024). A third-party aggregator (Tracxn, accessed August 2026) shows a further, more recent investment in Consint dated August 6, 2026, suggesting continued/follow-on activity into 2026, though this could not be independently corroborated via the firm's own site at time of research.
Portfolio Highlights
Equanimity's portfolio (per its own "Venture" page and press archive) includes 15+ companies: Neuron Energy, Biva Analytics, Optimized Electrotech, Renée Cosmetics, Insurance Samadhan, Samosa Singh, Thinkly, Hi Hello, The Yarn Bazaar, Consint.ai, GrEL Cabs, Navata, Monitra Health, Edept, SEAL Professional, and FreshVnF. Notable outcomes referenced in press: Renée Cosmetics raised a $25M Series B in 2022 and was described by Mint as the "fastest ₹100 crore" Indian beauty brand; Samosa Singh raised a $2.7M Series A in 2020.
Team
- Rajesh Sehgal — Managing Partner. CFA, MBA (Wharton & XLRI alumnus); has made roughly 20 angel investments since 2007; frequent public speaker/panelist (Mint Digital Innovation Summit, CFA Institute, ET Now Swadesh, AsiaTech Podcast, Mumbai Angels Reboot).
- Vivek Saxena — Partner. MBA; former GroupM / Wipro / Microsoft; founded ZipCash, which was acquired by Ola.
- Shilpa Sehgal — Partner. PhD, CA; ~20-year finance career including ICICI Bank; has spoken publicly (Bloomberg) on early-stage investing in India.
- Pooja Parmar — Principal.
- Samridh Sharma — Analyst.
- Advisory board includes executives with backgrounds at HCL, Nuveen, Franklin Templeton, and SaaS/telecom firms (not individually named on the public site).
Decision Process
Structured partnership: Managing Partner, two Partners, a Principal, and an Analyst, supported by an advisory board. Consistent with a partnership-style decision process rather than a solo-GP model.
Founder Preferences
No explicit founder-preference statement is published; inferred from portfolio composition that they favor Indian technical/operator founders building scalable, technology-enabled businesses across both B2B and consumer categories, including several founders with prior startup or corporate operating experience (e.g., ZipCash founder joining as Partner; Renée Cosmetics founders with prior consumer brand experience).
Geographic Focus
India-focused exclusively. Headquartered at 408, ATL Corporate Park, Opp. L&T Gate No. 7, Saki Vihar Road, Powai, Mumbai 400072. All three registered funds (Equanimity Ventures Trust I, II, and III) are SEBI-registered Alternative Investment Funds (Category I and Category II AIFs) managed under Equanimity Management Services LLP.
Fund Status
Three funds registered with SEBI to date (Fund I: IN/AIF1/17-18/0337; Fund II: IN/AIF2/21-22/0993; Fund III: IN/AIF2/25-26/2019, described elsewhere as a close-ended Category II vehicle). Specific fund sizes and AUM figures are not publicly disclosed. The firm also publishes a regular newsletter/thesis series (most recently "The Shadow AI Economy," August 2026) discussing venture and AI market themes, indicating an active, ongoing publishing cadence alongside deal activity.