SamVed VC Research
Investment Thesis
SamVed (also styled SamVed Ventures, SamVed Partners and SamVed Venture Capital) is an early-stage, tech-driven venture fund focused on India and emerging markets. Its stated aim is to back founders building for the Indian middle and aspiring class, and in particular ventures that use AI to unlock productivity. The site's tagline is "Seeding ideas and empowering India's tech enabled future." The firm also writes about India's Digital Public Infrastructure as an opening for tier 2 and tier 3 populations, and about India as a large economy that is uncorrelated with the US and China.
Focus Areas
The thesis page lists six areas, each with sub-themes:
- Education and upskilling: edtech platforms, skill development, corporate training
- Healthcare: telemedicine, health records, diagnostics, preventive care
- Agritech: precision farming, supply chain, market access, financial services
- Supply chain: logistics tech, inventory management, B2B marketplaces, last mile
- Credit and fintech: digital lending, payments, credit scoring, financial inclusion
- AI-powered solutions: machine learning, automation, data analytics, productivity tools
Press coverage of the launch adds ecommerce and financial services. Third-party profiles call the fund sector-agnostic, with agritech, healthtech and fintech as the most common areas. The actual portfolio leans fintech plus consumer and food.
Stage Focus and Check Size
The contact page gives two bands:
- Pre-seed: $80K to $120K
- Pre-Series A and Series A: $250K to $1M
The portfolio shows seed and Series A deals in practice. The firm leads or co-leads some rounds: it co-led Harajuku Tokyo Cafe's seed with IAN Group, led OneStack's Series A with Silicon Road Ventures, and took part in Gullak's Series A led by Chiratae Ventures.
Fund Status
SamVed launched an inaugural $50 million fund in January 2025 (reported by Tech in Asia, Economic Times and YourStory). The site calls its portfolio "SamVed Fund 1". It has made at least six fund investments since mid-2025, the latest in OneStack (Series A, February 2026), so it is actively deploying. The $50M is the launch size and corpus reported in the press; the final close size was not verified.
Portfolio
The portfolio page has two sections. "SamVed Fund 1" lists six companies: Gullak Money, UnORG, FarmDidi, Harajuku Tokyo Cafe, OneStack and Quicklly. A second section, "SamVed Team Portfolio", is described as a subset of deals made as individual angel investments or by sub-team members. It includes Zomato, PolicyBazaar, LawSikho, Prescinto, Moeving, CureFoods, RTI Online, Jaypore, Jar, Giva, Absolute, Daalchini, CureSkin, Presentations AI, Zwende, HBits, Aulerth, Animall, Apptile, BATX, Bobble, ByteLearn, Cashify, CleanElectric, Dukaan, GetSupp, MoneyClub, Monrow, Nivaan, Nivesh, OneAssure and Valyx. These are not fund investments, so they were not added to the firm's portfolio list and the exits listed there (Zomato, PolicyBazaar, LawSikho, Prescinto, Moeving) should not be credited to the fund.
Dated Fund 1 deals found:
- Harajuku Tokyo Cafe: seed of about 19 crore rupees (about $2M), August 2025, co-led by IAN Group and SamVed
- Gullak Money: $7.5M Series A led by Chiratae Ventures with SamVed participating, September 2025
- OneStack: Series A led by SamVed and Silicon Road Ventures, February 2026; builds a modular digital banking stack for cooperative banks
- FarmDidi: seed, reported as September 2025 by an aggregator only; the firm published a founder story on it in March 2026
Team
- Amit Srivastava, Partner: former investor at Bridgewater Associates
- Shanti Mohan, Partner: founder of LetsVenture
- Vivek Khare, Partner: early investor in Zomato and PolicyBazaar; associated with Info Edge and Silicon Road
- Gagan Saksena, Partner: former Google leader and AI specialist
- Sudhi Herle, Venture Partner: technologist, data and AI, US
- Nitin Bhargava, Venture Partner: scaling technology ventures
- Noah Yechiely, Senior Advisor: former Bridgewater partner director and co-head of equities research
- Clarence Anthony, General Counsel: at Clarence & Partners
The firm lists offices in Bangalore, Delhi, New York and the Bay Area. Press describes it as US-incorporated with India-focused investing. Contact: [email protected].
Decision Process and Lead Tendency
The decision process is not disclosed; with four partners it looks like a partnership. The firm leads some rounds and follows in others, so lead tendency is "both". The site promises a reply to promising submissions within 2 to 3 weeks and offers on-demand CTO help to portfolio companies. Warm introductions are not stated as required.
Founder Preferences
The site asks for product-market fit with a growing user base, defensible moats, clear unit economics and a large market. In founders it asks for domain expertise, technical excellence, vision, an ability to attract talent, and sustainable, ethical businesses. It has publicly highlighted backing women founders building for Bharat (FarmDidi).
Geographic Focus
India and emerging markets, with attention to tier 2 and tier 3 cities. The firm signed an MoU with the Foundation for Innovation and Research in Science and Technology (FIRST) at IIT Kanpur in September 2025 to link academic research to startups.
Gaps
The homepage renders client-side and returned no text; facts come from the subpages, search snippets and press. Domains for UnORG, FarmDidi, Harajuku Tokyo Cafe and Quicklly were not confirmed. Final fund size and the full list of co-investors were not verified.