Together Fund

Together Fund Research

Investment Thesis

Together Fund backs AI-native startups led by visionary founders redefining global industries. The fund's operator-led approach emphasizes "10x Solutions, Not 10% Improvements" — companies that redefine categories rather than incrementally compete. Every partner at Together Fund has built and scaled successful companies before becoming investors, deeply understanding the founder journey and pain points at critical inflection points.

The fund believes in leaning into AI's transformative potential while prioritizing:

• Lean, efficient founding teams with technical depth
• Global talent networks and execution capability
• Human-centered AI applications with real-world impact
• Sustainable long-term value creation over hype-driven narratives
• Operators who think as founders, not financiers

Investment Stage and Check Size

Together Fund focuses exclusively on early-stage AI ventures:

• Primary stages: Seed and Series A
• Check size range: $1M-$10M typical at Seed and early Series A
• Investment frequency: 8-10 companies annually by design (selective, not spray-and-pray)
• Follow-on capacity: Strong reserves for follow-on funding to support growth of successful portfolio companies

The fund targets founders with shipped products or demonstrable proof of concept, preferring technical founders who understand their domain deeply.

Fund Size and Assets Under Management

• Fund II size: $150M+ (Fund II closing in 2025)
• Total AUM: $200M+ across multiple funds
• Fund status: Actively deploying with 40%+ of portfolio receiving follow-on funding, indicating strong early traction validation

Geographic Focus

Together Fund specializes in the US-India corridor, with physical offices in:

• Bangalore, India — hub of talent, operations, and engineering excellence
• Silicon Valley, California — hub of capital, customer acquisition, and scaling

The fund actively leverages the US-India corridor advantage, connecting Indian technical talent and operational expertise with US market opportunities and customer access.

Leadership and Team

Together Fund was founded by:

1. Girish Mathrubootham - Co-founder & Managing Partner. Built and scaled Freshworks to unicorn status and IPO; 20+ years entrepreneurship and scaling experience. Leads strategic partnerships and founder relations.

2. Manav Garg - Co-founder & Managing Partner. Founded Eka Software (commodity trading software) and has deep expertise in building products for regulated industries and complex workflows. Leads India operations and technical due diligence.

3. Lakshmi Shankar - General Partner. Operator and investor with strong execution background. Leads US operations and go-to-market strategy for portfolio companies.

4. Shubham Gupta - Founding General Partner. Previously led SaaS deals at Matrix Partners India; brings venture experience and network across India tech ecosystem.

The team exemplifies the operator-first philosophy: every partner has founded, built, and scaled companies before becoming investors.

Investment Strategy and Decision Process

Decision approach: Partnership-driven, not committee-based. Partners lead deals, leverage their personal networks for due diligence, and maintain hands-on relationships with portfolio founders.

Lead tendency: Mixed. The fund leads deals where partners have strong conviction based on founder fit and technical vision.

Decision timeline: 3-4 weeks typical for seed investments; 4-6 weeks for Series A.

Typical involvement:

• Board observer or advisor seat at Seed
• Board seat at Series A
• Active go-to-market support, hiring, and strategy guidance
• Access to partner network for customer development and fundraising for follow-on rounds

Recent Activity and Portfolio Performance

Fund II Deployment (2025-2026)

Together Fund is actively deploying Fund II with a target of 19-20 investments across Seed and Series A stages. Recent investments include:

• ArchitectChips (2025-01, Seed) — AI agents for semiconductor design acceleration
• Capitol (2025-02, Series A) — AI content creation for knowledge-rich industries
• Coreworks (2025-03, Seed) — Applied AI for industrial operations
• Gibran (2025-04, Seed) — AI infrastructure and tooling
• Nex (2025-05, Seed) — Applied AI application
• Optexity (2025-06, Seed) — AI infrastructure optimization
• Runable (2025-07, Seed) — Applied AI execution platform

Prior Fund Successes

Earlier fund investments have seen strong exits and follow-on momentum:

• Togai (acquired by Zuora, 2024-05) — AI-powered usage metering and billing platform; strategic acquisition by billing software leader
• Emergent (Series B: $70M from Khosla Ventures and SoftBank, 2024) — Agentic AI IDE for software development; validated product-market fit with strong downstream capital
• Composio — AI infrastructure company in portfolio with strong traction
• RapidClaims — Healthcare AI company with growing enterprise customer base
• Spry — Healthcare focused with significant traction

Portfolio companies demonstrate strong momentum, with 40%+ receiving follow-on funding from top-tier investors.

Portfolio and Sector Focus

Together Fund exclusively invests in AI-native companies across five primary sectors:

1. AI Infrastructure & Tools — LLMs, agentic frameworks, observability, model optimization, developer tools for AI, inference platforms

2. Applied AI — Horizontal AI applications for enterprise and SMB

3. Healthcare AI — Digital health, diagnostic AI, clinical workflow automation

4. Consumer AI — AI-first consumer applications

5. AI Services/Talent — AI augmented services, AI talent platforms

Notably excluded: The fund explicitly passes on hype-driven plays and non-technical founding teams.

Fund Philosophy and Value Add

Beyond capital, Together Fund provides:

• Operational mentorship: Partners actively engage on product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, and hiring
• Network access: Introductions to enterprise customers, Fortune 500 partnerships, and distribution channels
• Technical diligence: Partners deeply evaluate technology, architecture, and competitive positioning
• Bridge to US markets: Help portfolio companies expand from India operations to US market entry
• Founder community: Access to peer learning and support from other portfolio founders

The fund explicitly positions itself as "builders backing builders" — partners who have lived the founder journey and understand the operational challenges of scaling from zero.

Summary

Together Fund is an exceptional operator-led, AI-first venture capital firm backed by world-class founders who understand both the technical and business dimensions of scaling globally. With $200M+ AUM and a disciplined, selective investment approach, the fund backs 8-10 companies annually at Seed and early Series A stages, providing substantial operational support beyond capital. The US-India corridor geographic focus, combined with deep technical expertise and founder empathy, positions the fund uniquely to back the next generation of AI-native companies reshaping their industries.