021 Capital is now Xeed Ventures: the Binny Bansal-backed fund hunting zero-to-one founders

021 Capital (read “zero to one,” after Peter Thiel's book on radical innovation) was the early-stage fund founded by Sailesh Tulshan — formerly the personal investment adviser to Flipkart founders Binny and Sachin Bansal — and anchored by Binny Bansal himself. Founders searching for it today should know one thing first: in April 2024 the vehicle relaunched as Xeed Ventures (a play on “seed”), and the old 021.capital domain now serves the Xeed site. The brand is dead; the fund is alive.

Investment thesis

The original 021 thesis: back founders building genuinely radical (“zero to one”) technology — artificial intelligence, biotechnology, agricultural technology, supply chain & logistics and consumer internet. The relaunched Xeed Ventures sharpens that into enterprise, B2B and fintech — positioned as Tulshan's independent fund rather than an extension of a family office.

Sectors & stages

Early stage — pre-Series A and Series A — with the current site's language aimed at seed-stage “rocketships” (“We partner with exceptional founders to build rocketships!”). Geography is India-first; the original Fund-I mandate also extended to Indonesia and Singapore.

Fund size & cheque sizes

Fund-I's first close was ~$32M (~₹222 Cr) in January 2019 with a $50M final-close target. A separate Rs 300 Crore Opportunities Fund followed, bringing the combined corpus to Rs 600 Crore. The relaunched Xeed Ventures is described as a Rs 600-crore fund, with roughly 70% of capital pooled at relaunch. Cheque sizes: up to $2M per startup under the original 021; Xeed targets cheques below $1M across 20–25 investments.

Notable portfolio

Spotdraft (legal-tech; $1.5M pre-Series A led by 021), Bright Champs, BharatAgri, Pandorum Technologies (biotech), SuperK, Increff, Nymble, Charcoal.inc (D2C), Kredit.pe (financial services), Skill Lync and Ycook, per the firm's site and press coverage.

Partners & team

Sailesh Tulshan (founder; designated partner of Xeed Ventures Advisors LLP alongside Manju Tulshan), Binny Bansal (anchor LP and investment-committee member in both eras) and Mithun Sacheti (CaratLane founder; anchor LP and IC member in the Xeed era). LP names include the Azim Premji Foundation and, in the Xeed vehicle, Premji Invest, alongside founders such as Mukesh Bansal, Sameer Nigam and Mekin Maheshwari.

Programmes run

Not publicly disclosed.

Credits & perks

Not publicly disclosed.

How to engage

The firm's homepage carries a “Connect With Us” call-to-action, though no public pitch form or intake email is published. Realistically, warm introductions via the partner and LP network — which includes some of Indian tech's best-connected founders — are the practical route.