AJVC (A Junior VC): India's most approachable pre-seed fund

A Junior VC (AJVC) calls itself "India's most approachable pre-seed fund" — and it has built its brand around speed and process transparency. Founded in August 2024 by Aviral Bhatnagar, formerly an investor at Venture Highway (acquired by General Catalyst in June 2024), the firm closed its debut SEBI-regulated AIF, the AJVC Trust, at ₹200 crore. Its LPs include global institutional investors, Indian family offices, HNIs and startup founders, with roughly 90% domestic capital.

Investment thesis

AJVC invests exclusively at pre-seed, sector-agnostic, with a programmatic, technology-driven approach: standardised evaluation, public turnaround times and volume. Bhatnagar told the Economic Times the firm aims to be "fast, approachable, technology-driven" — filling a gap he sees as larger VCs drift toward private-equity-style, safer bets. Dhruv Jhunjhunwala of Novastar Partners, whose fund-of-funds backed AJVC, says the premise is that "a small number of outsized winners will go on to generate the majority of returns" — classic power-law pre-seed investing.

Sectors & stages

Pre-seed only; sector agnostic with activity across AI, SaaS, consumer tech, consumer brands and B2B. The fund targets around 90 investments by February 2028 — 12 to 15 companies a year — making it one of India's largest pre-seed portfolios.

Fund & cheque sizes

Debut fund: ₹200 crore (closed and oversubscribed; the team considered exercising the greenshoe option). Standard cheque: ₹1.5 crore for 9% equity in every company — disciplined, valuation-reset pricing that Bhatnagar says kept the fund out of the inflated 2022–23 vintage trap.

Notable portfolio

25 investments were made at the time of the fund's close, with names disclosed by the firm including Mithila Foods (packaged Bihari foods), Iztri, Handy Panda, Nyug, Gaadi Mech, Faraday, Trufides, Care Dale and Jaagruk Bharat — spanning food, jewellery, D2C, AI and compliance, with some founders from regions like Assam and Jharkhand.

Partners & team

A solo-GP-style firm led by Aviral Bhatnagar, who ran enterprise software and AI investments at Venture Highway and launched the A Junior VC platform in 2018 — newsletters and analysis read across the Indian startup ecosystem — and authored the book "A Billion Bets". Every founder is supported by a partner with investing or operating experience.

Programs run

AJVC's Founders Compass is a continuous founder-support program — cohort-based investing where selected startups grow together, gain visibility to an audience of 500,000+, and get help with hiring, customers, fundraising, sales, finance, legal and compliance.

How to approach

Apply on ajuniorvc.com — a 3-minute application, a yes/no within 48 hours, data-driven evaluation and a final partnership call with a decision within a week. Paper plans and unincorporated companies are explicitly welcome: "nothing is too early for us."