Aroa Venture Partners, founded in 2020 and headquartered in Gurgaon with an office in Singapore, occupies an unusual position in Indian venture capital: it began as the investment vehicle of Ritesh Agarwal, founder and Group CEO of OYO (now PRISM). The Economic Times reported in August 2020 that Agarwal had set up Aroa to place early- to growth-stage bets, initially deploying through investment manager ScaleX Partners, with the entity sponsored by Agarwal-controlled RACo Holding (per Entrackr). Today the firm operates as an independent, operator-led VC, with Agarwal as a Senior Advisor and founder and managing partner Gaurav Gulati running the firm.
With over 40 investments across two funds, it has shifted its focus to deep tech: research-led, engineering-intensive founders in semiconductors, space, AI and compute, energy and climate, advanced materials and life sciences.
Investment thesis and focus
Aroa describes its approach through three beliefs: lab to market (helping founders move from technical promise to real customers by defining the buyer, pricing logic and first pilot), patient capital (investing from the first cheque and continuing as companies hit technical and commercial milestones), and operator-first (hands-on help with hiring, governance, fundraising and company-building discipline).
Its two-fund structure reflects its evolution: Fund I was multi-sector and opportunistic, investing from seed to Series D across a diversified India-plus-select-global portfolio, while Fund II, a SEBI Category-II AIF (registration IN/AIF2/22-23/1120), is focused on deep tech, investing from pre-seed to Series C at the intersection of four innovation types: mission-oriented, anticipatory, adaptive and enhancement-oriented.
Fund and stage
Aroa invests from seed to growth. TechCircle reported in 2021 that the firm had earmarked an initial Rs 100 crore for deployment through ScaleX, spread across three buckets: idea stage/pre-revenue, early stage and growth stage. Cheques range from $500,000 to $5 million, per the Economic Times, with up to $200,000 of conviction capital for select India Deep Tech Accelerator graduates.
Portfolio highlights
Aroa's first investments through ScaleX included wealth-tech platform Stockal, which it led in a $2-3 million pre-Series A round in 2021. It participated in freight SaaS startup Freight Tiger's $6.5 million round in 2021 (YourStory), invested $2 million in agritech startup Agrowave in 2022 (Economic Times), and in early 2026 backed AI contact-centre platform C-Zentrix.
People and programs
The investment team is led by Gaurav Gulati (Founder and Managing Partner), with Nitin Wadhwa and Sekhar Puli as General Partners on Fund II. Senior advisors include Ellen Rudnick (ex-Polsky Center executive director), Aditya Ghosh (co-founder of Akasa Air), Ritesh Agarwal and Ankit Nagori (founder and CEO of Curefoods).
For founders, two programs stand out. The New Venture Program (NVP) offers early-stage teams a minimum of $100,000 in equity funding plus guidance and network access, while the Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program hosts entrepreneurs at the Gurgaon headquarters for six months, with an investment commitment of up to $500,000 at the end. Its flagship India Deep Tech Accelerator, built with the University of Chicago Polsky Center and IIT innovation networks including SINE (IIT Bombay), FITT (IIT Delhi) and IIT Madras Research Park, ran its first 10-week cohort from May to July 2026 for up to 20 startups with showcases in India and the Bay Area.
Why it matters for founders
Deep-tech founders with research they want to commercialise should have Aroa Venture Partners on their list. Beyond cheques from $500,000 upwards, it offers structured founder programs (the $100,000 NVP, the EIR route, and the India Deep Tech Accelerator), operator-heavy partners, and a growing senior-advisor bench drawn from India's best startup operators.