Chiratae Ventures: Two decades of backing the audacious

Chiratae Ventures is one of India's most tenured venture firms: founded in 2006 by Sudhir Sethi and TCM Sundaram as the Indian arm of IDG Ventures, and rebranded as Chiratae in 2018. Its homepage states the firm advises $1.4B across 7 funds, with 147 funded portfolio companies, 8 unicorns, 89 exits and 6 IPOs. It is headquartered in Bengaluru with offices in Mumbai and New Delhi.

Thesis and focus areas

Chiratae's motto is "Backing the Audacious Entrepreneur": it invests in early-stage, technology-led Indian startups across consumer tech, SaaS, fintech and healthtech, with its fifth fund pushing into AI, deeptech, climatetech, spacetech — and, newly, defence tech and quantum technologies. Fund deployments span seed through Series A and B.

Fund size and cheque size

Chiratae closed its fourth fund at $337M in 2021 (oversubscribed from a $225M target). In September 2025 the firm announced the second close of Fund V at $150M, on track for a $350M target with a $500M hard cap and a final close expected in October–December 2026. The fifth fund is structured as multiple vehicles — Chiratae Ventures India Fund V, Chiratae Ventures Master Fund V and Chiratae Ventures International Fund V — and is led by managing directors Venkatesh Peddi and Ranjith Menon. Early Fund V deployments include HouseEazy (resale homes), Pepsales (AI sales demos), Mili (meeting assistant) and Zilo (quick-commerce fashion). Exact cheque ranges are not publicly disclosed; the firm describes seed investments from $500K up to $2M under its Sonic initiative.

Notable portfolio

Chiratae was an early backer of some of India's defining companies: Flipkart, Myntra, Lenskart, PolicyBazaar, FirstCry, Cult.fit, Uniphore, GlobalBees and MyGlamm. Other bets include Bounce (mobility), AgroStar (agri-tech), Healthifyme, Miko (consumer robotics), Pixis (AI marketing), Redcliffe (diagnostics), Bizongo (B2B packaging), Fibe (fintech) and Yatra. One of its most celebrated exits was PlaySimple, which returned 43x on acquisition by Modern Times Group.

Partners

Sudhir Sethi is founder and chairman, alongside founder and managing director TCM Sundaram. Venkatesh Peddi and Ranjith Menon are the managing directors leading Fund V.

Programs, credits and perks

Chiratae runs one of the most developed programme stacks in Indian VC: Chiratae Sonic, a seed initiative guaranteeing a 48-hour turnaround on seed investments of $500K up to $2M; Chiratae Spotlight, billed as the country's largest follow-on funding programme and the firm's flagship portfolio day; Chiratae Showcase for LP–founder engagement; the Midas programme for family offices; the Patrick J. McGovern Award (since 2016); and the annual Pride of India Awards celebrating portfolio achievements. No standalone founder credits or perks programme is publicly advertised.

How founders can approach them

Chiratae Sonic is effectively a fast lane: if you're raising a seed round, its guaranteed 48-hour decision clock removes the usual waiting game. For later stages, Spotlight shows the firm doubles down hard on winners — pitch them if you want a partner that will keep funding you through the growth phase.