Equanimity Investments is a Mumbai-based early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2017. Its thesis is deliberately unfashionable in a blitzscaling era: back capital-efficient, tech-enabled early-stage Indian businesses whose innovative models use technology to scale rapidly and sustainably. The firm partners with startups on funding, operational excellence and industry expertise through its proprietary SPEED framework.

Investment thesis

Equanimity looks for businesses where technology creates a genuine operating advantage rather than just a growth story. The partners — veterans of public markets, consumer brands and startups — bring an operator-investor mindset, and the SPEED methodology is their codified way of driving portfolio growth across strategy, product, execution, economics and distribution.

Sectors, stages and cheque sizes

The firm invests at seed, pre-Series A and Series A across fintech, healthcare and health insurance, consumer/D2C, edtech, EV mobility, logistics and supply chain and AI. Its debut fund targeted $31.4M (Rs 200 crore) with a $11M (Rs 70 crore) first close reported in 2018, writing cheques of $500K to $3M. A second fund, the New Horizons Fund II, has been launched; its size is not publicly disclosed.

Notable portfolio

Portfolio names include Renee Cosmetics, Neuron Energy, Utsav, Staywell.Health, edept and Consint.ai.

People

Rajesh Sehgal is Managing Partner (CFA, MBA from Wharton/XLRI, formerly with Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets). He is joined by Partners Vivek Saxena (ex-GroupM, Wipro and Microsoft; founder of ZipCash, acquired by Ola) and Shilpa Sehgal (PhD, CA, ex-ICICI Bank).

Credits and perks

No formal credits or perks programme is publicly documented. The firm also acts as an investor partner to The Digital Fifth's fintech accelerator programme and publishes weekly founder insights.

How to engage

Equanimity's SPEED framework means the firm engages operationally from the start — founders should expect working sessions on strategy and unit economics, not just quarterly board meetings. The $500K–$3M debut-fund cheque band fits seed to Series A rounds, so approach with early revenue or strong pilot traction rather than an idea-stage deck. Given the partners' public-markets and operating backgrounds (Franklin Templeton, ICICI Bank, Ola-acquired ZipCash), capital efficiency and governance will be scrutinised closely — bring cohort data, burn multiples and a clear path to sustainable growth.

Why it matters for founders

If your startup is already showing capital-efficient unit economics rather than growth-at-all-costs, Equanimity's partners will recognise the pattern — they come from public markets and operating roles, not just venture. The $500K–$3M cheque band makes it a genuine seed-to-Series-A partner, and the SPEED framework means you should expect structured operational engagement, not a passive board seat.