Leo Capital is an early-stage venture fund headquartered in Singapore and Helsinki, established in 2018. It leads pre-seed and seed rounds in founders building global-first technology companies, with $200 million+ under management, 80-plus companies backed across 14 countries, and hubs from Bengaluru and Dubai to San Francisco and London.

Investment thesis

Leo's thesis starts with the partners' own operating history: serial entrepreneurs who have scaled companies across continents. The firm organises that experience into the Catalyst Engine — enterprise GTM introductions, operator-built go-to-market playbooks, help with key senior hires, and follow-on round design. Every cheque is meant to activate go-to-market, fundraising and talent support from day one.

Beyond the seed stage, Leo acts as an amplifier: structuring companies for follow-on capital, syndicating alongside top-tier global co-investors, and backing cross-border expansion. The throughline is conviction at inception — lead or co-lead, move fast on exceptional founders — then a long, hands-on scaling partnership.

Sectors & stages

Two themes dominate: the digitisation of domestic Indian sectors — content, commerce, healthtech and edtech — and SaaS built out of India and Southeast Asia, with a recent tilt towards SaaS and deeptech. On stage it is firmly early: pre-seed and seed rounds, led or co-led with fast, founder-friendly diligence, then Series A and beyond via follow-on capital and syndication, typically taking significant minorities of around 15%.

Fund size & cheque size

Leo puts assets under management at $200 million+. Its second fund was a $75 million vehicle; the third fund was announced with a $125 million corpus, reaching a first close in September 2022, with plans to back 28 to 30 startups. Cheque sizes at seed and pre-Series A were reported in 2023 at between $500,000 and $5 million.

Notable portfolio companies

Leo was an early backer of Meesho, and its bets include LambdaTest, Bulbul, BeatO, SHEROES and Edureka. Its $750,000 cheque led QuickReply.ai's seed round, and it has backed LOGIQ, Bombay Play, Upmesh and Devtron Labs. Exits include Edureka and IPL Tech from Fund I, and wayForward (to DarioHealth), Logiq (to Apica) and Indyfin (to WiserAdvisor) from Fund II.

Partners & team

Founded by Rajul Garg, co-founder and managing partner — previously founder of PineLabs, GlobalLogic and Sunstone Education — with co-founder and general partner Shwetank Verma, who led open innovation for MetLife Asia at LumenLab and co-founded the India Insurtech Association. It draws on a network of 1,000-plus founders, executives and allocators.

Programmes run

Leo does not appear to run a formal accelerator. Its platform equivalent is the Catalyst Engine — structured go-to-market and hiring support — plus published essays and investment theses.

Credits & perks

No startup credits or perks programme is publicly disclosed by Leo Capital.

How founders can approach them

The front door is open: Leo says it reads every pitch and responds within two to three days, with no warm introduction required, through its pitch portal at leo.capital/pitchtous/. It looks for an exceptional founder paired with a global-scale idea, and moves quickly when it sees one. Come with a clear global-from-day-one framing and a crisp view of the first enterprise customers you want introductions to.

Why it matters for founders

If you are building a technology company in India with ambitions beyond India, Leo offers what few domestic seed funds can: genuine on-the-ground networks across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US, plus partners who have scaled companies themselves. The trade-off is selectivity — so approach when you can articulate a credible global story.