Transition VC: Bengaluru's energy-transition fund powering India's deeptech future

Transition VC describes itself as India's first venture fund dedicated to the energy transition — and its numbers suggest the thesis is working. The Bengaluru-based firm has raised ₹723 crore for its oversubscribed debut fund. It reports a 57% gross IRR and 3X MOIC, and has now launched Fund II with a ₹1,500 crore (about $150 million) target. It backs engineering-led, deeptech ventures working on how energy is produced, stored, moved and consumed.

Investment thesis

Transition VC targets what it calls the "missing middle" of venture capital — companies with demonstrated technical feasibility and early commercial traction that have not yet achieved product-market fit at scale. Rather than backing competitors, it deliberately builds a complementary portfolio across the energy value chain so founders can share insights, supply chains and talent. Its LP community of institutional investors, corporates, family offices and strategic partners doubles as a commercial accelerator, converting pilots into purchase orders. Sectors span mobility, industrial decarbonisation, buildings, renewable tech, alternate fuels, power electronics, energy storage and sustainability — co-founders Raiyaan Shingati and Mohammed Shoeb Ali invest in "anything and everything that generates or consumes energy."

Funds, stages and cheque sizes

Fund I was launched with a Rs 400 crore target plus a Rs 200 crore greenshoe, and closed oversubscribed at Rs 700 crore (about $77 million) — the firm's own site now reports ₹723 crore raised. It invests from pre-seed to Series A with average cheques of $0.5 million to $5 million, backing up to 40 early-stage startups, with 25% of the corpus earmarked for global startups. Fund II targets ₹1,500 crore to invest in 20 to 23 hardware-driven and deeptech startups at $2 million to $5 million each, extending into advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, nuclear and geothermal.

Notable portfolio

Fund I has backed 17 startups against a target portfolio of up to 25, including CIMware, Comminent, Matel, EMO, Hydgen, Dynolt and Promethean. Newer bets named by the press include Protonas, Matel Motion, Emo Energy, Fitsol and Albatross Energetics. The firm reports 19 active portfolio companies, zero write-offs, several nearing $8–10 million in revenue, multiple EBITDA-positive, and two uprounds plus two pending Series A+ term sheets.

People

Raiyaan Shingati, co-founder and Managing Partner, is a chartered accountant with experience at Black Dragon Capital in the US and Mount Judi Ventures in Bengaluru. Mohammed Shoeb Ali, co-founder and Managing Partner, specialises in corporate finance, M&A and cross-border investments, with roles at MBA Fakhro and Mount Judi Ventures. The founding team also included Mustafa Wajid, Naresh V Narasimhan, Tejas Goenka, Saif Qureishi and Rajesh Doshi, bringing domain depth in energy.

Programmes / credits and perks

Transition VC publishes a Substack newsletter with perspectives on India's energy transition. Its most distinctive non-capital offering is the LP and strategic-partner network itself, positioned as a commercial accelerator that turns pilot projects into purchase orders. No monetary credits or formal accelerator programme are publicly advertised.

How to engage

Engineering-led founders building in energy, mobility, industrial decarbonisation or adjacent hardware sectors can approach the firm through its website. The bar is clear: demonstrated technical feasibility, early commercial traction, and a technology that fits a complementary — not competing — position in the energy value chain.