Warmup Ventures: The Founder-Led Fund Giving Jaipur's Pre-Seed Startups a Head Start

Jaipur is famous for palaces, not term sheets — but Warmup Ventures is quietly changing that. Founded in mid-2023 as a syndicate fund by three entrepreneurs — Sharad Bansal, Rajendra Lora and Yogesh Chaudhary — Warmup is a founders-led micro-VC fund investing in seed and pre-seed technology companies, with an explicit emphasis on spotting the "green signals" of high-quality teams.

That founders-led DNA is the heart of its thesis. Before launching the fund, the trio backed more than 100 startups through their combined angel investments over five to six years. Having lived the founder's journey — scaling businesses, raising capital, building core teams and culture — Warmup positions itself as a partner that understands what early-stage founders actually need beyond money.

In January 2025, the firm announced Warmup Fund II, a SEBI-registered Category 2 AIF with a corpus of Rs 300 crore (reportedly including a Rs 150 crore green-shoe option). The fund plans to back 25–30 early-stage startups with initial tickets of Rs 5–7 crore each, and keeps a significant provision for follow-on rounds as its winners scale.

At the individual deal level, the firm's own website lists co-investment cheques of up to $750K, with a clear preference for being the first institutional investor after the founders themselves. The target stage is squarely pre-seed and seed — the point where the right guidance can matter as much as the capital.

On sectors, Warmup calls itself sector agnostic while leaning into deeptech, climate and sustainability. In other words, the team cares less about which industry you are in and more about whether the technology is differentiated, the team is tenacious, and the business is built to scale.

The portfolio backs that up. Through its first syndicate fund, Warmup invested in more than 15 startups, including Bobabhai — which has expanded to over 45 stores across India; Nitro Commerce, now hosting more than 200 brands; MiniMines, a lithium-ion battery recycling startup; RocketPay, a payment collection app with around 5,000 merchants onboard; and Balwaan Krishi, an agritech company that later raised Rs 40 crore from JM Financial.

What truly sets Warmup apart is who stands behind it. Its LP base comprises successful startup founders, investment professionals, senior business and product leaders — alongside family offices and second-generation entrepreneurs. The firm deliberately bridges India's legacy business families with its innovation economy, curating opportunities for business families to deploy wealth into tech-driven startups.

Beyond capital, Warmup says it brings the full founder toolkit: introductions to next-round investors, connects with CEOs of large tech companies for business synergies, help with go-to-market planning, and support in making key technology hires. Managing Partner Sharad Bansal describes the approach simply — going beyond funding to equip early-stage founders with the knowledge and networks to make informed decisions and scale faster.

For founders raising their first real round, Warmup offers something many early-stage investors cannot: a check signed by people who have sat in the founder's chair themselves — and an LP bench of operators and business families who can open doors far beyond the boardroom.