Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Indian IT services giant Infosys, will no longer serve as a general partner at Fundamentum Partnership, the venture capital firm he co-founded nearly a decade ago. Nilekani will be the fund’s anchor investor and continue advising the firm and mentoring portfolio companies, according to co-founder Sanjeev Aggarwal. Aggarwal described the shift as 'just a title thing,' emphasizing that Nilekani will continue to advise the firm, mentor portfolio company founders, and provide strategic guidance. 'He is an integral part of our firm,' Aggarwal said. 'The one thing that he enjoys the most is mentoring the teams that we back, and he will continue to do so in Fund III.'
Fundamentum’s third fund aims to back eight to 10 early-stage startups building consumer technology, fintech, and AI products, with initial checks of about ₹100 crore ($10.5 million) each. The firm has yet to announce a first close but has already begun deploying capital, Aggarwal said. He expects the fundraising to conclude over the next 12 to 18 months. Fund III will see Nilekani making his largest-ever commitment to a venture capital fund, though he declined to disclose the investment amount. The fund expects to raise roughly half of its target from international investors, and the remainder from Indian institutions, family offices, founders, and the firm’s partners.
Nilekani, 71, is one of India’s best-known technology leaders. Besides co-founding Infosys, he led the creation of Aadhaar, India’s biometric identity system, and has been a leading advocate of the country’s digital public infrastructure, including the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a real-time payments network used by hundreds of millions of Indians. He has also championed the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), an initiative aimed at making e-commerce more open and interoperable in the country.
Source: techcrunch
