If you’ve been reading this newsletter, you know that we often talk about family offices and the increasingly larger role they’re playing in India’s private equity and venture capital (PE-VC) market. This week, homegrown family offices moved centre stage to lead three deals. Welcome to Edition #40.
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Lead
Family Offices Step to the Front of the Cap Table
A vibe coding startup in Silicon Valley. A contract cosmetics manufacturer in Jammu. A healthy snacks brand in Mumbai. Three businesses with nothing obvious in common. Except that this week, their latest funding rounds were all led by Indian family offices.
First, the Emergent deal.
The San Francisco-based vibe coding startup sprinted into the unicorn club after a $130 million Series C round valued it at $1.5 billion. Among the lead investors in the round was Manipal Group chair Ranjan Pai’s family office Claypond Capital (MNI Ventures-Claypond Capital).
Creaegis and Sentinel Global were the other co-leads. Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Lightspeed and Y Combinator were returning investors.
Earlier media reports, citing sources, said the startup was in line for a $250 million Series C. The company did not respond to queries from The Runway on why it decided to close a smaller round.
The Series C comes six months after the startup raised a $70 million Series B. It didn’t disclose its valuation at the time. TechCrunch reported the valuation at $300 million, citing sources. The San Francisco-based company has raised $230 million to date.
Since the public launch of its vibe coding platform a year ago, 12 million-plus applications have been built on the platform, it said in a statement. Founded in 2024, the company, which has a large operation in Bangalore, claimed an annualised revenue run rate of $50 million at its Series B round.
Naturis Cosmetics, a white label cosmetics and derma products manufacturer, raised Rs 100 crore ($10.4 million) led by Sharrp Ventures, Marico chair Harsh Mariwala’s family investment vehicle.
Sharrp Ventures invested Rs 30 crore ($3.1 million in the round.
Mirabilis Investment Trust (the family office of Infosys co-founder K Dinesh), Anicut Capital and Niveshaay joined the round.
The Mumbai-based company, whose manufacturing facilities are located in Jammu, supplies to a host of homegrown brands such as Pilgrim, Nykaa, Plum, and Purplle.
Sharrp Ventures’ portfolio already includes Nykaa and Purplle, making Naturis a vertical integration bet. The family office has profited from the D2C boom and is now betting on the manufacturing backbone.
Open Secret raised Rs 50 crore ($5.2 million) in an equity and debt round. The family office of Pune-based Desai Brothers Group, which has diversified interests across tobacco, snacks and hospitality, brought in Rs 30 crore ($3.1 million) as equity capital. Mumbai-based Open Secret, which counts Z47 as an early backer, retails healthy traditional snacks. The capital will be used to scale from Rs 200 crore ARR to Rs 1,000 crore ARR in three years, it said in a statement.
Direct investments as core strategy
Family offices backing private companies isn’t a recent pattern. Most continue to invest indirectly through PE-VC funds. But over the past few years direct investments have moved from occasional bets to core strategy. Poor returns from PE-VC funds has been a driving factor.
So far in 2026, deals tracked by The Runway show Indian family offices participating in 90-odd deals worth approximately $2.5 billion (disclosed value of deals). They led or co-led in 37 of those deals.
The 90 deals include bets on companies based overseas, largely in the US. The large-ticket leads – above $100 million – were concentrated among a handful of family offices. Premji Invest alone led or co-lead rounds worth over $800 million, all overseas. Smaller ticket sizes, where family offices led, were spread across a broader set of vehicles including Rainmatter, Sharrp Ventures, Titan Capital, and Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office.
Coming back to this week’s deals, a few things to watch:
Emergent operates in a crowded field. Lovable, Cursor and Replit have all drawn lofty valuations as investors bet that vibe coding will reshape how software is built. Emergent’s multi-model orchestration approach will need a lot more capital to enable it to move fast enough to hold its differentiation.
Desai Brothers’ strategic value to Open Secret depends on how effectively the startup is able to leverage the conglomerate’s existing distribution infrastructure.
Naturis plans to use the capital to build a new production facility in Vapi, Gujarat, and establish an R&D centre in Mumbai. Sharrp’s operating network will be handy though it’s not clear yet whether this is a strategic investment or a financial one.
Most family offices, though noticeably more active now as direct investors, continue to co-invest alongside traditional PE-VC funds. That’s both a function of a natural risk-averseness and the absence of adequate institutionalised systems to manage such investments. In co-investments, family offices have access to the monitoring systems and teams of PE-VC funds. Direct investments require more robust control and monitoring mechanisms.
But, given the pace at which family offices are accelerating direct investments, that could change soon, especially if the returns live up to expectations.
The Week in Deals
Hero MotoCorp Leads Ather’s Latest Fundraise; Warburg Pincus Buys a Pharma Co
From electric vehicles and financial services to enterprise technology and consumer, dealmaking in India’s PE-VC market served up a varied mix across 17 deals. The total capital deployed, however, remained modest – $260.5 million (not including a buyout whose value was undisclosed). Indian investors continued to deploy capital overseas, participating in four deals worth $282 million, including Emergent.
Ather Energy wrapped up a major capital-raising exercise this week. On Wednesday, the Bangalore-based electric two-wheeler maker’s board approved the raising of Rs 1,200 crore (approximately $124 million) through a preferential issue of shares. Separately, it launched a QIP (qualified institutional placement) at a floor price of Rs 1,169 a share to raise Rs 1,300 crore.
Under the preferential issue, existing stakeholder Hero MotoCorp is investing Rs 960 crore, raising its stake to 30.68%. India-Japan Fund, managed by the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, is bringing in Rs 200 crore. Founders Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain are investing Rs 20 crore each.
Hero MotoCorp’s relationship with Ather, starting from 2016, is one of the longest running strategic commitments in India’s EV (electric vehicle) market. For the Delhi-based two-wheeler major, the investment is part of a broader EV strategy that includes Vida, a portfolio of motorcycles developed in partnership with Netherlands-based Zero Motorcycles, and Euler Motors, a commercial electric three-wheeler and four-wheeler maker. In March it joined Euler’s $46 million Series E round.
Ather reported Rs 3,671.76 crore in revenues from operations for FY2026, up 63% year-on-year. Net losses narrowed to Rs 517.17 crore from Rs 812.28 crore. The company's stock price climbed to an all-time high of Rs 1,345 on July 16.
Integrace, a Mumbai-based pharmaceuticals company, is being acquired by Warburg Pincus. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The Economic Times reported, citing sources, that the deal values the company at Rs 1,200 crore. Existing shareholders True North and Temasek, who together invested nearly Rs 1,300 crore, will exit as part of the transaction.
Integrace was formed in 2018 by True North under a collaboration with Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. Under the terms of the collaboration, Glenmark’s orthopaedic and pain management business, valued at Rs 635 crore ($92 million at the time), was transferred to Integrace. In 2020, True North, through Integrace, acquired Glenmark’s gynaecology business for Rs 115 crore (about $16 million).
Singapore’s Temasek entered the company in 2021, investing Rs 540 crore (about $73 million) in a primary and secondary transaction, creating a partial exit for True North.
Neo Group raised Rs 350 crore ($36 million) in a new funding round from existing investor Peak XV Partners. The Mumbai-based company, which provides wealth and asset management services, had raised $53 million from TVS Capital in March.
Vorflux raised $15 million in its first institutional round from Y Combinator, Peak XV Partners, Powerset and Alliance, alongside a handful of angel investors. The Bangalore-based company provides cloud-based, autonomous AI coding agents for enterprise engineering teams.
Parag Parikh Financial (PPFAS) raised $14.5 million from Avendus’ Future Leaders Fund III. Avendus is acquiring a 1% stake. The Mumbai-based equity-led asset management company has been promoter-owned since its inception in the early nineties. It has grown its AUM (assets under management) at a 70% CAGR over the past five years, Avendus said in a statement. The growth comes on the back of household savings moving to financial assets at scale driven by buoyant public markets. PPFAS, according to reports, is planning for a public market listing by 2030.
QuickClean raised $14 million in a Series B round led by Stakeboat Capital. Alkemi Growth Capital and Blue Ashva Capital participated. The Gurugram-based company provides on-premise laundry infrastructure and services at hotels and other commercial establishments.
E3 Electric raised $10.4 million in a Series A round from BlueVenture Holdings. The Bangalore-based electric two-wheeler company is building AI-powered, modular electric scooters.
Groyyo raised $9.3 million in a round led by Cornerstone Ventures. This is the first tranche of the Gurugram-based company’s Series B round. It offers a fashion and retail focused supply chain platform.
SwitchOn raised a $8 million pre-Series B round led by IvyCap Ventures. SIG Tattva and venture debt firm Trifecta Capital joined the round. The Bangalore-based company offers an AI-powered vision platform that enables manufacturers to detect defects on the shopfloor and improve efficiency.
Sub-$5 million deals: Biomass supply chain platform BiofuelCircle raised $3.6 million led by Spectrum Impact. Clean-label staples retailer Anmasa raised a Rs 37.5 crore ($3.4 million) seed round led by Fireside Ventures. Maternity and baby care products company Promom raised $3.1 million from Fireside Ventures. Biotech company Mankdrake Bio raised $1.6 million in a pre-seed round led by Activate and Antler. Data centre infrastructure company KuhlTherm raised $1.1 million in a seed round led by Arkam Ventures. Pod hotel chain NapTapGo raised $0.8 million in a seed round from Inflection Point Ventures.
In overseas funding deals, Peak XV Partners led a $135 million Series E in San Mateo, California-based Alpaca, a brokerage platform that provides access to financial markets through developer-friendly APIs. Elevation Capital led a $11.3 million Series A in San Francisco based, developer-focused marketing intelligence startup Reo.dev. Heavybit, India Quotient and Foster Ventures were returning investors in the round. Uncorrelated Ventures joined as a new investor. Redstart Labs (Info Edge subsidiary) and 360 OneAsset led a $5.5 million round in Aina which is building human-computer interface devices.
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More headlines from the week
Elevation Capital raised $500 million for Fund IX to invest at the seed and Series A stages. It follows the $400 million Elevation Holdings fund raised last year to back later and growth stage companies.
Avendus announced that it would close the Future Leaders Fund III at Rs 1,800 crore ($187.3 million) by the end of the month. The fund is already 30% deployed and expects to make 5-6 additional investments over the next 12 months. The fund had a Rs 1,500 crore greenshoe which it appears to have decided not to exercise.
Blackstone sharpened its Asia Pacific infrastructure strategy with the appointment of Ami Momaya as managing director and head of infrastructure for India. Momaya joins Blackstone from KKR India where she served as a managing director.
Recco | Notes on Culture, Craft and the Considered Life
When Royal Enfield Met Rough Crafts
You don’t need to be a rider to be moved by a motorcycle as thunderous as the Royal Enfield x Rough Crafts Shotgun 650.
The motorcycle, among the many variants built on the manufacturer’s 650cc twin-cylinder platform, is its most recent partnership with talent on the custom scene. Rough Crafts is a Taipei-based, multi-disciplinary design firm that specialises in everything from custom motorcycles to streetwear.
The bobber-inspired cruiser is based on Caliber Royale, a bespoke build created by Rough Crafts founder Winston Yeh. Finished in gloss and matte black with hand-applied gold-leaf detailing, it also features a cast brass tank badge, bar-end mirrors, machined aluminium parts and a quilted seat. Mechanically, it remains unchanged, powered by Royal Enfield’s familiar 648cc parallel-twin engine.
Priced at ₹5.75 lakh (ex-showroom), it is the most expensive Royal Enfield currently on sale in India. Just 100 individually numbered motorcycles will be built worldwide, with 25 allocated to India. Registrations are now open through Royal Enfield’s online drop, with successful applicants invited to complete their booking through a dealership.
Like we said earlier, you don’t need to be a rider to appreciate this motorcycle. Then again, if you manage to get your hands on one, you just might find yourself back in the saddle.
Recco is a column by Murali K Menon. Murali has spent a career paying close attention to how things are made, where they come from, and why some of them endure. Every edition, one recommendation: a maker, an object, a place, a practice.
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