Viral Bhatnagar’s A Junior VC (AJVC) has successfully closed its first ₹100 crore fund, aiming to tap into India’s largely underserved pre-seed funding stage within the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. Previously an investor at early-stage investment firm Venture Highway, Bhatnagar departed before Silicon Valley-based General Catalyst acquired the firm in June 2024.
With this new fund, he plans to invest in 12-15 pre-seed startups annually, focusing on emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI), SaaS (software-as-a-service), and consumer technology. The sector-agnostic fund exceeded its initial target and is now considering activating the green shoe option due to oversubscription.
“We are seriously considering exercising the greenshoe option given the overwhelming interest in the fund,” AJVC said.
Bhatnagar further said that the sophistication of domestic capital in India has changed over the past few years. “Many people have access to wealth, probably because of public markets, scale founders, etc. Their risk appetite was very surprising to me. I don’t think that was the case for many people raising their funds maybe 10 years ago.”
Bhatnagar said that domestic LPs are “unusually patient,” often seeking returns over a few decades rather than immediately. His comments, however, contrast the general sentiment as VCs in India have started facing pressure from LPs to return capital.
Regarding returns, Bhatnagar, the Founder and Managing Partner at the fund, said, “So I think in India, if you are operating at this stage, there is a certain number beyond which it starts becoming a little difficult to return the fund. In my head, that’s about Rs 600 crore. That’s where you start reaching a stage because, in India, the number of companies that will reach Rs 10,000 crore will not be as much as the US.”
Bhatnagar stated that AJVC plans to begin exiting its investments between Series B and Series C rounds. Rather than completely exiting at once, the firm will gradually liquidate its holdings. However, he emphasized that the firm is in no rush to deploy capital.
“We have a 10-year plus fund. There is no pressure to deploy or return that capital aggressively. We won’t push companies. If they need, we’ll support them for as long as possible,” Bhatnagar added.
