Venture Capital firm Bharat Founders Fund (BFF) plans to make 12–15 investments by the end of FY26. The fund has made 10 investments so far this financial year and is actively exploring opportunities to expand its portfolio further in the coming months.
BFF is an early-stage venture group of established founders who support budding founders building for Bharat. The sector-agnostic firm has so far invested in fintech, healthcare, logistics, and consumer goods, among others. “Being sector-agnostic gives us the ability to evaluate opportunities across industries with genuine insider knowledge rather than being constrained by a narrow sector focus,” Maanav Sagar, managing partner, Bharat Founders Fund, told Fe.
The firm is, however, particularly excited about AI applications in the physical world. It believes that real-world AI applications have huge scale potential because they address India’s massive coordination challenges across industries like manufacturing, construction, and logistics. “Very few people are building here because it requires understanding ground realities and solving messy real-world problems rather than just building elegant software solutions,” he added.
The fund primarily focuses on being the first external cheque for founders at the angel and pre-seed stage. It believes that its operator-led model helps move quickly on opportunities when the right founding teams are identified. Under this model, BFF connects its portfolio companies with operators (founders of established startups) who help the startups with insights on scaling a business and also provide them with access to networks.
BFF is particularly optimistic about capitalising on the emergence of startup mafias or networks in India, similar to the PayPal mafia in the West, which it believes signals the maturity of India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. “These networks create a virtuous cycle where successful startups spawn new ventures that further enrich the ecosystem,” he said.
He added that the maturation of support infrastructure is also remarkable. “The frameworks available to founders today are mostly from the West, and while many are insightful, they don’t address how business actually works in India,” he said. BFF fills this gap by providing India-specific operational guidance through its network of operators who’ve successfully navigated these challenges.
But he also believes regulatory complexity remains significant. “India’s regulatory landscape isn’t black and white – while raising a round in the US can happen within 7 days, India’s regulatory requirements extend timelines significantly. These constraints impact investment value through extended timelines,” he said. He added that for angel and pre-seed investors like BFF, the challenge is also about identifying founders who truly understand India’s unique context versus those applying Western frameworks.
BFF has been operational for three years and has a portfolio of over 70 companies. Some of its notable investments include Kookar, which uses AI for kitchen management in households, Arva, which offers fertility care, Skillbee, which helps low-skilled workers find livelihoods abroad and women’s activewear brand BlissClub. Before investing in any startup, the fund looks for founders who can seamlessly toggle between micro-execution (next week) and macro vision (10-year horizon). “Great founders obsess over weekly details while maintaining clarity on their long-term destination. Second, we assess whether founders can interpret market feedback versus being blinded by their own biases,” Sagar said. Lastly, it looks for exceptionally clear focus on what to solve when and in what sequence.
