The Indian artificial intelligence ecosystem has just received a powerful, specialized catalyst. Industry veterans Aakrit Vaish, co-founder of conversational AI pioneer Haptik and an advisor to the IndiaAI Mission, and Pratyush Choudhary, former principal at Together Fund, have launched Activate, a $75 million AI-focused venture capital fund. This move signals a pivotal shift in the market: the arrival of sophisticated, founder-led capital dedicated exclusively to nurturing India’s most ambitious, deep-technical AI talent from the earliest possible stage.
The Architects: A Blend of Operator Grit and Investor Acumen
The credibility of Activate stems directly from its founders’ unparalleled expertise:
- Aakrit Vaish: As the co-founder of Haptik, a company acquired by Reliance Jio, Vaish has been at the forefront of building and scaling a globally competitive AI product in India. His role as an advisor to the national IndiaAI Mission provides him with a unique, top-down view of the country’s strategic AI priorities.
- Pratyush Choudhary: His experience at Together Fund, one of India’s most successful early-stage VC firms, brings deep investment rigor, a sharp eye for founding teams, and a robust network to the partnership.
This combination of a proven “operator” and a seasoned “investor” creates a fund that can offer far more than money—it can offer a blueprint for building a legendary AI company in India.
The Investment Thesis: Going Deep, Going Early, Going Sovereign
Activate’s strategy is sharply defined and highly ambitious:
- Stage Focus: Ideation to Pre-Series A. The fund is willing to engage even before a company is formally incorporated, aiming to identify and nurture “crack teams” of exceptional technical talent with a transformative idea.
- Cheque Size: $500K to $3 Million. This range provides substantial runway for deep R&D and initial team building, addressing the critical “friends and family” gap that often stalls deep-tech ventures.
- Sector Focus: The Full AI Stack. The fund will invest across the spectrum:
- AI Applications: Software solving specific, high-value problems.
- Foundational Models: The ambitious pursuit of building India’s own large language models (LLMs) and other core AI architectures.
- Physical Infrastructure: Betting on the hardware, semiconductors, and data centers that power AI.
- Allied Verticals: AI’s convergence with other deep-tech fields like robotics and biotech.
A recurring theme is the emphasis on “sovereign AI solutions“—technologies that enhance India’s strategic autonomy and address its unique challenges, perfectly aligning with the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision.
Why This Fund is a Watershed Moment
- Specialized Capital for a Specialized Field: AI is not just another sector; it requires investors who understand its technical nuances, long R&D cycles, and unique talent dynamics. Activate is purpose-built for this.
- Bridging the “Idea Gap”: By investing at the ideation stage, the fund tackles one of the biggest failures of the traditional VC model: its inability to fund raw, technical brilliance before a business plan is fully baked. This can unlock a wave of innovation currently trapped in labs and PhD theses.
- Signaling to the Global Ecosystem: The successful raise of a $75M fund by such credible figures tells global investors and competitors that India’s AI talent pool is ready for primetime and is worth backing at the most fundamental level.
The Bigger Picture: Fueling a $17B+ Ecosystem
Activate arrives as India’s AI market is poised for explosive growth, projected to reach $17 billion by 2027. It complements massive infrastructure bets like Google’s $15 billion Vizag AI hub, creating a virtuous cycle where global capital builds infrastructure, and specialized local funds like Activate populate it with world-class startups.
As Aakrit Vaish powerfully declared on social media, “All of it comes together in my next act – India’s AI venture fund.” This statement encapsulates a career’s worth of experience now being channeled into building the ecosystem’s next layer.
Conclusion: Your Activation Code is Live
For the brilliant engineer in a lab, the PhD researcher with a groundbreaking paper, or the small team of hackers working on a moonshot AI idea, the launch of the Activate AI Fund is a direct message: your time is now.
