Navya Naveli Nanda Launches Naveli Ventures to Invest in Deep-Tech, AI and Frontier Technologies
Naveli Ventures LLP was incorporated on March 20, 2023, with Nanda and her brother Agastya Nanda listed as its designated partners.
Navya Naveli Nanda has announced the launch of Naveli Ventures, the strategic venture arm of the Nanda Family Office, to invest in startups and research-led opportunities across deep technology, space, clean energy, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and healthcare.
The platform will invest through direct startup investments, institutional funds, co-investments and partnerships with academic institutions around research and intellectual property.
Navya Naveli said the venture platform has been in the works for some time and will take a long-term approach to investing. She said the focus is on supporting founders and companies working on large-scale problems and building enduring businesses rather than pursuing quick returns.
Naveli Ventures LLP was incorporated on March 20, 2023, with Nanda and her brother Agastya Nanda listed as its designated partners. Nanda is the managing partner of the venture platform. The October 2026 announcement therefore represents the formal public unveiling of its investment strategy and focus areas rather than the incorporation of a new entity.
The venture arm has not disclosed a fund corpus or specific investment ticket sizes as part of the launch. It has also not announced an initial portfolio of investments, leaving its first deployments as an indicator of how the platform will translate its stated investment strategy into actual capital commitments.
As part of the Nanda Family Office, Naveli Ventures said it can draw on relationships across industry, government, academia and the investment community to support the companies and founders it backs. The family office is associated with the Nanda business group, which includes Escorts Kubota, a company operating in agricultural and construction equipment.
The launch comes as government and private investors are increasing their focus on deep-tech and research-led businesses in India. The government’s Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme has an overall outlay of ₹1 lakh crore over six years and is designed to increase private-sector participation in high-risk, high-impact research and innovation. Its focus areas include deep technologies such as quantum computing, robotics and space, along with artificial intelligence, energy transition and other strategic technologies.
The government has also notified the ₹10,000 crore Startup India Fund of Funds 2.0, which is designed to mobilise venture capital through Alternative Investment Funds and includes a focus on deep-tech, technology-driven innovative manufacturing and early-growth startups.
Private capital commitments to the segment have also increased. According to the India Deep Tech Alliance’s 2026 investment landscape, Indian deep-tech startups attracted $2.1 billion across 289 deals in 2025, while deep tech accounted for 15% of India’s total private-equity and venture-capital activity, compared with 4% in 2016. AI startups attracted $1.22 billion across 188 deals in 2025, a 58% increase in funding value from the previous year.
The India Deep Tech Alliance has also said its members have committed more than $2.5 billion over five years to Indian deep-tech investments, including $1 billion earmarked for AI over three years. The commitments include investments aimed at helping Indian companies commercialise intellectual property and scale technology businesses.
Naveli Ventures’ investment model combines direct startup investments with fund commitments, co-investments and academic and intellectual-property partnerships. Its focus is not restricted to a single sector, with Nanda saying the platform will assess opportunities based on the scale of the problem being addressed and the people building the solution.
For now, the launch provides more clarity on Naveli Ventures’ investment thesis than on the amount of capital it intends to deploy.