Sprout Venture Partners

Sprout Venture Partners is a Bengaluru-headquartered early-stage Indian venture capital fund founded in 2016 and structured as a SEBI Category-I Alternative Investment Fund, backed by a network of prominent first- and second-generation entrepreneurs. The fund was created to institutionalize India's active angel investing market, and leads rounds as the first institutional cheque in its portfolio companies. Founding and Managing Partner Sunil brings 20-plus years of investment banking and early-stage investing experience and concurrently runs Sprout Capital Advisors, an investment bank. The lean investment team also includes Karandeep, who brings five-plus years in investment research and venture investing. Sprout's thesis operates across two complementary axes: demand-gap consumer plays capturing the growth from India's rising consumption, and need-gap technology businesses emphasizing innovation, product development, IP, and disruptive deep tech. The fund typically underwrites as the first institutional cheque at $300,000 to $500,000 at seed or pre-Series A, with capacity to participate in follow-on rounds. Fund II first-closed at $10 million in November 2023. Across 19 disclosed investments the portfolio spans consumer goods, SaaS, retail, software, and healthtech. Portfolio outcomes include early exposure to Zomato, which went on to IPO, and an acquisition of Goals101. The most recent investments are Taqtics (seed round, November 2024) and Lorazzo, a home-furnishings company (January 2026). Sprout's positioning as the first institutional money in -- rather than a co-investor in established rounds -- reflects a deliberate founder-empathy philosophy: the fund builds conviction before others, providing founders with the validation and operational counsel they need before they are ready to run a competitive institutional fundraise.