New York-based Bat VC enters India with $100 million to back AI and Deep tech startups

Bat VC, a New York-based venture capital firm has announced its entry to India with plans to invest up to $100 million through its second fund. This will target India-linked startups s in AI, DeepTech, FinTech, and B2B SaaS.

The new India-focused initiative will be led by BAT VC’s three General Partner Manish Maheshwari, ex-Twitter India head, Mason Fellow at Harvard University, and former Flipkart executive, whose AI venture, Fanory.ai, was recently acquired.

Aditya Mishra, who achieved an entrepreneurial exit with FaceLogique and has held executive roles at Yahoo!, G/O Media, Accenture, and EY, and Ravi Metta, former CTO at Finastra and product engineering leader at Intuit.

“We aim to back Indian founders building globally relevant AI products, supported by capital and perspective from both the US and India,” said Aditya Mishra, Managing Director and General Partner.

The firm has garnered substantial interest from institutional investors and family offices in both the US and India. India’s AI sector is growing at 32 per cent annually and is projected to reach $23 billion by 2027. India’s enterprise SaaS market surged to $8.7 billion, growing at a 35 per cent CAGR—twice the global average while U.S.-India cross-border AI investments grew 180 per cent to $4.7 billion in 2023.

These stakeholders recognize India as the next big venture capital opportunity, especially as China-related risks grow and capital looks for alternative high-growth markets.

Fund II follows after Bat VC’s previous investments in Wand AI, StockGro, and Uptiq AI, as well as Nickelytics and Accern, which were later acquired.

(With inputs from bl intern Nethra Sailesh)

Published on May 14, 2025