3one4 Capital Floats $15 Million Fund to Back Women and Tier II/III Founders Across India

Venture capital firm 3one4 Capital has partnered with British International Investment (BII) to float a new $15 million (around ₹141 crore) fund dedicated to backing under-represented sectors and founders in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Named the IIDEA Fund, it will primarily focus on sectors such as energy transition, agriculture, health, deeptech, and manufacturing. The corpus will also prioritise investments in women-led ventures, non-metro founders, and businesses addressing developmental gaps.

Fully Committed Capital

The entire fund corpus has already been raised, with BII coming in as the sole limited partner. With this fund, 3one4 Capital plans to back around 10 to 15 startups, deploying an initial ticket size of $500K each, while reserving the remaining corpus for follow-on rounds.

The firm has already begun deploying capital under the fund and has closed nearly five investments to date.

Why the Fund Exists

Nruthya Madappa, partner at 3one4 Capital, said the firm is looking to address funding gaps across areas that have historically attracted limited capital, while deliberately backing under-represented founders including women entrepreneurs and founders from Tier II and Tier III cities.

Part of a Larger Push

The launch comes as 3one4 Capital gears up to launch its fifth fund, with a likely target corpus of $225 million. Founding partner and chief investment officer Pranav Pai said last month that the upcoming fund will back early-stage startups across AI and SaaS, enterprise and manufacturing automation, fintech, deeptech, and consumer internet.

3one4 Capital says it has backed over 100 startups and recorded 26 profitable exits across its first two funds. Last year, the firm partially exited audio OTT platform Kuku FM, generating an internal rate of return of about 90% and a 38.4x multiple on invested capital. Its portfolio includes AGNIT Semiconductor, smallest.ai, Lumio, Licious, Jupiter, Darwinbox, Raise Financial Services, and Eka.Care.