Venture Highway

Venture Highway is a prominent early-stage venture capital firm based in Bangalore, India, co-founded by industry veterans Neeraj Arora, formerly of WhatsApp, and Samir Sood, previously with Google. Established with a clear vision to back promising technology startups in the burgeoning Indian market, the firm primarily focuses on seed and Series A investments. Their strategic approach emphasizes identifying disruptive innovations and supporting founders with deep operational expertise and a strong network, leveraging the founders' extensive experience in global tech giants.

The firm has demonstrated consistent growth in its capital deployment capabilities. Venture Highway successfully closed its inaugural fund, Fund I, at $30 million. This was followed by the closure of Fund II in 2020, which raised $78 million, significantly increasing their capacity to support a broader range of early-stage ventures. Most recently, in 2023, Venture Highway announced the final close of its third fund, Fund III, securing $120 million. This progressive increase in fund size underscores investor confidence in their investment thesis and their ability to identify high-potential opportunities within the Indian startup ecosystem.

Venture Highway's investment strategy is characterized by a hands-on approach, providing not just capital but also strategic guidance and mentorship to its portfolio companies. They typically write initial checks ranging from $250,000 to $2 million, targeting startups across various technology sectors, including consumer internet, SaaS, fintech, and deep tech. Their portfolio boasts several success stories that have gone on to raise significant follow-on funding and achieve substantial market presence, such as e-commerce platform Meesho, B2B marketplace Moglix, and social media platform ShareChat, highlighting their knack for identifying future market leaders.