Bipin Shah, former partner at Titan Capital and a prominent early-stage investor, is in advanced stages of raising $30 million, or around Rs 250 crore, for his maiden fund at ZeroPearl, sources have told Moneycontrol.
Shah launched ZeroPearl, a micro venture capital fund, in November shortly after exiting Titan Capital, where he was instrumental in backing breakout startups such as Mamaearth, Credgenics, Giva and Citymall.
The new fund is positioning itself as a micro-VC that is sector-agnostic but leans towards segments such as consumer internet, generative AI and software-as-a-service (SaaS).
In under a year, ZeroPearl has already written 13 cheques for startups, including health-tech venture Curacare, sneaker brand Gully Labs and AI-powered product experience management startup Catalogus.
The firm’s average cheque sizes are generally within the Rs 1-6 crore range.
Out of the 13 deals, six have been in health and wellness. Around 10 to 12 more deals are in the pipeline, sources told Moneycontrol, indicating a rapid deployment strategy.
ZeroPearl did not respond to Moneycontrol’s queries. Shah didn’t respond to WhatsApp messages.
ZeroPearl’s $30-million fund closure is coming together at a time when India’s early-stage investing landscape is undergoing a structural shift.
According to Blume Ventures’ Indus Valley Report 2025, as larger seed and multi-stage funds turn increasingly selective — often prioritising repeat or elite founders — a funding gap is emerging for first-time entrepreneurs. This gap is now being filled by a new crop of micro-VCs, typically founded by seasoned operators or former institutional VCs.
India is home to more than 100 such micro-VC funds, many of them launched in the past few years. These firms operate with sharp theses and focus areas, deploying between $100,000 and $500,000 in pre-seed to seed-stage startups, the report said.
All In Capital, a pre-seed fund founded by former UpGrad executive Kushal Bhagia, recently announced the first close of its second fund with a target corpus of Rs 200 crore, underscoring the momentum in this segment.
The micro-VC boom comes even as overall seed-stage funding in India has been on a decline. The Blume report said while early and late-stage funding in 2024 rose by nine percent and eight percent, respectively, to $3.5 billion and $6.6 billion, seed funding dropped 15 percent year-on-year to $1.1 billion.
Still, optimism is returning. As Moneycontrol reported, firms like Accel, Bessemer, Cornerstone VC and Prime Venture Partners have all raised new funds in recent months. Even $100 million-plus deals are making a comeback, especially for growth-stage, IPO-ready startups.
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