Stellaris Venture Partners

What Stellaris Venture Partners does

Stellaris Venture Partners is an India-focused, early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Bengaluru, founded in 2016. The firm deploys capital across three vintages: Fund I ($90M, 2017), Fund II ($225M, 2021), and Fund III ($300M, 2024), bringing cumulative assets under management to over $600M. Stellaris operates a deliberate sector-specialist model in which 14 investors each cover two-to-three defined verticals spanning AI, software, consumer tech, brands, fintech, sustainability, commerce, mobility, healthcare, and deeptech, supported by a nine-person operations team in finance, marketing, legal, talent, and administration.

The firm's core products are its three venture funds, complemented by founder-facing services such as the Startup Navigator one-on-one mentoring program, the Stellaris Fundamentals educational resource library, and the AI4Biz cohort co-run with IFC. Stellaris has codified its investment approach through branded published theses — most prominently the AI x SDLC framework (mapping AI opportunities across six software development lifecycle stages) and the MSP Roll-Up thesis (a US/Europe cross-border thesis targeting the ~$600B managed service provider market) — alongside the Interstellar, dAIlogues, The 2030 Consumer, and SaaS Talks podcast series.

Stellaris generates revenue through standard VC economics: management fees on committed/invested capital across its three funds plus carried interest on portfolio exits. Notable portfolio outcomes include the 2023 IPO of Mamaearth (Honasa Consumer) on NSE — India's first publicly listed D2C brand — and the 2022 acquisition of Slintel by 6Sense. Recent deployment has skewed toward AI-native startups, with up to $100-150M of Fund III earmarked for the category, alongside continued activity in fintech, consumer brands, EV financing, proptech, and healthcare AI.

Name

Stellaris Venture Partners

Legal name

Stellaris Venture Partners

Website

https://stellarisvp.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Stellaris Venture Partners is a Bengaluru-based, early-stage venture capital firm managing over $600M across three India-focused funds (2017, 2021, 2024) using a sector-specialist model spanning AI, software, consumer, fintech, healthcare, and deeptech.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Venture Capital / Private Equity

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940), All Other Financial Investment Activities (52399)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYFSANAAAB

Early-Stage Venture Capital (Series A/B)

Financial & Insurance/Private Equity & Venture Capital/Venture Capital Firms

SECONDARYFSANAAAD

Sector-Focused Venture Capital (Vertical Specialists)

Financial & Insurance/Private Equity & Venture Capital/Venture Capital Firms

Keywords

• Venture capital funds
• Early-stage investing
• Startup funding
• Sector-specialist venture
• Portfolio management

Headquarters

HQ city

Bengaluru

HQ country

India

HQ region

Asia

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Venture Fund Management Fees & Carried Interest: Stellaris generates revenue as a venture capital fund manager across three funds: Fund I ($90M, 2017), Fund II ($225M, 2021), and Fund III ($300M, 2024), managing over $600M in assets. Standard VC firm economics: management fees on committed/invested capital during fund life plus carried interest (carried interest typically 20% of fund profits above a hurdle) on successful exits including the 2023 Mamaearth IPO and Slintel acquisition by 6Sense. Returns generated through portfolio liquidity events.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Core offering

Stellaris Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm that manages and deploys capital from three closed-end India-focused technology venture funds (Fund I $90M, Fund II $225M, Fund III $300M), collectively managing over $600M in assets. The firm invests at the seed and Series A stages across AI, software, consumer tech, brands, fintech, sustainability, commerce, mobility, healthcare, and deeptech, and complements capital deployment with the Startup Navigator mentoring program, Stellaris Fundamentals founder resources, and the AI4Biz cohort program with IFC.

Product overview

Stellaris Venture Partners is a sector-specialist, early-stage venture capital firm (not a SaaS product company) operating from Bengaluru, India. Its core offering is a family of three venture funds — Fund I ($90M, 2017), Fund II ($225M, 2021), and Fund III ($300M, 2024) — totaling over $600M in assets under management. Beyond capital deployment, Stellaris operates complementary products and services for founders, including the Startup Navigator one-on-one mentoring program, the Stellaris Fundamentals educational resource library, and a content platform of podcasts and investment theses (Interstellar, dAIlogues, The 2030 Consumer, SaaS Talks). It also co-runs the AI4Biz cohort with IFC. The firm's investing focus, expressed through these funds and content, spans AI, software, consumer tech, brands, fintech, sustainability, commerce, mobility, healthcare, and deeptech.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Stellaris Venture Partners Fund I Stellaris Venture Partners' first venture capital fund of $90 million, raised in 2017 during a tough fundraising climate. Fund I deployed capital into 19 investments, nine of which surpassed a $100 million valuation, and seeded the firm's specialist-sector investing approach.
• Stellaris Venture Partners Fund II Stellaris Venture Partners' second venture capital fund of $225 million, closed in 2021. Fund II backed 25 companies and produced Stellaris's first significant portfolio exit when 6Sense acquired Slintel, in which Stellaris was the first institutional investor.
• Stellaris Venture Partners Fund III Stellaris Venture Partners' third venture capital fund of $300 million, launched in 2024 with stated plans to deploy $100M-$150M into AI-native startups. Brings Stellaris's total assets under management to over $600M and supports investments across AI, software, consumer tech, brands, fintech, sustainability, commerce, mobility, healthcare, and deeptech.
• Startup Navigator A one-on-one mentoring program offered by Stellaris for early-stage founders refining a pitch deck or founder thesis, led by Partner Naman Lahoty (a two-time entrepreneur turned VC). Founders can sign up to receive tailored feedback on next-big-idea development and pitch preparation.
• Stellaris Fundamentals An early-stage resource library for founders covering fundraising, managing VCs, legal, finance, and talent topics, framed as 'for founders, by funders.' Content is produced by Stellaris partners and team members such as Preseedha Premnath, Naman Lahoty, Chetan GMS, Ritesh Banglani, and Rahul Chowdhri.
• AI4Biz Cohort Program A cohort-based program co-run with IFC for AI-focused startups, with the first cohort of 10 startups announced in December 2020.
• AI x SDLC Thesis Proprietary published analytical framework that maps AI-driven opportunities across the six major SDLC stages (UI/UX Design, System Design, Code Writing, Testing, Deployment, Maintenance) and evaluates each opportunity along Work (Creative vs Execution), Scope (Wide vs Narrow), and Type (Copilot vs Agent) lenses, with considerations of technical feasibility, GTM ease, market size, and defensibility.
• MSP Roll-Up Investment Thesis Proprietary published thesis on AI-native Managed Service Provider (MSP) roll-ups in the ~$600B market with 200,000 fragmented operators, identifying Relationship Moat, Workflow/PSA Moat, and Labor Moat as structural barriers and proposing an acquisition-play playbook for the $5-25M revenue target zone.
• Stellaris Insights and Podcasts A suite of original podcasts, including the Interstellar series, dAIlogues series, The 2030 Consumer series, and Stellaris SaaS Talks, alongside investment theses ('Why we invested' and 'Thesis' posts) published on the firm's website. Topics span AI, software, consumer tech, brands, fintech, sustainability, and deeptech investing.

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Peak XV Partners: India-focused early-to-growth venture firm with multi-stage funds and dedicated Surge seed program. Most direct comparable by geography, stage, and sector breadth, though substantially larger AUM than Stellaris.
• Accel India: Bengaluru-anchored early-stage firm investing across consumer, SaaS, fintech, and AI — frequently co-invests with Stellaris (e.g., Atlas, Material Depot). Closest stage-and-stage match for seed/Series A in India.
• Blume Ventures: Mumbai/Bengaluru early-stage VC with sector-agnostic seed and pre-seed funds, a strong founder community platform, and similar emphasis on India tech. Directly comparable in stage and orientation.
• 3one4 Capital: Bengaluru-based early-stage fund investing across SaaS, fintech, consumer, and AI; co-investor with Stellaris in Lumio. Same sector coverage and seed/Series A stage make it a tight comparable.
• Kalaari Capital: Early-stage India VC focused on technology and consumer, with a similar thesis-led investing approach. Comparable in stage, geography, and sector mix.
• Chiratae Ventures: Bengaluru-headquartered tech-focused VC investing across consumer, SaaS, fintech, and healthcare. Overlapping sector mandates and Indian early-stage orientation.
• Nexus Venture Partners: India-US early-to-growth fund with sector breadth in software, consumer, and fintech. Comparable by stage and geography, with a more developed US cross-border franchise.
• Lightspeed India Partners: India arm of Lightspeed, focused on seed and Series A in enterprise, consumer, and fintech. Similar stage orientation and active in the same co-investor ecosystem.

Broad incumbents

• Bessemer Venture Partners India: Global venture firm with an active India practice spanning cloud, consumer, fintech, and healthcare. Larger and broader in stage but competes for the same founder mindshare in India.

Emerging players

• Ankur Capital: Earlier-stage India VC with a sector-specialist approach (deeptech, agritech, healthcare). Smaller fund size but comparable specialist thesis-led model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/stellaris_vp
• YouTubeyoutube.com/playlist?list=PL4R_yDGKnwhV9Rrstw1ONjxhL-0Mlut0j
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/pulse/software-dead-i-dont-think-so-alok-goyal-bcbpc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

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M&A

Investments120 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Stellaris Venture Partners