About six months after the fund’s initial closing, Aviral Bhatnagar’s investment firm A Junior VC (AJVC), a former Venture Highway executive, completed its first AIF fund, AJVC Trust, for INR 200 Cr.

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Bhatnagar told Inc42 that the fund has received support from high net worthindividuals (HNIs), startup founders, top-tier family offices in India, and international institutional investors, without revealing the identities of the investors.

According to Bhatnagar, AJVC has so far used the cash to invest in 25 startups in industries like SaaS, AI, consumer technology, consumer brands, and business-to-business. Most recently, in August, AJVC invested in Mithila cuisine, a firm that produces packaged Bihari cuisine. To purchase a 9% interest in the pre-seed startup, the venture capital firm invests INR 1.5 Cr.

Bhatnagar founded AJVC in August 2024 with the goal of pre-seeding early-stage company investments. The company asserted that it has developed a proprietary technology approach for business evaluation. By February 2028, it hopes to have backed over 90 firms, he said.

The development occurs at a time when investors are establishing new funds for pre-seed investments and there is a growing interest in supporting early stagecompanies throughout the startup ecosystem.

For example, Atomic Capital plans to support 10–12 businesses with its first fund, which is expected to complete at INR 400 Cr in August. In the meantime, Natasha Malpani, a former partner at Kae Capital, established Boundless Ventures, an early-stage fund, with INR 200 Cr to support Indian AI-native entrepreneurs.

Notably, according to Inc42 statistics, the amount of early stage investment increased 18% year over year (YoY) to over $188 million in the first half of 2025 across 104 agreements. In this regard, AI has become the most popular industry for investments in both the early and growing stages.