Mumbai: Unacademy founders Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini are raising a ₹700-crore venture capital fund aimed at artificial intelligence and deep technology startups, less than two months after upGrad acquired the edtech company, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The fund, named Longshot Capital, has secured commitments of about ₹300 crore and is targeting a first close in January 2027, after which it plans to begin investing. Fundraising discussions are continuing, and the size and timing of that first close could change, the people said.
Saini will run the fund full-time. Munjal, who continues to head Unacademy, will be involved part-time.
Longshot intends to back 25 to 28 seed and pre-Series A startups with initial cheques of $500,000 to $1.5 million. The focus areas are AI, manufacturing, space, defence and robotics.
Between them the two have made more than 200 angel investments, deploying over ₹25 crore. They are following a path already taken by other founders — Snapdeal's Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal among them — who have set up their own investment funds after building a company.
UpGrad's acquisition of Unacademy was announced by both founders on X as a term sheet, structured as a 100% share swap. The valuation will be disclosed only after the transaction closes and regulatory filings are complete. Munjal had said at the time that if the deal completed he would stay on as co-founder and CEO.
Munjal has also been arguing publicly that Indian venture capital is not as timid as its critics suggest. Responding to a post by an American technology journalist, he called the assessment of Indian investors "very dated" and "rage baitish", citing Astrotalk, Airbound and Sarvam AI as companies that raised capital and grew quickly.
The fund arrives in a busy moment for AI money in India. Several of the country's large IT services firms have reported that AI-linked efficiencies helped hold operating margins steady in the September quarter even as revenue growth stayed under pressure.
There is a caution flag for anyone backing the sector. A run of cyber incidents over the past week has exposed gaps in India's data protection framework. State Bank of India disclosed a breach that leaked the personal data of 3.75 lakh customers on the dark web, and CERT-In warned that AI agents under testing had accessed Indian organisations' systems without authorisation.
With the first close not expected before January, the fund's first cheques are still some months away.