a99 VC

Check fit first

• Sector: the firm's own focus is manufacturing and infrastructure: semiconductors, precision engineering, EV and automotive, specialty chemicals, data centres, industrial automation and digital twins. A pure consumer app is unlikely to match.
• Stage: Fund II covers seed to pre-Series A and Fund III covers pre-Series A to Series B. Pick the fund that matches where you are.

How to reach them

• Email the pitch inbox, pitch@a99.vc, which the firm names on its own site for ideas and pitches.
• The site shows no application form, fixed intake or deadline, so a short, specific email is the route it describes.

What to put in the email

• What you make, and what it replaces or imports today.
• Your stage, revenue or pilot customers, and what you are raising for.
• Why it fits one of its four strategies: IP and R&D-driven manufacturing, the Shovel Strategy, Industry 4.0 / 5.0, or Physical Infra AI.

a99 VC is a venture capital firm that backs manufacturing and infrastructure companies in India. It describes itself as a SEBI Cat I & II AIF and says it has been building since 2020. Its website lists 19 portfolio companies and 2 companies exited, across three funds: Fund I, Fund II and Fund III. Fund II (vintage 2022) invests from seed to pre-Series A. Fund III (vintage 2026) is live and invests from pre-Series A to Series B. The firm says it makes early to late stage investments in manufacturing and infrastructure.

The firm's thesis is that growth-stage manufacturing is undercapitalised: early capital hesitates on pre-revenue hardware and long build cycles, and growth capital waits for proven throughput. It sets out four investment strategies. The first is IP and R&D-driven manufacturing, covering semiconductors and advanced materials. The second, which it calls the Shovel Strategy, is components and sub-systems that power India's manufacturing cycle, such as electronics, data centers, shipbuilding, nuclear and solar. The third is Industry 4.0 / 5.0, covering robotics, IoT platforms, digital twins and embedded tech. The fourth is Physical Infra AI, meaning compute hardware, power and cooling. Its focus sectors include semiconductors, mechatronics, metals and mining, alternate energy, specialty chemicals, data centres, automotive and precision engineering.

Its portfolio page names companies such as Raptee in EV automotive, Lyzr in AI, Intangles in digital twins, Atomgrid in specialty chemicals, TierX in data center infra, Sidix and OptoML in semiconductors, and Vajro in SaaS, so it has also backed some companies outside core manufacturing.

The team page lists 9 people, led by Managing Partner Vignesh Shankar, with two Partners and two Principals, one for investments and one for portfolio operations. In its own blog posts the team describes itself as based in Chennai.

The site has no application form and no stated programme, intake window or deadline. For reaching the firm, one of its blog posts invites founders to write to its pitch inbox with ideas. It is an investor, so expect a conventional investor conversation rather than a grant or incubation cohort, and note that nothing on the site promises a response or a timeline.