CDM Capital

How to approach CDM Capital

The site has a Pitch us page with a founder form and a general inbox, cdm@cdmcapital.in. It says every submission is read. It does not publish a deadline or an intake window, so treat this as a fund you pitch whenever you are ready, not a programme with rounds.

Check the fit first

• Stage: pre-seed, seed or pre-Series A. The form's stage list runs from pre-idea to Series A.
• Sector: fintech, SaaS and AI, or the three areas on its Sectors page: fintech, AI-native enterprise and the real economy. Adjacent areas are considered.
• Geography: India-based founders building for global markets.

What the form asks for

• Founder name, email, founder LinkedIn and phone number
• Company name and website, and date and place of incorporation
• Stage, a short description of your startup and a pitch deck as PDF or PPT

Have the LinkedIn profile, website and deck ready before you start.

What the fund says about process

CDM says initial meetings usually take 2–4 weeks and the path from first call to term sheet is 4–8 weeks, faster when there is an existing relationship or the sector is already known to the team. It says it values quality of thinking over a polished deck, so explain why you understand the problem and how you plan to solve it. If your product is a thin layer over an LLM, expect pushback, since the fund says it avoids those.

CDM Capital is a Mumbai-based early-stage venture fund. Its site says Fund I is actively investing, that it was established in 2022, and that it backs India's founders from seed to Series A. It is run by CDM Partners Advisors LLP, the investment manager of CDM Capital Trust (CDM Capital Fund I), a Category I AIF. The firm describes itself as operator-led and keeps its portfolio small by design: eight companies at the time of writing.

What it backs

The stated stage is pre-seed to Series A, with follow-on through the cycle. The fund says it leads, co-leads or co-invests at seed and pre-Series A, and prefers to be the first institutional cheque. Sectors are grouped into three areas. Fintech covers payments, lending, wealth, risk and collections. AI-native enterprise covers agents, automation, decision intelligence and workflow software; the fund says it is not interested in thin wrappers around an LLM. Real economy covers manufacturing, supply chains, healthcare and consumer services. It will look at adjacent areas if the team and opportunity are strong. Geography is India-based founders building for global markets.

How it works with founders

CDM says it stays involved for the full journey. Its network of operators, public-company directors and exited founders is offered to portfolio companies for hiring, customer introductions and fundraising strategy. The portfolio page lists companies across fintech, SaaS, AI and consumer, such as CredResolve, Mylapay, Kosh, Atomgrid and Rovia, and the site links press coverage of several of their rounds. Co-investors named on the site include Saison Capital, 77 Capital, Anicut Venture, Antler and WarmUp Ventures.

What it looks for

CDM says it wants a genuine understanding of the problem, a clear view of how to solve it, and the ability to keep going when it gets hard. It says it cares more about the quality of thinking than the completeness of a pitch deck.

Team and office

The team page names Davesh Manocha as Founder and Managing Partner, previously a Partner at Sabre Partners, Vidhi Jain as VP, Investments, and Aditya Narendra as Investment Analyst. The office is at HD-106, WeWork Enam Sambhav, BKC, Bandra East, Mumbai 400 051.