Sprout Venture Partners

Check the fit first

• Sprout describes itself as an early-stage fund, usually writing the first institutional cheque. If you are already well past that stage, look at later-stage funds.
• Your company should fit one of its two lenses: consumption-led (a product or service meeting a demand gap) or technology-led (new products, unique intellectual property or frontier technology solving a market problem).
• Its portfolio is a good guide to what it actually backs, so read it before you write to the fund.

How to reach the fund

• The website has a Pitch us button that opens a contact form, and the form sends your message to the fund's pitch inbox at pitch@sproutvp.com. You can write there directly.
• The site publishes no application form, intake window, deadline or eligibility criteria, and does not say the fund is open to applications. Do not wait for a form; send a short, direct note.
• Warm introductions through someone the partners know are the usual route for any venture fund, though the site does not state a preference.

What helps your pitch

• Lead with founder-market fit. The fund says conviction in this comes above all else.
• Show the team, the size of the market (TAM) and the tailwinds behind it, the three things it says it looks for.
• Say plainly what gap you address, in consumption or in technology, and why now.

Before you write

• The fund has run two vehicles, Fund I and Fund II, so check which companies sit in which when you compare your business with its portfolio.
• Keep the note short. The site gives no process detail, so a clear summary and a link to your product are the most useful things you can send.

Sprout Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital fund based in Bangalore, which describes itself as backing next-generation entrepreneurs across India's consumption and technology opportunity. It is run by Sprout Investment Advisors LLP as investment manager. Its first fund, Fund-1, was registered with SEBI as a Category I Alternative Investment Fund with effect from November 29, 2016, and Fund II was registered as a Category II Alternative Investment Fund with effect from April 1, 2022.

Who it backs

The fund says it backs founders before the market catches up, usually with the first institutional cheque, at the moment when conviction matters most. On what it looks for, the site says it weighs team, TAM and tailwinds, but that conviction in founder-market fit comes above all else. It wants founders who bring sharp insight into their markets and the drive to build what others cannot yet see.

What it invests in

Sprout splits its thesis in two. Consumption-led companies address demand gaps in the consumption of products or services and ride India's expanding consumption opportunity. Technology-led companies address need gaps with technology, by creating new products, building unique intellectual property and using frontier technologies to solve market problems.

The portfolio list on its site spans both halves: consumer brands such as Eat Anytime, Fashor, House of Zelena and Lorazzo, consumer services and internet products such as Newmi Care and Trell, and enterprise software such as AdvantageClub, ExtraaEdge, Pixis and Taqtics. The list can be filtered by fund (Fund I or Fund II) and by status, and it shows companies marked active, exited, partially exited and inactive, so it is a candid record rather than a highlight reel.

The team

The site presents a small, hands-on team with backgrounds spanning venture investing, investment banking and company building. Two partners, Sahil Gupta and Sunil Jain, lead it, with Naman Sodhani on the investment team.

How to reach it

The website has a Pitch us button and a contact section with a form that opens an email to the fund's pitch inbox. It publishes no application window, deadline or eligibility checklist, so treat it as a conventional venture fund that you approach directly or through an introduction rather than a programme with a published intake. Its office is on Cunningham Road in Bangalore.