Nandan Nilekani Steps Down as General Partner at Fundamentum While Remaining Anchor Investor for Its Third Fund

Nandan Nilekani will no longer serve as a general partner at Fundamentum Partnership, the venture capital firm he co-founded nearly a decade ago. TechCrunch reported that Nilekani is stepping down as the firm targets about $200 million for its third fund. He will act as the fund's anchor investor while continuing to advise the firm and mentor portfolio companies.

Aggarwal said Nilekani remains integral to the firm and will keep mentoring the teams it backs. Nilekani, 71, co-founded Infosys and led the creation of India's Aadhaar biometric identity system. Fundamentum was started in 2017 and backs Indian startups at the Series B stage and later.

Its portfolio includes Spinny, PharmEasy, Kuku FM and AppsForBharat. Fund III will be led by Aggarwal, Prateek Jain, Mayank Kachhwaha and Sanjay Chaturvedi. The new fund aims to back eight to ten early-stage startups building consumer technology, fintech and AI products, with initial checks of about $10.5 million each.

The firm has already begun deploying capital for Fund III, and fundraising is expected to conclude over the next 12 to 18 months. Nilekani is making his largest-ever commitment to a venture capital fund. Fund III expects to raise roughly half its target from international investors and the rest from Indian institutions, family offices, founders and partners.

Fundamentum has made 17 investments across its first two funds and has returned about half the capital from its first fund to investors. General partner Ashish Kumar recently left Fundamentum to launch the separate AI-focused venture fund Fundamentum Frontier Advisors, which also has Nilekani as an anchor investor.