Press Release
Speciale Invest and A91 Partners were awarded as among the leading Venture Capital investors in India for 2025 as part of Venture Intelligence APEX‘26 Private Equity & Venture Capital awards event in Mumbai.
The Venture Intelligence “Awards for Private Equity Excellence” (APEX) is dedicated to celebrating the best that the Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital industry has to offer. The APEX Awardees are selected based on both Self Nomination by the participating PE-VC firms and “crowd sourced” voting from the Limited Partner, PE-VC and advisory communities.
VC Investor of the Year
Speciale Invest received the VC Investor of the Year 2025 Award on the back of 7 exits with return multiples ranging from 60.4x to 1.4x. The list 5 exits via secondary sales (including Agnikul Cosmos with 60.4x, Rocketlane with 11.9x and I Auro Systems with 6x) and 2 US-based companies via strategic sales (including Vidurama, 18x). Speciale also made the Final Close of its Fund III at INR 600 crore during 2025. 10 of its portfolio companies attracted follow-on rounds during the year.
Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner of Speciale (Right) and Sunil Cavale, Investment Principal (Center) receiving VC Investor of the Year – 2025 Award from Gana S K, Advisor, Venture Intelligence
“We are deeply honoured to receive the VC Investor of the Year award at APEX’26 from Venture Intelligence. This recognition truly belongs to the founders we partner with at Speciale Invest, who are building world-class deep-tech companies from India,” said Vishesh Rajaram of Speciale Invest. “It reinforces our conviction that capital, scientific ambition, and long-term partnership can create globally competitive technology platforms from India,” he added.
VC Fund Raise of the Year
A91 Partners received the VC Fund Raise of the Year 2025 Award for clsoing its USD 665 million third fund. “Raising our 3rd fund is an opportunity for us to continue supporting entrepreneurs building enduring businesses for tomorrow’s India. It is also a big responsibility towards Limited Partners who have continued with their trust and belief. We are both excited about the opportunity and very conscious of the responsibility,” said Abhay Pandey, General Partner, A91 Partners, .
Kaushik Anand, Partner, A91 Partners (Right) receives the VC Fund Raise of the Year 2025 Award
from V Laxmikanth, Managing Partner, Pavestone Capital
Venture Intelligence is India’s longest-serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital, and M&A) & their Valuations in India.
