FoundrPwr - Decoding DeepTech Funding
DeepTech founders play a different game. You're not optimizing a growth loop; you're derisking physics, materials, and hard engineering, often years before there's a product to show. That means the way you pitch, the milestones you set, and the investors you target all need to be different too.
For the 10th edition of FoundrPwr, we're bringing in Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner of Speciale Invest — one of India's most active early-stage DeepTech investors, with a portfolio spanning space, semiconductors, and robotics.
Vishesh will walk through what VCs are actually screening for when they evaluate a DeepTech bet, what founders should have ready before they walk into that first meeting, how to frame technical risk in language investors can underwrite, and why he believes India's DeepTech investing moment is only just beginning.
Who should Attend:
This session is built for early-stage founders and operators building in DeepTech — space, materials science, bioscience, hardware, AI/robotics, and aerospace.
Whether you're pre-seed and shaping your first pitch, or already fundraising and want to sharpen how you're positioning technical risk, this is for you.
What we'll cover:
What VCs actually look for when evaluating a DeepTech investment
What founders should be ready for - diligence, timelines, and how technical depth gets assessed
What to say (and how to say it) when explaining hard-tech risk to non-technical investors
Why DeepTech investing potential is growing in India right now
About the Speaker:
Vishesh Rajaram is a Managing Partner at Speciale Invest. A Chartered Accountant with an MBA from ISB, Vishesh's path to venture capital ran through corporate banking at ICICI, running and exiting his family's pharma business, and nearly a decade at Ventureast, one of India's pioneering VC firms.
Speciale Invest is one of India's earliest deeptech-only venture funds, co-founded in 2017 by Vishesh Rajaram and Arjun Rao. The fund backs early-stage, IP-led founders across spacetech, semiconductors, robotics, and climate tech. The fund has deployed capital across 52 companies, producing one unicorn (Agnikul Cosmos), six acquisitions, and two soonicorns.
About Mela Ventures & FoundrPwr:
Mela Ventures is a Bengaluru-based early-stage VC firm. It was founded in 2020 by Krishnakumar Natarajan and Parthasarathy NS, co-founders of Mindtree, which they scaled from a startup to a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. The firm invests exclusively in B2B startups across Deeptech, enterprise technology, and allied sectors, backing companies through a rigorous, research-led process.
FoundrPwr is Mela's ongoing initiative to give back to the founder community - a series of in-person events that bring experienced operators and founders together for honest, practical conversations on what it takes to build. Past speakers have included Pramod Ghadge (Co-founder & CEO, Unbox Robotics), Rajesh Yabaji (Founder & CEO, BlackBuck), and Viren Rasquinha (CEO, Olympic Gold Quest).
📅 23rd July | 6:00 PM 📍 TBD, Bangalore
Presented by Mela Ventures
Seats are limited. Register now.