Fundamentum's Ashish Kumar launches F2A with Rs 3,000 crore war chest to back AI, deeptech startups

Fundamentum Partnership co-founder Ashish Kumar has launched a new frontier-tech investment platform called F2A (Fundamentum Frontier Advisors), targeting investments in AI and deeptech startups across consumer, enterprise and physical AI segments.

The launch comes after SEBI approved the platform’s fund, Fundamentum III – AI and DeepTech, with a target corpus of Rs 2,000 crore. The platform will also oversee up to Rs 1,000 crore in parallel co-investments, taking the total corpus to Rs 3,000 crore.

Former SIDBI Venture Capital senior investment executive Debraj Banerjee has joined the platform as General Partner. The platform is backed by a mix of institutional and individual investors, including Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, who has come on board as the anchor investor.

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The launch reflects rising investor interest in AI-focused and deeptech startups as India positions itself as a major market for next-generation technology development.

“We are seeing a structural shift in how AI and DeepTech are being built and adopted across sectors,” Ashish Kumar, co-founder of Fundamentum, said.

“F2A is a continuation of our effort to partner with founders building enduring, technology-led businesses, with the same disciplined, long-term approach that has defined Fundamentum,” he added.

Kumar said India currently has the “right combination of talent, ambition, policy and capital” for frontier-tech companies to scale.

The new platform will focus on companies building across consumer AI, enterprise AI and physical AI, sectors that have seen growing investor attention globally amid rapid advances in generative AI and automation technologies.

Kumar also said he would continue overseeing the existing portfolio of Fundamentum’s earlier funds alongside building F2A.