Accel, Peak XV tie at top of India’s Cheetah investor list; Premji Invest enters top 10

Accel and Peak XV Partners have emerged as the leading institutional investors in India’s startup ecosystem, each backing 18 of the 110 Cheetahs featured in the 2026 ASK Private Wealth Hurun India Cheetah Index. Blume Ventures and Elevation Capital followed with 10 and nine investments, respectively.

The index tracks privately held companies that have achieved a valuation of at least $1 billion but have not yet reached the $10 billion mark.

Premji Invest becomes first family office in top 10

A key shift in the 2026 rankings is the entry of Premji Invest, which backed seven Cheetahs and ranked seventh among institutional investors. It is the first family office to enter the top 10 in the five-year history of the index.

Stride Ventures and Z47 each backed eight Cheetahs, while 360 ONE Asset and 3one4 Capital had six each.

“Accel and Peak XV Partners tie at the top with 18 Cheetahs each. At number seven, Premji Invest becomes the first family office to enter the top ten investors list,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, Founder and Chief Researcher, Hurun India.

He said Indian venture capital has historically been funded substantially from outside the country, and described the emergence of a family office at this scale as a sign of earlier-generation wealth backing new Indian businesses.

“Indian success recycled into Indian ambition,” Junaid said, referring to the trend.

Top institutional investors by number of Cheetahs backed

Anand Chandrasekaran leads angel investors

Among individual investors, Anand Chandrasekaran topped the angel investor rankings with investments in 11 Cheetahs, including SaaS Labs, Safe Security and ToneTag.

Kunal Shah followed with eight investments, including Curefoods, Jar and Park+, while Ramakant Sharma backed seven companies, including GoKwik, Mokobara and Snapmint. Amrish Rau, Deepinder Goyal and Sanjeev Barnwal backed three Cheetahs each.

The index combines personal and affiliated-fund investments for angel investors, while each Cheetah is counted only once.

Six Cheetahs went public in 2026

The year also saw significant exits, with six former Cheetahs listing on the public markets. These included SEDEMAC, which had a market capitalisation of Rs 14,470 crore as of August 20, followed by Kissht at Rs 5,140 crore, Purple Style Labs at Rs 4,600 crore, Wakefit at Rs 4,520 crore, Aye Finance at Rs 4,180 crore and Capillary Technologies at Rs 4,070 crore.

Pepperfry exited through an acquisition, while 16 Cheetahs were removed from the index during the year.

Most-funded Cheetahs

Fourth Partner Energy tops funding chart

Capital concentration was particularly visible among the most-funded companies. Fourth Partner Energy raised Rs 5,398 crore, almost three times the amount raised by the second-ranked Curefoods at Rs 1,828 crore.

Medibuddy, MedGenome, Cashify and Snapmint were among the other highly funded Cheetahs. Meanwhile, EV, Artificial Intelligence, CleanTech and Aerospace & Defence together accounted for 26 of the 110 companies tracked by the index.