Chirag Gupta
Managing Partner
Leads the firm. Official biography covers venture capital, operating and consulting experience across technology and international markets.
LinkedIn profile ↗India / Direct investor
Engineering into enterprise.
India-focused deep-tech investor across industrial hardware, computing, energy and biotechnology.
Connect NowReported initial chequeINR 2-5 crore
Range source date19 June 2024
Manager-listed portfolio17 companies
Investment contextFund I + SPVs
01 / The fund
Patient capital for engineering-led companies
8X Ventures backs companies building technologies across precision manufacturing, electronics and communications, energy and biotechnology. Its current website names 17 portfolio companies and reports portfolio revenue, patents and order books. Those operating figures are not fund assets, committed capital or an investor return.
A company statement reported by PTI on 19 June 2024 described initial cheques of INR2-5 crore and total investment of up to INR20 crore in selected companies. This is a dated reported mandate, not a newly verified 2026 cheque commitment. The same coverage described more than INR60 crore in commitments against an INR200 crore target plus an INR100 crore greenshoe. That is not evidence of a current INR200 crore final close. Headlines that call it a closed INR200 crore fund are not used as proof of that amount being raised.
The current manager website labels 13 companies Fund I and four SPV Portfolio: Solinas Integrity, Zenpulsar, Oditly and D-NOME. SPV means a separate investment vehicle. These current labels are preserved rather than reconciled by guessing against older reporting that called the 2024 launch a second fund. The site also has stage-label inconsistencies between its grid and detail pages, so a uniform entry stage is not assumed for every holding.
The manager has offices in Chennai, Noida and Dubai. The current India portfolio spans early-stage companies through scaling businesses. Listing a company is not proof of an open allocation, a currently active holding or a confirmed realised exit.
Official investment strategy ↗ · Official portfolio and vehicle labels ↗ · Dated reported cheque and first-close context ↗02 / Portfolio
Explore by sector
All 17 companies in the current official portfolio, with each manager detail page linked as the holding source. Company websites were checked for what each business currently builds. DTT sectors group the underlying technology rather than treating every deep-tech-adjacent service as frontier technology. Vehicle labels are preserved; current holding or realised-exit status is not inferred.
BioTech 2
Engineers proteins and enzymes for industrial processes. These biological catalysts help manufacturers make chemical building blocks more selectively, including routes using renewable resources.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗
Develops molecular diagnostics using cell-free synthetic biology. Its reagents are designed to simplify nucleic-acid testing, with the manager describing room-temperature amplification and point-of-care development.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗Energy & Materials 3
Builds industrial microwave and plasma systems, including clean-hydrogen and nanocarbon technology. Microwaves heat materials or create an electrically energized gas for industrial processing.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗
Develops passive thermal-management hardware such as heat pipes, vapour chambers and loop heat pipes. These move heat away from compact electronics, vehicles, satellites and industrial equipment.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗
Turns metal recovered from electronic waste into nanoparticles. Its air-stable copper materials are being developed as an alternative to silver in electronics, solar cells and other conductive applications.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗Physical AI 4
Builds robots and inspection systems for water pipes, sewers and septic tanks. Remote inspection, cleaning and digital records help operators find faults while reducing hazardous manual work.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗
Combines ultrasonic waveguide sensors with industrial monitoring software. Sound travelling along a sensing element measures temperature and other process conditions in hot or hard-to-reach equipment.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗
Develops autonomous farm machines for mowing, weeding and material handling. Its current PHX/MoWacK system combines a rugged vehicle with remote mission control for off-road operations.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗
Builds counter-drone systems combining detection, direction finding, geolocation and electronic jamming. Coordinated units help protect airspace by identifying and disrupting unwanted drone signals.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗Semiconductors 2
Builds encryption chip IP, industrial Ethernet switches and connected-device hardware. Its software and silicon protect moving or stored data without changing the underlying data format.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗
Builds miniature optical interconnects for computing boards and AI infrastructure. Light-based links move data between components with less space and power than conventional copper wiring and bulky optical modules.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗Space Tech 1
Develops modular liquid rocket engines for launch vehicles. Its Harpy-1 programme uses liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas in a cryogenic propulsion system, meaning the propellants are kept extremely cold.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗Others 5
Makes electrical connectors, high-voltage contacts and cable harnesses for vehicle, industrial, aerospace and defence equipment. These are the physical connections that carry power and signals, not semiconductor chips.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗
Runs a deep-tech enablement network and programmes connecting startups with investors, enterprises, labs and universities. It supports company building and market access rather than developing a frontier hardware product itself.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗
Provides AI-assisted commodities intelligence using news, alternative data and geopolitical signals. Traders use its research tools and sentiment feeds to track market risks; this is software, not physical AI.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗
Provides software for operational check sheets, audits and inspections. Teams record evidence, confirm execution and trigger corrective work across sites instead of managing checks through paper and spreadsheets.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗
Designs modular floating platforms, barges, pump stations, jetties and floating-solar supports. Transportable modules create usable infrastructure on water for energy, shipping and water management.
Manager lists this as a portfolio company; current holding or realised-exit status is not independently confirmed.
Holding source ↗03 / Team & connect
Investment team
Esha Arya
Partner & Board Advisor
Partner with an industrial operating background at JBM Group, including automotive, sustainable technology and manufacturing.
LinkedIn profile ↗
Vinod Agarwal
Partner & Board Advisor
Partner with entrepreneurial and investing experience in polymers, steel and public and private markets.
LinkedIn profile ↗
Ajay Singh Rajput
Partner & Board Advisor
Partner with operating experience in polymers, petrochemicals and white goods, and startup investing across several regions.
LinkedIn profile ↗
Shreya Kothari
Associate Principal, Portfolio Growth
Official remit includes portfolio growth and startup deal execution. Her personal profile also names investor relations.
LinkedIn profile ↗
Kirthivasan Suresh
Associate, Investments
Investment associate with a mechanical-engineering background and prior experience at CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories.
LinkedIn profile ↗
Rashi Jain
Investments and Compliance Associate
Dual investment and compliance remit. Chartered Accountant with taxation, SEBI and FEMA expertise; not presented as solely an investment-decision maker.
LinkedIn profile ↗
Akash Patel
Associate, Investments
Investment associate with an IIT Kanpur background and experience across energy operations, Schlumberger and startups.
LinkedIn profile ↗
Priya Sathish
Analyst
Personal profile explicitly names deep-tech investments alongside investor relations and portfolio growth. Biomedical-engineering background.
LinkedIn profile ↗Nine investment-related profiles verified against official biographies and personal LinkedIn headers. The three Partner & Board Advisor titles are preserved, not flattened into full-time operating roles. Rashi Jain has a dual investments/compliance remit; Shreya Kothari and Priya Sathish have portfolio-growth and investor-relations responsibilities as well. Operations/compliance-only staff Madhukar Kota and Twinkal Janbandhu are excluded. External advisers and LP Day guests are not automatically investment-team members or LPs.
Official founder contact route ↗04 / Fund network
Limited partners
No named LP relationship was sufficiently verified in the sources checked. Dated reporting describes family offices and high-net-worth investors, including Middle East participation, without a usable named roster. The manager describes LP Day as an event for investors, founders, mentors and ecosystem leaders; attendance alone does not establish a fund commitment.
Named LPs not verified
Public information gap
This does not mean the fund has no LPs. Portfolio co-investors, operating partners, advisers and event hosts are not treated as LPs without a separately evidenced commitment.
Official LP Day context ↗Research checked 2 November 2026. Public statements are not investment advice or confirmation of available capital.