Get to know about Merak Ventures

Tell us about your company.

Merak Ventures is an $80M early-stage fund focused on backing B2B and emerging technology companies solving real-world problems with scalable solutions. Led by experienced fund managers and operators Manu Rikhye and Sheetal Bahl – who also lead grow^X Ventures Fund I – Merak brings a disciplined, thesis-led approach to building companies that endure.

That approach is reflected in our investments, where we have been early backers of category-defining companies such as Progcap, retailer-financing rails for the “long tail” of merchants, enabling data driven credit where traditional underwriting struggles and Pixxel, the world’s first hyperspectral imaging constellation, where we were the first institutional backers and marked our first exit with a 17× partial realisation, validating DeepTech in India.

Building on that foundation, Merak Ventures has already invested in six category-defining companies across SpaceTech, AgriTech, FinTech, SaaS, and B2B Marketplaces.

What role does your company play in the IWM / EAM ecosystem?

Merak Ventures turns India’s growth story into tangible investment opportunities for the IWM and EAM ecosystem. Our job is to help wealth managers offer their clients intelligent, future-forward exposure to India’s innovation economy, without compromising on diligence, access, or alignment.

With teams in Singapore and across India, we focus on early-stage B2B and emerging tech — from DeepTech to SaaS, AgriTech to SpaceTech — and work closely with IWMs and EAMs to deliver curated opportunities, co-investment, and sharp portfolio visibility.

We bring the discipline of a top-decile VC fund (53% IRR, 5.0x MOIC on our first fund) and the transparency of a true partner, making it easier for advisors to tap into a segment of the market that’s historically been opaque or hard to access. Most importantly, we stay close to the founders we back and the markets they’re building for — so our partners stay plugged into what’s next.