Early-Stage VC Seafund Invests In 5 Deeptech Start-Ups As Part Of Its Sustainability Thrust

Early-stage focused Seafund Ventures has invested Rs 5 crore across five sustainability-focused start-ups—Redwings, Docker Vision, Swapp Design, Simatricals and Evhicle. 

Seafund is investing in these five start-ups, which have been selected as a culmination of an exhaustive nationwide process. In addition to the monetary investment, the companies will also benefit from market access and acceleration programs over the next few months.

Manoj Agarwal, managing partner at SeaFund, said, “We believe that the EV landscape in India is at its nascent stage and the opportunity from clean mobility to EV tech is now beginning to be explored as more investors understand the thesis of growth. We take pride in the fact that sustainability and EV-related sectors have always been a priority for us, and it is now that we are seeing real innovation across the value chain. We will continue to help our portfolio companies scale and look for fresh investment opportunities in this sector.”

Docker Vision uses Computer Imaging and AI to accelerate the mobility of shipping containers at ports and assess the conditions in real-time. At the same time, Swapp Design has designed an interoperable and modular architecture for fast battery swapping using autonomous robots.

Simatricals makes robust autonomous EV wireless charging solutions that provide high-speed charging through auto-alignment suitable for different vehicle classes. Similarly, Evhicle produces Vehicle Control Units (VCUs) that provide intelligence to EVs to optimise vehicle dynamics, telemetry, payload monitoring and over-the-air updates. 

RedWings designs, develops and deploys fully autonomous drones to transform logistics supply chains and is at the forefront of commercialising these services in India.

Seafund is raising its second fund with a target corpus of Rs 250 crore. The fund plans to invest 20 per cent of its entire investible corpus in clean energy and the electric vehicle (EV) value chain, including sectors like transportation, logistics and circular economy. 

Narendra Bhandari, general partner at SeaFund, added, “As we continue to raise our second fund, we are seeing a huge interest in the Indian EV landscape from the LPs. The wider conversation is that the shift towards cleaner and more sustainable models is no longer a choice but a necessity, given the fast deterioration in the environment in our cities. Coupling this with disruptive start-ups emerging from several corners of India encourages early investors like us to work with the founders and provide them with capital and access to grow their businesses.” 

Seafund is a Category 2 Alternate Investment Fund (AIF) registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and is an early-stage sector-agnostic, stage-focused technology fund with deep tech as one of its underlying themes. 

It intends to invest a more significant amount in one or more of these start-ups as they scale and meet their performance milestones and show growth—in accordance with its fund philosophy of deploying more than 50 per cent of its corpus in follow-on rounds. It will continue to work with them and invest more in these and other potentials that offer unique EV-based mobility solutions. This is also part of Seafund’s ESG strategy to build a robust portfolio across various climate-focused technologies.

“Adoption of EVs is accelerating in India and has reached a tipping point through the alignment of government policies, a homegrown ecosystem of design and manufacturing entities and now, the availability of capital to fund these ventures. The early adopters of EVs are the B2B logistics and supply chain players using these for last-mile delivery, as the economics make for a compelling use case. ESG goals of the enterprises and policymakers are propelling EV adoption rapidly in this sector,” added Mayuresh Raut, managing partner of SeaFund Ventures.