Inflexor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, said Wednesday it has invested in deep-tech startup Steradian Semiconductors Pvt. Ltd to mark its debut bet from its new fund.
Venkat Vallabhaneni, managing partner at Inflexor Ventures, said in a statement the VC firm sees Steradian’s technology play a vital role in the automotive industry as the world moves towards higher levels of automation.
The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Inflexor’s fund has a typical ticket size ranging between Rs 3 crore and Rs 10 crore.
The development comes after VCCircle reported in June that Steradian had raised Series A funding from new and existing investors. US-based Renesas Electronics America Inc and Aaruha Technology Fund had come in as new investors, and existing investor Endiya Partners also participated in the funding round.
Steradian was founded in early 2016 by Ashish Lachhwani, Gireesh Rajendran, Apu Sivadas, Rakesh Kumar and Alok Joshi. The company initially was operating with grants received from organizations such as US chipmaker Qualcomm. It had developed a device—a compact 28nm millimeter-wave imaging radar chip—that will help autonomous vehicles detect obstacles in all weather conditions.
The company’s founders have expertise in radar and wireless systems. They previously worked at companies such as Texas Instruments and Qualcomm, and hold over 50 patents.
In 2019, VCCircle reported that Nasdaq-listed Visteon Corporation bought a minority stake in the deep-tech startup.
Inflexor Ventures
The VC firm had marked the first close of its fund at Rs 230 crore in Septemer. The Inflexor Technology Fund is a Securities and Exchange Board of India-registered alternative investment vehicle and is targeting a full corpus of Rs 500 crore.
The new fund is sector-agnostic with a focus on investing in companies leveraging technology intellectual property across sectors such as health-tech, fintech, consumer-tech, cleantech, ed-tech and agri-tech.
The Inflexor Ventures team consists of managing partners Vallabhaneni and Jatin Desai, who co-founded Parampara Capital. Pratip Mazumdar, a former IDFC executive, has also joined Inflexor Ventures as a partner.
Parampara Capital had set up its debut fund, Parampara Early Stage Opportunities Fund, in 2015. In 2017, the VC firm had roped in IDFC Alternatives, the private equity arm of IDFC group, in the fund. IDFC Alternatives had a strategic commitment to the fund including participation in the fund’s investment committee and advisory board. It had also marked IDFC Alternatives entry into early-stage investing.