Silicon Road Ventures launches Rs 150 cr India AI fund for commerce startups

US-based venture capital firm Silicon Road Ventures has partnered veteran banker Ajay Mahajan to launch a Rs 150 crore alternative investment fund (AIF) focused on startups building agentic AI solutions for the commerce and retail technology sector.

Mahajan has held senior leadership roles across India’s banking and financial services sector, including at Bank of America, Yes Bank, UBS and IDFC Bank. He was part of the founding team at Yes Bank and later helped build UBS’ India business.

The Sebi-registered Category-II AIF will back early-stage startups working across ecommerce, supply chain and logistics, fintech, consumer insights and retail operations, Mahajan told TOI.

The fund plans to remain tightly focused on commerce technology rather than pursuing broader AI themes. “We will not fund capex companies, we will not fund drones, we will not fund defence, we will not fund anything that is capex driven,” Mahajan said. “We won’t fund healthcare, we won’t fund any other sector than retail, ecommerce and CPG.”

Mahajan said the firm is increasingly seeing startups move beyond AI-powered analytics into software capable of automated decision-making across ecommerce and retail workflows, including pricing, inventory allocation and marketing spends.

“There are companies that are doing so much work in that space,” he said. “It is agentic all the way.” Mahajan said the firm evaluates nearly 400 startups annually before narrowing investments to only four to six companies.

The news was first reported by The Economic Times.

Founded by Sid Mookerji, Silicon Road Ventures has so far launched three funds in the US, including a $31 million seed fund and a $64 million opportunity fund. Mukherjee previously built retail technology company Software Paradigms International (SPI), which was acquired by Cognizant in 2018.