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Inception investing for technical AI founders
Activate is a venture firm focused on backing technical founders building AI companies in India. The fund engages with founders even before incorporation and invests $500K–$3M at inception. Founded by Aakrit Vaish and Pratyush, Activate aims to help build institutions that shape the development of artificial intelligence in India by partnering early with exceptional technical teams and helping them validate ideas, build products, and launch companies.
Activate believes India’s AI ecosystem will be built by highly technical founding teams. The firm partners with founders at the idea stage, helping validate hypotheses, shape products, and assemble early teams before leading the first institutional round. Its philosophy centers around velocity in execution, deep domain expertise, strong intuition in product decisions, and the ability to build influence and attention in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Aakrit Vaish
Founder / General Partner
Aakrit Vaish previously built Haptik, one of India's earliest AI companies which was later acquired by Reliance Jio. He has invested as an angel in over 100 startups and has served as an advisor to the IndiaAI Mission.
Pratyush
Co-Founder / Partner
Pratyush was part of the investment team that backed companies such as Composio, Emergent and Rocket.new from India. He also runs one of the largest generative AI communities in the APAC region.
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