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Helping founders build valuable companies
Managed by Axilor Ventures
SEBI-encouraged funds — venture capital, SME, social-impact and infrastructure. Close-ended, generally unleveraged.
Axilor Investment Trust is a Category I AIF (Angel Fund) managed by Axilor Ventures Private Limited, a Bengaluru-based early-stage seed fund co-founded by Infosys stalwarts S. Gopalakrishnan (Kris), S.D. Shibulal, Srinath Batni, Prof. Tarun Khanna, and Ganapathy Venugopal (VG). Registered with SEBI in February 2018, the trust serves as the vehicle for Axilor's seed investment programmes. The platform currently manages two funds under the trust — ATF 1 (Axilor Investment Trust Fund 1) and ATF 2. Axilor invests $500K–$750K in 8–12 startups each year at the seed stage, taking a thesis-driven approach across commerce, fintech, enterprise SaaS, healthcare, agritech, climate-tech, and clean mobility. With a portfolio of 60+ companies and a 75%+ follow-on rate to Series A — one of the highest for any first fund in India — Axilor has produced 7 companies valued at $100Mn+. Portfolio highlights include Medfin, Capgrid, SwitchOn, Niramai, Vyapar, UrbanPiper, Sigtuple, and EnKash. Axilor's Micelio Fund is a dedicated clean mobility sub-fund within the platform. The fund is anchored at JP Nagar, Bengaluru and maintains an active community of 400+ founders.
S. Gopalakrishnan
Co-Founder & Chairman
Senapathy 'Kris' Gopalakrishnan is Chairman of Axilor Ventures and one of the seven co-founders of Infosys. He served as CEO & MD of Infosys from 2007 to 2011 and Vice Chairman from 2011 to 2014. Recognised as a global technology thought leader, he was voted top CEO (IT Services) in Institutional Investor's inaugural Asia ranking (2011) and selected to Thinkers 50 (2009). He was President of CII for 2013-14 and co-chaired the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2014. In January 2011, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan. He serves on the Board of Governors of OIST and is Chairman, Board of Governors of IIIT Bangalore. He holds Master's degrees in Physics and Computer Science from IIT Madras.
S.D. Shibulal
Co-Founder
S.D. Shibulal is a co-founder of Axilor Ventures and one of the seven co-founders of Infosys (1981). He served as CEO & MD of Infosys from 2011 to 2014 and is credited with creating the Global Delivery Model that set a new standard for outsourced IT services. He is Trustee of the Infosys Science Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees of Boston University, Member of the Board of Managers of Haverford College, and Chairman of the High Power Digital Advisory Committee of Kerala.
Prof. Tarun Khanna
Co-Founder
Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School and Director of Harvard University's Lakshmi Mittal & Family South Asia Institute. For over 25 years he has studied entrepreneurship as a means of economic development. His online course on Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies has been taken by more than half a million students across 200 countries. He serves on the boards of AES Corporation, InMobi (India's first unicorn), and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. He is a co-founder of several ventures across the developing world.
Prachi Sinha
Partner — Healthcare, Agritech & Climate-Tech Investments
Prachi Sinha heads Healthcare, Climate-tech, and Agritech Investments at Axilor. She has a decade of public policy and consulting experience at organisations including Janaagraha and McKinsey, with a focus on business model viability, go-to-market strategies, corporate partnerships, and regulatory pathways. She is an MBA from ISB and an Economics graduate from Fergusson College, Pune.
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Alok Chauhan
Principal — Clean Mobility (Micelio Fund)
Alok Chauhan leads Clean Mobility investments for Axilor's Micelio Fund. Previously he was an Investment Banker at Unitus Capital (impact-focused IB) where he set up the Clean Mobility practice, and has also worked at EY and Goldman Sachs. He is a CFA charterholder and holds a B.B.M. from Bangalore University.
Sanjana Manku
Senior Associate — Climate-Tech & Health-Tech Investments
Sanjana Manku is a Senior Associate at Axilor focusing on Climate and Health-Tech investments. Prior to Axilor she worked with January Capital (Singapore, B2B Commerce & Enterprise SaaS) and Wavemaker Impact's climate-tech venture build. She also has experience at PwC, Deloitte, and Vymo. She is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA from the National University of Singapore and a B.Com from Christ University.
Nidhi Mathur
Head — Axilor Labs
Nidhi Mathur focuses on incubating innovative ideas under the Axilor Labs initiative. She is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Niramai (an AI startup for breast cancer screening, also an Axilor portfolio company). Previously she worked with corporate research labs and incubation offices on business models bridging the affordability and accessibility divide in emerging markets. She is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore (Marketing & Strategy).
Shubham Patel
Senior Manager — Legal & Compliance
Shubham Patel is Senior Manager of Legal and Compliance at Axilor, supporting portfolio companies on investment documentation and compliance. Prior to Axilor, he was a Senior Associate at Sarvaank Associates, practising Commercial Law and Private Equity. He holds a BBA LLB (Hons.) from Jindal Global Law School.
Ganapathy Venugopal
Co-Founder & CEO / SEBI Contact Person
Ganapathy Venugopal (VG) is Co-Founder & CEO of Axilor Ventures and the designated SEBI contact person for Axilor Investment Trust. Prior to co-founding Axilor, he was Head of Strategy & Planning at Infosys, having spent his first 15 years in leadership roles helping large corporates manage and mitigate risk. At Axilor, he focuses on commerce, fintech, and enterprise SaaS, and serves on the boards of several portfolio companies. He holds a B.E. and a postgraduate degree in management from IIM Lucknow.
Srinath Batni
Co-Founder / Designated Partner
Srinath Batni served as a member of the Board of Directors at Infosys from 2000 to 2014, responsible for delivery excellence across the company. He joined Infosys in June 1992 and held various roles from project management to heading key business units. He also served on the Executive Council of NASSCOM and is a non-executive Board Member at Axiscades Ltd and Global Edge Software Ltd.
View the investment manager profile with all PMS strategies and AIFs under Axilor Ventures.