Theia Ventures Secures BII as Anchor Investor, Hits $30M Fund First Close

Theia Ventures, one of India’s first specialist early-stage funds dedicated exclusively to energy transition, deep tech, and decarbonization, has announced the first close of its maiden $30 million fund. 

Theia Ventures, in a press release, explained that the fund has already secured commitments exceeding 50% of its target corpus and has begun deploying capital. Explaining further, it said that British International Investment (BII) is the anchor investor, alongside a strong base of corporate venture arms, fund-of-funds, and family offices. 

Purpose of the Investment

Sharing the goal of the recent funding, it explained, "With a focused investment thesis, Theia Ventures Fund I aims to back 18–20 early-stage startups developing differentiated technologies to decarbonize critical sectors such as heavy industry, manufacturing, material science, mobility, and supply chains."

It added, "The firm typically invests between $500,000 and $1 million, with over 50% of the corpus reserved for follow-on investments. The team brings a strong track record in energy transition investments, with prior proprietary investments in companies such as Exponent Energy, AltM Bio, Octolife, and Metastable Materials."

Theia also mentioned other global investors apart from BII, including Allocator One (Germany), Cisco Foundation (US), and Vitality Capital Partners (Australia). It includes domestic and global family offices backing the fund, such as Anand Mahindra, Meher Pudumjee (Thermax Group), JM Financial, Vimson: Shivanand Salgaocar Group, and Pramit Jhaveri (former CEO of Citibank India). 

Past Funding

Sharing details of the past funding, it said, "Through Fund I, Theia Ventures invested in Sarla Aviation, an Accel-backed electric air taxi company, and recently led a pre-seed round in Climitra Carbon, a biocoal company catering to the steel industry, run by a Stanford GSB, IIT-Bom & IIT-Dhanbad team. The fund has also signed on two additional companies in precision fermentation (biotech) and AI-based energy data modelling, with further investments expected to be announced in early 2026. The final close of the fund is expected by the end of the current financial year."

Priya Shah, Founder & Managing Partner of Theia Ventures, said, "Theia’s objective remains clear: to unlock much-needed, early-stage capital towards Indian companies building transformative technologies to disrupt the energy status quo. Petroleum or coal-based products and processes are now being rapidly replaced by cleaner fuels and energy sources, which presents a huge opportunity for startup innovation and growth, particularly in emerging sectors such as carbon removal, novel materials, data centres, clean mobility, renewable energy and biotech. It’s fantastic to see international capital flowing into India to support talented founders building bold solutions that will shape the future."

Shilpa Kumar, Managing Director and Head of Asia at BII, said: "Through our partnership with Theia, we are delighted to support early-stage companies developing unique climate technologies that can protect the planet and vulnerable groups in India. The climate emergency affects every aspect of life. Our investment will help accelerate technology development to reduce emissions and enhance climate resilience among low-income groups. This is aligned with our goal of contributing to India’s clean energy transition."