z21 Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, has raised $20 million in the first close of its $40 million Fund II. The anchor investor for this fund is WestBridge Capital, a global investment firm. Fund II follows the full deployment of z21 Ventures’ first fund of $5 million in June 2024.
The first fund supported 26 mission-driven startups across various sectors. The new fund will continue to focus on investing in disruptive technology companies. It will target sectors such as artificial intelligence, enterprise software, and healthcare.
The primary focus will remain on pre-seed and seed-stage investments in companies with strong teams, innovative technologies, and large market opportunities. Raj Singh, co-founder and managing partner of z21 Ventures, said, “We are thrilled to announce the first close of our Fund II and welcome our anchor investor.
z21 Ventures launches new fund
This successful fundraise is a validation of our community-led model and our track record of identifying and supporting promising early-stage companies. We look forward to supporting entrepreneurs to build and scale purposeful companies by bringing the power of community and capital.”
Sumir Chadha, co-founder and managing partner of WestBridge Capital, expressed excitement about the partnership. “We are excited to partner with z21 Ventures and support their mission of investing in innovative technology companies.
z21 Ventures is well-positioned to succeed, and their community-focused and operator-led model can provide valuable support for early-stage founders and help build category-defining companies.”
Jyotika Gupta, partner at z21 Ventures, highlighted the role of their limited partner community. “Our limited partner community helps us with early access to incredible founders and provides founders with deep functional and strategic expertise, strong connections, and a supportive ecosystem in their initial journey. We are on a mission to unlock value for founders through a robust ecosystem.”
Sudarshan Ravi Jha, partner at z21 Ventures, discussed the impact of AI on the B2B SaaS stack.
“AI is already disrupting the entire B2B SaaS stack, from infrastructure, data, and middleware to apps and agents which will be deployed in almost every organization over the next few years. We’ve seen the era of systems of record (Salesforce and SAP), systems of intelligence (Innovaccer and Palantir), and now we will witness companies emerging as systems of action where multiple workflows at scale will be deployed.”
z21 Ventures was founded by Raj Singh, Abhinav Shashank (Co-founder and CEO of Innovaccer), Jyotika Gupta (formerly of Glassdoor), and Sudarshan Ravi Jha (co-founder of LetsTransport). All four are alumni of IIT Kharagpur, bringing a wealth of experience and a shared mission of investing in the future of technology.
