8i Ventures

8i Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on India, investing at Pre-Seed, Seed, and Pre-Series A stages with cheque sizes ranging from $100k to $1M. The firm backs founders building across SaaS, FinTech, Consumer, B2B, and AI verticals, with a thesis centered on identifying and supporting India's most ambitious builders from the earliest stages of company formation. What distinguishes 8i Ventures in the crowded early-stage landscape is its emphasis on community: the firm has cultivated a network of experienced operators and founders who actively engage with portfolio companies, offering hands-on guidance on product, go-to-market, and hiring. For first-time or early founders in India, this access to a peer operator community can be as valuable as the capital itself. Founders raising a pre-institutional or early institutional round with a clear India market angle, particularly in enterprise software, fintech infrastructure, or AI-native products, will find 8i Ventures a relevant conversation. The team is reachable through their website and LinkedIn, and they are known to be founder-friendly in their early engagement process.