Aarin Capital

Aarin Capital is a Bengaluru-based proprietary venture fund and fund-of-funds, co-founded around 2011 by T.V. Mohandas Pai — the former CFO and board member of Infosys and a Padma Shri awardee — and Dr. Ranjan Pai, chairman of the Manipal Education and Medical Group (the two share a surname but are not related). Structured partly as a family office spanning multiple asset classes, Aarin makes direct investments in startups while also acting as a prime limited partner across 10-to-15-plus funds covering early- and growth-stage venture capital, public markets, real estate project financing, hedge funds and private equity. Its direct thesis centres on technology-driven businesses in life sciences, healthcare and education with large, India-centric or India-first market opportunities, and it has progressively expanded into impact areas such as climate tech and agritech. A distinctive feature is its role as an ecosystem builder: Aarin has helped launch and seed funds including 3one4 Capital, Exfinity Venture Partners, Ideaspring Capital and Saha Fund, where the Pais serve as both GPs and LPs, supported by around 35 independent fund managers across a roughly $450 million ecosystem. Its direct portfolio and exits include Byju's, PharmEasy, HomeLane, ZoomCar, Licious, Kapiva and Faircent. The firm explicitly works to keep promising Indian companies domiciled in India.