Silverneedle Ventures

Silverneedle Ventures is a Hyderabad-based early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2022 by Ajay Jain and Deepesh Agarwal, who previously ran their first fund, Xseed Partners, for five years and backed 25 startups. Operating out of T-Hub in Madhapur and approved by SEBI in August 2022, the firm describes itself as a hands-on, active investor that partners closely with entrepreneurs to raise their probability of success. It is broadly sector-agnostic but maintains a special focus on deep technology, sustainability and emerging technologies, alongside B2B, SaaS, D2C/consumer-internet and edtech, emphasising India-first companies with global ambitions that can expand into Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Its maiden fund is sized at around ₹100 crore (roughly $12–15 million), with a plan to back about 30 startups in 18 months at ₹1–6 crore per deal and support them through exits typically targeted within three to five years; the firm has since launched a much larger deep-tech vehicle, the SilverX Fund, reportedly around ₹800 crore. To date Silverneedle has screened hundreds of startups and made roughly 15–29 investments with several exits, supported by a team of about 14 including four partners. Portfolio companies include creator-monetisation platform Knorish, learning platform Disprz, AI-video-marketing startup Hypergro, neuroscience firm BrainSightAI and Dhruva Space.