Accoutred with over 15 years of entrepreneurial experience, Anirudh is third-generation entrepreneur and a second-generation investor from the Damani family. He was the first to introduce the concept of microVC firms in India and is currently the managing partner of Artha Venture Fund (‘AVF’), the country’s 1st, and now the top performing early-stage microVC firm. Under his leadership, AVF has made significant investments in the B2B, SaaS, B2C, FinTech, and SpaceTech segments. Based on his early-stage investment strategy, through his family office’s alternative investment arm, Artha India Ventures (‘AIV’), Anirudh launched Artha Venture Fund I, initially aimed at being a ₹200 crore (~$30 million) but ended up at ₹225 crore corpus. Since its inception, AVF I has distinguished itself by delivering an impressive internal rate of return (XIRR) of 61%, significantly outperforming the industry average IRR of 35% for comparable microVC funds in India, placing it among the top 5 globally. Anirudh’s bold conviction in backing India’s next category leaders have led AVF I to facilitate over 50 investment rounds across a diverse range of ventures, including Everest Fleet, Agnikul, LenDenClub, GetWork, Lemnisk, InstaAstro, Daalchini, and Nirmalaya. Notably, 6 of its top 10 portfolio companies are profitable, with several securing significant follow-on investments from global institutional investors and marquee corporate venture capital funds. AVF I has recently been independently ranked #1 VC Fund in India by Preqin as reported in the March 2025 Performance Benchmark Report and #3 PE/VC Fund globally by PitchBook. Building on the success of Artha Venture Fund I (AVF I), Anirudh has launched and announced the first close of ₹250 crores for its second early-stage microVC fund, Artha Venture Fund II (AVF II), targeting a total corpus of ₹500 crores with a ₹100 crore green-shoe option. The fund has already secured more than 50% of its target commitments, reflecting the strong investor confidence in Artha’s conviction-led strategy and proven track record. AVF II will invest in 36 seed-stage startups across 4 themes viz premium consumption, fintech infrastructure, applied AI, and deep tech, deploying ₹4 crore initial cheques and doubling down with ₹8–16 crore follow-on investments under its proprietary 1–2–4 model. The fund targets 15-20% ownership in its top portfolio companies and will operate on a four-year deployment cycle. Anirudh also launched Artha Select Fund (ASF), a growth-stage “winners-only” fund, built to double down on the top 10% of companies from AVF-I businesses that have been backed since seed and are now scaling with insider access. ASF has now closed at ₹432 crore, overshooting its original target of ₹330 crore by 31% and will back the top 15% of Artha’s 135 portfolio companies. Apart from an exceptional investment acumen, Anirudh is a double major from Austin College in Sherman, TX, and has a passionate drive for deep-sea diving, adventure, travel, sky diving, and blogging and is also a die-hard cricket fan.