The Physicist's Formula: How Ritu Verma Built Ankur Capital Into India's Deep Science Powerhouse
A soft matter researcher turned venture capitalist is proving that India's next wave of unicorns won't come from copying Silicon Valley, but from solving problems atoms-deep.
In 2008, Dr. Ritu Verma walked into one of India’s most prestigious research institutes and asked about intellectual property. She was promptly asked to leave.
The physics PhD who had spent years studying “squishy molecules” at the University of Pennsylvania had just discovered India’s innovation problem wasn’t technical. It was cultural. The country had world-class scientists, state-of-the-art labs, and brilliant minds. What it lacked was anyone who cared about turning research into businesses.
Fast forward to January 2026. Ritu is managing ₹1,200 crore ($150 million) across three funds at Ankur Capital, the deep science and agritech-focused venture firm she co-founded in 2013 with Rema Subramanian, a cost accountant with 30 years of CXO experience. Her portfolio company Captain Fresh just withdrew its ₹1,700 crore IPO application, not because of weak fundamentals, but to complete an acquisition of Frime, a Spanish seafood company. When it refiles in 2026, it will mark Ankur’s first public exit at a valuation exceeding $1 billion.
The numbers tell the Captain Fresh story: ₹3,421 crore in revenue for FY25, up 145% year-over-year, and profitable with ₹42.4 crore in PAT. It’s a rare feat for new-age tech companies.
That research institute that kicked Ritu out? It’s now among the domestic entities filing patents at record rates. India logged 100,000 patent applications in 2024, with 50% filed domestically for the first time in history.
Check out the video of the conversation here or read on for insights.
From Lab Bench to ₹1,200 Crore
Ritu’s path to venture capital reads like an accident report. After her PhD, she spent a decade at Unilever and Philips bringing products to market globally, from soaps to televisions. But working inside mega-corporations taught her a frustrating lesson.
The risk appetite for innovation in such a mega company is limited. And I really should be in this more risky startup world.
When she returned to India in 2013, the venture ecosystem looked nothing like today. The word “family office” didn’t exist as a formal concept. Angel networks were nascent. And the idea of giving someone else your money to manage for seven to ten years?
I have been in people’s offices where you’d call it a family office today. And in those days, you just talked to the family or the proprietor. There was no family office person. It was just called, I’m a rich man, basically.
Fund I closed at ₹50 crore in 2016, scraped together from angels, friends, and family. The first check was $100,000. Ritu met a stranger in Colorado who wired $150,000 on the spot. That’s what it took.
By 2020, Fund II closed at ₹350 crore with institutional backing from CDC Group (now British International Investment), SIDBI, and the MacArthur Foundation. Fund III, currently raising with a ₹1,200 crore target, adds the U.S. Development Finance Corporation to the LP roster.
The Multiplication Insight
Most venture capitalists obsess over valuation. Ritu obsesses over multiplication.
Can I tell you my biggest learning? It’s multiplication. How much money we make in a company is multiplied not just by the valuation, but how many shares we hold, too. It sounds very silly, but it’s a reality.
This simple math drives Ankur’s entire strategy: Write the first institutional check. Take double-digit ownership. Follow aggressively through Series B to defend that stake. Target 4-6x returns with a net IRR of 30%+ over eight to ten years.
The insight shapes everything. Ankur doesn’t spray capital across 50 companies at low ownership. It concentrates on 15-20 bets where it can meaningfully influence outcomes and retain significant equity through multiple rounds.
Two Buckets, Two Playbooks
Ankur operates with two distinct investment theses, each requiring different underwriting skills.
Digital India: B2B platforms digitizing fragmented mass markets using India Stack infrastructure. The risk isn’t technical. It’s operational execution.
Captain Fresh and Vegrow, a B2B fruit marketplace that raised $40 million in January 2025, fall here. Vegrow posted $150 million in revenue for FY24, targets $500 million by FY26, and handles 300 tonnes of fruit daily across 30,000 connected farmers.
Saswat Finance, a rural fintech startup, uses milk yield data to provide loans to dairy farmers. It has disbursed ₹55 crore across 6,000+ customers and partners with Amul and Hatsun.
The thesis hinges on what Ritu calls “codification.” In unstructured markets, there’s no standard SKU for fish, fruit, or fabricated parts. Technology creates that standard language through computer vision and sensors. Once quality is codified, trust can be digitized.
Deep Science: Global IP plays in biology, chemistry, and physics. The science is validated pre-investment. The question is techno-commercial scale.
Offgrid Energy Labs raised $15 million in September 2025 for its ZincGel battery technology, a safer and cheaper alternative to lithium-ion. It’s establishing a 10 MWh demo plant in the UK, planning a GW-scale facility in India, and holds 25+ IP families with Archean Chemicals as a strategic investor.
String Bio converts methane into protein via its SIMP platform. It posted ₹16.5 crore in revenue for FY24, operates a commercial plant in Tumkur, and has partnerships with Woodside Energy and Skretting.
Vimano, Ankur Fund III’s first investment, manufactures membranes for flow batteries and green hydrogen electrolyzers. It raised ₹25 crore in April 2025.
These companies solve global problems from an Indian context, then scale worldwide.
The Operational Reality
Ritu describes the work as building a “village” around each startup. Ankur co-founded ThinkAg, an industry platform connecting agritech startups with corporates and policymakers, and hosts the annual Deep Science Forum (third edition: January 13, 2026 in Bangalore).
Once we’re invested, we have to do everything. You call me up and say you want to connect with somebody. I don’t know the person, but I need to hustle to go find someone who does.
The work splits into four categories: strategic guidance, tactical operations, fundraising support, and founder emotional support. Midnight calls are common.
You have not invested in a nine to five business.
Her advice to founders is blunt: Think like an investor, not just an operator.
You are putting capital into projects. Your assessment of why you’re putting these into things, there has to be some discipline to that piece. If you don’t think of yourself as the investor, you lose the plot.
And avoid mediocrity at all costs.
Mediocrity attracts mediocrity.
Hire either the absolute best or hungry hustlers who learn fast. Never the safe corporate middle ground.
The Tailwinds
The macro environment is shifting in deep science’s favor. India’s deep tech sector is projected to attract over $10 billion in funding by 2029. The National Deep Tech Startup Policy announced a ₹1 lakh crore corpus for R&D financing. States like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu released dedicated deep tech policies for 2025-2030.
Geopolitically, the “China Plus One” diversification is accelerating. The US Biosecure Act is redirecting global biotech supply chains. Indian talent, democratic stability, and cost advantages are pulling in global partnerships.
The domestic capital base is maturing too. Family offices are allocating meaningful capital to venture funds, reducing reliance on volatile foreign sources. The IPO market, while selective, is open to profitable growth stories like Captain Fresh.
Ritu’s journey from studying soft matter in a Pennsylvania basement to orchestrating ₹1,200 crore in capital deployment spans just 13 years. That same institute that showed her the door? Its researchers are now pitching her their patents.
The physicist has learned to love the mess. And she’s built the formula to profit from it.
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