The defining AI companies are being built by founders nobody has heard of yet. We write their first cheque.
We back Indian founders building Global AI-native companies. We come at day zero, but stay involved longer.
Your first $1M or brutally honest feedback. Both are worth having on day zero.
First cheque
Upto $1M at pre-seed, often before incorporation, and always before the round has a lead.
Straight answers
A fast decision and honest feedback. A no from us should still be worth the meeting.
Extended team
Founding hires, first customers, pricing, positioning. We work the problem with you.
The US bridge
Warm paths into US buyers, operators and the funds that lead your next round.
"If you're building, Day Zero's support is real — they helped us think through hiring, introduced us to customers, and stayed hands-on through follow-ups. Straight shooters, high trust."
Every company has a Day Zero — the napkin, the late-night call, the decision to quit. Almost no capital shows up there.
Most investors wait for a deck, a metric, a warm intro from someone who already said yes. We think that's backwards. The most important judgement in venture is made before there is anything to judge — on the founder, the insight, and the speed at which they move.
So we operate at inception. We take the meeting early, decide fast, and give a straight answer either way. When we're in, we're an extended part of the team: first hires, first customers, and the next round.
Infrastructure gets built once. Applications get built forever.
Every platform shift follows the same curve: infrastructure, then tools, then applications — and the value settles at the top. India has always had the technical depth; paired with US market access, it compounds. We invest across three theses.
Applied AI
Products where the model is the feature, not the pitch — sold to people with a budget and a deadline.
AI-Native Services
Services businesses rebuilt with AI at the centre, using India's delivery advantage as the moat.
Physical Intelligence
Software and robots for the parts of the economy that never digitised — where labour is the constraint.
Day Zero Syndicate portfolio
Operators first, investors second — Collectively, Abhishek & Rahul have invested in over 120 startups
Abhishek Gupta
A CS graduate from IIT-BHU ('99), Abhishek has over 25 years of operating and investing experience in India and has backed 90+ startups. Previously, he built TLabs, India's first tech startup accelerator.
Rahul Gupta
Rahul previously worked at Amazon and Times Internet, he has spent the last decade helping 100s of founders build and market. He has an extensive founder and investor network across India and the US.
Alok Bishoyi
Managing Director for India at AWL Inc. IIT Bombay. Part of the Day Zero network across multiple deals.
Sucheta Ravikanti
Spry and Morgan Stanley before this, IIT Bombay and Stanford. Works with founders on product and diligence.
Shonik Agarwal
Chief of Staff at Mira, the trust layer for AI. Close to the AI-native builder cohort we invest in.