3ONE4 Capital

3ONE4 Capital was initially seeded by the Pai family, whose wealth originates from the Manipal Group — a diversified Indian conglomerate in healthcare, education, and manufacturing. The firm now operates independently as a venture capital manager, but the family remains closely involved and contributes discretionary co-investment capital alongside fund commitments.

Sourcing combines the Pai family's multi-decade operational network in Indian industry with a structured university outreach program across the IITs, IIMs, and tier-1 engineering colleges. The firm also runs the Rise seed program, which provides capital and mentorship to pre-revenue founding teams, creating a pipeline often inaccessible to pure institutional investors.

3ONE4 pursues direct equity investments almost exclusively, from pre-seed through Series A, with selective follow-on reserves. The firm does not make fund-of-fund commitments. It maintains a separate public markets vehicle for crossover opportunities, but this represents a small portion of total deployment.

The firm focuses on pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds. Its Rise program specifically targets pre-revenue companies with initial checks as low as $100,000 to $500,000. Main fund investments typically range from $1 million to $5 million at entry, with reserves for pro-rata follow-ons in subsequent rounds.

Pranav Pai leads the investment committee as Managing Partner. Siddarth Pai co-manages portfolio strategy and firm operations. As of early 2024, Anurag Ramdasan joined the partnership as the first non-family Partner, signaling an evolution toward a more institutionalized decision-making structure.

The firm publicly does not invest in defense tech, gambling, adult content, tobacco, or weapons manufacturing. Within its active sectors, it has historically passed on deep biotech and hardware-heavy industrials, preferring asset-light digital business models where its operational expertise applies most directly.

It operates as a hybrid: a registered venture capital firm managing external LP capital alongside discretionary family co-investment. The firm is SEBI-registered as an Alternative Investment Fund in India and competes directly for allocations with institutional venture firms, but retains family-office flexibility in holding periods and reserve allocation.