July Ventures

Rajesh Raju, Founder and Managing Partner, leads all investment decisions. He spent over ten years at Kalaari Capital before founding July Ventures in 2017, and his operator background — spanning product management and engineering leadership — shapes the firm's deal-evaluation process. Final approval authority sits with Raju; the firm operates without a traditional investment committee of external advisors.

The firm sources predominantly through Raju's personal network in the Bangalore-Chennai technology corridor, built across a decade at Kalaari Capital and prior operating roles. July Ventures also receives founder referrals from its concentrated portfolio — roughly half of new investments originate from existing portfolio-founder introductions. The firm does not run a scouting program or campus ambassador network.

The firm does not invest in consumer internet, gaming, direct-to-consumer brands, or hardware-heavy startups. It also avoids sectors where regulatory clearance represents a binary go/no-go gate that the firm cannot diligence independently — a posture that excludes most edtech and lending fintech deals.

Portfolio concentration is the clearest structural difference. July Ventures maintains fewer than 15 active positions, while peer early-stage funds in Bangalore often carry 40–60 companies. This allows Raju to serve as an active board member on nearly every portfolio company, providing engineering-hiring and product-strategy support that mirrors the operating-partner model used by US micro-VCs.

The firm invests only directly into operating companies and does not make fund-of-fund commitments. Its capital structure is purpose-built for direct equity and convertible-note rounds, without an allocation to third-party fund vehicles. This simplifies LP reporting and keeps the firm's economics entirely tethered to its own deal-selection performance.