Sigurd Venture

Tanmay Maheshwari and Harshit Agrawal are the co-founders and partners managing the firm. Maheshwari brings governance ties to Indian media through his roles at Amar Ujala Publications, the Indian Newspaper Society executive committee, and the Digital News Publishers Association, while Agrawal is a second-generation executive at the real estate developer Shanti Group. A third partner, Aditya Agarwal, rounds out the investment leadership.

The firm draws its capital from two primary sources: the media and publishing business of Amar Ujala, one of India's largest Hindi-language newspaper groups, and the Shanti Group, a real estate developer with residential and industrial projects across Maharashtra, Punjab, and Rajasthan. The founders are promoters or second-generation executives at these operating companies.

No. Sigurd Venture is a multi-family-backed investment firm that pools capital from the principals behind two distinct operating groups — Amar Ujala Publications and the Shanti Group — making it structurally different from the typical Indian single-family office. It operates as a generalist asset manager with a venture strategy.

Deal flow is generated through the operators' legacy networks in Indian media and real estate. Maheshwari's leadership at media industry bodies provides visibility into digital publishing and content-tech startups, while Agrawal's real estate operations in Maharashtra and northern India surface proptech, logistics, and infrastructure-adjacent opportunities.

The firm targets Seed and early-stage startup investments with capacity for follow-on growth rounds. Its mandate is venture-generalist, spanning digital media, fintech, and climate technology, with additional separate portfolios in digital assets and carbon credits.

The Amar Ujala Foundation operates independently of the venture firm, managed through Amar Ujala Publications rather than through Sigurd Venture. The foundation is part of Maheshwari's broader media holding ecosystem and is not a vehicle for impact investing or blended capital from the venture entity.

Sigurd Venture itself is not a real estate fund, but its principals are deeply involved in property development through the Shanti Group, which manages residential projects such as Shanti One, Shanti Homes, Shanti Hollywood Heights, and Shanti Oswal Nagar, as well as warehousing and logistics parks. The venture firm may access proptech deals informed by this operating experience.