ACT
A Co-founder of social change

Tech, talent and capital working together for India's hardest problems.

ACT is a non-profit, tech-led venture philanthropy platform. We back early-stage solutions across Education, Environment, Health and Women — delivering capital, connections and collectives at scale.

₹155Cr+

Capital deployed

58

Innovations supported

30M+

Lives touched

11x

Reach scaled

Who We Are

A bias for action behind social change

“Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. It is the only thing that ever has.”

— Margaret Mead

As a non-profit tech-led venture philanthropy platform, ACT is built upon the premise that an entrepreneurial mindset, technology and innovation and collective action have the power to create meaningful social impact at scale.

We are driven by a bias for action to catalyse social change through collaborations across the board — startup founders, VCs, industry experts, NGOs, government stakeholders as well as the public at large.

The ACT model

Capital. Connections. Collectives.

A model that combines the rigour of venture investing with the patience of social impact.

01

Capital

ACT deploys hard-to-find, early-stage risk capital — the kind of patient money that is rarely available to social-impact founders. We write first cheques, anchor seed rounds and unlock follow-on funding by introducing our portfolio to philanthropic, blended-finance and commercial pools. Our model is designed for the long arc of social change: we underwrite the years it takes to find product-market-policy fit, not the next quarter.

02

Connections

Behind every cheque is a network. ACT connects portfolio founders to a curated bench of operators, venture capitalists, policymakers, civil-society leaders, government officials and academic researchers. These connections shorten the path from prototype to deployment — opening doors at state departments, brokering partnerships with implementers, unlocking introductions to the next round of capital and pulling in mentorship from people who have already built and scaled in adjacent domains.

03

Collectives

Hard problems demand coalitions. ACT convenes collectives — like the Green Startup Pledge, Pact For Gender Parity and the ACT Implementers Network — that bring funders, founders, government partners and civil-society organisations together around a shared mission. These collectives compound impact beyond any single cheque: they shape policy, set ecosystem standards and unlock pools of capital and talent that no organisation could mobilise alone.

Our grants are given as seed capital to incubate and accelerate innovations that have demonstrated ability to address some of India's most complex social needs. In addition to providing funding, we work with our grantees on their strategy as well as operations and help them harness the strength of our collective — through best-in-class industry mentorship that can enable them to build sustainable organisations.

Essentially we treat each grant as an investment in India's future and thus, focus on ensuring that it yields a return by meaningfully shifting life outcomes.

Where we focus

Four bets on India's future

We back founders building scalable, tech-led solutions in four focus areas.

Our Impact 2024-25

What the collective unlocked this year

Our proof of concept is embedded in the incredible impact achieved by the founders we've supported in 2024-25.

₹64 Cr

Invested

24

Innovations supported

11 Mn

Lives touched

Scaling reach by 11x

From reaching around 2 Mn individuals during the pandemic to 30 Mn by the end of 2024-25, ACT's reach has multiplied 11x.

Raising 4x follow-on capital

24 of our portfolio founders raised additional venture capital as their solutions demonstrated tangible impact.

Winning prestigious awards

36 of our portfolio companies have received national or international recognition for the efficacy of their solutions.

Unlocking government partnerships

26 of our portfolio organisations worked alongside government partnerships to scale further reach and sustainability.

ACT in the media

Business Standard
Indian Express
The Hindu Business Line
Firstpost
Inc42
CSR Journal
ETEdge Insights
Education Times
Health Magazine
AVPN
Business Standard
Indian Express
The Hindu Business Line
Firstpost
Inc42
CSR Journal
ETEdge Insights
Education Times
Health Magazine
AVPN

Partners

The firms in our network

Accel
Avaana
Aureolis Ventures
Kalaari
Lightspeed
Matrix
Nexus
Peak XV

Voices

From the founders we back

ACT moves at startup speed. That made all the difference in our earliest months.

Utsav Kheria

Utsav Kheria

Rocket Learning · Education

Patient capital combined with deep networks lets us focus on the field.

Krutika Ravishankar

Krutika Ravishankar

Farmers For Forests · Environment

ACT helped us turn a deep-tech idea into a deployable product for cities.

Amrit Om Nayak

Amrit Om Nayak

Indra Water · Environment

Their team understands climate hardware in a way few investors do.

Mahi Singh

Mahi Singh

Cancrie · Environment

ACT believed in a different model for ethical AI work before others did.

Manu Chopra

Manu Chopra

Karya · Education

Their support helped us scale mental-health care across geographies.

Ramakant Vempati

Ramakant Vempati

Wysa · Health

Network

Operators & investors behind ACT

Some of India's most respected venture capitalists and operators stand alongside our founders.

Anjali Bansal

Anjali Bansal

Ashish Dhawan

Ashish Dhawan

Dr. Nachiket Mor

Dr. Nachiket Mor

GV Ravishankar

GV Ravishankar

Mekin Maheshwari

Mekin Maheshwari

Shekhar Kirani

Shekhar Kirani

Abhiraj Bhal

Abhiraj Bhal

The collective

Our community is our superpower

With the trust and goodwill we earned through our work during COVID, we've been able to leverage an incredibly unique and valuable network of individuals and organisations to power our platform — as we journey ahead, we hope to inspire more such individuals and organisations to deeply engage with us as partners, advisors and collaborators.

01

Venture Capitalists

Co-investors and follow-on partners that help portfolio founders raise the rounds that come after our cheque.

02

Startups

Operators, founders and product teams who share infrastructure, intros and time with the ventures we back.

03

Ecosystem Supporters

Foundations, CSR teams, governments and non-profits that co-fund, distribute and deploy alongside us.

04

Industry Experts

Specialists across health, climate, education and gender — guiding thesis, diligence and on-ground delivery.

Be a co-founder of social change.

Whether you fund, build, mentor or advocate — there's a way to ACT. Join the platform.