a99 VC

Early to late-stage investments in Advanced Manufacturing & Infrastructure

[a99 VC @a99vc]

a99 invests in early to growth-stage manufacturing and infrastructure companies. If you're building in this space, we'd love to hear from you.

[a99 VC @a99vc]

Everyone is talking about humanoid robots.

Almost nobody is talking about the companies that will actually make money from them.🧵

#manufacturing #India #vc

[a99 VC @a99vc]

For India, this is a much bigger opportunity than simply assembling robots. (6/6)

The opportunity is to become part of the global manufacturing stack by building:
• Proprietary components
• IP led manufacturing
• Industrial automation
• Robotics subsystems
• Capital equipment
• Advanced materials

The world's robotics boom will need an equally large industrial ecosystem!!

[a99 VC @a99vc]

India is finally building its PCB backbone.

India imports nearly ₹40,000 crore worth of PCBs every year

and ₹6,700 crore is now being invested in new PCB and electronics manufacturing plants in Jewar, by Amber Enterprises and Ascent Circuits.

PCBs are at the heart of almost every electronic product - phones, EVs, medical devices, telecom equipment, industrial machines and more.

The more we manufacture them locally, the stronger our electronics ecosystem becomes.

Because Manufacturing works differently from software.

Every new factory creates demand for suppliers, machinery, materials, logistics, skilled talent and supporting infrastructure.

One investment creates many more.

That's how industrial ecosystems are built.

As India scales electronics manufacturing, the opportunity won't be limited to the companies making the final product.

It will extend across the entire manufacturing value chain.

At a99, we invest in early to growth stage manufacturing and infrastructure companies building that future. If you're building in this space, we'd love to hear from you.

#Manufacturing #India #PCB

[a99 VC @a99vc]

What if the biggest AI opportunity isn't just in AI software?

Our Founder & Managing Partner, Vignesh Shankar, shares why power, cooling, transformers and the physical layer could define the next decade of investing, and what the US market is signalling for India.

Read more:
🔗https://t.co/jvJ5Z0TZIk

[a99 VC @a99vc]

While data centers get most of the attention, we're equally interested in the companies building the fibre, transmission, and infrastructure behind them. That's what makes SIL interesting to us.

We invest in Manufacturing and Infra focused Ideas. Would love to connect if anyone is building in this space.

[a99 VC @a99vc]

Taiwan didn't win by being the smartest. It won by being the most necessary.

India's version of that story is still being written and it runs through manufacturing and infrastructure, not just software.

a99 invests in early to growth-stage manufacturing and infrastructure companies. If you're building in this space, we'd love to hear from you.

[a99 VC @a99vc]

The companies that win the AI era won't all be building models.

Some will be building the power systems, data centres, and industrial applications those models run on.

That's a manufacturing story as much as a software story.

A recent Finshots podcast made this point and the investment implications for India are significant. 🧵

#manufacturing #india #vc

[a99 VC @a99vc]

Where manufacturing comes in (3/3)

Data centres need power infrastructure, precision cooling, and specialised hardware.

AI deployment at scale in India across manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, agriculture needs localised solutions built on Indian shop floors, not imported wholesale from the US or China.

The physical layer of the AI economy is a manufacturing problem. India hasn't treated it like one yet.

[a99 VC @a99vc]

a99 invests in early to growth-stage manufacturing and infrastructure companies. If you're building in this space, we'd love to hear from you.

[a99 VC @a99vc]

India's solar ambition is real.

So is the gap between module capacity and cell capacity.

The two need to be solved in the right order. 🧵

[a99 VC @a99vc]

Investment Opportunities (5/5)

Cells - 195 GW of unmet manufacturing capacity, and a policy mandate that now requires it domestically.

Upstream materials - wafers, encapsulants, silver paste. India imports most of it. Every cell manufacturer that comes online creates a captive domestic customer for whoever builds this first.

Inverter power electronics - Every GW installed needs an inverter. The IGBTs and gate drivers inside them are almost entirely imported.