Hearth Forge Capital is a Chennai based incubator and SEBI registered Category I AIF. We back founders building the next generation of Indian companies across advanced manufacturing, defence technology, climate and life sciences.
Hearth Forge Capital is the venture investment and incubation arm of the Hearth Group, a Chennai rooted conglomerate that has been building sustainable businesses for over six decades.
The Hearth Group has been quietly compounding since the 1960s. Its operating footprint spans tea, agriculture, dairy, FMCG, pharmaceuticals, real estate, retail, media and brand marketing. More than 150 brands trust the group as a partner, supplier or distributor, including Hindustan Unilever, Paper Boat, Chai Kings, Nilgiris 1905 and the Taj Mahal Palace.
That operating depth is what we bring to founders. When a Hearth Forge company needs to navigate manufacturing, regulated supply chains, retail distribution, FMCG go to market, or the on ground reality of building physical product in India, we draw on a bench that has been doing it since before most of our founders were born.
The group's home brands, Nira Foods, Desi Chai, Old Madras Market, Space Coffee and Floka Studios, were each built on the same operating principles we now codify into Hearth Forge. Direct farmer sourcing, ethical procurement, certifications that matter, long term distribution relationships, and a refusal to chase margins by cutting corners on craft.
Hearth Forge Capital continues this lineage. The Foundation channels public capital into the sectors that will define India's next decade. The AIF underwrites the founders building inside those sectors. The Hearth Group operating bench backs both.
India's next decade will be built in its hard sectors. Tamil Nadu is where much of it gets made.
The country that put a rover on the moon for a fraction of NASA's budget, that manufactures roughly six percent of the world's vehicles, that wired seven hundred million people to digital rails in under a decade. The same country will now absorb the next wave of advanced manufacturing, defence innovation, climate technology and homegrown healthcare.
We exist to find the operators building that India. We give them capital, infrastructure and conviction long before the consensus arrives.
Four conviction sectors. We do not generalise. Each pillar is chosen because Tamil Nadu has structural advantage in it. Geography, talent, supply chain, or all three.
Non dilutive grant capital from the Foundation. Equity capital from the AIF. Founders pick what they need, when they need it, without trading one against the other.
Our Atelier programme co builds ventures with experienced operators in residence. In the spirit of the country's best venture studios.
Each sector unlocks a distinct scheme stack and mentor network. Together they share one underlying horizontal. Electronics, materials and embedded intelligence. That horizontal keeps our lab infrastructure and operator bench capital efficient.
From the Hosur to Sriperumbudur belt to tier two manufacturing across the state, India's industrial spine runs through Tamil Nadu. We back EV components, factory automation, industrial AI, and the next generation of mobility platforms.
Tamil Nadu hosts one of two national Defence Industrial Corridors, with nodes in Chennai, Hosur, Coimbatore, Salem and Tiruchirappalli. iDEX, ADITI and DRDO TDF sit inside our scheme stack. We underwrite drones, autonomous systems, dual use robotics and the silicon underneath.
Chennai is one of India's deepest healthcare clusters, anchored by Apollo, MIOT, Sri Ramachandra and MGM Healthcare. We back diagnostics, medical devices, biopharma platforms and clinical AI built next door to the hospitals that adopt them.
Tamil Nadu is India's largest wind state and a top three solar state, with port side chemicals at Cuddalore. We back grid technology, energy storage, sustainable materials and the industrial decarbonisation the next decade demands.
Hearth Forge Capital operates two linked vehicles. A Section 8 Foundation that channels non dilutive capital from the Indian state, and a SEBI registered Category I AIF that writes equity cheques. Founders interact with one platform. We manage the regulatory plumbing behind it.
Section 8 non profit, Recognised incubator
SEBI AIF Category I, Venture Capital Fund
Most incubators in India compete on real estate. We compete on conviction, capital, and the calibre of the network that gets opened up the day a founder joins.
We do not chase trends. Four pillars, picked because Tamil Nadu has structural advantage in each. Mentor pools, lab infra and partner networks are built for these sectors.
Grant capital from a recognised Section 8. Equity from a SEBI AIF. The same platform, two lanes, founders pick what they need, when they need it.
The Atelier track co founds ventures with experienced operators in residence. Internal capital, our bench, your idea. The spirit of India's strongest venture studios.
Direct partner relationships with Peak XV, Catamaran, Chennai Angels, plus the wider Series A bench. Standardised data rooms cut diligence from weeks to hours.
On the country's largest auto belt. Inside one of two Defence Industrial Corridors. India's number one wind state. Geography is destiny in industrial venture building.
Six decades of operating depth from our parent group across manufacturing, FMCG, supply chain and retail distribution. The kind of unfair advantages most incubators in India cannot offer their founders.
Every founder we back follows the same four stage path. The detail inside each stage flexes for sector and stage of company. The destination is the same. A capable, well capitalised company graduating into a Series A round on its own terms.
Submit through the portal or a warm intro. We screen on team, sector fit, and the existence of a real customer problem. Roughly nine in ten applications do not move forward.
Two rounds of team interviews, reference checks, technical diligence with our domain mentors, and a final pitch to the Investment Committee.
The flagship programme. Combined grant and equity capital. Workspace, labs, scheme access, GTM support and a mentor pod tailored to your sector.
Curated Series A introductions, corporate pilot access, the twice yearly Demo Day, and standby support through the round until it is wired.
Founders enter the platform at the stage they are at. Each programme has its own duration, capital model and graduation criteria, plus a clear path to the next.
For first time founders and student teams. Validate a problem, ship an MVP, qualify for our Forge cohort.
The flagship programme. Up to Rs 75 lakh combined grant and convertible. Workspace, mentors, scheme access, GTM support.
For Series A ready companies. Curated VC introductions, corporate pilot access, Demo Day to a vetted investor room.
We co found with experienced operators in residence. Internal capital, our team, your idea. In the operator led tradition of India's best venture studios.
We do not run a coffee shop incubator. Founders that join Hearth Forge get access to the full platform from day one.
Hearth Forge Capital underwrites pre seed and seed rounds in our four sector pillars, then partners with growth stage funds to lead Series A. If you are an institutional fund chasing deep industry deal flow from Tamil Nadu, or an LP looking for exposure to our thesis, we would like to talk.
Founders inside Hearth Forge stack non dilutive grants from the Indian and Tamil Nadu state schemes alongside equity from our AIF. This combination is what makes a deep tech or hardware build financially viable in India, and it is what most generalist incubators miss.
Channelled through Hearth Forge Foundation
National schemes
Tamil Nadu state schemes
Hearth Forge Capital VCF, AIF Cat I
A SEBI registered Category I Venture Capital Fund writing first cheques across the four sector theses. We co invest with strategic angels and growth stage VCs.
Write to us directly. Every founder and partnership enquiry that comes through with substance gets read by a partner, and a reply lands inside five working days.
Email a partnerOur founding team and advisory council are being announced through 2026. The Hearth Forge advisory will draw from senior defence and aerospace, the Tamil Nadu auto and industrial belt, the Chennai healthcare cluster, climate technology founders, and former DPIIT and StartupTN policy hands.
Founders apply through our programme pipeline. Funds, family offices and corporates write to the partnership desk. We respond to every serious enquiry within five working days.