Merak Ventures, a sector-agnostic early-stage, B2B venture capital (VC) firm, has announced a new investment in Atomgrid, an R&D-first platform for contract development, manufacturing, and sourcing of Specialty Chemicals.
According to the company’s statement, Merak Ventures led the INR 10 Cr seed round, in which other venture firms including Dexter Ventures, Upsparks, Point One Capital and the founders of UniCards (Nitin Gupta and Prateek Jindal) also participated. This marks Merak’s third significant investment of the year.
Atomgrid is co-founded by IIT-BHU alumni Lakshit Bansal, Siddharth Gupta, and Pratik Chowdhury.
As per the Frost & Sullivan Report, India’s specialty chemical companies are gaining favour with global MNCs because of the geopolitical shift after the outbreak of Covid-19 as the world looks to reduce its dependence on China. Currently China accounts for 15-17 per cent of the world’s exportable specialty chemicals, whereas India accounts for merely 1-2 per cent indicating that the country has a large scope of improvement and widespread opportunity. The anticipated growth in Specialty chemicals sector is 12.2% per cent CAGR[1]
Sheetal Bahl, Partner at Merak Ventures, said, “As India’s Specialty Chemicals sector drives industry growth, Atomgrid stands out by maximising underused MSME capacities. More than just filling the demand-supply gap, Atomgrid redefines its role in the supply chain—from mere distributor to vital manufacturing partner. This strategic approach sets them apart, perfectly aligning with Merak Ventures’ commitment to innovative B2B tech solutions.”
“A massive global speciality chemical market coupled with inefficiencies that we see on a daily basis makes us believe that we are solving the right problem at Atomgrid. With this funding, we are poised to accelerate our mission of empowering Indian chemical manufacturers on a global scale. We are excited to have Merak Ventures as a partner to enhance our efforts and achieve our goals,” said Siddharth Gupta, co-founder at Atomgrid.
The investment from Merak Ventures will enable Atomgrid to expand its in-house R&D infrastructure, increase global outreach, build a supply chain tech platform, and hire teams across Business Development, R&D, and fulfil functions.
References:
[1] Page 52, Section 3.1 of Frost & Sullivan Report on Indian Chemicals and Specialty Chemicals Market Report
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