Deep tech & frontier innovation
Technical depth that is hard to copy and slow to commoditise.
Strategy · Capital · Execution
Institutional deal partners and co‑investors.
We originate, structure, and co-invest alongside institutional capital backing India's next generation of technology companies — across commerce, mobility, logistics, climate, health, livelihoods and deep tech.
Our thesisTransaction advisory
Origination, structuring
and syndication
and syndication
200+
Institutional investors,
strategics & family offices
strategics & family offices
Seed – Series B
Equity raises
and M&A
and M&A
T-Hub
Investment &
knowledge partner
knowledge partner
The firm
A venture platform on the same side of the table as institutional capital.
We originate and structure opportunities, build the equity story and terms, bring institutional co-investors into the syndicate, and participate alongside them on the cap table.
Founders gain a partner with banker discipline and capital alignment; investors gain curated, diligence-ready dealflow from an advisor holding the same security at the same price.
Advisory & co-investments
Companies we've advised and backed.
Mandates we hold, rounds we have closed, and companies we have put our own capital into — across India's new-age and frontier technology economy. Detailed references are shared under NDA.
RoshAiIndustrial autonomy · robotics & AI
Sustaining.aiNative AI stack for ESG
HelixOmicsMultiomics + AI · timber carbon MRV
EpigeneresBiotech · early cancer detection
DukaanCommerce enablement SaaS
FishMongersFisheries · livelihood platform
RENcommEV & clean-energy infrastructure
FollowGB2B commerce & supply chain
CARin30End-of-life vehicles · circular economy
Case study · Closed
Priced round · closed
RoshAi
Industrial autonomy · Kochi
- Deal size
- ₹22 Cr / $2.36M
- Round lead
- IAN Alpha Fund
- Existing investors
- Caret Capital · EV2 Ventures · ThinKuvate
- MeritX role
- Exclusive advisor & co-investor
- Structure
- Priced round
RoshAi · autonomous mobility / physical AI
Translating deep tech into an evidence-backed narrative.
The company
Founded in 2021 by Roshy John and Rajaram Moorthy, Kochi-based RoshAi makes commercial vehicles operate autonomously inside confined industrial environments — seaports, mining sites, airports and yards. Retrofit hardware, an in-vehicle autonomy system and a cloud fleet platform let operators upgrade existing fleets rather than buy new ones, and the software stack is licensed to OEMs and fleet operators worldwide.
Mandate
The company had raised a seed round of roughly $1.71M led by Caret Capital, with EV2 Ventures and ThinKuvate. MeritX was appointed exclusive advisor for the institutional round that followed — a category where Indian capital has been cautious on timelines, unit economics and the distance between demonstration and deployment.
Evidence-backed narrative
We built the equity story on what the technology had already proven — more than 100,000 kilometres of testing without a safety incident, Tier 1 OEM partnerships, repeat industrial customers and a growing patent position — and set valuation and terms to meet an institutional investment committee. Evidence and narrative are not alternatives; the narrative has to be the shortest true account of the evidence.
Outcome
IAN Group led the round at ₹22 Cr ($2.36M) through its Alpha Fund, alongside the existing investors on the cap table. MeritX brought the lead into the round and took a position in it. Proceeds are directed at the product, wider deployments and expansion into global industrial markets.
Our approach
From origination to close.
Outcomes in a financing are path-dependent. Positioning determines which investors will look; that audience determines the terms; the terms determine what the next round can be. We carry the mandate through all four stages.
01
Origination & access
Curated opportunities and institutional capital access across India's technology economy, screened with institutional discipline.
02
Structuring & capital story
Positioning, valuation, transaction structuring, investor materials and diligence readiness, prepared to the standard an institutional investment committee expects.
03
Syndication & co-investment
Assembling the right institutional lead and co-investors, holding the syndicate through to close, and participating selectively alongside them.
04
Beyond capital
Strategic introductions across investors, corporates, policy stakeholders, ecosystem partners and global markets — the work that compounds after the round closes.
Our thesis
Partnering with exceptional founders building from India for the world.
We work across India's innovation economy comprising new age and frontier tech businesses — consumer tech, mobility & EV, logistics & supply chain, climate & energy, livelihoods, deep tech, and healthtech. Increasingly, that includes enterprise software, AI and the future of work.
Founder fit
We begin with the founder — clarity of thinking, command of the numbers, and the temperament to build a relationship with institutional capital that lasts well beyond a single round. Sector conviction follows from that, and rarely leads it.
Evidence-backed narrative
A company is valued on what it can show. We build the equity story around the evidence that already exists — deployments, retention, unit economics, defensibility — so the narrative is the shortest true account of it, and holds up at the round after this one.
The right capital
Who joins the register is a decision a company lives with for years. We syndicate for the investor a business will want at its next two rounds: the right mandate, real conviction in the sector, and the capacity to follow on.
Cross-border by design
India builds the talent and the technology; Japan, the UAE and the UK hold patient capital, industrial partners and routes to market. Where that pairing changes the outcome, we open it before the round rather than promise it after.
Sectoral focus
Enterprise software & AI
Systems bought because they move a line in the P&L.
Mobility & EV
Electrification and autonomy moving out of pilots and into fleets.
Climate & energy
Assets and software where the unit economics already hold.
Healthtech
Diagnostics and platforms carrying clinical evidence behind them.
Logistics & supply chain
Infrastructure for how goods actually move through India.
Consumer tech
Platforms and infrastructure behind how India buys, not the brands themselves.
Livelihoods & the future of work
How people are hired, trained and paid, and how income becomes formal for the workforce the economy runs on.
Leadership
Advisor. Investor. Dealmaker.
Ecosystem builder.
MeritX rests on a simple conviction: India's best companies do not lack merit, they lack access to the capital that recognises it. The firm is led by someone who has spent a career on the institutional side of that divide, and now works to close it.
India Global Forum, Mumbai
Neha Malhotra
Founder & Managing Partner
Neha founded MeritX after a career spanning institutional finance, strategy consulting and transaction advisory. She was Senior Manager, Strategic Client Coverage on Axis Bank's Corporate & Investment Banking platform, structuring and closing transactions across renewables, healthcare, telecom and PPP infrastructure — work that followed corporate strategy and transaction advisory mandates at Deloitte and KPMG across mobility, health, the digital economy and infrastructure.
At MeritX she leads origination, transaction structuring, investor syndication and co-investment across the firm's mandates, combining institutional rigour with hands-on execution and capital alignment.
Beyond her transaction work she has spoken at more than 100 national and international forums on entrepreneurship, venture capital and innovation, and works closely with government and ecosystem institutions on how early companies are evaluated and funded.
She read Economics at Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi, and holds an MSc in Economics & Management from the London School of Economics.
Select affiliations
Member, Expert Committee for Startup Evaluation
MeitY Startup Hub
GENESIS — Gen-Next Support for Innovative Startups
Fellow
Salzburg Global Seminar
Japan–India Transformative Technology Network
Charter Member
TiE Delhi-NCR
Speaker
G20 · Y20 Summit
Ignyte Mentor
DIFC, UAE
Member
FICCI Young Leaders Forum
Convening the ecosystem
Capital moves through rooms,
not databases.
MeritX sits inside the institutions that shape how Indian companies are evaluated and funded, and the platforms where the country's founders and investors actually gather. It is where relationships with institutional and cross-border capital are built — long before a company needs to draw on them.
Japan–India Transformative Technology Network
STPI Tech Summit 2026
SANGAM Conclave
Investor Meet 3.0
TiE Con Delhi-NCR 2025
India Internet Day
India Innovation Day
Startup Conclave, Gujarat
Scale Beyond Borders
Rise Union
Institutional standing
Trusted by the institutions that shape innovation.
Government bodies, institutes, incubators, corporates, funds and global platforms MeritX works alongside across India's innovation economy.
Contact
Partnering with founders, investors, and institutions building the next generation of technology companies.
Raising now, planning the round after this one, or looking to deploy — write to us. There is no formality to get past, and every note is read and answered.
Vasant Vihar, New Delhi