Foundamental, the world’s leading venture capital platform focused on the project economy, has launched its third fund to strengthen its presence in India, APAC, and other global markets. Led by Berlin-based Managing Partners Shubhankar Bhattacharya and Patric Hellermann, Fund III aims for a final close by the end of 2025. In an exclusive interaction with CW, Bhattacharya shares insights on the fund’s mandate, India’s role in their strategy, and the opportunities they see in the construction-tech and project-based sectors. Can you briefly explain Fund III’s mandate and how India fits into your global strategy?Fund III’s mandate continues what we started with our inaugural fund in 2019, focusing on underserved sectors within the project economy such as construction, architecture, manufacturing, heavy-industry supply chains as well as aerospace and defence. We have been a global investor since Day 1 as we believe that construction tech and the project economy represent a generationally attractive investment opportunity worldwide. India has been our most important market: both in terms of the extent of our investment as well as the relative outperformance delivered by several of our Indian portfolio companies. We are excited to continue doubling down on the project economy worldwide and especially in India.Which specific subsegments in India are you most excited about now – and why?India and Indian founders find themselves at a very favourable intersection point when it comes to construction tech: large market opportunities, rapid economic growth, an abundance of talented, ambitious and hungry founders, and several macroeconomic tailwinds that are leading to long-term growth to cater to opportunities within India and abroad. To add to this, we find in Indian founders a distinctly appealing combination of being able to create ‘first-of-a-kind’ business models and to execute on them in a very capital-efficient manner. This unique combination often results in formerly unattractive opportunities becoming much more scalable and exciting from a venture investor’s perspective. This confluence of so many positive factors leads us to be excited about all subsegments and themes emanating from India and Indian founders.How are you balancing early-stage risk with the need for sector expertise when backing project-economy founders in India? What founder traits or business models do you prioritise?Over time, the success of our investee companies has led to the compounding of both our track record and the knowledge of how to win in the project economy. We believe that this proprietary knowledge gives us an unfair advantage in picking founders and business models as a global, sector-focused specialist investor. We look for founders who truly embrace what it means to be committed to compounding: focus on identifying and removing bottlenecks, build partnerships that are enduring and harmonious, fulfil promises through verifiable facts and execution.Many of your limited partners (LPs) increased commitments to Fund III. What signals from the LP community – and the Indian market specifically – convinced them to double down?We are grateful to be backed by a group of highly strategic LPs, with all our Fund-I and Fund-II LPs returning with significantly larger commitments in Fund III. To reiterate our mandate: We see construction tech and the project economy as a generationally attractive investment opportunity. We have been anecdotally told by several institutional investors in the context of construction tech, “Foundamental is the No. 1 sector-focused VC firm on the basis of financial performance and the only one with a portfolio of high-performing firms that is fully global in its footprint.” While we have a long way ahead on our compounding journey, we are heartened by such feedback. As a major, fast-growing economy and a source of portfolio companies that have delivered outperformance and are emerging as potential winners, India is a crucial component to Foundamental’s story and will continue to be a focus for the immense opportunity it will offer our Fund-III investors as well.How do you see Fund III complementing India’s National Infrastructure Pipeline and the country’s broader infrastructure modernisation – beyond pure capital?We stand on the shoulders of our portfolio companies, who have been metaphorical giants. Our investees such as Infra.Market and Metalbook have been serving vital infrastructure projects across India and contributing to the transformation in how India has been building its infrastructure better. As a key driver in India’s growth story, we expect infrastructure to spawn an increasing number of construction-tech startups from within the Foundamental portfolio and outside who innovate to ensure that India realises the societal dividends of its massive infrastructure push in the public and private sectors.What key performance indicator (KPI) or milestone in the next 18-24 months would indicate Fund III’s thesis is playing out in India?As long-term venture investors in the global project economy infusing cutting-edge tech and digital innovation, we have benefitted first-hand from the power of compounding in success, track record and proprietary knowledge. However, given the long-tailed nature of projects, we do not believe that any KPI that is indicative of long-term success can be achieved reliably, particularly in venture investing within a short interval of 18-24 months. Venture investing, particularly our kind from seed to Series A investments, is often a long and lonely journey, especially when all the cyclical highs and lows of macro sentiments are taken into consideration.That said, many of our Indian portfolio companies are continuing to build on their position of being category creators and category leaders. We expect several of them to level up significantly in terms of achieving major milestones in their journey over the next couple of years. We look forward to the opportunity to celebrate their success and benefit from the validation and credence they will add to our strategy over the life of Fund III.