We hosted another edition of Mixture of Experts this week, this time with our friends at gradCapital. Activate and gradCapital share a common vision: activating the young builders of this country who are taking on really hard, deep R&D-centric problems. The room was a great reflection of that. 40+ founders and builders joined us, with experienced builders solving high-intensity, recurring problems they had encountered firsthand, alongside young student founders taking on moonshot ideas and exploring entirely new frontiers. From deep R&D in healthcare and physical monitoring to aviation, payments, and financial infrastructure, the ideas in the room were as diverse as they were ambitious. Here's to more. @aakrit @177pc @prateekbehera96 @debamitaa @NicheNots @sachshen_says @nevilkathiria @kaustubhtr1vedi @AnmolAgarwal @sulakshankg @sitakantaray1 @arpitagupta

A milestone for Activate. Day one for what comes next. 🇮🇳 Today, we’re announcing the final close of our debut fund, building a $105M (~₹1,000 crore) investment platform dedicated to India’s AI opportunity, less than a year after launching. Activate was built around a simple belief: India isn’t behind in AI, its simply early. Our ambition is to build more than a venture fund: a platform that brings together capital, founders, talent, research, enterprises and the global AI leaders to help build India's AI ecosystem. In our first nine months, we’ve made 10 investments across Inception and Global Growth. Thank you to our founders, LPs, partners and the broader AI community for believing in this mission. India’s AI moment is just beginning. Read the full story in The Economic Times → economictimes.indiatimes.com…

Mixture of Experts is heading to Chennai. Some of India’s most consequential work in AI and deep tech is being shaped at IIT Madras, and three of the people leading it will join us at Mixture of Experts, Chennai. Prof. Mitesh Khapra leads AI4Bharat, where his team builds widely used open-source datasets, models, and tools for Indian-language AI. He is also the Principal Investigator of the Digital India Bhashini Mission’s Data Management Unit and is associated with Bodhan AI, a Ministry of Education Centre of Excellence building open digital public infrastructure for education. Prof. Balaraman Ravindran brings more than three decades of work in reinforcement learning and responsible AI. He heads IIT Madras’ Department of Data Science and AI, is the founding head of WSAI, RBCDSAI, and CeRAI, and is an elected Fellow of AAAI and INAE. His work also extends to shaping AI governance in India and internationally. Prof. Satyanarayanan Seshadri works at the intersection of research, entrepreneurship, and decarbonisation. He heads IIT Madras’ School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and its Energy Consortium, and has built deep-tech ventures translating research into industrial energy solutions. Moderated by Pratyush and Aakrit, the conversation will explore their work, recent breakthroughs, and the questions shaping what comes next. Sep 17, 2026 | 5:00 PM Onwards | RSVP here - luma.com/uqm4mp6m If you think someone belongs in the room, tag them below.

What. A. Night. 🔥 Last night, Activate hosted the official AI Sundowner of Global FinTech Fest, together with Anthropic and AWS. The energy was incredible and hearing so many people tell us it was one of the best nights of the week made it even more special. But what really made the evening was the room. AI founders and fintech leaders. VCs and enterprise CXOs. Regulators and policymakers. Journalists and creators. Some of the people building the next generation of companies, alongside the people shaping the industries they’re going to transform. An unusually eclectic mix and exactly the kind of room we love bringing together at Activate. There’s an incredible amount of momentum around AI in India right now. Last night felt like a small glimpse of that energy coming together in one place. Thank you to our partners Anthropic and AWS, and to everyone who came and made the night what it was. @aakrit @177pc @soaibgrewal @GffFintechfest @miten @AmitabhN @nixxin @ishaanpreet @ku1deep @vishwaspatel

One room. A lot of questions about what it really takes to build at the frontier. We kicked off Mixture of Experts on the Road in Mumbai with BharatGen, bringing together researchers, technical builders, and AI practitioners. Rishi Bal joined Aakrit Vaish to discuss India’s path to the frontier, turning constraints into advantages, and where India can build differentiated strengths in AI. One idea stood out: don’t start by asking whether you’re a model or application company. Start with the problem, and work backwards. Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan and Piyush Sawarkar took us deeper into model development, multimodality, hardware, and the scaffolding needed to push capabilities further. Great conversations, new connections, and plenty of ideas to take forward. Thank you to everyone who made the first stop a thoughtful one.

Mixture of Experts is starting with its first stop in Mumbai. In partnership with BharatGen, we’re bringing together researchers, technical builders, founders, and people working at the frontiers of AI for an evening of conversations and connections. We’ll spend the evening: → Getting to know who’s in the room and what they’re building → Connecting across research, systems, and applications → Creating space for deeper, open-ended conversations and relevant introductions The evening will also feature conversations with Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Rishi Bal, Pratyush Choudhury, and Aakrit Vaish. 11 September | 4:00 PM Onwards We’re down to a few spots. RSVP here - luma.com/zbvkqw7r If you think someone belongs in the room, tag them below. Mumbai, we’ll see you tomorrow.