Merak Ventures, an early-stage, B2B venture capital (VC) firm, has announced a new investment in Atomgrid, a R&D-first platform for contract development, manufacturing, and sourcing of specialty chemicals. Merak Ventures led the Rs 100 million 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. Bansal worked as a business head at WorkIndia, Gupta was a business head at Uni Cards and Chowdhury worked with Amazon. 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 fulfilment functions. Through interactions with over 250 manufacturers, the co-founders identified significant challenges Indian manufacturers face, including limited access to research and development resources, global distribution networks, efficient raw material sourcing, and technology-driven solutions. These factors contribute to suboptimal capacity utilisation and a restricted presence in the export market. 

Sheetal Bahl, Partner, Merak Ventures, commented, "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, Atomgrid.