Founder & Managing Partner, SilverX Fund
Ajay Jain
A chip designer turned investor, Ajay Jain backs Indian deep-tech companies at the stage where capital is hardest to find.
14 yearsinvesting in startups
4investment vehicles founded
6 yearsdesigning chips
The journey
How Ajay got here.
Chip designer
Six years at Synopsys, Intel, Conexant, NXP and AMD
Product builder
EdTech products at Gray Matters India, Educational Initiatives and GEMS Education
Angel and ecosystem builder
Hyderabad Angels from 2012, T-Hub Hyderabad, Xseed Partners and IIIT Seed Fund
Fund founder
Silverneedle Ventures in 2022, SilverX Fund in 2025
About
Ajay Jain founded SilverX Fund in 2025 to solve a problem he had watched for years. Indian deep-tech companies find early money relatively easily, but the climb gets steep at Series B and beyond. SilverX provides patient, structured growth-stage capital for exactly that stage.
He also leads Silverneedle Ventures, which he founded in 2022. Before that, he co-founded two early-stage vehicles, Xseed Partners in 2016 and IIIT Seed Fund in 2017, and helped shape T-Hub Hyderabad's startup programmes, first as Director of Investor Liaison and then as Vice President of Incubation and Scaling. His investing began in 2012 as an angel with Hyderabad Angels.
His grounding is in engineering. Ajay spent six years designing chips before building and leading education technology products. He holds an MBA in Marketing and Strategy from the Indian School of Business and an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Arizona.
Early money comes relatively easily for Indian deep tech. The real gap opens at Series B and beyond.
Short bio
Ajay Jain is Founder and Managing Partner of SilverX Fund and Silverneedle Ventures. He previously co-founded Xseed Partners and IIIT Seed Fund, led incubation and scaling at T-Hub Hyderabad, and has invested in startups since 2012. A former chip design engineer with Intel, NXP and AMD, he holds degrees from ISB and the University of Arizona.