ICICI Venture
ICICI Venture is one of India's oldest and largest alternative asset managers, a wholly owned subsidiary of ICICI Bank investing across private equity, real estate, infrastructure and special situations from Mumbai, not a water specialist. Founded in 1988, it has backed more than 500 companies, one of them in water.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
ICICI Venture is the in-house alternative-asset arm of India's largest private-sector bank, and it has been at this since 1988, which makes it one of the oldest private-equity houses in the country. It runs four practices, private equity, real estate, infrastructure and special situations, and its current flagship is the sector-agnostic India Advantage Fund Series 4. This is a generalist with a four-decade Indian track record, not a water fund.
ICICI Venture is also a firm in the middle of a structural change. As of early 2026, ICICI Prudential AMC, the group's much larger mutual-fund manager, is acquiring ICICI Venture's alternative-investment-fund and advisory businesses, a move the Competition Commission of India cleared in November 2025 and SEBI signed off on soon after. The funds engine is being folded into the group's bigger asset-management platform, so the ICICI Venture a newcomer meets today sits inside a moving picture.
ICICI Venture reaches water the way a big generalist does, through one company rather than a thesis. Of the 500-plus businesses it has backed across economic cycles, just one name in my Leviathan database is a water play: Nimble Vision, a Bengaluru startup building IoT and AI systems for smart water and sewage management. Water here is a single early Indian bet, not a practice area, and the question worth watching is whether the group's reshaped fund platform ever decides to make it more than that.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Frequently asked
- What does ICICI Venture invest in?
- ICICI Venture invests across four areas, private equity, real estate, infrastructure and special situations, mainly in companies with a strong India connection. Its current private-equity vehicle, the India Advantage Fund Series 4, is sector-agnostic. Water is a tiny part of the book, with one water company backed to date.
- Is ICICI Venture a water fund?
- No. ICICI Venture is a generalist alternative-asset manager, a wholly owned subsidiary of ICICI Bank, not a water specialist. Of the 500-plus companies it has backed since 1988, just one is in water: Nimble Vision, a Bengaluru smart-water and sewage startup it reached through ordinary deal flow, not a water mandate.
- Who is the CEO of ICICI Venture?
- Puneet Nanda is Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Venture, a role he has held since joining in June 2020, after serving as Deputy Managing Director of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. He oversees all of the firm's verticals across its diversified alternative-asset platform from Mumbai.
- What is happening with ICICI Venture and ICICI Prudential AMC?
- As of early 2026, ICICI Prudential AMC is acquiring ICICI Venture's alternative-investment-fund and advisory businesses. The Competition Commission of India cleared the deal in November 2025 and SEBI approved the change of control, folding ICICI Venture's fund management into the group's larger asset-management arm.
- How many water deals has ICICI Venture done?
- ICICI Venture has backed one water company, Nimble Vision, across two early-stage rounds, with its most recent water deal in 2025. Water is a single thread in a book of more than 500 companies spanning private equity, real estate, infrastructure and special situations.