Theia Ventures, India’s specialist early-stage fund focused on AI, deeptech, energy transition, and decarbonisation, has led a pre-seed investment round in Novyte Materials, an emerging AI-driven materials discovery company. The round also saw participation from Sandesh Paturi, Co-Founder of Venwiz, and Niharika Jain, Director at Chemvera.
The funding will support the development of Novyte’s AI platform and the rollout of early pilot projects, enabling faster co-creation and collaborative discovery of next-generation materials. Through this investment, Theia Ventures reinforces its commitment to backing transformative technologies that accelerate sustainable materials innovation and decarbonisation-aligned discovery.
Addressing a Critical Bottleneck in Materials Innovation
Despite rapid advances in engineering and manufacturing, materials discovery remains one of the slowest and most resource-intensive stages of innovation. Traditional approaches often take years—sometimes decades—due to trial-and-error experimentation, fragmented lab data, and poor integration between computational models and real-world validation. As a result, progress across sectors such as energy, aerospace, and advanced manufacturing slows significantly, even as demand grows for materials that deliver higher performance, reliability, and sustainability.
AI-Led Materials Discovery at Scale
Novyte Materials is transforming this process through an AI-driven materials discovery platform that dramatically accelerates research and development. By combining generative AI with physics-based simulations, Novyte enables the design, validation, and reverse engineering of novel materials.
Notably, the platform can reduce R&D timelines by up to 10 times while cutting early-stage physical testing costs by as much as 90%. These capabilities support a wide range of applications, including composite materials, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and specialty chemicals.
Why Materials Science Matters More Than Ever
As industries transition toward cleaner energy systems and high-performance technologies, materials science has emerged as a critical enabler of innovation. Breakthroughs in areas such as advanced batteries, hypersonic flight, nuclear fusion, and low-loss transformers depend heavily on how quickly stable, high-performing materials can be designed and validated. In this context, accelerating materials discovery is no longer optional—it is essential for sustaining technological progress.
Investor and Founder Perspectives
Priya Shah, Founder and General Partner at Theia Ventures, said that as AI becomes foundational infrastructure across industries, Novyte is bringing that transformation directly into materials discovery. She noted that the company’s approach replaces years of laboratory work with intelligent, AI-led design and real-time validation, with the potential to unlock faster innovation across energy, aerospace, and advanced manufacturing.
From the company’s perspective, Ajaz Khan, Founder and CEO of Novyte Materials, said innovation today is constrained by the limitations of legacy materials. By decoding complex chemical interactions using AI, he explained, Novyte is turning materials discovery into a predictable and scalable engineering process.
Bridging Wet Labs and Dry Labs
Novyte is redefining materials engineering by integrating wet-lab experimentation with dry-lab computational modeling. By working directly alongside industrial R&D teams, the company decodes complex material interactions to engineer custom solutions tailored to specific applications.
The vertically integrated approach eliminates much of the guesswork associated with traditional discovery. Instead of costly trial-and-error cycles, Novyte offers predictable, validated pathways that bridge testing and commercialisation. Over time, this creates a continuously learning system purpose-built for applied industrial chemistry.
Strong Academic Roots and R&D Ecosystem
Novyte Materials is incubated at ICT-NICE, the innovation and entrepreneurship hub of the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai. The company leverages ICT’s strong research ecosystem. It is also building its own R&D infrastructure and synthesis laboratory to support independent development and scale.
Initial Industry Focus and Collaboration Opportunities
In its early phase, Novyte will partner closely with specialty chemicals companies, including players in polymers, paints, adhesives, and coatings. These industries are actively seeking alternative materials with improved performance, sustainability, and cost efficiency. Through these collaborations, Novyte aims to reduce operational and R&D costs, shorten development timelines, and make the journey from lab to commercialisation more seamless and predictable. The company is currently inviting strategic partnerships and industry collaborations.
About Theia Ventures’ New Fund
This investment marks Theia Ventures’ fourth deployment from its new fund. The fund announced its first close in October 2025 with anchor backing from British International Investment. The fund’s existing portfolio includes Sarla Aviation (electric aircraft), Climitra Carbon (biochar solutions for the steel industry), and Lemnisca (bio-manufacturing). As per the press release, Theia Ventures plans additional investments within the current financial year. The firm continues to build a portfolio focused on AI-driven, deeptech solutions that enable the energy transition and industrial decarbonisation.
