All In Capital has launched its Golden Ticket program, selecting 20–30 early-stage Indian AI startups for pre-seed funding, mentorship, and extended exposure to the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
Pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm All In Capital has announced the launch of its Golden Ticket program, alongside the opening of its first cohort aimed at supporting early-stage Indian founders building AI-led companies.
The initiative reflects growing investor interest in backing AI startups earlier in their lifecycle, particularly those building narrowly focused, industry-specific solutions rather than horizontal tools.
Founded by Aditya Singh and Kushal Bhagia, All In Capital focuses on investing at the idea and early product stage, working closely with founders on customer discovery, product-market fit, and go-to-market strategy. While sector-agnostic, the firm has increasingly concentrated on AI, deep tech, and B2B software.
A shift toward vertical AI companies
According to the firm, the Golden Ticket program is designed around a changing thesis on how durable AI companies are built.
“We are seeing a fundamental shift in how AI companies are being built today. The opportunity is no longer about horizontal tools or generic automation, but about deeply vertical solutions where founders understand a specific industry problem better than anyone else. The next generation of AI companies will be built by technical founders who start close to the customer, iterate fast, and focus on real usage rather than surface-level adoption. Through the Golden Ticket program and its cohorts, we want to back founders at the moment where conviction is high but access is still limited, and help them build globally relevant companies from day one,” said Kushal Bhagia, Co-founder and Partner, All In Capital.
This perspective aligns with a broader trend in venture capital, where investors are increasingly prioritising domain depth, speed of iteration, and early customer engagement over polished products or rapid scaling.
Structure of the Golden Ticket cohort
As part of its first cohort, All In Capital plans to select 20–30 startups through a competitive evaluation process. Selected teams will be eligible for pre-seed funding of up to $300,000 per company, with total capital deployment capped at $1 million for the cohort.
The program will culminate in a Demo Day, where participating startups will present to a curated group of investors, primarily from the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
Beyond capital, All In Capital positions the program as a founder-development platform, designed to accelerate learning cycles at the earliest stage of company building.
Focus on technical, early-career founders.
The Golden Ticket program is open to fresh graduates and early-career founders, provided each founding team includes at least one technical co-founder with expertise in software engineering, AI/ML, or a relevant domain.
Rather than requiring prior startup experience or revenue traction, the selection process will focus on:
- Founding team capability
- Clarity of the problem being solved
- Speed of iteration
- Openness to feedback
Fully developed products or existing customers are not mandatory, underscoring the program’s emphasis on conviction and execution potential rather than maturity.
Silicon Valley exposure as a differentiator
A distinctive aspect of the program is its expectation that selected founders will spend 6–12 months in Silicon Valley, working closely with customers, mentors, and partners to refine their products and business models.
Support will include:
- Access to the US startup ecosystem
- Introductions to investor and enterprise networks
- Travel assistance
- Hands-on guidance during early customer discovery
This extended immersion is intended to help Indian founders build globally relevant companies from inception, rather than retrofitting products for international markets later.
Target sectors and use cases
While the program remains broadly sector-agnostic within AI, All In Capital expects the first cohort to include startups building solutions for defined industry segments such as:
- Healthcare
- Professional services
- Other specialised and regulated markets
These sectors often present complex workflows and high switching costs, making them attractive for vertical AI applications when founders bring strong domain insight.
Early access as a strategic advantage
By backing founders at the idea stage, All In Capital is positioning itself to capture value earlier in the AI company lifecycle, while also shaping product direction through close involvement.
The Golden Ticket program reflects a growing belief among early-stage investors that in AI, timing, distribution, and customer intimacy may matter as much as model sophistication.
Applications for the cohort are open on a rolling basis, with selections expected to evolve as the firm evaluates founder-market fit and execution velocity.
As India’s AI startup ecosystem matures, programs like Golden Ticket signal a more hands-on, globally oriented approach to pre-seed investing — one that blends capital with sustained operational exposure at a formative stage of company building.
