B Capital, the global investment firm, whose India bets include Meesho, Dailyhunt, and BlackBuck among others, has closed its third early-stage fund at $500 million, as it looks to back young companies building around artificial intelligence (AI) and other frontier technologies.

The firm, cofounded by Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin and Raj Ganguly in 2015, has been active in India since 2016, starting with investments in Icertis and BlackBuck. While B Capital had earlier focused more on India-for-global companies, Howard Morgan, chairman and general partner at B Capital and cofounder of First Round Capital, had told ET in March that India’s large domestic consumer market had made the firm more open to India-for-India opportunities as well.

For India, Morgan and Karan Mohla, general partner at B Capital who leads its South and Southeast Asia investments, had said the firm was seeing opportunities in applied AI, robotics, deeptech, precision manufacturing and India-focused consumer businesses.

The fund, Ascent Fund III, is nearly twice the size of its predecessor, which had closed at $254 million in July 2022, the company said on Monday.

The new fund will invest mainly in seed, Series A, and Series B rounds across technology, healthcare, energy, and frontier technology companies in North America and Asia. B Capital said the vehicle will back companies developing next-generation technologies, with artificial intelligence becoming a core layer across sectors.

B Capital manages more than $12 billion in assets and invests from seed to late-stage growth across technology, healthcare and climate-related sectors.

Ascent Fund III has already invested in more than 20 companies across AI infrastructure, robotics, healthcare and frontier technologies. Its early investments from the fund include Apptronik, Havoc AI and Star Catcher, which have subsequently raised follow-on capital.

The fund close comes as global venture investors continue to raise and deploy capital into AI-led companies, even as parts of the market have started showing signs of valuation excess. In the March interview with ET, Morgan had said the current AI boom would likely see a correction, but the strongest companies would emerge stronger after the shakeout.

Morgan had said venture investors need to stay disciplined in such cycles, as bubbles often push investors into a “buy high, sell higher” approach that stops working once markets turn.

The latest fund adds to B Capital’s stage-based platform at a time when several global investors are reassessing late-stage technology bets but remain interested in early-stage AI, software and deeptech opportunities.