Rutvik Doshi is the General Partner at Inventus Capital India, early stage Venture Capital firm that invests in Pre Series A and Series A. Rutvik has participated in India’s fast emerging internet ecosystem since 2007, first with Google where he launched several products including Voice Search, Google Mobile App, SMS Channels and managed Google News globally, and most recently as the CEO of ecommerce startup Taggle in Bangalore. Before Google he spent 6 years in the US building internet management software for CA Technologies. Rutvik holds a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and an MBA from INSEAD, France.

Follow Rutvik (@rutvik), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.

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The Desi Startups of the Week:

1. Project PIF: Project Pay-It-Forward is a cloud-based mentorship platform for graduate admissions

2. Podium: Podium is a platform that brings people closer to have virtual conversations around social issues.

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In this episode we will cover:

. . . (Part 1) . . .

1. Impact of COVID on fund dynamics and larger macro economic trends (5:24)

2. How did LP’s react to the pandemic (7:44)

3: Investment strategy during Covid and plans for the future (13:11)

4. How did Inventus India Capital build rapport with founders during the pandemic, in the absence of F2F meetings? (18:38)

5. Rutvik’s background and sequence of events leading up to Inventus (19:58)

6. Evolution of VC in India (28:06)

7. Investment thesis at Inventus (32:21)

8. Importance of forging strong relationships with other VC firms in India (37:17)

. . . (Part 2) . . .

9. Raising domestic capital –– Has India reached a point of comfort to invest in VC as an asset class? (42:51)

10. Why is it better to have Indian investors than global? (44:44)

11. What should emerging fund managers be prepared for when they speak to potential LP candidates? (49:02)

12. How many calls do VC’s have with potential LPs (53:53)

13. How do the Partners split fundraising responsibilities (55:53)

14. When will see a change in venture investing to bring more profitability? (1:00:09)

15. Lobbying in India (1:02:41)

16. Raising money from foreign investors or Indian? (1:05:42)

17. Rapid fire (1:08:05)