The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

Ritu Verma is one of the co-founders at Ankur Capital. She is passionate about bringing innovation from lab to the market and did that for a decade across corporates such as Unilever and Philips. She has also worked globally investing in IP-led renewable technologies. She has a PhD in physics from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from INSEAD.

You can follow Ritu (@rituverma01) and host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.

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Glossary of terms:

1. Impact Investing: Impact investing refers to investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return.

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In this episode we will cover:

1. Ritu’s journey from Academia to Venture Capital

2. The definition of impact investing according to Ritu

3. The bottlenecks within impact investing

4. The misconceptions about impact investing

5. The trends within impact investing

6. Ankur Capital’s investment thesis – today and going forward

7. Fund-raising for an impact focused fund

8. How an impact fund tracks and measures ‘impact’

9. Portfolio construction strategy at Ankur Capital

10. Advice to investors and startups in the impact space

Bhaskar is the Founder and Managing Partner at Unicorn India Ventures. In the past decade, Bhaskar has established himself as a well-regarded early stage investor and advisor, especially in the UK and India. He has held senior corporate positions with Times of India, Zee Telefilms and Altavista UK.

In 2000, he started his first entrepreneurial venture, Recreate Solutions, a company within the digital media realm and backed by Insight Partners. After scaling the business, he sold the business to a US Systems Integrator. He has since been an investor in a number of technology and media early stage business through his propriety fund, Heath Ventures, and has invested his proprietary funds in more than half a dozen start-ups in UK and India.

Follow Bhaskar (@Bhaskar_MLondon) and host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.

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In this episode we will cover:

1. Bhaskar’s background and motivation to enter the VC world

2. Evolution of venture as an asset class in India

3. Development of investment thesis

4. Portfolio construction and best practices

5. How founders can ‘protect’ their equity during fund-raising

6. Unicorn’s time allocation strategy wrt their portfolio

7. Role of a VC as a board member

8. Due diligence required on the part of the founder(s) while choosing investors

9. If there’s any such thing as ‘raising too much money’?

10. Strategies for founders if they are not able meet fund-raising targets

Mark Kahn is the Managing Partner at Omnivore, a venture capital firm which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. Mark co-founded Omnivore in 2010 with Jinesh Shah, ex-CFO at Nexus Venture Partners. Previously, Mark was the Executive Vice President (Strategy & Business Development) at Godrej Agrovet, and also had stints at Syngenta and PFM. He earned a BA (Honors) from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar.

You can follow Mark Kahn (@agri_technology) and host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.

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Glossary of terms:

1. Upstream investments – Upstream investments refer to infusion of capital into businesses that utilize material inputs needed for production e.g. seed, fertilizers, machinery etc.

2. Downstream investments – Downstream investments refers to the infusion of capital into businesses where products get produced and distributed. e.g. e-commerce, grocery stores, logistics etc.

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In this episode, we will cover:

1. Mark’s venture into agri-business

2. The broad definition of agri-tech and what it encompasses

3. Evolution of agri-tech as sector

4. Omnivore’s thesis for India

5. Upstream vs downstream investments in agri-tech

6. Sectors and geographies within agri-tech in India

7. Metrics Omnivore pays close attention to while evaluating for investment

8. Concepts of sustainability and how it correlates to success of the Indian agri-industry

9. Challenges within agri-tech and for agri-tech startups

10. The global opportunity for Indian agri-tech startups

Abhishek Prasad is the Managing Partner at Cornerstone Venture Partners (CSVP), an early-stage fund focused on backing startups that are ‘technology enablers’ in India and abroad. A few of the companies within their portfolio include Intelligence Node, Wizgo, Credit Nirvana and Smart Ship.

Abhishek is an IIM-B alumnus, committee member at NASSCOM and has previously spearheaded the Investment team at GenNext Ventures Fund (part of Reliance Industries Ltd.)

Follow both, Abhishek Prasad (@abhishek_csvp) and host, Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.

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Glossary of terms:

1. NPA: NPA or Non-Performing Assets is defined as a credit facility in respect of which the interest and/or installment of principal has remained 'past due' for a specified period of time. In simple terms, an asset is tagged as non-performing when it ceases to generate income for the lender.

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In this episode we will learn about:

1. Abhishek’s experience investing as a CVC and then now as a traditional VC fund

2. India’s value proposition to investors

3. Qualities in a startup/founding team that attracts CSVP

4. How involved an investor should be in an early stage startup

5. Areas where CSVP makes investments in

6. What is impact scaling and why is that the thesis for success at CSVP

7. False positives and false negatives with respect to investing in technology startups

8. What customer diligence is all about

Sajith Pai is the Director at Blume Venture. Sajith is a long-time media executive turned VC. At Blume, Sajith supports investments in media, edtech and e-commerce, while simultaneously helping Blume building a research and knowledge platform. Before Blume, Sajith worked at The Times of India Group, across roles in strategy, business development and marketing.

Sajith has an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, and a BA in Economics from Chowgule College, Goa.

You can follow him on Twitter (@sajithpai) and read his blogs on Indian VC on Medium (@sajithpai). You can also follow host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash).

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Glossary of terms:

1. PMF: Product Market Fit or PMF is the degree to which a product satisfies a strong market demand

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In this episode we will cover:

1. Why Sajith calls himself ‘the accidental VC’

2. The opportunities and challenges within the different tiers in India

3. Product Market Fit in the context of different markets and businesses in India

4. Why Indian founders lack the storytelling capability

5. Network Effects for founders (e.g. how to get in touch with top VCs)

6. How can startup founders stand out / create a brand for themselves?

7. That one lie that VCs tell founders

Rama Bethmangalkar is the Director at Qualcomm Ventures. He joined Qualcomm with 17 years of experience spanning technology investing, R&D and product management. Previously, he was Principal at Ventureast, a premier VC firm in India. His current interests include enterprise software, IoT, and machine learning among the emerging technologies.

Prior to venture capital, Rama was with Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley for close to 7 years, initially as a systems programmer and later as a senior product manager. Rama holds an MBA from Cornell University, M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Rhode Island, and B.Engg in Computer Science from University of Mysore, India.

Follow Rama on Twitter (@Ramab323) and while you’re at it you can also follow our host, Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash).

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In this episode we cover:

1. What corporate venture capital (CVC) is?

2. How does corporate venture capital differ from traditional venture capital?

3. What is the value proposition of a corporate venture capital?

4. What is the investment thesis of Qualcomm

Ventures India?

5. The thought process behind portfolio construction from a CVC perspective

6. Challenges that corporate venture capital presents in general and in a country like India

7. What are metrics CVCs look out for while investing in companies

Karan Mohla is Executive Director and Head of Consumer Media & Technology sector at Chiratae Ventures where he heads the sector focus and strategy on Consumer Media & Technology investments. He has been investing in Indian companies since 2009 and has over 15 years of experience in the technology industry across India and the US.

Prior to Chiratae Ventures, Karan worked with QVT Finance LP, a US based hedge fund and was a founding member of their Asia-Pacific practice. He earlier worked in the technology banking group at Jefferies & Company (formerly Broadview International) in Silicon Valley, where he advised several technology companies in Internet, Mobile and Enterprise Software on capital raising, M&A as well as strategic partnerships.

About Chiratae Ventures: Chiratae Ventures, formerly known as IDG Ventures was founded in 2006 by Sudhir Sethi and T.C. Meenakshisundaram, and has so far backed 76 companies including Flipkart, Myntra, FirstCry, XpressBees, Newgen, Lenskart, Manthan, NestAway, PolicyBazaar, and Yatra, among others. The firm rebranded itself in 2018 to signify its focus on staying agile and sharp, like a ‘Chiratae’, or leopard, in the ever changing startup ecosystem.

You can follow Karan on Twitter (@KaranMohla) and while you’re at it you can also follow our host, Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash)

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In this episode, we cover:

1. Covid-19 Impact on Investments and Venture Capital

2. Karan’s Background and Journey in VC

3. Evolution of Venture as an Asset Class in India

4. Exit Scenarios for VCs in India

5. Evolution of Business Models in India

6. Shift from Ad-based Model to Subscription-based Model

7. Rise of Digital Media Marketplaces in India

8. Purchasing Trends in Consumer Markets – Media, e-Commerce, Finance

9. Learnings from within Chiratae Ventures’ Portfolio

10. Where is the Next Big Innovation in Consumer Market going to come from?

Dheeraj Jain is the Founder and Managing Partner at Redcliffe Capital, an investment firm focusing on innovative, technology businesses in global markets. Dheeraj has invested in over 32 startups including PeeSafe, LifCare, The Man Company, Drivezy, Coho, Coutloot and Qdesq, among others. He’s also had some notable exits along the way, namely Innov8, Burger Singh & Supr Daily.

You can follow host Akash Bhat on Twitter (@bhatvakash) and visit us at thedesivc.com to know us better.

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In this episode, we cover:

1. How Dheeraj’s journey in Venture Capital began

2. What special situation investment firm is?

3. How venture capital has evolved as an asset class in India

4. How Dheeraj builds his investment thesis

5. What Redcliffe Capital looks for in the founding team during investment

6. Consumer market in India and why Dheeraj is bullish about it

7. How Redcliffe Capital thinks about false positives/false negatives during an investment

8. Reasons why investors fall in love with startups in the consumer sector

9. Possible exit scenarios for consumer brands – what it could look like, what might be the cycles and when can VCs expect brands to give them returns

10. Redcliffe Capital’s Investment timeline – from first conversation to transfer of funds

Anirudh Damani is the Managing Partner at Artha Venture Fund, an early-stage sector agnostic fund that has been investing in start-ups since early 2012. The fund is co-sponsored by Artha Group of Companies (the family office of Mr. Ashok Kumar Damani and Mr. Ramesh M Damani, both ex-Directors of the Bombay Stock Exchange) and Singularity Holdings.

Anirudh also runs a consultancy firm to facilitate investments into power projects across geographies and asset classes like wind, solar, hydro and bio-power. Prior to launching the fund, Anirudh was an active angel investor at 25 startups. He serves as a member of Advisory Board at Venture Catalysts. He has over 18 years of experience in the energy sector and in procuring energy customers. Anirudh Damani also holds a double major in economics and business administration from Austin College.

You can follow Anirudh (@showmedamani) and Artha Venture Fund (@artha_vc) on Twitter. While you’re at it you may also follow our host, Akash Bhat - @bhatvakash and visit us at thedesivc.com to know us better.

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Glossary of terms you will encounter in this episode:

1. NBFC – Non-Banking Financial Companies.

2. IRR – Internal rate of return (IRR) for an investment is the percentage rate earned on each dollar invested for each period it is invested

3. Impact Investing: Impact impacting refers to to investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return.

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In this episode, we cover:

1. How family offices are structured

2. Why family offices have begun investing in startups

3. The value proposition of a family office

4. The investment thesis and philosophy at Artha India Ventures

5. How family office come across ‘great deals’ compared to traditional VC firms

6. Anirudh’s investment in OYO and how that materialized

7. Why micro VC firms are able to rotate their capital quicker than traditional funds

8. Impacting investing and how family offices look at it

9. Sectors Anirudh is incredibly bullish about

10. Impact of unforeseen market forces such as Coronavirus

Pranav Pai is the Founding Partner at 3one4 Capital, an early-stage VC firm based in Bangalore focused on investing in select market categories such as D2C, Media & Content, Fintech, Enterprise Automation and Deep Tech. Some of their portfolio companies include YourStory, Tracxn, DarwinBox, FairCent, MagicCrate among many others.

Pranav is deeply involved with the startup ecosystem in India and he leads 3one4 Capital’s partnerships and co-investments in the San Francisco Bay-Area as well. Through the fund, he has invested in over 50 companies in India and the US, and works closely with a funding ecosystem of over 20 different investment vehicles.

Previously, he was the Sr. Product Manager at EdCast, an ed-tech startup in the Bay Area. He graduated with a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2013. Pranav serves on the board of several startups and also volunteers on the advisory boards and steering committees of non-profits that work in areas he is passionate about.

You can follow Pranav (@pai_dpiper) and 3one4 Capital (@3one4capital) on Twitter. While you’re at it you may also follow our host, Akash Bhat - @bhatvakash and visit us at thedesivc.com to know us better.

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Glossary of terms you will encounter in this episode:

1. NBFC – Non-Banking Financial Companies.

2. Follow-on Funding: Follow-on funding is a subsequent investment made by an investor who has made a previous investment in a startup.

3. Pro-rata: Pro-rata clause in an investment agreement which gives an investor a right (but not the obligation) to participate in one or more future financing rounds to maintain their percentage stake in the company.

4. Anti-portfolio: Anti-portfolio are some of the great investments where you had the opportunity to participate but missed for one reason or many.

5. Thematic Investing: Thematic investing is a form of investment which aims to identify macro-level trends, and the underlying investments that stand to benefit from the materialisation of those trends.

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In this episode, you’ll learn about:

1. The motivation behind getting started in VC

2. Why 3one4 Capital invests 50-80% into their own fund

3. Pranav’s take on investment trends, thesis development and parachute VCs

4. How 3one4 Capital looks at collaborating with other VCs and why India is becoming a deeper venture market today

5. How Pranav and his team identify great startups and the metrics they look for

6. Geographies in India that are most exciting at the moment from an investment lens

7. His anti-portfolio or in other words, the companies he ended up passing on…you do not want to miss this part!!

8. One thing that changed the way the world looks at India and Indian startups

9. How B2B startups are changing the game for the Indian ecosystem

10. His tips for fund-raising