UpStreamVoice

Nicolas Sauvage of TDK Ventures and Arun Vinayak of Exponent Energy join Vishal Krishna and Shreyas Mishra to discuss rapid charging for commercial electric vehicles, customer economics and building an energy company.

Arun explains why Exponent started with three-wheelers, how customer needs shape its charging and battery systems, and what it takes to expand into buses and vehicle retrofits. The conversation covers design thinking, jugaad, financing and the practical work of building a business around selling energy.

Nicolas and Arun discuss what corporate venture capital can bring to a startup, why patient capital still needs a sense of urgency, and how Indian deep tech companies can think about global markets. The episode concludes with a factory tour covering quality inspection, laser welding, battery cycling and thermal-chamber testing.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:13 Why commercial vehicles
4:23 Choosing customers and the energy business
14:04 Design thinking and jugaad
22:56 Investor support and financing
30:46 Fast charging and battery life
40:02 Automating quality first
44:07 Retrofitting vehicles
49:22 Patient capital and urgency
54:59 Factory tour
55:40 Quality checks and laser welding
58:13 Battery cycling and reliability

Guests: Nicolas Sauvage, TDK Ventures; Arun Vinayak, Exponent Energy
Hosts: Vishal Krishna and Shreyas Mishra

More conversations: https://upstreamvoice.com
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@Upstream-Voice

#TDKVentures #ExponentEnergy #ElectricVehicles

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What can quantum technology do beyond building a faster computer? Professor Arindam Ghosh of IISc Bengaluru joins Shreyas Mishra to discuss quantum computing, sensing and communication, and how founders and students can find a way into the field.

This conversation was made possible courtesy of the Infosys Science Foundation (ISF).
The Foundation’s Infosys Prize recognises outstanding research and encourages young people to pursue careers in science.
Professor Arindam Ghosh received the 2020 Infosys Prize in Physical Sciences.
The prize recognised his work on atomically thin semiconductors for new electronic devices, energy conversion and light detection.

The conversation begins with his research on atomically thin materials and light detectors, then follows his journey from Kolkata to IISc and Cambridge. He explains why shared clean-room facilities helped him return to India, how cricket gives a difficult research problem room to breathe, and why engineering a useful quantum computer still demands basic research.

We discuss post-quantum cryptography, access to quantum processors, sensing applications, and the role of materials and devices across the field. His advice to founders is to identify a use case and work backwards to the expertise it needs. For students, he makes the case for learning quantum fundamentals alongside AI. We close with graphene, silicon and what tiny electrical fluctuations can tell a physicist about a material.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Teaser: quantum entanglement
0:18 Short introduction
0:33 Conversation: Planck's constant and light detectors
3:25 From Kolkata to Cambridge
10:26 Returning to India, clean rooms and cricket
15:04 Engineering quantum technology
16:57 Quantum computing: progress and challenges
21:47 Quantum computing, cryptography and access
25:36 Quantum sensing and its applications
30:57 Quantum communication and eavesdropping
35:12 Starting a quantum technology company
41:41 Advice for students: quantum and AI
46:27 Graphene, silicon and two-dimensional materials
50:18 When noise becomes a signal

Guest: Professor Arindam Ghosh, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru
Host: Shreyas Mishra
Recorded at IISc on 12 October 2026.

Disclosure: Prof. Ghosh is a co-founder of Quan2D Technologies, an IISc-incubated startup working on 2D materials and quantum-sensing devices.

This conversation reflects the guest's research experience and outlook. Proposed applications and timelines are discussed as possibilities, not guarantees.

About the guest: https://physics.iisc.ac.in/people/arindam-ghosh/
Infosys Prize 2020, Physical Sciences: https://www.infosysprize.org/laureates/2020/arindam-ghosh.html
Charts, chapters and the full transcript: https://upstreamvoice.com/podcasts/178.html
More conversations: https://upstreamvoice.com
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@Upstream-Voice

#ArindamGhosh #QuantumComputing #

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What does it take to turn research into a company that customers trust?

In this press Q&A, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, joins Bhaskar Majumdar, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Unicorn India Ventures, and Natarajan (Nat) Malupillai, Group CEO of IIT Madras Research Park, to discuss the growth of India's deep-tech startups.

The panel discusses patient capital, opportunities in quantum technologies, student-led innovation, patents and the path from an idea to a working product. They also examine customer adoption: how large companies can work with startups, and what founders need to do to deliver dependable products.

Other topics include industry–academia collaboration, the IIT Madras Research Park, the Shakti processor and frugal research.

Recorded by UpStreamVoice.

0:00 Opening and questions on space tech and quantum
0:47 Patient capital and the Ather example
2:53 Keeping engineers in core engineering
5:11 Agnirath and student engineering projects
6:08 Quantum technologies and applications
8:12 India's opportunities in quantum
9:27 How startups are evaluated
12:46 Bhaskar Majumdar on patience and valuation
15:34 Building investable startups at IIT Madras
18:58 Patents and the patent-a-day ambition
21:48 The student innovation and entrepreneurship pathway
25:15 The next challenge: customers and purchase orders
29:58 Government and corporate customers
31:37 Buying Indian products: an anecdote
34:07 Industry–academia collaboration
36:06 The Research Park's collaboration model
38:34 Technology sovereignty, Shakti and frugal research
42:11 Frugal AI and solving specific problems
43:42 Encouraging enterprises to buy from startups
46:34 Product readiness and trust in both directions
47:37 Building customer confidence and a call to corporates

#IITMadras #Kamakoti #DeepTech #UpStreamVoice

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A semiconductor startup went from a ₹100 crore valuation to ₹650–680 crore in nine months, and its auditors couldn't understand how. Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner at Unicorn India Ventures, which has just launched a deep tech fund with IIT Madras, explains how deep tech actually gets valued, and why it needs different rules.

On 26 September 2026, IIT Madras and Unicorn India Ventures announced the ₹450 crore first close of IITM Unicorn Frontier Fund I, a deep tech fund with a ₹1,000 crore target. The same day, UpStreamVoice sat down with Bhaskar Majumdar.

He explains why deep tech is "not a gut-feel business", what a fund inside a university can see that other VCs can't, why his firm now recruits PhDs instead of MBAs, why two-thirds of its investments are outside Bengaluru, NCR and Mumbai, and how you keep investors patient over a 10–12 year fund.

00:00 Deep tech needs different rules
00:36 A fund born inside a university
03:38 Not a gut-feel business
05:00 Beyond Bombay, Bangalore and Delhi
07:30 Build the portfolio, back the winners
08:12 Two ecosystems, two DNAs
09:45 Valuing what has no cash flow yet
10:36 From measuring air to cleaning it
11:44 Keeping investors patient

Guest: Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures
Host: Shreyas Mishra
Recorded 26 September 2026.

Fund figures on screen are from IIT Madras and Unicorn India Ventures' first-close announcement (26 Sept 2026). Figures about Unicorn India's own portfolio are as described by Bhaskar Majumdar in this interview. Maps show boundaries as recognised by India.

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In this episode we bring you a company that has been growing with all the startups and SMBs in India. 

00:00 - Introduction
06:30 - Working Startups and SMEs
11:40 - Finding a solution for business.
15:51 - Finding the continuity for legacy business transformation.
22:47 - Building a consulting business.
35:31 - The evolution of technology and business: AI transformation.
48:17 - All things AI don't work for the moment.
01:03:00 - Going beyond services.
01:12:00 - Ensuring legacy business transforms.

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In this episode I talk with Tejas Goenka, the Managing Director of Tally Solutions. TheUpStreamLife delves deeper into the soul of the company that has built India's accounting software story. Find out what the path of Tejas Goenka would be in making this company go deeper into the Indian and global SME industry. Already running into the millions of users, its one of the most valuable software companies built in India and its truly Indian in every essence. 

00:00 - Introduction
00:50 - Tally as an operating system.
02:38 - Built for the Indian SME.
06:18 - SMEs being similar globally.
09:23 - The different layers of Tally.
17:55 - Creating an insights layer for the Banks.
22:07 - Building market winning products and DPIIT
28:01 - India's entrepreneurial stories.
33:13 - Tally 7.1 and scaling up AI initiatives.
38:00 - Books and other inspirations.

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In this episode we talk with Chairman of the IIMCIP, Ajay Jain, who has been through forty years of entrepreneurship and is now paying it forward as a professor and startup mentor. He talks about how the North-East part of India is going to attract several startups in the years to come and why IIMCIP is playing a vital role in its growth.  @iimcalcutta  

00:00 - Introduction to the podcast
01:21 - Learning from the Corporate world
05:20 - Career in Kuwait and the stepping stone to business.
08:44 - Why Institutions will create social impact going forward.
14:33 - The balance to create innovation that makes impact.
18:11 - Academia/Corporate partnership - will it become mainstream.
23:12 - Carrying empathy to build a business.
29:00 - Supporting the North-East Corridor to become a startup centre.
33:03 - Why North East supports some great opportunities.
35:55 - The North East will change going forward.
41:03 - Role of government, going beyond grants.
49:00 - What does it take for innovation to work in the future
54:42 - Building future leaders.

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In this episode I talk with Vivek Varshney, the founder of SpeEdLabs, a test prep company that has survived the test of being a startup and is now growing to become a preferred partner for schools in smaller towns. How did Vivek and team do this, lets find out.

00:00 - Introduction.
01:22 - Being an IIT/IIM grad and going on to set up a startup.
05:25 - Education is the only currency to come out of poverty.
10:30 - Building a startup is all about product market fit, the first customer.
15:30 - Outcomes decide the future of a startup, why B2B worked.
20:09 - The elements that worked for SpeEdLabs.
30:00 - How should one prepare for tests?
34:00 - Having the playbook ready?
42:00 - Why schools are going to enable parents?
45:33 - The AI in the app and the future playbook.
49:50 - How is the SpeEdLabs journey going into AI?
55:15 - The future of education in India.

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In this episode we talk about the growth of an idea, how Pradyumna went from being a back bencher to setting up an advisory/investment banking firm that works with the brightest startups and large corporations.

This interview covers his student days and also covers how investment banking works.

00:00 - Introduction
00:34 - The objective of the Disha Series with Mentorsforkids.in - an introduction by Pavan Sharma, partner at BCL India
04:00 - The reason why MentorsForKids wants employability.
06:00 - The journey of Pradyumna
16:20 - Building a network for I-Banking
24:15 - Working with engineers to build business, commerce students deploy money.
27:28 - Why AI is expensive and how Prequate works with technology.
41:00 - Being ready for work life.
45:00 - Conversation with students

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In this episode Ideaspring Capital's Naganand Doraswamy talks with deep tech startup LatentForce, which has a special combination of a research professor and his students who are building the business as founders. This fascinating story showcases how Indian science is scaling globally.

00:00 - Introduction
00:34 - Genesis of LatentForce
05:40 - From lab to business
06:59 - Keeping in touch with disruptions in AI
15:00 - From professor to thinking business
17:53 - LatentForce is solving code migration with context
22:00 - Taking the business to customers
25:25 - Getting great talent.
35:39 - Revenue pipeline of the company

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