Founder Thesis 100 AI Unicorns From India: Rahul Agarwalla's Bold Prediction | SenseAI Ventures
How did a serial entrepreneur who built AI solutions for Toyota and Honda before ChatGPT existed become India's pioneering AI-first venture capitalist?
In this episode, we explore Rahul Agarwalla's bold prediction of 100 AI unicorns emerging from India and his contrarian investment framework that's reshaping the startup ecosystem.
Rahul Agarwalla, Managing Partner at SenseAI Ventures, brings a unique perspective to AI investing - having built and sold three AI/ML companies since 1996, including enterprise solutions used by Fortune 500 giants like Toyota, Honda, and Canon. As India's first AI-focused VC fund, SenseAI has deployed over ₹200 crores across 31 investments, achieving four successful exits while pioneering the shift from AI infrastructure to applications.
In this candid conversation with host Akshay Datt, Rahul reveals his VDAT framework for evaluating AI startups, explains why most "AI wrappers" will fail, and shares controversial takes on outcome-based pricing, founder requirements, and market timing. With AI startups capturing 57.9% of global venture capital in 2025, Rahul's insights on building sustainable AI businesses, navigating the India-US corridor, and identifying the next wave of AI unicorns provide essential guidance for founders and investors riding the AI revolution.
Key Highlights:
👉How Rahul built AI solutions for Toyota and Honda before the ChatGPT era and transitioned to become India's first AI-focused VC
👉The VDAT framework: Why variety, data, architecture, and team are the only metrics that matter when evaluating AI startups
👉Why "AI wrappers" will fail and how to build defensible AI-native applications that OpenAI can't replicate overnight
👉SenseAI's contrarian bet on applications over infrastructure and why outcome-based pricing will replace traditional SaaS models
👉The roadmap to 100 AI unicorns from India and why technical founders are non-negotiable for AI success
👉Market insights on AI tooling opportunities and the shift from foundational models to specialized vertical solutions
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Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the speaker, not necessarily the channel