E86: Ankit Kedia (Founding Partner, Capital-A)

Ankit Kedia is the Founding Partner of Capital-A. He is a second generation entrepreneur who has held senior leadership positions at Manjushree Technopack Ltd. (MTL), India's largest rigid plastic packaging company. With a penchant for institutional marketing and a credit of designing the Key Account Management program, Ankit has been instrumental in the 5x growth of revenues and EBIDTA at Manjushree, where he devoted 15 strong years. He was also instrumental in raising private equity capital from Kedaara Capital and helped in the acquisition of two rival companies, before divesting controlling stake to Advent International in 2018.

In this episode we will cover:

1. What does Ankit really love about venture capital? (3:10)

2. Ankit's perspective on India's macro economic climate (6:30)

3. Market fluctuations in the early stages of investing (8:50)

4. Founder-market fit and how it influences a fund manager's investment decisions (14:48)

5. Learnings from investing in Indian startups (17:56)

6. How to identify the best startups (22:24)

7. The most difficult thing for a fund manager of a micro VC fund (34:40)

8. Ankit's perspective on the Indian early-stage venture landscape (36:53)

9. Why did Ankit choose to invest in tech startups rather than traditional manufacturing businesses in which his family had had a lot of success? (41:10)

10. What has Ankit the LP learned about Indian VC that he can use as a fund manager today? (44:15)

11. What would Ankit advise his younger self? (46:51)

12. Advice for entrepreneurs and fund managers (48:55)​