The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

Monica heads the Wadhwani NEN and Inspire programs of the Foundation. An education entrepreneur (2000-2009), she completed her MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management. Prior to joining the Foundation, Monica was a Director at Omidyar Network, where she spearheaded the education/skill investments and grants in India. Monica has also been the Founding Partner at Kaizen Private Equity, a $70 Mn fund, where she drove investments to the tune of $25 Mn in the education and skilling sector. Monica has also been the board member for reputed institutions like Akshara Foundation, Mount Litera School, Varthana, Aspiring Minds, Kalorex, to name a few.About Wadhwani Foundation: Wadhwani Foundation is a not-for-profit, founded by Dr Romesh Wadhwani, with the primary mission of accelerating economic development in emerging economies by driving job creation in India and other emerging economies through large-scale initiatives in entrepreneurship, small business growth, innovation, and skilling.

Salone has 14+ years of experience as an interactive media VC investor, game entrepreneur and ex M&A banker. She has seen companies from different vantage points ranging from seed to IPO stage. Prior to Lumikai, she was a Principal at LVP, Europe’s pioneering seed stage games VC where she was involved with multiple companies in the gaming ecosystem across content, platform and technology bets.Salone was also Co-founder and CEO of TrulySocial, a venture backed gaming company for female audiences out of Europe and India. She was responsible for product vision, overall commercial strategy and new market growth striking up novel partnerships with global strategics, celebrities, influencers and brands.Earlier to that, she worked across global financial institutions as Vice- President, Global COO Office at Barclays Bank and M&A at Morgan Stanley, amassing $10B of M&A transaction experience.Salone has been recognised as Top 30 Women in Mobile, Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech, Iconic Women Leaders by WEF and Jury Member, Bafta Games in 2017. Salone is also a renowned thought leader on “Innovating in New Game Genres” and “Building Games for Female Audiences”. She has an MBA from IESE Business School, Spain.. . . In this episode we will cover:The year 2020 at Lumikai (2:12)The impact of a fund’s thesis on the fundraise (4:43)Challenges of raising a fund during a pandemic (8:57) Salone’s journey and the genesis of Lumikai (13:31)What’s hot within gaming in India (18:51)How do you solve for monetization at scale within gaming in India (28:23)How do you devise an India strategy if you’re a gaming startup (38:25)How are LPs looking at gaming in general? (53:00)What role will the later stage funds play in the gaming ecosystem? (59:08)What role do VCs play in drafting the regulatory framework within gaming in India (1:01:00)Fantasy and gambling: Game of skill vs game of chance? (1:04:35)

Kunal is a serial entrepreneur & investor with 20+ years of global experience. His previous ventures include Carnation (exit to Mahindra Group), Laurus Labs (IPO NSE & BSE), Aptuit Inc., InfoPro Solutions Inc. (exit to Aptuit), Razorfish and Vodafone. Kunal has completed his Economic (Hons) from Delhi University, MBA from FSM and MS from Northwestern University’s Kellogg & Medill Graduate Schools.In this episode we will cover:1. Learnings from 2020 (2:40)2. Where are the opportunities within the mobility sector (9:02)3. The future of EV in India (22:50) 4. How can VCs influence regulation within the mobility sector (40:50)5. Opportunities and pitfalls within the last-mile and middle-mile delivery sector (51:07)6. Why did Kunal decide to become an investor? (1:07:40)7. Importance of sector focused funds vs generalists (1:15:00)8. Rapid fire (1:28:02)

Kiran is the Principal at UTEC (Japan), a $550M deep-tech VC firm affiliated with The University of Tokyo. Since joining UTEC in 2018, Kiran has led investments of close to $25M in frontier science & deep-tech companies incl. Tricog, OPALai (SG/FinTech AI), Bugworks Research, and Agara. Before joining UTEC, Kiran was the head of India/SEA Operations at Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support (DTVS) Japan. He has supported over 50 deep-tech Asian startups by connecting them with Japanese corporations and also worked closely with METI Japan, to lead a project called CEATEC IoT Acceleration for Asian startups. Prior to that, he co-founded a student-led social enterprise named 'Kriya'.In 2020, Kiran was featured in the prestigious FORBES Asia 30 Under 30 list in the Finance & Venture Capital category.In this episode we will cover:1. Kiran’s thoughts on the VC landscape: Second half of 2020 vs Q1 20212. Why he chose venture capital as a career path?3. What is deep-tech?4. Misconceptions about deep-tech investing5. What do you look for in a deep-tech founding team?6. When does a deep-tech startup achieve PMF?7. Learnings from his own investments and portfolio 8. The role of the Govt. in growing deep-tech sciences 9. Mental Models for evaluating and building startups10. Exits in deep-tech

Empathy is going to become a key undertone of investing. Investors who have run companies and raised capital bring empathy that an investor coming from a consulting background just can’t. Founders are becoming smarter about who they raise capital from. On this panel, Siya Raj Purohit (General Partner, Pathway Ventures), Revant Bhate (CEO, Mosaic Wellness) and Utsav Somani (Partner, AngelList India & iSeed) discuss why some of the best investors in the future are going to be investor-operators.

The startup ecosystem in India remains robust and is rapidly growing. The Indian government introduced several regulatory programs to boost the Indian startup ecosystem. Flagship programs such as StartupIndia, Digital India and the Alternative Investment Policy Advisory Committee continue to improve the economic landscape for startups and investors. However, despite all this, India continues to remain in the shadows of Silicon Valley. On this panel, we discuss what it would take for India to break away from the shadows of the west and evolve into a mature VC ecosystem in the coming years.

Vinod Shankar is the Co-Founder and Partner at Java Capital, an investment syndicate investing in sectors such as healthtech, consumer internet, deep tech, SaaS and EdTech. Prior to founding Java Capital, Vinod was the Associate Vice President at Kalaari Capital and before that was the Head of Sales & Marketing at Just Books Inc. In this episode we cover:Why launch an investment fund in the middle of the pandemic? (1:57)Challenges of raising a fund during the pandemic? (5:29)Vinod’s journey into VC (11:23)How do you do cold outreach to VCs (19:10)Chief Hustle Officer –– what do you mean by that? (29:30)Sourcing startups – Cold vs Direct (35:43)Experience at Kalaari (39:09)Experience which had the most impact on Vinod’s life (45:41)Responsibilities that VCs bear on nurturing the ecosystem (54:30)How do you encourage sustainable businesses within VC? (1:01:14)Rapid fire (1:09:35)

Pratik Poddar is the Principal at Nexus Venture Partners. As an entrepreneur turned VC, Pratik is excited about working alongside technology entrepreneurs to create an impact on the lives of millions of people in India. He is most passionate about consumer, community/content, education, e-commerce, financial services, and healthcare startups. Prior to joining Nexus, Pratik spent three years working on his startups in social e-commerce and content marketing spaces where he experienced firsthand the challenges of building a company. Earlier, he worked as a quant analyst and algorithmic trader at Morgan Stanley, and private equity analyst at Blackstone. Pratik has a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.In this episode, we will cover:1. Look back at 2020 (2:15)2. Will VCs look at portfolio constructions differently post the pandemic? (4:50)3. What signals is Pratik looking for from an investment deal? (6:12)4. How should VCs protect themselves so as to not fall prey to bad deals? (9:01)5. What does a Principal at a VC firm do? (11:47)6. How does Pratik add value to startups (14:50)7. Opportunities and challenges of bottoms-up investing (18:55)8. How does operating experience help investors in VC? (23:05)9. Products vs Platforms: How can founders of today think about converting products into platforms? (30:27)10. What don’t founders realize about building for India? (39:49)11. What don’t VCs understand about middle India? (46:05)12. How does Nexus look at new sectors and what is their approach to investing? (51:16)13. Rapid fire (55:25)

Adith Podhar is the Managing Partner at Gemba Capital, a fund which invests in angel rounds of tech firms focused on India consumption and cross-border SaaS. Prior to Gemba, Adith has worked at Motilal Oswal PE fund in Mumbai, and spent time at ICICI as a Product Manager. Follow Adith (@adithpodhar), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. . . . In this episode we will cover:1. Covid impact on investing (1:47)2. How does Adith look back on 2020? (6:43)3. What might the next 24 months look like? (11:47) 4. Sectors within India that Adith is bullish on (14:26)5. Adith’s background and journey into VC (18:00)6. Learnings as a founder and how it’s helpful in VC today (21:11)7. How have different investing experiences influenced Adith’s investor persona? (30:11)8. How did Adith write his first check and what was the process behind it ?(34:18)9. Gemba’s current investment thesis (38:29)10. Raising money from domestic LPs (43:01)11. Challenges of raising money from within India (45:41)12. How does Gemba add value to startups? (48:37)13. Portfolio support & time allocation (53:15) 14. What does it take to be a good investor? (55:56)15. How does Adith evaluate companies and founders of similar profiles (58:24)16. Time spent on due diligence (1:00:13)17.  Rapid fire (1:02:55)

Munish Randev is the Founder & CEO at Cervin Family Office. He brings in over 25 years of experience in investment management and family offices. He has advised over 80 families with over $3.2B in financial assets and has worked with many business families in structuring their family governance platforms. Well known in the Indian investment industry for his unique expertise and ethical standards he has been part of many family investment committees and family office boards.Follow Munish (@MunishRandev), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.. . .In this episode, we will cover:1. Munish’s insights from the year that was 2020 (1:57)2. Munish’s background and the key milestones that led to the founding of Cervin Family Office (6:17)3. How have Family Offices evolved over the years in India (12:22)4. Why are Family Offices attracted to investing in tech startups? (20:29)5. Who is developing the thesis within Family Offices? (27:29)6. What kind of returns do Family Offices expect from a) directly investing into startups and b) investing into VC funds as an LP (35:01)7. Subtle nuances of managing a Family Offices and what must an external fund manager be aware of? (41:00)8. Things LPs look out for when investing into a new fund manager? (51:34)9. The average timelines and cycles that Family Offices undertake while reviewing fund managers (56:55)10. Differences in approach between Cervin and other Family Offices (59:10)11. Rapid fire (1:03:15)