The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

Kris Gopalakrishnan is the co-founder and former CEO of Infosys, and currently serves as the chairman of Axilor Ventures, an early-stage seed fund based out of Bangalore. He is recognized as a global business and technology thought leader and was voted the top CEO (IT Services category) in Institutional Investor’s inaugural ranking of Asia’s Top Executives and selected as one of the winners of the second Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia in 2011. He also was selected to Thinkers 50, an elite list of global business thinkers, in 2009. He was elected President of India’s apex industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013-14, and served as one of the co-chairs of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2014.In January 2011, the Government of India awarded Kris Gopalakrishnan the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third-highest civilian honor.Follow Kris Gopalakrishnan (@kris_sg), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.. . .The Desi Startups of the Week:1. PLUC: India’s first mobile storytelling platform for meaningful stories by unfound mobile creators.2. Pathway Ventures: A new VC fund focused on the human side of the future of work. They’re investing in companies that drive economic mobility through innovative models of earning, learning, and community building.. . .In this episode, we will cover:1. What is Kris hoping accomplish as the first chairperson of the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH)? (3:55)2. What can founders today learn from the Infosys story? (7:50)3. Building long-lasting, sustainable businesses in today’s world (14:09)4. Guarding your investments as a VC (17:48)5. How has the pandemic impacted Axilor Ventures (20:30)6. When and why did Kris decide to start a fund? (25:03)7. What has surprised Kris the most about the venture ecosystem (28:13)8. How much pressure was on the Axilor team to deliver exceptional results given their stellar reputation (31:25)9. How much has Kris’ risk appetite changed from his days as operator to now as a vc 32:34)10. What risk is Kris willing to take? What is he not? (35:26)11. Insights from Axilor’s portfolio construction (38:43)12. What are the core economics of venture capital that all entrepreneurs need to understand? (44:00)13. How do you build a ‘successful’ business without venture funding (47:14)14. What can India’s policy makers do to support and grow the momentum within the startup ecosystem (50:35)15. Are SPACs one way of retaining businesses in India? (56:24)16. Rapid fire (59:00)

Rahul Chandra is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at Arkam Ventures, an early-stage fund partnering aimed at Middle India –– the 400 million people just below the top of the pyramid. He was one of the earliest tech VCs in India, starting in 1998 as part of the team at Walden International's India-focused fund. He later moved to Palo Alto to invest in Silicon Valley start-ups. In 2005, he co-founded Helion Ventures and relocated to India. At Helion, he invested more than $100M in 15 companies, a list that includes Equitas (IPO), Spandana (IPO), Shubham Housing, UnitedLex, Toppr, Railyatri, MoEngage and Seclore. He is also the author of "The Moonshot Game - Adventures of an Indian VC", a book that captures his experience of investing in India from 2006 to 2016.Follow Rahul Chandra (@rahulchandra77), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. . . .The Desi Startups of the Week:1. Qshala: Qshala is a curiosity platform consisting of live online courses designed to foster life-skills & curiosity in children. The Quriosity curriculum helps your child develop critical thinking, improve communication skills, and enhance their ability to learnIt’s a one-stop-shop for all the skills you wish you were taught at school. 2. Clergo: Clergo makes it effortless to start a discussion around a topic, eliminating the need for ad-hoc and unplanned meetings to discuss something specific. . . . In this episode we will cover:1. How COVID has impacted Rahul and Arkam Ventures (3:51)2. What’s changed in the diligence process (6:57)3. Has covid impacted deal flow and investments? (10:13)4. LP Concerns: Institutional LPs vs new-age entrepreneur LPs (14:53)5. Rahul’s motivation to be a VC and starting a second fund (17:13)6. LP mentality in 2005 vs LP mentality in 2020 (25:00)7. Why Rahul believes India is promising market for LPs (32:51)8. Is Middle India today the India of 2005/06 that Helion first began investing into (34:40)9. Biggest misconception of middle India from an LPs and founder perspective (43:57)10. How does the macro-economic trends affect the middle India opportunity? (49:06)11. Rahul’s thoughts on the movement to bridge the gender gap within middle India (54:35)12. How can manufacturing sector amplify middle India’s potential at scale like China? (59:51)13. How much of a say does the VC community have in policy ma

Venk Krishnan is the founder of NuWare and NuVentures. NuVentures is an early stage venture fund based out of Bangalore which has backed companies such as MuSigma, BigBasket, Acko, Pocket Aces, Thrillophilia among others. Follow Venk Krishnan (@krishnanVenk), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and the podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. . . . The Desi Startups of the Week:1. BurnCal: India's First AI based home fitness trainer that can see and guide user to provide real time feedback on their pose and reps. 2. Q-Blocks: A distributed computing company building affordable supercomputers for high performance computing applications like ML model training, Running simulations, big data analytics or creating the next deep fake.. . . In this episode we will cover:1. Covid related (0:47)2. Operator VC (6:35)3. How does being a VC help being an entrepreneur?(12:39)4. Road to Venture Capital (17:50)5. The MuSigma deal (26:12)6. How did Venk get clarity on setting up a fund (30:20)7. Thesis at NuVentures (34:30)8. Diverse portfolio development from an LP perspective (39:25)9. Angel investing vs syndicate/VC investing (47:40)10. Rapid fire (56: 25)

Rohit Goyal is the Manager Partner at Windrose Capital, a Pune based early stage VC firm investing in India’s fast-transforming economy. He has entrepreneurial experience in Manufacturing & Technology and has set-up companies in & outside India, with people from China, Sri Lanka, UK & Germany. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Electronics & Tele-Com.) & Masters in Management (Finance & Entrepreneurship) from CASS Business School, City University, London. . . . The Desi Startups of the Week:1. Indistractable: Indistractable is a suite of productivity apps to help you fight digital distraction, starting with a minimalist launcher.2. Bima Garage: Bima is focused on making insurance easy for everyone in India, with a focus on hassle-free claims management service. . . . In this episode we will cover: 1. Last eight months at Windrose Capital (2:39)2. Conversations with existing LPs and potential LPs during COVID (5:37)3. Evolution of the thesis at Windrose? (19:43)4. Rohit’s background and journey into VC (24:34)5. Why Windrose chose Pune to be their HQ? (32:07)6. Does the location of the fund really matter? (37:05)7. How does a young fund manager convince LPs to invest in the firm? (39:15)8. How did Rohit shortlist his LP candidates? (43:40)9. What does ‘contextual fit’ really mean and represent at Windrose Capital? (47:33)10. Determining market velocity and mapping the future of Indian VC (56:05)11. Rapid fire (1:03:55)

Srikanth Sundararajan is the General partner at VenturEast, an India focused fund that helps tech startups looking to go global from India across segments like education, health, financial services, agritech, and Enterprise SaaS. Srikanth has 25+ years of international experience in the software product and services having worked at HP, Informix in the US, and was part of the executive leadership team at HCL, the world wide CTO at Cognizant and the COO at Persistent through its successful IPO. In the US he had also successfully founded his own startup, Pretzel Logic Software Inc., which was acquired by BEA spinoff WebGain. BEA was later acquired by Oracle. He was also part of the founding team at IDS, which was also acquired.He is also a visiting faculty of computer science at IIT Bhubaneswar and has taught at several US universities. He also serves on national committees on technical education, an initiative of MHRD, Government of India. He was also a member of the tech committee for the Government of India initiative on indirect taxes (Customs and Excise).He holds a B Tech degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and a MS/PhD in Computer and Information Sciences from University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. He has several publications and is the holder of patents, jointly with HP.. . .The Desi Startups of the Week:1. Foodwalas: Foodwallas is a Gourmet food delivery startup that lets mom and pop stores to reach a big, national audience.2. Elo App: A vernacular audio streaming app for you to consume content if your preferred language.. . .In this week’s episode we will cover:1. Learnings through investing during the pandemic (3:29)2. Srikanth’s background (8:20)3. What aspect of Srikanth’s past is most valuable to him today as a VC (11:17)4. What made Srikanth join VenturEast? (21:02)5. Investment thesis at VenturEast (24:32)6. Disruption: Incumbents vs new entrants (34:05)7. Is legacy software dying? (41:29)8. Differences in investing in different tiers in India (47:45)9. Srikanth’s preference: startups from tier 2/3 markets or those targeting tier 2/3 markets (54:25)10. India and its deep tech ambitions (56:53)11. Rapid fire (59:15)

Sasha Mirchandani is Managing Director and Founder of Kae Capital and Co-founder Mumbai Angels. Previously, he was at Blue Run Ventures as Managing Director for the India operations. Before joining Blue Run Ventures he was CEO and Founder of Imercius Technologies. Earlier he was at Mirc Electronics (Onida) where he was Head of Corporate Affairs and new business.Follow Sasha on Twitter (@sashamirchi), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc).. . .The Desi Startups of the Week:1. Aisle: Aisle is a dating app for Indians around the world2. Sarva: India’s largest and only Yoga based wellness ecosystem. . .In this week’s episode, we will cover:1. Impact of COVID personally and professionally (3:30)2. Learnings during COVID as an investor (6:55)3. LP sentiment and concerns (10:58)4. Sasha’s background (15:50)5. How did Mumbai Angels come into being? (20:05)6. When should an angel think about raising institutional capital for his/her fund? (24:55)7. Mistakes angels make during investing (26:31)8. Sasha’s thesis during the early days on angel investing (28:00)9. Evolution of investment thesis at Kae Capital across funds (29:45)10. How do you decentralize venture capital in India to allow for more investors to enter the market (35:42)11. Rapid fire (39:50)

Utsav Somani is a Partner at AngelList India and General Partner at iSeed (a seed-stage fund looking to bridge successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Indian founders in the search of money as well as the expertise and knowledge of scaling up a startup).Follow Utsav (@somani_utsav), host Akash (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. . . .The Desi Startups of the Week:1. Flatheads: Flatheads is an all-day casual sneakers designed for work wear and optimized for 14-hour comfort.2. MoveABox: MoveABox is Bangalore-based startup helping people to vacate and relocate their homes in a personalized manner.. . . In today’s episode we will cover: 1. Micro VC –– overcrowded with competition or not? (7:50)2. Recap of VC landscape during COVID (17:08)3. Raising a fund during the months of the lockdown (21:18)4. Takeaways from raising a fund (22:56)5. Utsav’s background (24:14)6. What is Micro VC and how does Utsav see it within the Indian context (27:11)7. Why is there a rise in Micro VC funds across India? (29:48)8. Is Micro VC more riskier? (35:13)9. What is the value proposition of a Micro VC (37:16)10. How does an emerging fund manager attract good deal flow? (41:54)11. Trend –– LPs turning GPs (48:13)12. Dissection of Utsav’s tweet on the disconnect between macro trends (51:14)13. Rapid fire (52:02)

Rutvik Doshi is the General Partner at Inventus Capital India, early stage Venture Capital firm that invests in Pre Series A and Series A. Rutvik has participated in India’s fast emerging internet ecosystem since 2007, first with Google where he launched several products including Voice Search, Google Mobile App, SMS Channels and managed Google News globally, and most recently as the CEO of ecommerce startup Taggle in Bangalore. Before Google he spent 6 years in the US building internet management software for CA Technologies. Rutvik holds a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and an MBA from INSEAD, France. Follow Rutvik (@rutvik), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.. . .The Desi Startups of the Week:1. Project PIF: Project Pay-It-Forward is a cloud-based mentorship platform for graduate admissions2. Podium: Podium is a platform that brings people closer to have virtual conversations around social issues.. . .In this episode we will cover:. . . (Part 1) . . .1. Impact of COVID on fund dynamics and larger macro economic trends (5:24)2. How did LP’s react to the pandemic (7:44)3: Investment strategy during Covid and plans for the future (13:11)4. How did Inventus India Capital build rapport with founders during the pandemic, in the absence of F2F meetings? (18:38)5. Rutvik’s background and sequence of events leading up to Inventus (19:58)6. Evolution of VC in India (28:06)7. Investment thesis at Inventus (32:21)8. Importance of forging strong relationships with other VC firms in India (37:17). . . (Part 2) . . .9. Raising domestic capital –– Has India reached a point of comfort to invest in VC as an asset class? (42:51)10. Why is it better to have Indian investors than global? (44:44)11. What should emerging fund managers be prepared for when they speak to potential LP candidates? (49:02)12. How many calls do VC’s have with potential LPs (53:53)13. How do the Partners split fundraising responsibilities (55:53)14. When will see a change in venture investing to bring more profitability? (1:00:09)15. Lobbying in India (1:02:41)16. Raising money from foreign investors or Indian? (1:05:42)17. Rapid fire (1:08:05)

Vinay Bansal is the CEO at Inflection Point Ventures, an early stage angel investing platform. He is a finance professional and turnaround specialist with 20+ years of experience across Fortune 50 companies, private equity & startups. Last, he was Senior Advisor at TPG Global and before that CFO & CIO at Wildcraft India. He is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and spent the first 14 years of his career in leadership positions across Financial Management and Manufacturing / Supply-chain sourcing functions at GE and Hindustan Unilever.Follow host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.. . .The Desi Startups of the Week:1. Fire.Fly: Fire.Fly is a Bangalore-based learning & development startup focusing on teaching the values of creativity & compassion through online & offline workshops and experiences.2. Leher App: Leher App is a social network built around video discussions that connects people around their interests and passions.. . .In this episode, we will cover:1. Vinay Intro (2:43)2. Covid impact –– Macro-level and portfolio-level (3:43)3. Why has IPV been active when other VC firms have been conservative in their approach during covid (6:48)4. Will companies getting funded now continue to see similar success post-covid? (11:21)5. How can startups leverage the pandemic to create moats (16:21)6. Vinay’s background (20:07)7. Challenges of being an agnostic firm (28:58)8. Time management for GPs (33:16)9. What is CXO genie and how’s that unique to IPV (35:57)10. How to measure success of a mentor-driven program? (41:29)11. Measuring portfolio returns and communication with LPs (46:27)12. Best practices for LP communication (52:20)13. Rapid fire (55:13)

Melissa Frakman is the founder & managing partner of Emphasis Ventures (EMVC), a venture capital fund investing in early-stage fintech startups in India. She brings 15 years of experience participating in India’s digital revolution to bridge worlds for entrepreneurs and companies. Named on the “Global Fintech PowerList” by Innovate Finance, Melissa has led early stage investments in asia, supported new market strategy, and built partnerships worth over $1 billion for 15 of the Fortune 100 companies. Follow Melissa (@melissafrakman), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. . . .The Desi Startup of the Week:Piggy: Piggy is a next generation mutual fund investment app that simplifies investments. . . .In this episode, we will cover: 1. Sectors within FinTech that have stood out during the pandemic (4:12)2. Melissa’s journey so far (5:46) 3. Why does Melissa think India has a more robust and advanced FinTech ecosystem than other markets (10:48) 4. FinTech: Bundling vs Unbundling (14:00) 5. FinTech investment trends and risks associated with investing in the space (17:04) 6. The FinTech opportunity: Urban, Middle and Rural India (19:43) 7. FinTech challenges within rural India (24:05)8. Educating the masses: Is it the role of the govt. or startups? (25:53) 9. Innovation with UPI (28:15) 10. Assessing FinTech startups (31:16) 11. Traditional financial institutions: opportunity or threat? (35:37)12. How does EMVC add value to their portfolio (37:58)13. Rapid fire (40:23) 14. Ways to get in touch with Melissa (48:20)