The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

Tarun Sharma is Managing Partner at MegaDelta Capital Advisors, a sub-advisor to Millenna Capital, a Mauritius based investment fund as well as an investment manager of MegaDelta Capital Fund I, a SEBI registered Category II Alternate Investment Fund. The fund has invested in companies such as GOQii, Nova, IDfy, Naaptol, Firstcry, MoneyTap etc. and others. MegaDelta typically invest $15-25M across sectors of such as Healthcare, Enterprise technology and Engineering Services. Tarun has more than 18 years of work experience, including 16 years in principal investing and investment advisory in India and around the world. He currently serves on the boards of GreytHR Software, Intelligence Node, Panacea Medical Technologies, and Air Works Engineering, as well as Nova Fertility and FirstCry.com as a Board Observer. Tarun formed the core investment advisory team for NEA India prior to joining MegaDelta Capital, leading investments in consumer, healthcare, and technology companies. And before that, he worked for Peepul Capital Private Equity, where he was involved in transaction structuring and execution, as well as actively managing portfolio companies in the consumer and media sectors. He began his career at Goldman Sachs International in London, first with the Equity Derivatives team and then with the Global Macro Proprietary trading team, where he developed a strong understanding of macro themes and translated them into investible opportunities. Tarun received an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, India and earned his B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Delhi, India. Episode Notes: 1. Intro (2:45) 2. Tarun’s journey into venture capital (4:12) 3. The evolution of the Indian venture capital landscape over the last 15 years (12:05) 4. How has Tarun evolved as an investor over the years? (16:20) 5. The role of a successful fund manager (21:35) 6. Takeaways from investing and collaborating with portfolio founders (case in point: Firstcry.com) (31:02) 7. Healthcare in India: Why haven't venture capitalists done more in this sector? (43:21) 8. Where is the real opportunity in healthcare in the next 4-5 years? (48:13) 9. Advice Tarun would give himself (55:20) . . . Social Links: Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Kanika Mayar is a Partner at Vertex Ventures SEA & India (VVSEAI), a fund part of the global Vertex Ventures network of funds, with portfolio companies such as Licious, FirstCry, Nium, Binance, Grab, Yatra, and Happy Fresh. In addition to Southeast Asia and India, the Vertex Global Network is comprised of affiliates in Silicon Valley, China and Israel. Kanika joined Vertex Ventures in 2020 and focuses on opportunities in India in agritech, B2B, consumer, and health tech. Kanika has worked in private equity, asset management, and investment banking for over 9 years.Prior to joining Vertex, Kanika was an Investment Officer with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) where she focused on investing in early-stage technology, telecom, renewable energy and infrastructure companies across India and South Asia. Before IFC, Kanika was with Goldman Sachs’s Investment Banking team covering transactions in natural resources in Europe.Kanika holds a Bachelor in Economics from the Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.Episode Notes:1. Intro (1:30)2. Kanika's professional trajectory (2:42)3. A general overview of the VC industry in recent years (7:00)4. India's macro trends (14:22)5. Kanika's India thesis (21:23)6. Portfolio startup learnings (31:51)7. Establishing long-term relationships with founders (41:20)8. Advice to anyone entering venture capital (51:30). . . Social Links: Vertex Ventures on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VertexVenturesKanika Mayar on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KanikaMayarPodcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Aprameya Radhakrishna is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Koo, an Indian microblogging and social networking app also known as the Indian Twitter. The company has raised a little over $50M from marquee investors such as Accel, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures, 3one4 Capital, Tiger Global among many others. He founded his first venture, TaxiForSure with Raghunandan, which was acquired by OLA in 2015 for $200 million. In 2017, Aprameya launched his second venture, ‘Vokal,’ a user-generated content platform in Indian languages, with partner Mayank Bidawatka. After that, he realised that content in regional Indian languages was sparse, as most social media platforms carry an English-first approach and are built primarily for English speakers residing in urban centres. This gave him the idea of developing a multi-lingual micro-blogging platform for Indians, Koo, to communicate and connect with their linguistic and cultural communities. In July 2020, he won the Prime Minister’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge. Episode Notes: 1. Intro (2:20) 2. Reflections on free expression in the context of microblogging and social media (3:50) 3. Growing Koo within different sections of the Indian populations (8:55) 4. How did the idea for Koo come about, and what factors aided the company's growth? (12:50) 5. Learning from building TaxiForSure that translates to building Koo (17:10) 6. The initial set of milestones that established the Koo brand (20:04) 7. Expansion during the pandemic (23:48) 8. Lessons from India's growth that will help Koo expand to the United States (26:47) 9. Creating richer community experiences (29:40) 10. Taking on Twitter (33:52) 11. Scaling values as businesses grow (37:44) 12. Creating a brand with a purpose (41:38) 13. How do investors perceive Koo’s growth in the coming years? (47:37) 14. Lessons learned as a serial entrepreneur in India (50:18) . . . Social Links: Koo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kooindia Aprameya Radhakrishna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aprameya Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Shyam Menon is the founding partner of Bharat Innovation Fund (BII), an India-based early-stage venture capital fund that invests in IP-driven deep tech, healthcare, agritech, fintech, mobility, logistics, enterprise and renewables startups. The fund has invested in Fire Compass, CreditVidya, Shifu, Detect Technologies, among many others. He has worked in the technology industry for over 25 years. Prior to launching BII, Shyam co-founder Infuse Ventures, India’s first clean tech focussed early-stage venture capital fund backed by BP, IFC, MNRE, SIDBI and other prominent LPs, and spent several years abroad working across global institutions such as the World Bank, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Conduit Ventures, Fuel Cell Energy, and Acumentrics Corp.Shyam graduated with honors from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology with a Bachelor's degree in Metallurgical Engineering and Missouri University of Science and Technology with a Master's degree in Material Sciences. Despite beginning his Ph.D. at UC Davis, he decided to discontinue it and pursue a career in the impact space.Episode Notes: 1. Intro (2:20)2. The origin story of Bharat Innovation Fund (3:00)3. Why did Shyam decide to bet on the Indian startup story in 2007/08? (37:47)4. Backing dreamers and disruptors (44:30)5. How has Shyam evolved as a fund manager (1:02:30). . . Social Links: BII on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bharat_fundPodcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Tushar Vashisht is the Co-founder and CEO of HealthifyMe, a digital health and wellness company that provides smart meal plans personalized by expert nutritionists and customized workout plans with certified fitness coaches. The company has raised just over $100M from Khosla Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, Athera Venture Partners, Blume Ventures among several others.Vashisht began his career on Wall Street at BlackRock. He later joined Deutsche Bank as a corporate finance analyst in San Francisco before moving to Singapore. In 2009, he joined the Aadhaar project headed by Nandan Nilekani, and in 2012 he co-founded HealthifyMe with Mathew Cherian and Sachin Shenoy.Episode Notes:1. Introduction (2:50)2. What led Tushar to found HealthifyMe (4:05)3. How did Tushar and his team validate their HealhtifyMe thesis? (8:40)4. How do you find early adopters and solicit feedback as founders? (13:48)5. How does the life of a founder change when they raise capital (22:05)6. The pandemic's impact on HealthifyMe as a company (28:55)7. Which is more difficult: building in the early stages or empowering leaders within an organization? (36:47)8. Tushar’s frameworks for decision making (39:55)9. Tushar's advice to his younger self (44:52). . . Bonus: Ud ja Re by Tushar Vashisht . . . Social Links: HealthifyMe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HealthifyMeTushar Vashisht on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tusharvashishtPodcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Upasana Taku is the Co-founder, COO and Chairperson of MobiKwik, a financial services company that provides a fintech platform designed for online payments (incl. BNPL), life insurance, and loans. The company has raised $178M from marquee investors such as Sequoia, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Blacksoil, AmEx Ventures, Orios Venture Partners, Cisco Investments among many others. Upasana built the company from scratch and now has 32 million users and 100,000 merchants, doing close to 500,000-1,000,000 transactions every day. Episode Notes:1. What inspired Upasana to found Mobikwik (4:23)2. How does one validate an idea or a business in its early stages? (10:30)3. The evolution of the CEO's role (23:08)4. The vision for MobiKwik (30:53)5. Thoughts on monetizing UPI (41:55)6. Differentiating consumer and fintech products, companies, and offerings (45:50)7. What advice would Upasana give herself if she had to start over? (51:10). . . Social Links: MobiKwik on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MobiKwikUpasana Taku on Twitter: https://twitter.com/UpasanaTakuPodcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Bipin Shah is the Partner at Titan Capital, an early-stage sector agnostic micro VC fund based in India. The fund has an incredible portfolio of over 250 startups in India and the US across consumer internet, D2C, SaaS, AI, Web3, and other sectors, including investments in Ola, UrbanCompany, Mamaearth, Oziva, Dealshare, Razorpay, Ofbusiness, Yellow Messenger, Beardo, and Giva, among many others.He was a founding team member of Lead Angels Network, a seed-stage investment platform, before joining Titan Capital in 2015. He graduated from IIT Bombay in 2013, where he was a member of the E-Cell team for five years and led it in his final year. Episode Notes:1. Bipin spoke about his "gardening approach" and how it is helping entrepreneurs2. Bipin discussed Titan's investment growth and reaching unicorn status3. How Titan's 40% of portfolios raised Series A in less than two years of investment4. How did Bipin begin his Titan journey with Kunal and Rohit?5. Titan Capital Fundamentals: 3 Key Ingredients for Investments6. Early investment experience and developing the investment philosophy for Titan 7. Short stories on investments in companies such as Beardo, Fynd, Superdaily, Mamaearth, Credgenics & others8. Bipin's Titan journey learnings and methods for assisting founders in improving their unit economics9. The most important piece of advice from Bipin on investing in startups10. Insights into other sectors in which Titan investsSocial Links: Titan Capital on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TitanCapitalVCBipin Shah on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bipin_28Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Yash Jain is the Founder and General Partner at Sparrow Capital, an early-stage micro VC fund that invests upto $500K in SaaS, B2B, Fintech, and Consumer Internet sectors in India with investments in companies such as Mailmodo, Qoohoo, Bimaplan, GoKwik, Superfone among others. Prior to Sparrow, Yash had two stints with large VC funds in India – Kalaari Capital and Arkam Ventures, and also worked at Flipkart as an analyst. Episode notes: 1. Why venture as a career path? (2:20)2. The difficulties of launching a new fund as a millennial (10:48)3. Nuances and learnings from investing in India (16:07)4. What founders in India can do better (36:00)5. What can Indian VC improve on doing better (44:45)6. Lessons learned from Yash's time in the US and the future plan for Sparrow (54:32)7. Advice for young fund managers (1:02:46). . . Social Links: Sparrow Capital on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sparrowcapvcYash Jain on Twitter: https://twitter.com/yash_sparrowPodcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Milap Jadeja is the Managing Partner of Openbook VC. He is a senior management and strategy professional with over 20 years of experience in building multiple businesses in sectors such as Pharmaceuticals, Agriculture and Non-ferrous castings. Milap brings with him a proven track record in investment leadership being An established angel investor with over 50+ angel investments in startups including unicorns and soonicorns. He has also led multiple fundraising efforts for startups as a syndicate head. A seasoned investor, he is an LP at multiple funds such as Better Capital, Cloud Capital and Prophetic Ventures. Episode notes: 1. Comparisons of two art forms: photography and investing (3:42)2. A look back at investments and founders (22:50)3. What has Milap learned about investing and specifically that in India? (30:16)4. Takeaways from working with founders (45:10)5. How has Milap evolved as a person? (58:25). . . Social Links: Openbook VC on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenbookVCPodcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Shalini Chhabra is the Managing Partner at 3i (Impact India Investments) Partners, a Silicon Valley-based Impact Fund with the objective of supporting enterprises looking to solve some of the most pressing challenges faced by India's lower-income millions. She is a seasoned Banker with over two decades of experience in Credit Risk Management. She has managed diverse portfolios including Large Corporate, Inter-bank, SME, Financial Institutions including Mutual Funds and Insurance, Government / PSUs, and Structured Finance including Supply Chain Financing, Factoring, Securitisation, Inter-bank Participation etc. She has also managed Risk Policy and processes, Basel Implementation and Development of Risk models for PD estimation for HDFC Bank. She is huge proponent of gender equality, and currently mentors young students with AFH (“Aspire for Her”), hoping to bring about the change in perspective and reduce, if not eliminate the various self-limiting reasons for success by Women. Prior to becoming a VC, Shalini was also an experienced angel in the impact space, primarily looking at livelihoods creation at the Bottom of the Pyramid.Episode notes:1. Career in banking (3:34)2. Learning from the banking sector that Shalini has carried over to VC (6:25)3. Framework for risk appetite (18:05)4. What has Shalini learned about herself as a result of her work in banking and venture capital? (28:42)5. Shalini discusses what it takes to be a fund manager and success frameworks for operators (44:50)6. Shalini's professional career (58:50)7. Shalini's views on investing in personas (1:05:24). . . Social Links: 3i Partners on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/3i-partners-india/Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash