Prashant Pitti is the Co-founder and Director at EaseMyTrip , India’s second largest travel and hospitality company which provides hotel bookings, air tickets, holiday packages, bus bookings, and white-label services. In September 2021, it became a unicorn after its market capitalization crossed $1 billion. Prashant Pitti is responsible for marketing, branding, investor relations, hotel, bus and media management at EaseMyTrip. He is graduate from IIT Madras and has approximately 16 years of expe...
Mar 31, 2022•1 hr 12 min
Arjun Rao is a Partner at Speciale Invest, one of India’s leading deep-tech focused funds. He has spent over 15 years in the technology and Internet start-up ecosystem in India. He started his career with Yahoo! and later joined Ibibo as Product Manager. The entrepreneurial bug led him to start an edutech startup and also a travel tech startup, Travelyaari. He has led tech and product teams, and strategy and fundraising at all phases of a start-up lifecycle. At Travelyaari, he built the company ...
Mar 18, 2022•1 hr 23 min
Jitesh Luthra is leads Community for Bridge , and was previously the Platforms lead at Blume Ventures . Jitesh founded his first startup while still in college at Manipal University in the media space. After graduating with a degree in Computer Engineering, he worked with KPMG as part of their business Intelligence team, before embarking into the world of venture. At Blume, he played a pivotal role in establishing the ‘Platforms’ initiative and helping Blume’s portfolio founders problem-solve at...
Feb 22, 2022•1 hr 12 min
Anjali Bansal is the Founder of Avaana Capital which invests in and provides scaling up support to innovation-led startups for catalyzing impact at scale while delivering commercial returns. Anjali has invested in and mentored various successful start-ups including Delhivery, UrbanClap, Darwinbox, Nykaa, and Lenskart. She is closely associated with NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform, digital solutions, and mentor to the Atal Innovation Mission. Anjali is former Non-Executive Chairperso...
Feb 15, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Misbah Naqvi is the Co-founder and General Partner at i2i Ventures, an early-stage fund investing in startups solving some of Pakistan's biggest problems. Misbah brings over 20 years of global experience in finance, development, fintech and impact investing. She was previously Head of Market Development at Boloro Global Limited, a US-based fintech startup. While at Boloro, she led the company’s expansion to a number of markets, including South Africa, Kuwait, Pakistan, India, UAE, Nigeria, and J...
Jan 30, 2022•59 min
Arjun Vaidya is the Venture Lead for Verlinvest , a leading family owned investment group with over €1bn assets under management backed by families who have together built one of the world’s largest consumer businesses. Before embarking on his venture journey, Arjun was the co-founder and CEO of Dr. Vaidya’s , a new age Ayurveda consumer startup which was acquired by RP Sanjiv Goenka Group in March 2021. Prior to founding Dr. Vaidya’s, Arjun spent a few years as an investor working at LVMH's pri...
Jan 23, 2022•54 min
Shashank Khade is the Equity specialist of Entrust with over 20 years of cumulative professional experience in listed and unlisted equity investment management. Till September 2013, Shashank was the Senior Vice-President and Head of Portfolio Management Services division of Kotak Mutual Fund. His stint with Kotak entities including Kotak Securities and Kotak Asset Management Company was over 11 years. He headed the Portfolio Management services business since 2006 and was managing over INR 2000 ...
Jan 07, 2022•1 hr 14 min
Nitin Sharma is the General Partner at Antler India , and brings over a decade of experience in global venture capital, having invested in 50+ tech startups in multiple geographies. Most recently, he was the founder of FirstPrinciples , a thesis-driven syndicate and portfolio of 35+ startups, including Fynd, (acq. by Reliance), OnJuno, Niki, Kutumb, SharesPost (acq. By Forge), XOKind and many others backed by marquee investors. Nitin’s investing journey has previously spanned US venture capital ...
Nov 21, 2021•1 hr 35 min
This episode features Pranav Pai (3one4 Capital), Arjun Rao (Speciale Invest) and Chinnu Senthilkumar (Exfinity Ventures), and moderated by Akriti Dokania (Octopus Ventures), and was a panel at The Desi VC Summit 2021. The panel discusses India’s potential within the deep tech and the challenges in growing this space to its global counterparts.
Oct 18, 2021•51 min
Mohanjit Jolly is the Co-founder and Partner at Iron Pillar Fund (IPF) . IPF provides growth capital to founders building from India for the world. Mohanjit has been working with and investing in technology start-ups in the US and India for over 20 years. He is one of a few VCs who has been on the ground as a partner in India and Silicon Valley. Mohanjit has led Iron Pillar’s investments in Sibros, Jiffy, Uniphore, Vyome, Ushur and CoreStack. Before co-founding Iron Pillar, Mohanjit served as a ...
Oct 18, 2021•1 hr 10 min
Amit Garg is the Managing Partner at Tau Ventures , an AI-first VC fund in Palo Alto focused on three verticals that require deep expertise and are now being massively disrupted -- health, automation and enterprise. Amit has been in Silicon Valley for 20 years — at Samsung NEXT Ventures where he seed-funded nuTonomy (self-driving cars, sold for $450M), cofounded a startup called HealthIQ (as of May 2019 a series D that has raised $120M and valued at $450M), at Norwest Ventures ($10B AUM), and do...
Oct 15, 2021•1 hr 7 min
Sameer is Managing Partner of TrueScale Capital and Iron Pillar India Fund I. He has 22 years of experience in venture investing, entrepreneurship, Tech M&A, investment banking, capital markets exits, strategy consulting and leadership across geographies. Sameer was a Managing Director and senior investment banker at Citigroup, where he had a successful 15-year career. TrueScale Capital brings in a wealth of specialist growth expertise to the Indian Venture ecosystem. This is boosted with sk...
Sep 22, 2021•1 hr 27 min
Archana Balasubramanian is the founding partner of Agama Law Associates (ALA). She has versatile experience of over one decade where she has developed profound legal skills and acumen. She started her career under Senior Counsel Mr S. Venkiteswaran. She subsequently worked with Udwadia & Udeshi (now Argus Partners) and AZB & Partners prior to founding ALA. She has a tactical transactional understanding as well as significant industry expertise across diverse sectors such as manufacturing...
Sep 07, 2021•1 hr 23 min
Ankita is the founder of Sarvaank Associates . She brings with her a rich experience of having worked with prominent law firms as well as leading the legal and transaction team of Indian Angel Network (IAN), Asia's largest Angel Group with more than 450 HNI Investors. While at IAN, Ankita was responsible for closing of the deals from start to finish. She played a pivotal role in handholding the Startups in further raising of funds and supporting the investors to get the right value of money. Pri...
Sep 05, 2021•2 hr 23 min
Siddharth Mody is a Partner at Desai & Diwanji , one of India's leading law firms focusing on core areas of commercial and finance activity across PE and Venture capital among other asset classes. Siddharth has spent over 17 years in the industry and has had the unique experience of watching the startup ecosystem evolve to where it is today. Glossary:1. Double-dipping: A liquidation event where the VC receives their money back and then gets a share of the remaining proceeds. 2. Promoters: Fo...
Aug 19, 2021•1 hr 38 min
Anvesh is a Managing Director at MassMutual Ventures (MMV) and co-heads MMV’s investment efforts in Asia. Prior to MMV, Anvesh was a Director and Head of Investments at Openspace Ventures, where he was part of the founding team. He started his career at Citi in the TMT Investment Banking team, during which he spent around 8 years in Hong Kong and Mumbai on M&A and financial advisory work with clients in the APAC region. Anvesh holds a BE in electronics and communications engineering from Ann...
Jul 27, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Raja Ganapathy is the Founding Partner at Spring Marketing Capital , a skin-in-the-game marketing capital firm with investments in companies such as Byju, CureFit, WakeFit, Practo, 1mg among several others. Raja has worked with founders for most of his working life of 24+ years. First with Ogilvy and Brand David, where he worked with founders including Muruga of Bharat Matrimony and Siddhartha Lal of Royal Enfield. His defining stint was with Sequoia India, where as CMO, Raja worked with founder...
Jul 22, 2021•59 min
Vaibhav Domkundwar is the CEO of Better Capital , an early-stage venture firm that builds & invests in category-defining businesses. Prior to his investor journey, Vaibhav was an entrepreneur, having founded and successfully exited a venture-backed startup Roamware (acq. by PE firm Audax). You may follow Vaibhav on Twitter here . In this episode we will cover: 1. Learnings from investing in 2020 (1:45) 2. Covid impact on decision making (6:36) 3. What value does Better bring to the table? (9...
Jul 13, 2021•59 min
Pearl Agarwal is the Founder and Managing Director of Eximius Ventures , micro venture fund looking to create a thriving global entrepreneurial community and nurture young talent in India. Prior to founding Eximius, Pearl has spent time in PE and Investment Banking in the US and UK, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Corporate Finance from The University of Texas at Austin – The Red McCombs School of Business. You may follow Pearl and Eximius on Twitter. In this episode we will cover...
Jun 28, 2021•1 hr 14 min
Anjali Sosale is a Partner at WaterBridge Ventures , an early-stage VC firm based out of Bangalore and Delhi. Anjali began her career at EY, going on to becoming the Vice President over the course of a ten-year stint, before moving on to Myntra where she led their Brand Accelerator Program for three years. In this episode, we will cover: Impact of the Covid second wave on investments (2:20) Challenges founders are facing especially wrt their workforce and bench strength (7:25) Anjali’s journey i...
Jun 21, 2021•1 hr 21 min
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. Mo...
Apr 19, 2021•57 min
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 audie...
Apr 05, 2021•1 hr 9 min
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 opportuni...
Mar 29, 2021•1 hr 42 min
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 corporatio...
Mar 15, 2021•1 hr 21 min
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-operator...
Mar 10, 2021•42 min
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 bre...
Feb 25, 2021•58 min
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 jour...
Feb 17, 2021•1 hr 28 min
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 t...
Feb 08, 2021•1 hr 7 min
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...
Dec 27, 2020•1 hr 8 min
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 ( ...
Dec 21, 2020•1 hr 19 min
