The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

Piyush Puri leads the Brand Capital International team in Silicon Valley as Vice President of BWI, the strategic investment arm of The Times Group – India’s largest multimedia conglomerate. Before leading Brand Capital’s US office, Piyush was an investment banker in Mumbai, India focusing on investments in the energy, ancillaries, and the environment spaces. Piyush received his degree in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), has an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology of Leadership from Penn State University.Follow Piyush (@Piyushpuri13), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.. . .In this episode we will cover:1. Piyush’s background (2:59)2. How does Brand Capital International help startups tap into the Indian market? (5:56)3. What do startups get wrong when they think about the India opportunity? (9:36)4. How does BCI approach investments? (12:17)5. What do non-Indian startups offer than incumbents don’t? (14:28)6. What’s the best outcome for non-Indian startups entering India? (18:42)7. How does BCI measure success of their portfolio companies? (19:45)8. How do portfolio startups measure the impact of BCI? (21:06)9. When’s the right time to think about global expansion (23:36)10. Is having ‘feet on street’ important when startups go global? (26:00)11. Internal reporting and accountability with respect to investments (27:59)12. How has the pandemic affected BCI and their co-investors during the lockdown? (30:35)13. BCI Portfolio: Does higher valuation (by non-Indian VCs) deter future investments from Indian VCs? (33:47)14. Rapid fire (38:20)

Rohan Malhotra is the co-founder and Managing Partner at Good Capital, a Delhi-based early stage fund which takes a bottom-up approach to problem-solving and values first-principles thinking. Prior to Good Capital, he co-founded Investopad, a seed-stage technology incubator that focused on ventures that were centered on solving India-centric problems.You may follow Rohan (@r0hanmalhotra), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. . . . In this episode we will cover:1. Intro (1:50)2. How did the name ‘Good Capital’ come about (3:54)3. What was the motivation in starting Investopad and then Good Capital (8:10)4. How do two young people in their 20s start a fund without prior experience in building companies or managing funds (14:01)5. How Investopad’s success became the foundation for Good Capital (16:38)6. Fundraising challenges for young first-time fund managers and alignment with LPs (19:27)7. Good Capital: Investing thesis (21:12)8. How does a deal like Meesho come along? (22:58)9. What is a ‘first-close’ from a fund-raising perspective? (33:07)10. How long does it take to close the complete fund-raise for a fund? (34:55)11. Portfolio construction at Good Capital (38:22)12. Rapid fire (40:42)

Vinod Murali is Managing Partner and Co-founder of Alteria Capital. Vinod has 15+ years of experience spanning Venture Debt, Mezzanine Capital & Structured finance, Corporate Banking and Branding. Prior to Alteria, he spent time as the Deputy CEO at InnoVen Capital India (prev. known as SVB India Finance), and before that, at Citigroup as part of the Corporate and Investment Banking Group where he managed large Corporate relationships across Auto, Healthcare and Consumer industries.Follow Vinod (@vinodmur) and host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.. . .Glossary of terms:1. Venture debt: Venture debt is a form of debt financing for venture equity-backed companies that lack the assets or cash flow for traditional debt financing, or that want greater flexibility. It is a form of “risk capital” that is less costly than equity when structured appropriately.2. Burn: Amount of monthly cash that a company spends. . .In this episode, we will cover:1. Vinod Murali’s background and the birth of Alteria Capital (03:28)2. Reason behind Silicon Valley Bank’s exit from India (11:20)3. History of venture debt in India (14:44)4. Reasons venture debt doesn’t sit well with traditional banking institutions (22:25)5. Parallels between venture debt and equity financing (29:05)6. How are debts structured? (33:27)7. What are debts repaid? What is the typical interest rate? (36:00)8. How are warrants / dilution structured? (38:01)9. Debt arrangements that have gone well and those that haven’t and why? (40:38)10. Why don’t debt financiers usually take board seats? (44:28)11. Are personal guarantees eligible in a venture debt scenario? (48:00)12. How does a deal like Dunzo come along? (49:44)13. Rapid fire (52:36)

Alex Lazarow is the Investment Director at Cathay Innovation. Prior to joining Cathay Innovation, Alex was a Principal at Omidyar Network, a global philanthropic investment firm. While at Omidyar, he focused on investments in the global FinTech and financial inclusion space across the U.S., Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.He is also an adjunct professor specializing in impact investment and entrepreneurship at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He is a Kauffman Fellow, CFA Charterholder, and a Stephen M. Kellen Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.Comm from the University of Manitoba.Follow Alex (@Alex_Lazarow) and host, Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.. . .Glossary of terms:1. Network Effects: Network Effects is a phenomenon whereby increased numbers of people or participants improve the value of a good or service.2. Impacting Investing: Impact investing refers to investments made into companies, organizations and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return3. Blitzscaling: It's the science and art of rapidly building out a company to serve a large and usually global market, with the goal of becoming the first mover at scale; an accelerated path to the stage in a startup's life-cycle where the most value is created. . . .In this episode we will learn:1. Alex Lazarow’s background (3:20)2. Why did Alex decide to write ‘Out-Innovate’? (7:00)3. What are ‘Frontier Ecosystems’? (9:34) 4. Similarities between emerging markets around the world and emerging markets within the US such as mid-West (11:53)5. Learnings from speaking to Indian entrepreneurs about ‘sustainable’ growth (14:38)6. Misconceptions about Blitzscaling (18:22)7. Challenges in building global companies (22:04)8. How should entrepreneurs think about the global opportunity and get it right? (25:15)9. Bottlenecks in building sustainable businesses (28:10)10. Is real innovation taking place outside the Silicon Valley? (31:16) 11. Misconceptions Alex had about emerging markets before writing his book (33:40)12. How has Alex changed through his experience of writing the book? (35:15) 13. Rapid fire (38:10)

Pankaj Makkar is the Managing Director, Bertelsmann India Investments, a strategic investment arm of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA in India, focusing on investments in the digital, education, media and services sectors. He’s spent his career at Astro, Univision and has been at Bertelsmann for the last decade. He holds a B.Comm Hons. from Delhi University and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.Bertelsmann India Investments has several startups in its portfolio including Licious, Saavn, Pepperfry, and Quikr.Follow Pankaj (@_pankajmakkar) and host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.. . .Glossary of terms:1. Growth stage: Growth stage investment firms invest in well-run, growing businesses with proven business models and solid management teams looking to continue driving the business. Series B and beyond rounds are usually termed as ‘growth stage’.. . .In this episode we will cover:1. Pankaj Makkar’s background: (00:19)2. COVID-19 impact and the current state of work: (1:26)3. How has venture evolved in the last decade: (3:02)4. In this new normal, what are the learning from market perspective and VC Opportunities: (6:07)5. What is nature of conversations right now with portfolio companies: (8:17)6. Thoughts on sectoral thesis for post COVID world: (9:16)7. Evolution and current view of India VC market: (12:21)8. Why is it hard to multiply fund returns: (14:56)9. How do you do diligence for portofolio companies: (17:52)10. What diligence data points and methodology: (18:18)11. For companies already invested in, how do you mitiagte risk: (21:25)12. Investing in growth stage companies for consumer vs enterprise technology companies (25:10)13. Bertselmann’s Fund-of-Fund (FoF) strategy for investing in other funds: (26:48)14. EdTech and the constant disruption in the space: (34:29)15. Rapid-Fire - (40:48)

Ankita Vashistha is the Founder and Managing Partner at Saha Fund, a fund that invests in early stage tech-startups run by women entrepreneurs. Ankita comes with a background finance having spent time working in venture capital and private equity before co-founding Saha Fund along with her partner, Usha Amin. Follow Saha Fund (@sahafund) and host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.. . .In this episode we will cover:1. Ankita’s background2. Covid-impact on the venture industry3. What is Saha Fund and what’s special about it?4. Why diversity in investing matters in today’s context?5. How can VCs accommodate more diversity when it comes to investing in India?6. Challenges in fundraising as a fund manager for a women entrepreneurship venture fund7. What can Indian VCs learn from success of Nyaka, CashKaro, Rivigo8. Sectors that Saha Fund focuses on

Ishpreet Singh Gandhi is the Founder and Managing Partner at Stride Ventures, a venture-debt fund focused on lending to growth-stage startups with investments in companies such as Bira and Stellapps. He brings over 13 years of experience encompassing Banking, Private Equity and Venture Capital. During his last stint as Regional Head (North & East) at IDFC Bank, he spearheaded startup business by initiating lending business across Fintech, Consumer, Logistics and Agritech space. He has completed his Post Graduation from Delhi University (Delhi School of Economics) and Bachelors in Commerce from Delhi University.Glossary of Terms:1. Venture Debt: Venture debt is a form of debt financing for venture equity-backed companies that lack the assets or cash flow for traditional debt financing, or that want greater flexibility. A complement to equity financing, venture debt is generally structured as a three-year term loan (or series of loans), with warrants for company stock. Overall, venture debt is a form of “risk capital” that is less costly than equity when structured appropriately.2. Covenant: Debt covenants are restrictions that lenders (creditors, debt holders, investors) put on lending agreements to limit the actions of the borrower (debtor). In other words, debt covenants are agreements between a company and its lenders that the company will operate within certain rules set by the lenders.In this episode we will cover:1. Ishpreet’s background and entry into venture capital2. What are the differences between equity-based financing and debt-based financing?3. What kind of startups qualify for venture debt4. In spite of being founder friendly, why isn’t debt financing more popular than it should be5. What steps is Stride Ventures taking to make debt financing mainstream?6. How important is the cap table while evaluating a startup during debt financing?7. When should a startup think about venture debt?8. How does venture debt economics work?9. How much should a startup at Series A raise in debt financing10. Is venture debt for everyone? Are there downsides to it?

Ritu Verma is one of the co-founders at Ankur Capital. She is passionate about bringing innovation from lab to the market and did that for a decade across corporates such as Unilever and Philips. She has also worked globally investing in IP-led renewable technologies. She has a PhD in physics from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from INSEAD.You can follow Ritu (@rituverma01) and host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.…Glossary of terms:1. Impact Investing: Impact investing refers to investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return.…In this episode we will cover:1. Ritu’s journey from Academia to Venture Capital2. The definition of impact investing according to Ritu3. The bottlenecks within impact investing4. The misconceptions about impact investing5. The trends within impact investing6. Ankur Capital’s investment thesis – today and going forward7. Fund-raising for an impact focused fund8. How an impact fund tracks and measures ‘impact’9. Portfolio construction strategy at Ankur Capital10. Advice to investors and startups in the impact space

Bhaskar is the Founder and Managing Partner at Unicorn India Ventures. In the past decade, Bhaskar has established himself as a well-regarded early stage investor and advisor, especially in the UK and India. He has held senior corporate positions with Times of India, Zee Telefilms and Altavista UK.In 2000, he started his first entrepreneurial venture, Recreate Solutions, a company within the digital media realm and backed by Insight Partners. After scaling the business, he sold the business to a US Systems Integrator. He has since been an investor in a number of technology and media early stage business through his propriety fund, Heath Ventures, and has invested his proprietary funds in more than half a dozen start-ups in UK and India.Follow Bhaskar (@Bhaskar_MLondon) and host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.. . .In this episode we will cover:1. Bhaskar’s background and motivation to enter the VC world2. Evolution of venture as an asset class in India3. Development of investment thesis4. Portfolio construction and best practices5. How founders can ‘protect’ their equity during fund-raising6. Unicorn’s time allocation strategy wrt their portfolio7. Role of a VC as a board member8. Due diligence required on the part of the founder(s) while choosing investors9. If there’s any such thing as ‘raising too much money’?10. Strategies for founders if they are not able meet fund-raising targets

Mark Kahn is the Managing Partner at Omnivore, a venture capital firm which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. Mark co-founded Omnivore in 2010 with Jinesh Shah, ex-CFO at Nexus Venture Partners. Previously, Mark was the Executive Vice President (Strategy & Business Development) at Godrej Agrovet, and also had stints at Syngenta and PFM. He earned a BA (Honors) from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar.You can follow Mark Kahn (@agri_technology) and host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.…Glossary of terms:1. Upstream investments – Upstream investments refer to infusion of capital into businesses that utilize material inputs needed for production e.g. seed, fertilizers, machinery etc.2. Downstream investments – Downstream investments refers to the infusion of capital into businesses where products get produced and distributed. e.g. e-commerce, grocery stores, logistics etc.…In this episode, we will cover:1. Mark’s venture into agri-business2. The broad definition of agri-tech and what it encompasses3. Evolution of agri-tech as sector4. Omnivore’s thesis for India5. Upstream vs downstream investments in agri-tech6. Sectors and geographies within agri-tech in India7. Metrics Omnivore pays close attention to while evaluating for investment8. Concepts of sustainability and how it correlates to success of the Indian agri-industry9. Challenges within agri-tech and for agri-tech startups10. The global opportunity for Indian agri-tech startups