Joshan Abraham

As private markets secondary strategies increasingly raise and deploy capital globally, India, one of the larger and more liquid markets, with increasing foreign and domestic private market interest, is primed for secondary market investments from global, Asian-regional and what I see as more India-focused secondary fund managers, across venture capital through private equity. GP-led deals have also increased, with global players such as Pantheon, Neuberger Berman, StepStone Group, HarbourVest Partners, Adams Street Partners, CF Private Equity, Schroders Capital, AlpInvest Partners all executing or evaluating India deals. That being said, we are still seeing challenges in liquidating positions with many of the India funds raised between 2005 and 2011, where performance as well as heavy currency devaluation have impacted saleability. Who are the players you see active in the LP secondary market in India? Who will raise India-focused secondary funds for VC and PE? I would look forward to reconnecting with leading India-focused capital markets advisor Avendus. The growth and development of the India private capital markets opportunity is nothing short of remarkable. #india #alternativeassets #secondaries #privatemarkets #privateequity #venturecapital #Asia #capitalmarkets #fundmanagers #liquidity #distributions #institutionalinvestors

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All of us at BCV would like to congratulate Rubrik’s founding CEO Bipul Sinha, founding CTO Arvind Nithrakashyap, and their two other original co-founders, Arvind Jain and Soham Mazumdar, along with the rest of the Rubrik team on their initial public offering today. Rubrik has significantly transformed the landscape of digital resilience, expertly transitioning the concept of data protection into a broader, more critical framework of data security. This shift has not only captivated the interest of customers worldwide but has also positioned their solutions as indispensable tools for modern businesses. Transitions are never easy, but as a board member for the past five years, I have seen Rubrik seamlessly navigate this complex process under the visionary leadership of Bipul and Nitro. Today marks another milestone in Rubrik's journey, a testament to the team's hard work, innovation, and the strong direction provided by its leaders. The emphasis on securing data not just from loss, but as a proactive measure against threats, shows Rubrik's commitment to redefining the industry's standards for data security. cc: Bain Capital Ventures Rubrik

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The best part of the venture business is the opportunity to work with amazing founders over the course of many companies. We are thrilled that Amit Aggarwal chose to build his new AI startup with us and BCV Labs in Palo Alto. Check out this terrific interview with Amit!

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I had a lot of fun recording a podcast episode with Shiva Singh Sangwan. We discussed the evolution of Humba Ventures & Susa Ventures; tips for raising and building a fund; how to improve investment sourcing & picking; the role of luck in investing, and so on. https://lnkd.in/eiqsStej

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In India's startup ecosystem, equity is crucial for early-stage growth. However, as businesses grow and evolve from ideas into structured organizations, debt becomes increasingly significant. Part II of this debt series analyzes the role of debt as a complement to equity, exploring when and how to integrate debt into your capital mix, and the specific use cases [across working capital, runway extension, acquisition financing, and Asset liability mismatch] for which startups can effectively utilize debt. Part I of the series focussed on exploring debt's function in the capital mix of early-stage startups, the factors underlying its limited adoption, its significance within capital structures, and strategies for optimizing costs to attain an ideal capital structure for startups. In case you missed it, please have a read: https://lnkd.in/gnCrbw6T

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A new perspective is needed to truly build that bridge to the last mile when AI can unlock its power to the grassroots of India. We need more than simply adding more languages and more data to train LLMs, and beyond vernacular nuances, dialects and cultural contexts. With #SUTRA and #ChatSUTRA by ⁦‪TWO.AI we are just beginning on this mission. Exciting times ahead. A well put piece by ⁦‪Himanshi Lohchab in ⁦‪The Economic Times

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Inspired by Zubair Naeem Paracha and nudged by Ahad Shaikh, I took a look at the Rasan IPO. Detailed thoughts in my substack post and quick summary below. Rasan IPO Implications: 💹 The strong interest in the initial subscription and subsequent continued rally signal positive prospects for tech founders in the GCC. Local markets are bullish on homegrown tech and may offer attractive valuation multiples in comparison to international exchanges.   Company Background & Performance: 💼 Rasan operates as a digital insurance aggregator, focusing on motor and health insurance, alongside financial and data analytics solutions.   Rasan has shown robust growth with over 450% revenue increase from FY20 to FY23, strong unit economics with gross margins (~60%), and net margins around 20%.   IPO Pricing and Valuation Metrics: 🤑 Rasan debuted at SAR 37, and has reached highs of SAR 67, implying a market cap of ~ USD 1.3 billion, up from the original offer valuation of USD 750m.   The implied Price/Sales of ~20x may seem overpriced at face value, however, the rapid digitization in KSA + population demographics, underutilization of tech in insurance and potential to expand into other fintech verticals may still present a compelling opportunity.   Comparables Other Regions & Closing: 🚀 Compared with global peers, Rasan's efficient fiscal operations at tremendous top line growth rates is impressive.   US public Insurtechs (digital insurance not aggregator) i.e. Lemonade, Oscar etc. have faced downward price pressure as IPOs were overpriced in previous years. Policy Bazaar is a better comp against which Rasan seems like a solid small cap growth stock. PB has a P/S of ~23x which is attributed to record breaking investor interest in Indian markets and a massive TAM in the local market. PB is ahead in terms of scale yet Rasan seems to be operating more efficiently from a margin standpoint. If you got into Rasan at the original IPO price, you have already enjoyed some strong gains but there could be more to come if you hold long term. The tailwinds of economic growth, focused investment on non-oil diversification and the push to build local exchanges in the region coupled with continued growth at the company's current margin profile may yield 2x-3x return over the next 3-5 years.

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Few moments feel as good as watching our founders crush it out in the world. Seeing Harshal Chokhawala speak at SynBioBeta about building ZymoChem was one of those times. Our job as investors is to support the entrepreneurs who are ready to change the world. At Breakout Ventures, this means partnering with creative bioscience founders who are determined to overcome the biggest challenges in human and climate health. When Harshal launched ZymoChem to develop bio-based versions of chemicals and materials, he knew the height of the challenge he was taking on. Over the last few years, we’ve seen him grow his team, scale his tech, win strategic partnerships, and gain crucial funding to keep climbing. He’s taken the stage time and again to show the world how biomanufacturing will help us reach a fossil-free future. SynBioBeta reminds us that we are surrounded by people who believe in biotech's potential for solving our planet’s most pressing problems. Playing a role in this community of scientists and innovators is one of the highlights of my work. And - it was awesome to end the week on a enthusiastic and fun panel packed with folks fighting to make the future of synbio bright Taehong Huh (GS Futures),Kelsey Weimer (Synonym), Kristen McCarthy Barton, CFA (Mango Materials), and Richard Kenny (Hawkwood Biotech Partners). You can read more about ZymoChem’s success and how founders can follow in Harshal’s footsteps in our recent Medium article: https://lnkd.in/ggUiiv9k #SynBioBeta2024 #Biomanufacturing #ClimateTech #Biotech #SyntheticBiology #IndustrialBiotech

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🧠 So many pearls of wisdom in this Vinod Khosla interview, for both entrepreneurs and VCs. I've pulled out some of my favourites for you below. 1️⃣ On making contrarian bets "Here's a philosophy, whether you're a venture firm or an entrepreneur. You have to bet on something that you believe in - that the market doesn't believe in - and then stick with it through the ups and downs. You can't predict the timing of most innovations." 2️⃣ On new innovations "I can't think of a big new innovation that came from a person who was in the area they disrupted. Most board members advise founders to 'get somebody who understands the domain' - that's really bad advice generally. You want someone who can think from first principles, and can learn the business rapidly in 6 months. If Elon Musk had been in the automotive industry, I guarantee you we wouldn't have Tesla. When people who came from healthcare tried to do digital health, they generally failed at it." 3️⃣ On risk and failure "There's no one in the venture business who has failed more often than I have failed. I've just tried many more things and screwed up more often than most people. Then a tiny percentage have become the big visible successes. People need to understand that venture is really asymmetric, so you don't want to take low risk. You want to take very high risk - it's not IRR investing. We are buying an option in a great team, and then helping them succeed." 4️⃣ On taking advice as founders "Ask yourself: how many billion dollar companies has the person built? From scratch - not joined Google or Facebook and were given an internal business. When you worry about your pay check, or you struggle to hire someone because you can't offer them a large enough pay check... that's pain. That's when you learn empathy for entrepreneurs." 5️⃣ On thinking long term "Ukraine, Covid and AI are massive turbo-chargers for venture. This is not how the world looks at it. They're looking at short term interest rates, or what's happening with GDP growth. I'm looking at it in terms of what companies will be built over the next 20 years given the changes in the world. I'm not investing in crypto one year, then AI the next. It's a long term approach to venture." 6️⃣ On future predictions "Today's 30-year-olds, take note. In twenty years, jobs won't be the key criteria for education. In twenty years, the world's 50-year-olds will have a hard time adjusting to the fact that they generally won't have to work. As robots and AI do much of the labour-intensive work, they'll be able to lean into their passions and be more creative. Human selection, human preference and taste will become highly valuable. Human's will always prefer human uniqueness."

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Three years ago, Stage Venture Partners backed Ariyan Kabir, Brual Shah , and Satyandra K. (SK) Gupta's startup, GrayMatter Robotics. Today, GrayMatter revealed their $45 million Series B, led by Wellington. In the past three years, GrayMatter's robots have handled 7.5 million square feet of products, streamlining tasks such as sanding, grinding, and finishing high-performance surfaces. This innovative automation addresses urgent labor shortages, enabling U.S. manufacturers to meet demand efficiently. Technology like GrayMatter's is crucial for American factories, and the company is just scratching the surface in revolutionizing high-tech production processes. https://lnkd.in/gJaUfDZq

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I participated in a “SMART MANUFACTURING” panel with Gayathri Radhakrishnan, Rohini Chakravarthy and Abhijit Supekar (moderator) last week at TIECon 2024. The coolest part of the panel was 3 Women VCs talking about a topic that has not traditionally been discussed by women. I never imagined I’d see this in my lifetime. Things have indeed changed! We had a very lively discussion of whether we can expect lights out factory in 5-10 years. Automation is happening in all stages but full automation manufacturing is tough because it requires human like adaptability. It is not converting text into instruction or code - it is about precision. Robotics + AI is making this happen and we will get there. AI is going to bring the cost down for complete solution for example: there are robotic arms that can do more tasks and learn like a human and not just some specific tasks. Also check out our portfolio companies Micropsi Industries and RGo Robotics that are making it happen in this space. Thanks to Anshu Bahadur Hrishikesh Sathawane Nilesh Dixit for organizing the panel and Anita Manwani and Surbhi Kaul for making this happen! #TiECon2024 #AIUbiquity

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Back in Bangalore, but an exciting few days in Boston and NYC with the Citizen Stack team as they take the India Stack on the road, including at the UN.   What was built in India, for India, is a monumental achievement in showing what is possible when imagination, will, and dedicated group of spirited volunteers (ProductNation/iSPIRT) combine the best of technology, public policy, legal frameworks, and private sector participation to create the rails for citizen inclusion and the delivery of public goods.   This is such a significant story for world that few outside understand for myriad reasons—including complacency and complexity—and so large and difficult to grasp (at least in the west) that when one looks at what India has achieved in such a short time it feels like the stuff of science fiction.   Having seen this story unfold, from the early days of Aadhaar, the well-worn assumptions about how India consumes, transacts, travels, saves, and invests, have been rewritten and will evolve with new stacks in health, agriculture, and data protections. Given India’s average age is 28, there is a whole generation that is going to experience a vastly different set of public goods and services that would have been unimaginable a decade ago.   For starters, India has: ·     Authenticated 1.4 billion people with a digital identity ·     $230 billion of monthly UPI transactions and on track to hit 1 billion transactions per day in the next 2 years ·     Reduced the time to open a bank account from 6 days to 1 hour ·     Efficiently administered 2 billion covid vaccination doses over 18 months, without adding an additional clinic   Having set a benchmark for inclusive growth, low cost delivery, consent, and data privacy, the story has now gone global. It was inspiring to hear directly from numerous UN participants (France, Philippines, Ethiopia, among them) on implementing elements of what India has open-sourced to the world. Specifically, the Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP), which was developed at International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore provides a flexible and scalable identity platform that caters directly to the needs of diverse populations, including those in remote and underserved areas. Already implemented by 18 countries, representing 110 million people, MOSIP-based systems are on track to providing a legal and verifiable ID for the remaining billion world citizens that still lack one. Thank you Sharad Sharma and Jasminder Singh Gulati, and your teams for including me on what I hope is the beginning of many Citizen Stack events around the globe. What a time to be proud of what India has given the world. #ExportQuality #IndiaStack #Aadhaar #UPI #DPI Amie Patel Pankaj Jain Vaibhav Parikh Anurag Saxena Digital Public Goods Alliance Ravi Tyagi

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I try to distill the nebulous yet relevant framework of #ESG in building strong long-term and #responsible businesses. While one size doesn’t fits all, through the learnings at Fireside Ventures - I share an assessment questionnaire and a playbook that can guide #founders. #valueofgood #firesideignite #sustainable 

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Bilt Rewards went from $0 to $1.5B valuation in under a year post launch. I had the pleasure of hearing Ankur Jain, Bilt’s founder and CEO, speak at FintechMeetup. It was extremely inspiring and I had to dig deeper. What is Bilt? The core idea of Bilt Rewards is simple and compelling. Why can’t your rent payments contribute towards home ownership in the future? Most of us pay rent through our bank since paying with a credit card adds an additional 2.5-3%. With the Bilt MasterCard, you not only avoid fees but earn points on your rent payments: redeeming 1 point for every dollar spent up to 100K points per year - that you can apply towards your down payment. Fascinating tidbits: 1. Before Bilt, you weren’t legally allowed to use points towards a down payment. So Ankur and team spent 18 months working with regulators to create the regulations required to make a system like this possible. 2. Ankur worked on the idea by himself for a year, pitching to real estate owners and finessing the model before even hiring the first employee. 3. Almost every real estate owner Ankur pitched to initially was opposed to the idea. Over the course of 4 years, Bilt built a distribution network of 4M+ rental homes that allows residents to pay with Bilt. Ankur shares lessons valuable to every entrepreneur: 1. Distribution and customer acquisition strategy needs to be at the forefront of your pitch. 2. Creative relentless vs hard-headed relentlessness: “No just means ask again differently. Slightly different changes. Slightly different approach. Slightly different person you are asking. That’s the key. Doing the same thing over and over again will only get you the same results.” 3. A great product will not sell itself. To break through change aversion and transform consumer behavior, you must out execute with relentlessness: “The irony is when you think about building a company, you’ve gotta have the right product to solve a real problem. You have to have the core business economics and all that stuff. But what people don’t talk about - it doesn’t matter how good your idea is or how perfect the timing is. If you are not relentless at taking no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no over and over again and still being willing to come to the plate, it doesn’t matter. That is the single most important trait I’ve found. Because for whatever reason, the world likes to reject change. There is such inherent resistant to anything different. So you have to literally will your idea into existence. It’s exhausting but fulfilling.” Keeping especially the last takeaway in mind as we forge new paths ✨

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My latest investment is rooted in a profoundly unique insight in one of the world largest industries, and I could not be more excited about it. Meet Kashmir Intelligence. We’re leading a $5M round alongside our friends at Jigsaw VC, Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company, Material Ventures, firedrop and TrueSight Ventures. The ideal Stride.VC deal requires (a) a unique insight in (b) a fundamentally interesting market with (c) a scalable business model and (d) a team of founders who can reshape their industry and (e) intentionality. This opportunity delivers on of all of these. The downstream oil industry is what our world runs on. Optimising the performance and output of existing infrastructure is one of the most immediately impactful things we can do to address the climate crisis. Additionally, delivering effective infrastructure in the face of the Russia crisis is a geopolitical imperative of profound importance. Oil refineries have a major data problem - they run millions of miles of pipes generating terabytes of sensor data they cannot move to the cloud, and their inability to harness this intelligence is hurting their efficiency. Enter Orbital - an edge infrastructure AI layer that delivers cloud-beating deep learning capabilities into downstream environments at a fraction of the cost, with none of the security risks. Founder Samyakh (Sam) Tukra stumbled upon this issue whilst building digital twins for refineries and immediately realised he'd come across a strategic issue plaguing heavy industrial environments in general and the oil industry in particular. Refineries are completely unique beasts with complex optimisation requirements in data-constrained, high security environments. Hence the solution here would require a complete different approach to deliver the predictive optimisation results that these companies need. Figuring out how to address this multi-faceted issue delivered the unique insight on which this company was born. Sam partnered up with repeat founder Callum Adamson and together they kickstarted Kashmir. Quite the duo. Callum and I share a habit of meditating on our own death and Sam is both charming and so talented I'm not even sure he's really human; the chemistry between all of us was excellent from the word "go". The company is emerging from stealth with real world performance underway at ExxonMobil / Gruppo API and ABB/ICL facilities and are excited to formally launch Orbital at Global Refining & Petrochemicals Congress 2024 in Delhi on the 27th of June as part of their Indian market focus. I'm excited to be part of this important company's journey as we strive to make industry more efficient. Big Data needs a sharp Edge, and we’re looking forward to showing you what Orbital can do. Thank you Pietro Invernizzi for the intro and assist! Onward. https://lnkd.in/eWJmft2w

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It’s critical to determine the right product pricing strategy from the get-go by keeping in mind the eventual unit profitability! 🙌 Shoutout to Sajith Pai and Madhav Chanchani for highlighting this important pitfall for startups. Setting initial product pricing too low for consumers, may result in a *perceived* PMF, but it can lead to trouble down the road. If you are forced to increase your product’s pricing to achieve unit profitability, it could result in the entire customer segment itself changing! This becomes a massive problem since you would need to start your PMF journey for this higher segment all over again! We are seeing this in late stage venture companies all the time. This issue is particularly challenging in emerging economies like India, where lower GDP per capita makes consumers much more price sensitive than places like the US, China etc. We need to coin a new term PMUEF (Product-Market-Unit Enomics Fit) instead of just PMF for India! 🙏

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Last week, I attended Houlihan Lokey's 2024 Global Consumer, Food & Retail Conference in New York. Here are some key takeaways that stood out to me. Continued Tailwinds in the Pet Industry: 🔹 Pet Owner Sentiment: With 92-96% of pet owners viewing their pets as family, there's increasing demand for *functional* treats, supplements, and innovative food formats like freeze-dried pet food, the fastest-growing segment within freeze-dry products. 🔹 Category Consolidation: Single-product and single-capability companies are merging into larger pet platforms, opening up M&A opportunities and filling portfolio gaps. 🔹 Expansion into the Cat Category: Dog-first companies are expanding into the cat category, where purchases are stickier (e.g., cat litter) due to the selective nature of pet cats. Rise of Preventative Wellness: 🔹 Increased Gym Visits: The rise in gym memberships and equipment utilization is driving up replacement rates. 🔹 Female Athlete Surge: The increase in female athletes is influencing market trends. 🔹 Customer Service and Amenities: High-quality customer service and amenities (e.g., towel service, childcare) are essential for retaining gym memberships. Personalized customer interactions enhance member loyalty. 🔹 Men’s Health Awareness: Growing focus on men’s health, addressing the issue of men suffering in silence. 🔹 HSA/FSA Approvals: The IRS and health insurance companies are increasingly approving preventative wellness expenses like gym memberships and fitness programs for HSA/FSA reimbursement. Franchising and Multi-Unit Asset Resilience: 🔹 Growth Despite High Interest Rates: Franchising and multi-unit assets in health and wellness for both humans and pets are rising despite the high interest rate environment. 🔹 Tech-Driven Analyses: Investing in advanced tech stacks enhances customer service and expands topline and margins through data-driven approaches. 🔹 Recurring Revenue Focus: Emphasis on creating sticky, recurring revenue streams through memberships, fostering habitual use, and offering services that are typically inconvenient or time-consuming to switch. I'm looking forward to seeing how these trends evolve in 2024! #PetIndustry #PreventativeWellness #Franchising #HealthAndWellness #TechInnovation #BusinessGrowth #Investing

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Had a lot of fun chatting with James and Hector on the latest episode of Riding Unicorns. Discussed a lot of stuff: my journey from banker to founder to VC, Moonfire’s data-driven approach, and how to handle failure as a founder. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/eGRNMxfP

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