Chiratae Ventures

🚨 The Big Book of Venture Capital — Q3 2025 Edition 🚀 It’s here. The 120+ page global pulse check on venture and startups — sharper, deeper, and spicier than ever. Hot take: This quarter wasn’t a boom, but it was definitely a turn. If Q1 was false starts and Q2 was recalibration, Q3 was quiet acceleration — messy, selective, but real. Here’s what the numbers say 👇 💥 Global venture funding: +38% YoY to $97B  💥 Third straight quarter of $90B+ in fundraising—that’s good! 🧠 AI: 51% of global venture funding YTD, still unstoppable 🇺🇸 U.S. raised 4.6x Europe and 4.3x Asia—dominance cemented 💸 Asia: Surprise fundraising rebound, up 20% 📊 Exits: 2,324 M&A + 138 IPOs in Q3, highest in 2025 📊 Q3 exit dollar volume has already exceeded 2024’s volume 💰 Secondaries: $61B in deals, overtaking IPOs for the first time in H1 📈 IPOs: Hit $85B globally (whopping 370% YoY increase) 🔥 Dry powder: All-time high, but fundraising still painfully slow But don’t mistake motion for momentum. This isn’t “venture spring.” It’s “venture recalibrated.” ⚠️ Fundraising timelines now stretched ⚠️ First-time managers, finding it difficult for the second fund ⚠️ Post-IPO returns? Still divided ⚠️ LPs? Watching, waiting, whispering “discipline” The real winners? 🦾 AI startups — leading funding, exits, and hiring 📈 Secondaries — the new liquidity engine 💼 Leaner startups — scaling smarter, not larger Before we wrap, two touchiest talking points of Q3 👀 1️⃣ ARR obsession—everyone chasing the mythical $100M ARR mark faster than ever 2️⃣ SPV drama—reignited after OpenAI and Anthropic started clamping down on secondary access routes Because let’s face it: no venture quarter is complete without a little hype, a little fear, and a few raised eyebrows. Special thanks to TheOnePoint podcast guests 🙌 Aidan Madigan-Curtis from Eclipse (Frontiers of HardTech) Jared Carmel from Manhattan Venture Partners (Secondaries in Venture) Michael Sidler from redalpine (Europe’s Venture Moment) Noah Lichtenstein from Crossover VC (Operator Edge in the New VC Landscape) and all GPs and experts who contributed their “Sharp Takes” 🙌 Andrew Endicott from Gilgamesh Ventures (All About Employee Equity) Anoop N Menon from Chiratae Ventures (Indian Startup IPO Dynamics) Gareth Evans from VECKTA (Navigating the Energy Transition) Henry Palmer from Lightridge (Geopolitics in European Venture) Jackie DiMonte from Grid Capital (The U.S. Reindustrialization Moment) John Rikhtegar from RBCx (Venture Nuggets: Fund Size & Power Law) Samit Kalra from 1984 Ventures (Surviving Series-A Fundraise) Villi Iltchev from Category Ventures (The Blitzhire Acquisition) (listed alphabetically) 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗧𝗶𝗽: Subscribe and 𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗱 https://lnkd.in/d3StA2sq Read and enjoy! P.S. - a bit delayed this time due to a nasty flu. #vc #fundraising #venturecapital #startups #tech #founders #ipo #lps #CVC

🎉 We’re 7 today! 🎉 Seven years ago, Aether Biomedical set out to reimagine how technology meets healthcare. Today, we’re proud to celebrate not just our growth, but the lives touched, and the breakthroughs achieved along the way. A heartfelt thank you to our brilliant team, visionary partners, and trusted clients, your belief in our mission drives everything we do.🤝💙 #AetherBiomedical #7YearsOfInnovation #HealthcareInnovation #Teamwork #MakingDifference #ZeusHand

A big day for Uniphore and the entire Business AI ecosystem. The close of our Series F round with NVIDIA, AMD, Snowflake, and Databricks, the world’s top AI and data companies, reflects a shared belief in the power of AI to transform business. It also reinforces the impact Uniphore’s Business AI platform has today on driving AI adoption at scale. This milestone is a true shot in the arm for our research and development, fueling new breakthroughs and delivering on what our customers have come to expect with Uniphore at the forefront of innovation. Thank you CNBC's Frank Holland, for the conversation this morning and for sharing the exciting news. #BusinessAI

I sat down with Peyush Bansal over coffee and a bowl of beetroot crisps. What struck me wasn’t the scale of what he’s built with Lenskart.com. It was his ability to see luck for what it is and still take bold bets. Peyush is one of the rare founders who openly credits variance, or what Nassim Taleb calls the luck factor, in shaping his journey. Over two decades, he’s made calls that seemed reckless at the time. But in hindsight, they moved the needle in ways few could’ve seen. One story stayed with me. When Lenskart franchise owners threatened to strike because he insisted they all buy a few iPads each to record customer data in-store, he didn’t blink. He held firm. That single call transformed Lenskart into one of India’s most data-rich consumer brands. And it changed the entire customer experience. The coffee kept flowing. So did the conversation. Unhurried, reflective, the kind that finds its own rhythm. Today, Lenskart has cracked the eyewear game in a way few others have in Asia. With myopia rates rising, that bet still has a long runway ahead. And now, with the IPO around the corner, Peyush could become India’s first startup billionaire this year. After nearly two decades of conversations with founders, investors, and leaders across geographies, I’ve come to believe this: In startups, whether early or mature, the most important metric isn’t revenue or valuation. It’s the founder. Their disposition. Their awareness. Their strength. That’s what determines whether a company survives once the early luck runs out. That’s why Peyush’s story stands out. Because he can look back and see those turning points for what they were, a mix of timing, risk, and luck. He’s more cautious now. But if there’s one “reckless” bet I hope he makes again, it’s on smart glasses. I tried an early beta version. Lighter than Meta’s. Solid audio-video. Built-in payments interface. The AI still needs work, but the potential is massive. Taleb wrote: Mild success can be explained by skill. Wild success? That’s variance. Peyush Bansal sits right in that in-between. Where skill meets serendipity. #ConsumerTech #Startups #IPO #Lenskart #PeyushBansal #IndiaTech #NassimTaleb #SmartGlasses