Kailash Nadh

💡 A perspective for founders on angel money Many founders ask for very small cheques from angels — ₹5–10L. Nothing wrong with that, but here’s the reality: 👉 The smaller the cheque, the lesser the involvement. Why? Because time is also an investment. If the stake is tiny, the incentive to spend hours guiding, mentoring, and opening networks naturally reduces. As angels, we love to support founders. But meaningful guidance, regular reviews, and network push usually come when there’s meaningful skin in the game. So if you’re raising, think beyond “let me collect 20 small cheques.” Instead, ask yourself: “Which 2–3 angels can back me meaningfully with both money and time?” ⚡ Funding isn’t just about filling the cap table. It’s about building the right circle of believers who walk with you. #AngelInvestor #FounderTips #Fundraising #StartupInsights #DeepakBhagnaniFamilyOffice

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A founder who has spent 32 Years building IP-Owned Tech in India's Defense Sector. Ashok Atluri, Founder of Zen Technologies Limited shares a growth story bootstrapped from Hyderabad: -Revenue: ₹60 Cr (FY21) → ₹930 Cr(FY24) -Market cap: 40 Cr (2012-13) → 13000 Cr today -Growth: 400X in 12 years Takeaways from our conversation: 1. India historically imported 65–70% of its defense equipment. Today, defense exports have grown more than 30× over the past decade, with the private sector contributing around 60% of exports. Domestic defense production has increased to ₹1.27 lakh crore, a 174% rise since FY 2014–15. 2. For over two decades, Zen built advanced simulators but struggled to sell them in India because single-vendor bids weren’t accepted. The IDDM policy in 2015 gave preference to IP-owning Indian companies and allocated 75% of the capital acquisition budget to local sourcing. And decades of R&D became a real market worth ₹200 billion. 3. Defense tech startups in India have raised $184 million in VC funding since 2020. Zen’s journey shows that IP-owned Tech built with self-funded R&D can build the most defensible advantage, similar to how Apple captures value through IP rather than manufacturing. 4. Zen’s anti-drone systems were proven in field operations, leading to export inquiries from over 20 countries. This mirrors the broader trend of India’s defense exports growing from ₹1,940 crore (FY14) to ₹21,083 crore (FY24). Field-tested solutions build trust far faster than lab demos or pilot projects. 5. Government fundings are rewarding innovation over manufacturing. Programs like iDEX provide up to ₹10 crore for proven concepts, while DRDO offers ₹50 crore per system under the Technology Development Fund. This shift allows companies to reinvest profits into next-generation R&D. 6. Ashok believes that not all technologies should be patented. Highly secretive or complex innovations can be reverse-engineered if patented. Instead, patent what is obvious to outsiders to protect your competitive edge. 7. Build with a focused approach on Pareto technologies with maximum impact. Instead of chasing every opportunity, Zen concentrated on the 20% of technologies delivering 80% of results, anti-drone systems and simulators. Prioritizing high-leverage areas compounds impact effectively. 8. Time market entry around overlooked gaps: In 2018, drones were a hot topic, but there was little attention on anti-drone systems. Zen entered this gap and was ready when the need became urgent, from regional conflicts to domestic security. Opportunities often lie where others are silent. 9. Create policies around your innovation: Self-funded R&D firms face unique risks that conventional procurement rules often overlook. Zen advocated for new categories rather than adapting breakthrough technologies to unsuitable frameworks, ensuring their innovations could be evaluated on merit. Full Episode https://lnkd.in/gnAFEj3f

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When Pranav Pai returned from Silicon Valley a decade ago, he was surprised to find that founders of Indian startups hated raising venture capital. “They felt like the VCs were very robotic on thesis and founder selection. There were only seven or eight business models that the VCs were interested in—like e-commerce, food delivery, ride-hailing or payments. If a founder was doing anything outside that set, they didn’t even get a meeting,” he recollects. A few years before Pai started 3one4 Capital, a former Airtel honcho named Sunil Goyal had made a hefty sum on his stock options after the telecom company went public. He started a VC firm called YourNest Venture Capital to invest in deep-tech start-ups. His thesis was that sooner rather than later the country would shift from being an information technology-outsourcing hub to an intellectual property-driven product nation. They aren't alone. Over the last 10-15 years, Meanwhile, an ambitious breed of homegrown fund managers like Kanwaljit Singh (Fireside), Karthik B. Reddy(Blume), Rahul Chowdhri (Stellaris), Ruchira Shukla (Synapses), Salone Sehgal (Lumikai) is out to reclaim the cap tables, chase global capital with a fresh India story and anchor the country’s economic ambitions. According to data from Venture Intelligence, the number of domestic PE/VC funds has jumped 10-fold over the past decade—from 14 in 2014 to 145 in 2024. For the first time in 2019, the industry raised funds of over $2bn in a year—and that has remained true for every year except 2020 when Covid struck. "When you have a foreign PE or VC, they’re obviously subject to a fairly high degree of volatility over time. There could be sovereign risk, currency risk, political risk and geopolitical risk. That’s why it behaves every country to develop a local pool of private capital that won’t fly away in the face of volatility,” says Sanjay Nayar, president of industry body Assocham. After a famed career at KKR, the PE veteran has started VC firm Sorin to bet on early-stage startups. "If you want to have Atmanirbhar Bharat, you need atmanirbhar capital as well," quips Nayar. According to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the US has the biggest tech companies because of an abundance of risk capital. For decades, it has been a country where a start-up founder can raise $50 million with a 10% chance of success. While the US model has banked on private capital, the Chinese formula has been to create mega pools of state funding. Both models, different as they are, share one crucial trait: they put large amounts of patient capital behind long-term bets, something India has yet to replicate. "We have to remove the barriers between domestic savings and domestic private markets. These barriers are idiosyncratic barriers that no longer have any relevance," says Gopal Jain, founder of Gaja Capital. >>This month's Outlook Business cover story is on the battle to create a sovereign capital ecosystem. Link in the comments

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After a fabulous two years at Kae Capital, I knew it was time to build the fund I wished had existed when I was a founder. Today, I’m launching Boundless Ventures, an early-stage, AI-native venture firm backing India-rooted founders who are building globally defensible companies at the intersection of science, systems, and culture. Boundless starts with a simple belief: the next decade’s breakout companies won’t “add AI” as a feature. They’ll be AI-native from day one, rethinking consumer products, enterprise workflows, and infrastructure with new primitives. We’ll write the first cheque ($200–400K), and then double down. We’ve proud to have already partnered with six category-shaping founding teams: • Superhealth: rethinking healthcare from the ground up • Armatrix: autonomous snake-arm robots for engine inspection • PierSight: real-time ocean intelligence • KNOT: AI-native fashion discovery and logistics • Two stealth companies in infra and consumer AI Our thesis spans four arenas: • The AI-native stack: infra, agents, and memory protocols • Make-in-India hardware: autonomous systems, design-led manufacturing • New-India consumer: culture × code • Science × story: where deep tech meets narrative leverage India is not catching up. It’s compounding. Boundless exists to back originals, with speed, belief and storytelling firepower. Link to our website & thesis below.

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A lot of folks that we have spoken to have always yearned for a big screen home projector experience but never got around to doing it. This review (1/n) by Manas Tiwari articulates the common concerns and how the Lumio Arc 7 (https://amzn.in/d/g1kPMwW) addresses them all True plug-and-play simplicity -> setting it up is almost laughably easy.Everything you need is built-in as well: certified Netflix, native Google TV, Google Assistant, Chromecast, and even YouTube Music integration via TLDR Immersive Display -> It was evident that Lumio Arc 7 is clearly tuned for low-light environments and when used in a dark room, it delivers a genuinely immersive experience that feels well worth the asking price. Solid Audio - > The projector has built-in speakers, backed by Dolby Audio processing and they are surprisingly capable. Dialogues were clear, background music has presence, and casual viewers won’t feel the immediate need to plug in an external soundbar. Lumio Arc 7 delivers more than just a decent home entertainment upgrade: it delivers peace of mind. It ticks off all the boxes that typically trip up mid-range projectors: setup is refreshingly simple, the software experience is smooth and certified and the picture quality holds up surprisingly well whether you're bingeing shows or watching a live match. https://lnkd.in/e54jy2U2

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🚀 Funding Alert: Chennai Startup 'Plenome Technologies' Raises ₹6.5 Cr Seed Round to Power Global Expansion of Blockchain-AI Solutions Plenome Technologies, an Indian Institute of Technology, Madras -incubated startup developing breakthrough Blockchain-AI platforms for secure data handling, has raised ₹6.5 Crore in seed funding from a global investor pool including Ovington Capital Partners (Luxembourg), AADI (UAE) and serial investor Manish Gandhi. Founded by Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal, a Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awardee and faculty at IIT Madras, along with Vijayaraja Rathinasamy and Anirudh Varna, Plenome builds technologies to address critical needs in sectors like Healthcare and Voting, ensuring privacy, interoperability, and scale. “Our work improves access to healthcare in remote locations while enabling insight generation from structured medical records. With remote voting, we’re opening up secure, mobile-based democratic participation. We thank our investors for backing our vision,” says Prof. Rajagopal, Founder Chairman. With products like: 🔹 BlockTrack’s OrganEase – already in pilot for organ transplant databases 🔹 BlockVote – successfully used in IITM elections, now targeting large orgs 🔹 Ashwin – voice-enabled, multilingual AI SaaS suite for electronic medical data capture and diagnostics Plenome is set to take its India-first innovation to global markets. “We’re driven by purposeful tech that is inclusive, equitable, and impactful,” says Vijayaraja Rathinasamy, Co-founder. “From diagnostics to voting, we’re decentralizing power for real-world change,” adds Anirudh Varna, Co-founder. Congratulations to the Plenome team on this major milestone and for building cutting-edge tech from Chennai to the world! 🌏💡 #FundingNews #StartupIndia #BlockchainAI #DeepTech #IITMadras #HealthTech #GovTech #SeedFunding #TechForGood #ChennaiStartups

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