Aadit Palicha

Natasha Malpani Launches ₹200 Crore Fund to Power India’s AI Startups Former Kae Capital partner Natasha Malpani has launched Boundless Ventures, an early-stage venture fund with a corpus of ₹200 crore, dedicated to supporting homegrown AI-native startups across India. The fund will focus on pre-seed and seed-stage investments in companies innovating across consumer AI, infrastructure, agent tooling, healthcare, logistics, deep tech, and make-in-India hardware. Boundless has already written its first cheques to startups including Superhealth, Armatrix, PierSight, Knot, and two stealth ventures in AI infrastructure and consumer AI. Beyond capital, the fund promises to bring narrative and network support to founders. As Malpani puts it, India today has a once-in-a-generation advantage talent density, digital rails, and ambition to build global AI leaders from day one. At Startup Veda, we’re thrilled to see local capital fueling the AI frontier. This fund signals rising maturity in India’s venture ecosystem—placing conviction behind AI-first founders well before the rest of the world catches on. Join the conversation: Which early-stage AI ventures excite you the most? How powerful is the mix of capital + storytelling for building AI startups? #Startup #AI #VentureCapital #DeepTech #StartupIndia #FounderStories

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Shivakumar Ganesan, Co-founder & CEO of Exotel, joins The Neon Show. A 14-year journey from bootstrap to scale, Exotel’s story is one of India’s most remarkable SaaS journeys. We discuss: 1. How Exotel grew for 8 years post-seed round without external funding 2. What happened when COVID slashed revenues from $10M to $5M. 3. The bold strategic moves: 3 funding rounds & 2 acquisitions that followed. 4. The tough transition of customer base from SMBs to enterprises. 5. Building a ₹2500 crore+ business without leaving India. 6. Why Shivku chose to stay focused on India despite advice to go global first. 7. How automation could cut contact center jobs by 80%. 8. The challenge of building voice AI across 30+ Indian languages. And much more on timing, reading the market, and creating moats in overlooked opportunities. The episode drops today on The Neon Show.

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In venture capital, ultimately “only a handful of companies per year actually matter”. Just 7 firms led the Series A of ~60% of startups in India that are worth $1B+ today. The list of firms leading investments in these cos is fairly predictable - PANZEL + Tiger Global. Full post on India's unicorn hunters 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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Most poeple don’t get Boba Bhai right. But, as an investor via Titan Capital Winners Fund, I’ve had the fortune to see this story play out very closely. It is not just winning the bubble tea market in India - It is creating it. - Before their explosive entry, the category was a fragmented, niche curiosity-a handful of scattered outlets with no cohesive market identity - And Boba Bhai’s strategic execution is a live case study in transforming a fringe trend into a dominant, mainstream consumer category Their first move was to define the product for the Indian masses. By fusing Korean formats with Indian flavours, they created an accessible, craveable version of bubble tea and street food that could achieve broad appeal, moving it out of the niche corners of K-culture enthusiasts. Next, they built the physical infrastructure for the category at an unprecedented speed. Scaling to over 70 outlets, they are single-handedly putting bubble tea on the map in cities across the country, building the distribution network that is making the drink a household name. But their most visionary move in category creation is happening right now, in the digital aisle. The launch of Ready-to-Drink (RTD) canned bubble tea on quick commerce platforms like Blinkit and Zepto is another big bet. Effectively, they are not just entering a new channel - they are creating an entirely new FMCG category from scratch - packaged bubble tea. This allows them to own the "at-home" occasion, building brand salience far beyond their physical footprint. And this is very inspiring, because this is how categories are built. A single brand becomes so dominant in the consumer's mind that it becomes synonymous with the product itself. Think Xerox for photocopying or Maggi for instant noodles. With a stated goal to make K-Pop culture mainstream in India across food, drink and more, Boba Bhai, and its amazing founder, my friend Dhruv (in pic), are not shy about their ambitions. - And having read this whole thing, I am sure you would now get that they are not aiming to be a player in the bubble tea space - They are building the entire stadium and positioning themselves as the home team And that’s why I always say with pride and confidence, that Boba Bhai isn't just another QSR. What do you think? ---- I've begun to share my learnings from the world of startups more frequently to gain wider perspective. Thus, if you hold any additions or differences to the thoughts I shared above, do share in the comments. That will help widen my thinking horizons. Thanks! Best, Shiv

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🚨 Big Change for Angel Investors in India SEBI has raised the bar for who qualifies as an Accredited Investor: 📉 Earlier: ₹2 Cr net tangible assets (excluding primary residence) was enough to start angel investing. 📈 Now: Net worth ≥ ₹7.5 Cr (with ₹3.75 Cr in financial assets) OR Income ≥ ₹2 Cr annually OR Income ≥ ₹1 Cr + Net worth ≥ ₹5 Cr (with ₹2.5 Cr in financial assets) Corporates/Trusts need ₹50 Cr net worth This raises a crucial question: 💭 What happens to those who met the earlier requirements, began their angel journey, but no longer qualify under the new rules? 👉 Will they be locked out of funds? 👉 Does early-stage capital shrink? 👉 Or will new models emerge to keep them engaged? I’d love to hear perspectives from founders, fund managers, and fellow investors. Drop your thoughts ⬇️ #AngelInvesting #StartupEcosystem #IndiaStartups #VentureCapital #AngelInvestors #SEBI #InvestingInIndia

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