Anant Tiwari

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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'Startup India' must be followed by 'Impact India' Tarun Khanna and I write about the population-size impact of non-profit unicorns and the need for government to act like a market-maker to catalyze the ecosystem. We draw a simple learning from how startups are built - they thrive on experimentation and iteration to find scale pathways. This needs unrestricted innovation capital which government must help unlock.The article makes 3 simple suggestions. We strongly believe, that we are at a disruptive moment, where India is positioned to be a vishwaguru on scaling impact to billion+ people, through public-private partnerships crafting sound policy, and using technology and community to execute. We should make most of the moment by treating non-profits as the creative entrepreneurial efforts they can be, just as are commercial startups. https://lnkd.in/g3tSh57M

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For years, rural market research has struggled with one big gap — authentic, reliable voices from India’s tier-2/3 towns and villages. With Tarakki, we at Dhwani RIS are changing that. We’re building India’s first high-quality rural panel, where women are trained as digital workers and contribute directly from their homes using low-cost smartphones. This means reliable responses at scale, faster turnaround, and lower costs — while creating meaningful, flexible and work from home based digital livelihoods opportunities for women. Our role is clear: we provide the rural panel and assured response quality. That’s why we’re excited to partner with: Survey panel agencies → to fill the rural gap Market research firms → to add execution strength Brands → to bring authentic rural voices into decision-making If you’re a consumer brand, panel agency, or research firm looking to strengthen your rural reach — let’s discuss. Please drop in an email at [email protected] Aastha Arora Dhwani Rural Information Systems

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🎯 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚’𝐬 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞 – 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 Grateful to News18 India Gujarati for featuring my insights on India’s evolving startup ecosystem during the Vibrant Gujarat Regional Conference at #Mehsana. The event marked a milestone with MoUs worth ₹11,652 crore signed, major discussions on semiconductors, green energy, and women-led startups, and participation from #Japan, #SouthKorea, and #Vietnam. As a Startup Mentor, it’s inspiring to witness how India is shaping a powerful, self-sustaining startup ecosystem; where every stage, from ideation to incubation, prototype to product, research to revenue, is being strengthened by coordinated efforts of the Government, investors, academia, and industry. With more than 1.25 lakh DPIIT-recognized startups, over 110 unicorns, and initiatives such as Startup India #SeedFund, Fund of Funds, and the Gujarat Startup Policy 2024, India is no longer a follower in innovation ; it’s setting global benchmarks. Co-working spaces, incubation centers, university collaborations, and strong digital infrastructure are ensuring that ideas from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities find wings; not walls. The collective push from platforms like i-Hub Gujarat, GIFT City , Gujarat Technological University (GTU), Vadodara Startup Studio - Parul University, iCreate, Antrapreneur The Business Incubator, Bharat Accelerator, AMSIM Mehsana and many more are creating founders who are solving real-world problems with scale, purpose, and resilience. India’s startup movement isn’t just about funding; it’s about founders with foresight and a nation that now believes in its own innovation. i47 Global Venture Specialists Panchal S K and Associates Startup India Vibrant Gujarat Ganpat University Amrit Mehsana Startup & Innovation Mission M Nagarajan Dr. Mahendra Sharma #mehsana #vibrantgujarat #incubators #incubation #prototype #funding #marketingtips #productdevelopment #pricing #unicorn #employmentgeneration #innovation #startupecosystem #textiles #diamond #heritage #msme

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Bridging Capital, Mentorship & Vision for Rajasthan’s Startup Ecosystem 🚀 Last week, I had the privilege of joining a closed-door roundtable hosted by NIEM (Nathmaljee Institute For Entrepreneur Mentorship) — a non-profit collective bringing together some of Rajasthan’s most respected industry leaders, angel investors, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem enablers to reimagine how early-stage founders can be supported meaningfully. The conversation was a powerful reminder that while ideas may be born in isolation, ecosystems are built through collaboration. From incubation and mentorship to seed funding and scale-up support, every stakeholder in the value chain plays a crucial role in shaping how innovation thrives — especially in emerging ecosystems like Rajasthan. As someone deeply rooted in the incubation landscape through ACIC-VGU Foundation, it was inspiring to see investors, industry veterans, and ecosystem architects align on one shared goal: 🤝To make Rajasthan a truly founder-first, capital-ready, and innovation-driven state. 🤝The discussions spanned everything from bridging the trust gap between founders and investors, simplifying access to early-stage capital, to creating pathways for mentorship that go beyond transactional engagement. I firmly believe that the next decade of entrepreneurship will be written not just in metros, but in the tier-2 and tier-3 cities — where resilience, creativity, and community run deep. And #Rajasthan, with its strong academic backbone, emerging incubators, and growing startup network, is ready to lead that story. Grateful to have been part of this thoughtful exchange alongside some incredible advisors and mentors shaping NIEM’s mission. Looking forward to collaborating on models where investors, incubators, and entrepreneurs work hand-in-hand — not just to fund startups, but to build founders who can last. #Startups #Investors #EcosystemBuilding #Rajasthan #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #Mentorship #Impact #Funding Dr. Sheenu Jhawar Ajay Data Rajiv Arora

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🚨 Urban Company’s existing investors are backing its Rs 1,900 crore IPO in a big way - Steadview Capital, Singapore’s Arohi, Think Investments and DF International have subscribed to 10% of the Rs 854 crore anchor book. All of the have been investors in Urban Company since at least 2021 - This comes after Elevation Capital has picked up additional shares through its late-stage fund from Tiger Global

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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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Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal has launched LAT Aerospace, aiming to revolutionize India’s aviation sector. The startup will focus on building India’s first indigenous jet engines, STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and regional connectivity infrastructure. With this move, Goyal is stepping beyond food tech into aerospace innovation. LAT Aerospace could play a pivotal role in advancing India's defense and regional transport capabilities.

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BlueStone’s IPO on 19th August 2025 marked the culmination of 14 years of resilience. The issue was oversubscribed 2.7x, raising ~₹1,540 crore. At listing, BlueStone commanded a valuation well north of $1 billion — a remarkable leap from ~$300M just a year prior. But the story began back in 2011, with a vision many considered radical. Jewellery, at the time, was untouched by the internet. And Gaurav Singh Kushwaha was an unlikely jewellery entrepreneur, a technologist with no background or networks in the industry. What many saw as a disadvantage turned out to be his greatest strength. The market then was dominated by legacy players: 1. Heavy offline distribution 2. Large inventory-led models 3. A traditional view of jewellery as heirlooms, not fashion Technology, design thinking, and consumer-first approaches had barely touched the space. Free from industry baggage, Gaurav reimagined the market with first-principles thinking: 1. What will it take for jewellery to be bought online? 2. Why can’t it be designed for everyday wear? 3. Can a lean, just-in-time supply chain make jewellery design-first and transparent? These questions became the foundation of a journey from incubation to IPO with BlueStone emerging as a pioneer that redefined how India buys fine jewellery. Read more about "Making of BlueStone and how it beat the odds" in our latest blog: https://lnkd.in/gyyibWpG #IPO #Startup #Entrepreneurship

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