Manvi Bhatia

✨ 2 years ago today, I quit my corporate job at McKinsey to try my hand at entrepreneurship. Since then, a lot has happened — some good, some not so good — but every bit of it has been worth learning from. I started my first company in interior design. We went post-revenue, even received a term sheet from AJVC. But we soon realized we lacked founder-market fit. Civil work and operations felt like being a fish out of water. We decided to shut it down (big thanks to Aviral Bhatnagar for his mentorship and support!) and start fresh. My second start-up, Livo, is a financial assistant to help people achieve their money goals. Still early days, but this time we’re working in a space we truly understand. Over these two years, here are my 10 biggest learnings: 1️⃣ Ask for what you want — you’ll be surprised how often you get it. 2️⃣ Most people are rooting for you, assume good intent. 3️⃣ Startups are a tough way to earn money. Save before you quit. 4️⃣ Supportive family makes all the difference. 5️⃣ Doing your own thing makes you love Mondays. 6️⃣ Fear fades the more you face it. 7️⃣ Don’t hire without funding. Short-term contracts are safer early on. 8️⃣ Execution > ideas. Always. 9️⃣ Go the extra mile. 🔟 Be okay with failing. Startups have high highs and low lows — you need to get comfortable with both. Excited for the journey ahead 🚀

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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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Listened to a very interesting talk by Vikram Chatterji, CEO of Citi Ventures portfolio company Galileo at the 2025 IIT leadership conference. A few insights stood out: 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆: Around 95% of enterprise agents fail in production. The core challenge is not building agents, but making them trustworthy, safe, and production-ready. 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝟭.𝟬 → 𝟮.𝟬 → 𝟯.𝟬: We are moving from deterministic coding (1.0), to embedding neural networks in applications (2.0), to natural language interfaces that allow developers to rapidly assemble complex AI systems (3.0). This shift makes the traditional SDLC insufficient. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗖𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲 (𝗔𝗗𝗟𝗖) is fundamentally different: Failures include hallucinations, prompt injection, and compliance issues. Enterprises need continuous monitoring, root-cause analysis, and guardrails at scale. Galileo is the Datadog + New Relic for AI agents 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶-𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴: Companies are shifting from one-off agents to fleets of 10, 50, or 100+ specialized agents communicating through emerging protocols. This resembles the microservices revolution, but for intelligent agents. Reliability, authentication, and governance will be critical. 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱: Galileo’s recent launch of free Agentic Evaluations drew strong adoption, confirming that developers quickly hit a wall in scaling agents without systematic testing and monitoring. Large enterprises like Verizon, and Comcast are already embedding Galileo’s stack. The next frontier in enterprise AI is clear: moving beyond building agents to ensuring they are reliable, observable, and safe at scale. Galileo is one of the players defining this new infrastructure layer Dharmesh Thakker, Andy Vitus, Amarjit Gill, Lip-Bu Tan, Yash Sheth, Atindriyo Sanyal, Arvind Purushotham, Çağla Kaymaz, Victor Chang, Kevin Weber

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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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Traction is one of the greatest illusions in early-stage start-ups. After speaking with several Seed to Series A founders, I’m increasingly seeing where the traction is coming from: Here are the 4 most common “bubbles” I’ve observed: 1. South Mumbai Bubble - Quiet wealth. High intent. Low fuss. Age demographic: Young + Old. Price sensitivity: Low to negligible. Early adopter mindset: Medium. If it looks interesting, they'll try it no matter the price point or utility. 2. South Delhi Bubble - Flashier wealth. Social capital ('perception') matters. Age demographic: Young + Old. Price sensitivity: Low. Early adopter mindset: Medium. Will try what’s trending. Totally fine with 'luxury' and 'impulse'. 3. Bengaluru Bubble - Young professionals, start-up founders, VCs Age demographic: Young Price sensitivity: Medium Early adopter mindset: Very high You could launch a 10-minute nail-clipping start-up and get your first 1000 users here. The appetite to experiment is just wild. 4. Campus Bubble (Top Colleges + IB Schools, especially wherein the fee is very high) - Supportive micro-ecosystems. Batchmates, faculty, and parents almost undertake the responsibility to get you to succeed. Age demographic: Very young Price sensitivity: Low Early adopter mindset: Very high Founders often raise capital on the back of traction from these bubbles. But the moment they try to scale to the 5th segment, things get real: 5. The Rest of India (99.5%) Age: Wide spectrum Price sensitivity: Ultra high Early adopter mindset: Very low CAC: Brutally high unless and sometimes even if the value proposition is well fleshed out and communicated This segment doesn't experiment. It converts on trust, value, and time-tested proof. Not all traction is created equal. Some bubbles are great for v1 validation. The question always remains are you ready to serve India and International? Or are you still selling to and in the bubble? Would love to understand your thoughts. #startups #productmarketfit #business #strategy

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Pronto just raised $11M in Series A funding! Co-led by General Catalyst & Glade Brook Capital (with BCV), this Gurgaon-based real-time household help platform is set to: ⚡ Expand into Mumbai, Bengaluru & more ⚡ Build micro-hubs for sub-10-min service ⚡ Onboard 10,000+ new workers Pronto isn’t just scaling — they’re redefining how fast and reliable home services can be. 🏡✨ #FundingNews #SeriesA #StartupGrowth #OnDemandEconomy #IndiaStartups #HouseholdServices #TechForGood #Pronto

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💼 India vs GCC – How Private Equity Deals Are Structured Differently Having worked across both India and the Gulf, I’ve noticed some clear contrasts in how deals come together. 🇮🇳 India - More distributed cap tables with multiple funds, angels, and ESOP pools. Early founder dilution. - Preference for structured minority deals rather than full control - Longer diligence cycles with multiple stakeholders involved 🇸🇦 GCC - Family-led or founder-heavy ownership structures are still the norm; even when diluting cap tables remain relatively clean - Government approvals often play a decisive role in timelines (GAC in KSA, UAE competition law, etc) - Diligence can often be lighter, especially in early stage (higher trust in the ecosystem). Sharper focus on post-deal integration and execution readiness Just goes to show that as an investor, context matters. A deal playbook that works in Mumbai won’t always translate seamlessly to Riyadh or Dubai — and vice versa. Understanding regulatory nuance, cultural expectations, and deal pacing is critical when crossing these corridors. ✍️ Curious to hear from others: what’s the biggest difference you’ve observed when structuring deals across geographies? #PrivateEquity #IndiaGCC #DealMaking #CrossBorderInvesting #GII

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Ever wondered why US VCs invest more in SaaS while in India we focus on consumer? From a seed investor’s lens, the math looks very different. In the US (SaaS) → Predictable ARR means companies can raise debt early, so equity rounds are cleaner and less frequent. A seed investor who comes in at $5–10M valuation often still holds a meaningful stake by Series C. Multiples at exit (10–20x ARR) only compound that advantage. In India (Consumer) → Brands chew up capital for inventory and offline scale. That means round after round of equity, each one crushing early investors. A seed cheque at $5M valuation can shrink to a rounding error by the time the company is big. On spreadsheets, it looks like bad math. But here’s the paradox: India’s consumption depth is so large that even after ugly dilution, outcomes can still be big enough to make sense. In the US, SaaS is the logical bet. In India, consumer is the volume bet. For seed investors, it’s not about who scales faster — it’s about who leaves you with more stake once they do :)

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