Pranay Gupta

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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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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🚨 RBI’s New Co-Lending Directions, 2025 – Effective Jan 1, 2026 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued new Co-Lending Arrangements Directions, 2025, which will come into effect on January 1, 2026. These guidelines will likely broaden the scope of co-lending 1️⃣ Mandatory Skin in the Game – Each Regulated Entity (RE) must retain minimum 10% of every loan (no shadow partnerships) 2️⃣ Blended Interest Rate – Final rate to borrower = weighted average of each lender’s rate. All fees to be factored into APR & Key Facts Statement 3️⃣ 15-Day Transfer Rule – Partner RE must book its share within 15 days of disbursement. Else, loan stays with originator 4️⃣ Default Loss Guarantee Cap – Max 5% of outstanding loans allowed 5️⃣ Borrower-Level Asset Classification – If one lender marks SMA/NPA, the other must follow 6️⃣ Escrow Account Mandate – All transactions to flow through an escrow, ensuring clear fund appropriation 7️⃣ Full Disclosure – Public list of co-lending partners + detailed reporting in financials Bottom line: Clearer rules, stronger consumer protection, tighter operational discipline >> co-lending just got a lot more transparent. #RBI #CoLending #NBFC #Fintech #Credit https://lnkd.in/gKxrz_hC

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#SEBI just clipped Angel Wings. And Founders should be thankful. SEBI’s recent New Rule to restrict #angelfund participation to Accredited Investors* has sparked concern across the startup ecosystem. Many believe it will reduce the flow of early stage capital. Others feel it goes against the idea of broadening participation in angel investing. But take a closer look, especially from a founder’s point of view, and the picture starts to shift. This change may not reduce capital. It may simply improve its quality. Earlier, the eligibility to invest through an angel fund was based on a self-declared ₹2 crore net worth, excluding the primary home. That bar was relatively low. And as a result, a lot of individuals started showing up, not because they had experience or real conviction, but because they did not want to miss out. FOMO brought them in. Startups ended up paying the price. SEBI’s shift to Accredited Investors changes that. It raises the threshold. Investors will now need to meet stricter income or net worth criteria and go through a formal accreditation process. Yes, this will reduce the number of angels in the ecosystem. But the ones who remain will be serious about investing. They will bring context, experience, and capital that actually moves the needle. Ask any founder who has raised from 15 or 20 angels to fill a ₹1 crore round: You spend weeks pitching. You convince dozens of people. And what you get is a bunch of ₹50K cheques that come with expectations, but not impact. Requests for board seats. Weekly update demands. Advisory equity asks without real involvement. Same pitch. Same effort. Very little return on time. This is where SEBI’s move helps. It does not block capital. It filters it. Founders will now deal with fewer angels, but ones who bring more conviction, more clarity, and write cheques that actually matter. Fewer names on the cap table. More value in the room. #Founders: How has your experience been raising from #angels? Have smaller cheques added more value or more overhead? And do you see SEBI’s move helping or hurting your next raise? #EarlyStageCapital ##AngelNetwork #StartupEcosystem #StartupFunding

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