Sravanth Aluru

Agilitas x Virat Kohli partnership is one of the masterstroke deals I have seen in recent times. Virat invests 40 CR in Agilitas for a 1.94% stake, putting Agilitas’s valuation around 2000 CR. 📈 In turn, Agilitas acquires one8world, making Virat a co-founder and shareholder. They now get two very important growth levers: ⬇️ 1. A powerful manufacturing (via Mochiko Shoes - a 600 CR+ footwear brand that Agilitas acquired in 2008 ), 2. India’s biggest athlete — exclusively aligned. Easily becomes a 4000 CR revenue brand in the next 5 years. Footwear + retail scale requires capital — but this partnership compresses customer acquisition, product cycles, and brand-building like few others. Even Virat said in his podcast with Abhishek Ganguly, the co-founder of Agilitas that, “I didn’t want a brand deal… I wanted to build something that outlives me.” And Abhishek said something even beautiful - “An ambition to build from India but be globally relevant.” This isn’t marketing. This is legacy building with shared skin in the game. And that is how startups work - shared ambition with one goal (to make the company big) and food (read stake) in the table for everyone! A company that can be built in the long term with culture, capital, and conviction aligned. This might be the first time in India, where an athlete joins hands with a sport company to re-imagine and build the sport ecosystem of India - truly revolutionalising the game with a clear vision. 🙌

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What a joy to speak with this brilliant cohort of innovators in the The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) ENTICE (Energy Transitions Innovation Challenge) 2.0 program and taking on their sharp questions at the investor bootcamp. 80% of global GHG emission reduction goals for 2050 can be met through energy system decarbonization, efficiency and electrification. This represents a US $100 trillion opportunity according to the IEA.     A stronger, more stable grid is at the heart of building a #resilient #energy future. This year’s program challenges innovators to tackle:  1) Behind-the-meter digital twins: #AI tools to analyse consumption and create appliance-level insights  2) Industrial flexibility at scale: AI solutions using smart meter data to identify flexible assets and operational inefficiencies    Kudos to the entrepreneurs and the GEAPP team for curating and executing such a thoughtful program.     Looking forward to seeing how these #innovations scale #impact.  Synapses Dalberg Media Vaishali (Vish) Mishra Anukul Tripathi (He/Him) Jayant Sinha Saurabh Kumar

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This article, co-authored by Vardaan Ahluwalia and me lays out India's significant new Research Development and Innovation Fund initiative in the context of other successful interventions: when governments and the private sector work together, they can make a transformative difference to deep technology entrepreneurship. Equally, initiatives to help manage financial risk should be followed by structural reforms in areas ranging from intellectual property regulation, ease of clearances for start-ups, tax rationalization in capital gains and options that helps start-ups attract talent, and a visa regime that attracts leading global researchers. https://lnkd.in/gk92YSZa

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Operating across global markets has taught us that successful venture investing requires understanding when opportunities are genuinely local versus inherently global. The flexibility of a single global fund allows us to deploy capital where the strongest opportunities emerge without any constraints. In India, sectors like fintech and consumer are deeply contextual and built around specific local market dynamics. Meanwhile, AI, SaaS, and climate solutions typically have distributed teams between India and the US, which means we can invest from our Bengaluru office even when founders are based in Silicon Valley or Europe. The approach is working well. We're seeing excellent deal flow return to India in 2025, much stronger than 2022-23, with Seed to Series B activity picking up significantly. This recovery, combined with ecosystem maturation across practical AI applications, specialized commerce models, and underpenetrated consumer brands, reinforces our conviction to deploy roughly a third of our $1B fund here through 2027-28. In conversation with Aman Rawat from VCCircle https://lnkd.in/g8vRMTsF

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From our PearX S25 cohort, meet Pravāh, the AI-native operating system for the electric grid When Mohak Mangal, Dhruv Suri, and Aman Gupta looked at the strain on the U.S. electric grid, they saw a system pushed to its limits. Exploding demand and unpredictable supply have made blackouts increasingly common. This costs the economy more than $150B a year, a number that could 10x in the next five years. Mohak Mangal and team founded Pravāh to help fix it. Their platform helps utilities and grid operators make real-time decisions on load, generation, and congestion, reducing blackout risks, optimizing power procurement, and bringing much-needed stability to the backbone of modern life. We’re proud to support the Pravāh team as they take on one of the toughest and most important infrastructure challenges of our time.

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On February 18, during India's AI Impact Summit, a company called Sarvam shipped a 105-billion-parameter model trained from scratch in India on government-subsidized GPUs, designed for 22 Indian languages. It outperforms DeepSeek-R1 on certain benchmarks at one-sixth the size. The same summit produced $200 billion in investment pledges from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Reliance. The headlines were about the money. The real story was Sarvam. This post examines in detail why it took this long, what changed, and whether Sarvam is the first crack in an old equilibrium or a lonely exception. "Indians Rule Big Tech. Why Can’t India Build?": Link in comments.

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Backing a manufacturing startup at seed isn't the obvious VC move. But Vivek, Rahul and Aditya, the co-founders of Bidso had lived the problem across Flipkart, Udaan, and ITC, and had a very clear idea of how to fix it. Two and a half years later, the thesis has played out stronger than we imagined. Excited to share that Bidso has raised Rs 63 cr in Series A round and happy to welcome Blume Ventures and Alteria Capital onto the cap table. Thrilled to have Sadev Ventures (Formerly Eternal Capital) continue to back the team at Bidso. Sajith - genuinely looking forward to partnering with you and the Blume team. You think about long-term company building the way we do, and Bidso is exactly the kind of company that benefits from that alignment. We remain excited to continue backing Bidso as it progresses on its way to being a truly generational force that defines what "Make in India" actually means. Onwards!!!!! PeerCapital Karthik Prabhakar Rohit M A

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As we close this week, an event in the Indian VC ecosystem has prompted renewed reflection. In parallel, I spent time with a long-standing family office LP who put it simply : Every venture cycle forces a reset This one is about governance, ethics, and accountability As LP capital matures, a few truths are becoming clearer : -Scale alone does not build durable firms -Stories do not substitute for attribution - And partnerships only compound when incentives, values, and judgment remain aligned over time India’s venture ecosystem has grown rapidly over the last decade. With scale, expectations naturally evolve. 𝐋𝐏𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 Questions around attribution, governance, team stability, and incentive alignment are no longer theoretical. They are 𝘯𝘰𝘸 central to risk assessment. That is a healthy shift. 𝐀 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐭𝐨 #𝐕𝐂2.0 This next phase of Indian VC will reward : - Smaller, stable teams that stay together across cycles - Operator judgment earned in the field, not just on slides - Transparency over theatrics - Clear, deal-level attribution - Incentives aligned to long-term outcomes Against this backdrop, our resolve at BlueGreen Ventures is simple : To build a firm where decision-making is clear, attribution is honest, incentives are aligned from day one, and partnerships are built to last across cycles, not just exits. Not faster. But more deliberate. And built to endure. Rajeev Suri and I have invested together for over 8 years across 3 fund vintages. One lesson has stayed constant : ✳️Repeatable judgment ✳️Repeatable processes ✳️Repeatable outcomes are neither accidental nor coincidental. They are rooted in #values. Those who expect the highest standards from #startupfounders must also be willing to hold themselves to the same bar Vivek Avika Arun Kumar Mittal Sarthak Singh #fairness #transparency #discipline

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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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🚀 Funding Update in the Indian Startup Ecosystem Mumbai-based Luma fertility, a tech-enabled fertility care startup, has successfully raised $4 million in seed funding, led by Peak XV Partners (via its Surge program), along with participation from notable investors like Ameera Shah (Metropolis Healthcare) and Vijay Taparia (B2V Ventures). Founded by Neha K Motwani, Luma Fertility is building a patient-first platform to offer end-to-end reproductive care—covering IVF, fertility assessments, egg freezing, at-home diagnostics, and more. The startup is leveraging technology and empathy to modernize fertility services in India. 📍 With a flagship clinic in Bandra West, Mumbai, Luma now aims to expand across multiple cities over the next two years. This is yet another sign of rising investor confidence in healthtech and femtech sectors in India. As a funding consultant, I closely track such movements and assist businesses in navigating their own equity and debt funding journeys. 📩 If you're a startup or growing company looking to raise capital or explore funding options, feel free to connect. #FundingNews #StartupFunding #SeedFunding #LumaFertility #PeakXV #HealthTech #FemTech #IndianStartups #Linkedin #techindia #healthcare

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