Founder's Story - Innovator's Insight: Ankit Shrivastava on Strategic Growth | S2: E38

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

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Hey everyone, welcome back to Founders Story. Something that I really want to know more about is global expansion, investments, entrepreneurship, and specifically in India. It's the world's number one population. There's so much going on. There's a rising middle class, upper class, like there's so much happening in India. So today we have Ankit Srivastava. He is the founder of nVenture, who is an emerging tech investor.

He invested in healthcare, space, sustainability, and he's going to talk through everything that's happening right now in India. But Ankit, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me on your podcast, Dean. I'm looking forward to sharing more about InVenture with you and your audience. It's a great opportunity for us to share our vision and the exciting work we are doing in this space of healthcare space and sustainability, covering both US and India. And you rightly mentioned there's a lot going on in India and happy to share our perspective as to how we are working over there to ensure the returns,

which our LPs and the stakeholders are looking at it. So looking forward to it. Amazing. So let's dive into that. I know India is experiencing this massive, massive growth period right now, maybe one of the largest in the world. And as a part of InVenture, you are doing a lot in India. Can you tell me more about what you're doing there? Absolutely. I think the massive growth is something is driven by the access to the best emerging and the profitable technologies within the focus sectors, which you just mentioned about healthcare, space exploration, and the sustainability that are showing potential in India.

For instance, recently, InVenture had made an investment of roughly around a million dollars in a renewable ethanol blending project, and it is expected to generate roughly around seven million dollars in next five years, which is unheard of. And the estimated IRR which we are looking at is roughly around 30%, somewhere between 30-35%, which is again unheard of some of these investments which we are trying to do. And this investment also reflects our focus on promoting the energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse emission, what we are focusing on. This, along with the government support,

as you mentioned, there's a new government right now, and this continuous third term of this government provides that stability within the ecosystem of entrepreneurship startup. And its growing demand for ethanol project is in line with what India is trying to achieve, 20% of blending of it by 2025. We are strategically aligning our investments that are common and shared between the geography, which is India in this particular case, and the focus which InVenture has to ease the expected returns. So that's just one example of it. There are many deals or investments

which we are evaluating as we speak to make sure that we align with where the trends is, where is the highest potential is in the emerging and the profitable technologies within India ecosystem. So are you finding then that, are you investing in, let's say say a company in india is their primary customer base in india or is their primary customer base maybe in the us or other countries

or is it a mixture of both or for example if you're investing in a company in the us is it a company that you hope that has a product or service that is global? So good question. We are investing in both variations of it. Made in India for Indian population, made in India for the global population. I think those variations which we have seen and the two investments we have done thus far are reflective of the same for these two pillars which we are aligning to. The ethanol project, which I just mentioned about, is made in India for the Indian population or Indian customer market. And there is another healthcare investment which we have done in India for our oncology testing ecosystem, which is backed by Illumina, as we speak,

which is a U.S.-based company. They are doing cutting-edge research in healthcare and life sciences. So that project is based, being done for Made in India, for India and the global as well. So it's a mix of both. And that's what I said,

we are aligning strategically our investments, what aligns with the geography of India and globally as well, to drive that impact as one of our core principles of investment, which we're looking at. We will return to our show shortly. But first, let's talk about today's sponsor, Magnesium Breakthrough by BioOptimizers. Did you know four out of five Americans don't get enough magnesium? Crucial for over 300 biochemical reactions in your body. Here are signs of magnesium deficiency, irritability, anxiety, insomnia, muscle cramps, high blood pressure, and even constipation. I know I suffer from a few of

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Our audience gets a special offer of $1,000 off Vanta at vanta.com slash founders. That's V-A-N-T-A dot com slash founders for $1,000 off. Now back to the show. A lot of excitement. Some people have doubts. Some people have fears. Some people have never been more excited than ever. So for me as someone, I don't have a lot of knowledge around it. I'm almost confused as to, is it a great time? Not a great time. So what, it seems like you're very optimistic though. And I imagine emerging technology with AI and stuff

is just going to become even greater and an amazing thing right now. So why are you so excited and why are you so optimistic about currently time right now and India specifically? For sure. I believe the returns, the industry we are in is driven by

what is the return we can give it to our stakeholders. The primary stakeholder over here are our limited partners who go and invest in our funds. To make sure that we are true to that promise, it's important to make a right investment and access to the right deals within India ecosystem that drives every return, what needs to happen across the value chain, we are going to go and have it right. So we have built a venture member network within India and US, which comprises of industry experts, operators, policymakers, which are very important in this ecosystem, accelerator incubators and also the seasoned business leaders who have vast network within India and also have influence globally. That helps us to

have an access to a very quality deals, a deals where we can go and make right investments, prove in team, which is there doing the product market fit, and yield the returns what we are looking for it, right? And the strength of this member network, which we have developed over a period of time, is helping us, helping our integration, so to say, in the fabric of indian pe and avc ecosystems that increases our success rate to not only from an yield perspective but also with respect with respect to navigating the regulatory ecosystem which we have and the complex dynamics which India operates in. So local presence, member strength,

which we have and policy makers who are within our network helping us navigate this through and the access to these quality deals and the startups which are ripe for investment in the sectors which we are looking at it is bringing that optimism in me and not only this is the optimism this is also more what I would say is the pragmatism of being successful because we are running through a huge very extensive due diligence on these deals before go and write the check for them and it it's a very similar model, which we are adopting in US as a market to ensure that we are able to replicate and share the knowledge between the two geographies as we're working with between developed and the developing nation, so to say.

Yeah, I can see if you're somebody, let's say in the US or Europe, and you want to invest in India, it's very complex. You have to work with someone like yourself, a company that really understands, that knows the environment, knows the culture, knows how things operate. So when it comes to emerging technology, I'm curious about your perspective. What are you excited about in the future when it comes to emerging tech? What we are excited with respect to InVenture is the application of these emerging tech. The way we look at it, and that is one of

our core philosophy, is that technology is a mean to an end. And what those use cases which you go and go and implement, which drive that implementation and the adoption drives that scale so the when we do an assessment of any particular investment which we're trying to do in venture ecosystem we ensure that what is that application of emerging tech is looking like with respect to artificial intelligence or data or cloud in the equal in the realm of healthcare space and otherwise. So because that is more important and that's what's driving me that these sectors which we are looking at is ripe for these underpinning of technology foundation which is needed which will come together to deliver that promise of technology when we put together in the shape of a use case,

which we are trying to solve for. And that's what makes me excited that there are so many use cases which are there, which can deliver the impact, what we are looking at it, combining these technologies together. It's so amazing. I was listening to a speaker recently talking about how he feels that AI can really solve climate change or who knows, maybe it will go to space one day. Elon Musk was talking about cars that drive themselves that make money for you before they pick you up and they do taxis for other people. I mean, the the the amount of options and abilities that people can use the technology for. I love how you put that. I am super excited.

So if people want to get in touch with you, they want to find more about what you're doing, how can they do so? They can reach out to me through our website, LinkedIn, and they can reach out to me on my email as well, which is very simple, ankit at nventure.io, and happy to get onto a call and share more about what we're doing. Well, Ankit, I can't wait to see the future.

In a year from now, two years from now, I mean, who knows? I think things are going to happen that we can't even imagine today. And I love that you're working with those people to make that happen, right? Because that's the essential part is you can have an idea, a vision, a dream, but if you don't have the capital to make it happen or you have capital and you want to put it to work in that person, that visionary, that dreamer, and you don't know where they are,

you really need someone like yourself to bring all those things together. And it's amazing what you're doing, but thank you so much for joining us today on Founders Story. No, thank you for hosting us. I appreciate that. And as you said, one year from now, I look forward to sharing more updates about InVenture

with this platform. So thank you. Thank you for hosting us. We'll see you in a year from now. Thank you for tuning in to Founders Story. Keep exploring, keep dreaming, and join us next time for more inspiring entrepreneurial journeys.