Before venturing into investing, Singh became an entrepreneur at 16, starting Riro, a food catering company in Bangalore. “Coming from a family business background, entrepreneurship has been a dinner-table conversation my entire life. The itch for building businesses came early, and I was fortunate enough to follow my ambitions,” Rishabh explains.
“I sold my first company at 18, and every step since then has brought me closer to my goal of supporting visionary entrepreneurs. Working in the early-stage ecosystem in California provided insights that are extremely useful in India. In 2018, I returned to Bangalore to integrate deeper with the Indian ecosystem and founded Capnetic, an investment banking firm. This experience highlighted a gap for high-conviction early-stage investors who can guide companies through the challenging valley of death,” says Singh. He teamed up with childhood friend Shubham Jhuria, a chartered accountant with experience in unicorn startups, to launch Aeravti Ventures in 2022.
Singh describes Aeravti as a sector-specific investment fund focused on Bharat, typically investing $500k to $2 million in early-stage companies, often as the first institutional investor. “We prefer leading rounds in businesses across deep-tech, agri-tech, bio-tech, supply-chain, and enterprise-tech,” says Singh.
Singh looks for pioneering technology startups at the innovation forefront, preferring technical founders with unparalleled insight in their field and building significant moats for cutting-edge companies.
“We are committed to investments that generate financial returns and positively impact society and the environment. We view our investments as long-term partnerships, providing capital, strategic guidance, industry expertise, and network access to help our portfolio companies succeed and scale,” says Singh.Aeravti’s Fund 1 has 8-10 companies, with most capital reserved for follow-ons. “We spend at least 6 months with a company pre-investment and then substantial time as an extended team, helping build the business and enable growth,” Singh states.On understanding businesses and founders, Singh says, “Understanding a business might take two weeks, but understanding people takes much longer. We spend at least 6 months with the founding team, building a resilient relationship to evaluate their motivations, conflict resolution methods, inter-founder dynamics, leadership and team-building mentalities, and relationships with co-founders, employees, clients, customers, and vendors. This helps us distinguish great founders and bet on their execution ability.” Despite this thorough approach, Singh remains agile in identifying opportunities and trends.
“India’s venture capital industry, starting in the mid-2000s, is still in its early stages. With late-stage funding declining in 2023, the industry is at a maturity inflection point,” Singh observes.
Singh emphasises the need for sustainable business models that can return profits to shareholders and stand strong in public markets, especially in the context of the current funding winter.
Nitish Rai, Co-Founder of FreightFox Logistics, praises his long association with Aeravti, which led their seed round with a $500k investment in June 2023.
“Our experience with Aeravti in fundraising was pivotal for our growth. Aeravti’s focus on understanding the logistics tech domain, challenges, and sector evolution was impressive. They have been a coach, mentor, and cheerleader, assisting in market access, hiring, setting up financial and compliance processes, and offering alternative perspectives on business problems,” says Rai.
Looking to the future, Singh notes the rapid pace of mindset changes and industry evolutions. He believes the VC model, established in the US in the 80s, is due for democratisation and robustness to navigate paradigm shifts without becoming outdated.
“At the core of these changes is a focus on agri and climate tech. We live in a world needing advanced solutions for complex problems. We believe in triple bottom lines valuing profits, the planet, and its people. Our target areas, like agriculture, supply-chain, and bio-tech, enable positive outcomes for business, climate, and social well-being,” Singh asserts.
Singh outlines ambitious goals, including supporting companies generating over $100M in revenue. “Our focus is on more than just capital deployment; we aim for superior returns for our investors,” he asserts. Aeravti’s key milestones include supporting companies throughout their growth cycles and achieving successful public market listings.
