In this episode, I’m joined by Amir Khan, Managing General Partner at MARL 5G Accelerator and founder of StudioK.
Amir shares his personal journey from growing up in a lower-middle-class family in Agra, with dreams of becoming a pilot, but discovering his true aptitude lay in finance, which he studied at San Francisco State University, and went on to co-founding LendTech, which eventually led to his becoming a noted early stage tech investor.
He talks about why long-term societal transformation relies on deep tech backed by science and engineering, rather than chasing quick software profits. That latter path is increasingly fraught with risks, something that all VCs are afraid of, Amir points out, with the widespread availability of AI tools such as Claude Code, making the task of picking a software founder more difficult.
Amir breaks down the original core verticals behind MARL — Mobility, Autonomy, Robotics, and Logistics — and unpacks his views on the opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs in the transition from 2D text models to 3D physical AI and robotics.
He favours a 75/25 capital strategy for India’s tech ecosystem, where investments in long-term strategic deep tech areas must compete with the imperative of creating immediate jobs for our millions of youth.
We also talk about StudioK, an all-expenses-paid founder residency in Bengaluru for very early stage startups that Amir has recently opened, where some of the first startups are working on areas including space tech, physical AI and even AI-led hedge funds focused on the Indian capital markets.
The world is beginning to take notice of India’s deep tech startups, and our funding bottlenecks will ease, he says, while recommending that entrepreneurs are best served by embracing the Indian culture of frugality.
Tune in for an insightful conversation on bridging Silicon Valley and India’s emerging deep tech landscape.
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