Tag: venture capital

  • Deep tech: Ideaspring Capital’s founders on the circle of life and other investing lessons (Part 2)

    Deep tech: Ideaspring Capital’s founders on the circle of life and other investing lessons (Part 2)

    In today’s episode, I bring you Part 2 of an interview with Naganand Doraswamy, managing partner, and Suryaprakash Konanuru, CTO, at Ideaspring Capital in Bengaluru.

    In this episode, we pick up the conversation with a brief discussion on what the two VC investors are seeing when it comes to the growth of translational research in India — and I want to add that this was in the broader sense of any movement from scientific lab to commercial product, and not just in the medical field, where the term originated.

    And if you stick around you’ll hear Naganand and Suri discuss their views on how early-stage investing in deep tech is changing, can such investors make meaningful investments in highly capital intensive sectors such as robotics, nuclear fusion and quantum computing hardware, in India, getting something not quite right but moving on, and whether AI is changing their work as well, and in what ways.

    And as promised in Part 1, we take a quick look at what might represent a ‘Flipkart moment’ in India’s deep tech sector, and the evolution of Ideaspring itself from Fund 1 to Fund 4.

  • Engineer, operator, VC: Ravi Jain at TDK Ventures on India’s deep tech scene

    Engineer, operator, VC: Ravi Jain at TDK Ventures on India’s deep tech scene

    In this episode, Ravi Jain, an Investment Director at TDK Ventures, joins me for a wide-ranging discussion on the current state and trajectory of India’s deep tech ecosystem. Jain gives us a micro capsule on the history of TDK, developing technologies for sectors spanning automotive, energy storage, and power electronics, and the strategic rationale for launching its corporate venture arm in 2019.

    He talks about TDK Ventures’ mandate to invest in startups poised to shape emerging markets and tomorrow’s standards, noting the recent expansion of the firm’s India operations, and a global portfolio that includes investments across sectors such as semiconductors, advanced materials, robotics, quantum technologies, AI, mobility, climate tech and clean energy and agri-tech.

    Jain addresses macroeconomic drivers, including government policy, manufacturing incentives, and evolving founder ambitions, that position India for accelerated growth in deep tech. He explains the sector’s optimism despite talent and funding challenges, and highlights the increasing sophistication of Indian deep tech founders, their pragmatism, and the snowballing effect of policy and market maturation.

    He also talks about TDK Ventures’ approach to hardware versus software startups, university-driven entrepreneurship, and the imperative for foundational work in AI. Jain also shares reflections from his own career, distilling practical advice for future deep tech entrepreneurs navigating India’s rapidly changing technology landscape.