Forbes India - Tech Conversations
_sm.jpg "Deep Tech India — Venkat Vallabhaneni and Jatin Desai on a lab-to-market orchestration layer")
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Deep Tech India: Karthee Madasamy on the role of the 'forcing function' in deep tech startups' success
As India readies its own deep tech startups policy, this is episode five in a short series of conversations with some of the entrepreneurs and VC investors who are building this ecosystem in the country. In this episode, Karthee Madasamy, founding managing partner at MFV Partners, an early-stage deep tech VC firm in the US, talks about why he thinks robotics is about to take off. He also talks about why, deep tech entrepreneurs must be aware of the state of the industry and how that will affect the adoption of their new technologies
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Deep Tech India: Sateesh Andra on whether, after SaaS, deep tech can find its playbook
As India readies its own deep tech startups policy, this is episode four in a short series of conversations with some of the entrepreneurs and investors who are building this ecosystem in the country. Today, Sateesh Andra, managing director at Endiya Partners, talks about helping the entrepreneurs to stay the course and run the marathon, while celebrating the small wins along the way. Investors have a role in this, he says, to support ambitious founders who want to build globally successful tech products ventures from India
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Deep Tech India: Jogin Desai on the challenges of productising the science in biotech
As India readies its own deep tech startup policy, this is episode three in a short series of conversations with some entrepreneurs and VC investors building this ecosystem. Today, Jogin Desai, founder and CEO of EyeStem Research, updates us on his company's effort to commercialise new therapeutics to combat degenerative eye diseases. Desai co-founded EyeStem in 2015, and the venture has raised about $10 million in funding so far. He also discusses some of the challenges of building a biotech venture in India
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.jpg "Deep Tech India: Vishesh Rajaram on why more investors believe the sector can grow in this country")
Deep Tech India: Vishesh Rajaram on why more investors believe the sector can grow in this country
As India readies its deep tech startup policy, this is episode two in a short series of conversations with some entrepreneurs and VC investors building this ecosystem. Today, Vishesh Rajaram, founding managing partner at Speciale Invest, discusses why more investors have figured out that deep science and tech-based ventures can be built in India. While the sector is in its infancy, Vishesh points to examples, including from his portfolio, of such startups that have made significant strides towards commercialisation
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Deep Tech India: Satya Chakravarthy on the product versus commercialisation funding conundrum
As India readies its own deep tech startups policy, we bring you a short series of conversations with some of the entrepreneurs and VC investors who are building this ecosystem in the country. Today, Satya Chakravarthy, head of the national centre for combustion research and development at IIT Madras and co-founder of The ePlane Company, talks about some of the recent milestones at his venture. Chakravarthy also offers some advice on navigating the challenges of building a deep tech company and bursts a couple of myths involved
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Saurabh Chandra and Naveen Arulselvan on plans after a $10.85 mln Series A at Ati Motors
In this episode, Saurabh Chandra, CEO and Naveen Arulselvan, CTO at Ati Motors in Bengaluru, a company building autonomous mobile robots for industrial applications, discuss two new products they recently launched. Ati's flagship, the Sherpa, is running around in factories of marquee customers such as TVS Motors, Bosch, Hyundai and Ceat. With $10.85 million in a new round of funding led by True Ventures and with participation from existing investors, Chandra and Arulselvan plan on expanding further into markets, including the US and Japan
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Arun Vinayak at Exponent on solving the 'two-sided problem' of fast charging for India
Arun Vinayak, co-founder and CEO at Exponent Energy, talks about the challenges of fast charging—one of the critical factors preventing India's EV market from growing much faster. Arun describes an "offboard" method for keeping the battery within the right temperature range. Most damage can happen while the battery is being charged by moving the complexity involved to the charging station. As a result, the company promises its batteries can go from zero to 100 percent charge in 15 minutes and still run well for 3,000 cycles
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Manav Garg on Together's new $150 mln fund and his optimism over SaaS IPOs in India
Manav Garg, founding partner at Together, talks about the VC firm's plans for its second fund. At $150 million, the new fund's target is almost twice the size of the first one, which Together raised in 2021. The firm, founded by Garg, who is also the founder and CEO of Eka Software Solutions, Girish Mathrubootham, founder and CEO of Freshworks, and Shubham Gupta, a career venture investor, has achieved the "first close" of the second fund, which Together expects to invest in promising generative AI ventures, in addition to existing focus areas
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Why Sravanth Aluru at Avataar is betting enterprise and consumer interactions will all go 3D
Sravanth Aluru, co-founder and CEO of Avataar.ai, talks about how the world of commerce is changing to embrace 3D and augmented reality. Avataar, a nine-year-old company, was co-founded by Gaurav Baid, who is the chief product officer, and Aluru. They have raised some $55 million from investors, including Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management, and built a team of 180 engineers in San Francisco and Bengaluru. Avataar is helping its customers tell the story of their products the same way we see the real world with our eyes
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Kamal Karanth at Xpheno on IT services hiring, the rise of GCCs and other notes on staffing
In this episode, Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, a staffing specialist in Bengaluru, talks about the current state of recruitment in the IT services industry in India. Kamal talks about the next wave of global capability centres rising in India and why software job seekers should consider these opportunities. He also talks about some 14,000 vacancies in the Indian startup ecosystem that still need to be filled while a funding winter is on, and finally, on whether generative AI is a meaningful opportunity from a staffing company's perspective
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Deepak Vinchhi, on plans at JuliaHub after recent funding from a VC firm backed by Boeing
In this episode, Deepak Vinchhi, co-founder and COO of JuliaHub, an enterprise software company focused on the open-source Julia programming language, talks about the plans at the company after a recent series A1 round of funding from AE Industrial Partners HorizonX, a VC investment platform in collaboration with The Boeing Company. JuliaHub is a commercial venture started by the inventors of Julia, an open-source language. The investment will help JuliaHub become a leader in offering solutions for the Aerospace market around Julia, Vinchhi says