If you have been bootstrapping and think you are ready for investors, you need to learn how investors think. First, please study our free Bootstrapping course and Investor Introductions page. Then start looking for entrepreneur – investor fit. Today I introduce you to Hemant Mohapatra. Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, India, talks about some of the large, open
Sramana Mitra: Coming back to the more mundane topic of enterprise technology which is what everybody wants to invest in; by and large, in the venture world, what is your analysis? What kind of stuff do you see as interesting and exciting? Hemant Mohapatra: Coming into India, I don’t know how deep the enterprise is.
Sramana Mitra: What is your current analysis of the big problems in India? In the same vein that your colleagues went and sought out the Oyo team or founder, what are some problems out there that you are looking for solutions to or teams that are solving these problems? Hemant Mohapatra: There are three things
Sramana Mitra: It sounds like when a situation like that arises, your global fund or Silicon Valley fund is bringing in the capital to match the round. Anyway, we don’t need to belabor the point. You were going to talk about Udaan. Hemant Mohapatra: It’s a very India-centric problem. Commerce in India has always been
Hemant Mohapatra: We invested $60,000 in Oyo and then worked with the founder and built up a relationship. I saw them through multiple fundraising. They have raised more than a billion dollars now from the likes of SoftBank. We have stayed together with the founder on not just capturing India’s opportunity but also expanding into
Sramana Mitra: So, it’s a $175 million fund. What stage? Is there a comfort zone in terms of investing? Hemant Mohapatra: We come in early. We love series A and seed. Those are the two stages that are the most common. Last year, half of our investments were seed. Our check sizes range from $1
Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Hemant Mohapatra was recorded in March 2019. Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, India, talks about some of the large, open opportunities in the Indian market that are of interest to
Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, India, talks about some of the large, open opportunities in the Indian market that are of interest to him.