EP#61 Pankaj Makkar – The bull case for India, mental models to identify stellar startups and Bertelsmann’s India investment playbook

In this episode, Pankaj Makkar (Managing Director, Bertelsmann India Investments), joins our host Digjay , to talk about his path leading up to Bertelsmann, evolution of Bertelsmann’s India investment strategy and why now is a good time to accelerate investments in India, challenges faced in evaluating growth stage startups, mitigating the noise when investing in a ‘hot’ sector, Pankaj’s perspective on the exit landscape in India, mental models to identify stellar startups and more. Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), is a strategic investment arm of the global Bertelsmann Group which has invested more than $1bn in over 250 companies and funds. Established in 2012, BII is a sector agnostic early-to-growth stage fund that has invested in category-defining companies like Eruditus, Licious, Shiprocket, Pepperfry, AgroStar, Vymo among others . The firm also recently closed its new $500mm India fund. Prior to Bertelsmann, Pankaj worked with Mayasian conglomerate - The Usaha Tegas Group and invested in various sectors in India and South East Asia. Pankaj received his MBA from Harvard Business School and holds a B.Comm Hons. from Delhi University. You can connect with Pankaj here on Linkedin / Twitter . ---- Show notes – (01:50) Pankaj’s background & path leading up to Bertelsmann India (03:48) Evolution of Bertelsmann’s India investment strategy (08:25) India bull case - Why now is a good time to accelerate investments in India? (14:07) Challenges faced in evaluating growth stage startups; Assessing binary & non-binary risks (20:11) Mitigating the noise & taking a measured approach when investing in a ‘hot’ sector (24:40) Processing signals from early stage investors (26:25) Portfolio construction strategy at Bertelsmann (30:15) Pankaj’s perspective on exits in India’s startup ecosystem (33:13) Mental models to identify stellar startups; Key outlier founders within Bertelsmann’s portfolio - Eriditus, Licious, Pepperfry, Shiprocket, Agrostar (37:02) How has being a VC influenced Pankaj’s personality over the years? (40:40) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can

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EP#61 Pankaj Makkar – The bull case for India, mental models to identify stellar startups and Bertelsmann’s India investment playbook is an episode from The VCpreneur: Startups | Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Fundraising by Digjay Patel.

This episode is 00:46:01 long.

This episode was published on Aug 28, 2022.

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