Empowering India's Tech Future: Investing in Innovation

Long View Ventures is an early stage investment fund focused on tech and tech enabled businesses. We invest at the preseed / seed stages in startups, primarily focused on India

Why Invest in Indian Start-ups Today?

Our Investment Strategy: We will invest behind the following mega-trends

This is India’s
decade

India has quintupled its investment in infrastructure (as % of GDP), will drive strong economic growth
More than 300M people have gotten access to the Internet in the last 5 years
Demographic dividend is in India’s favor – hundreds of millions of people entering the most productive phase of their lives

“Dil maange more”

Indians are now as rich (GDP per capita) as China in 2006 – a decade of hypergrowth awaits.
As consumers become richer, across the income spectrum, demand for products and services will rise. Consumers will trade-up from commodities to brands, across categories.

Stronger Founder
Talent Pool

With the “Startup India” push and the widespread media attention to, the best professionals are now considering startups.
Top executives from successful startups, with unique “zero to one” blitz-scaling experience, are now becoming entrepreneurs themselves (“PayTM Mafia”, “Flipkart Mafia”, etc.).

We are sector-agnostic, with preference for technology-first companies. Deal flow driven by strong network and connections in the ecosystem

What are we solving for?

Lessons from our Previous Investments

Solve for Access
to the Best Deals

Access to the best startups is a disproportionate driver of outcomes.
Key to get the best deal flow, and then get meaningful allocations.

Founder is KEY

At seed stage, founder trumps everything else. The right founders will build, learn, pivot and do what’s needed to target the biggest addressable market with the right product.

Focus on
Value-Add

Value-add is key at seed stage – with the right support, you can catalyse growth; less valuable to startups post Series A, as institutional investors take the mantle.
Our best outcomes have been where we supported the founders deeply – leveraging our LP base, making sales connects, sharpening sales pitch, capital-raising (both equity, debt), etc.

Generate real
cash (not paper)
returns

Focus on generating real (not notional) returns. Don’t wait for the moonshot / unicorn.
Our DPI is in the 90th+ percentile among seed funds in India due to our readiness to exit when we stop adding value (i.e., in Series B or C).

Team

Akshat Poddar

Entrepreneur for the last 13 years, leading an industry pioneer in printing and packaging. Invested in over 30 startups, with multiple successful exits. Previously built Smart Saver, a brand loyalty app that scaled to 200K+ users. Computer Science graduate from Mumbai University and an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad.

Jitha Thathachari

Strong D2C and Retail expertise, as Group Head – BD & Strategy at LUXASIA Group, Asia-Pacific’s leading distributor and retailer in luxury beauty. Invested in over 30 startups, with multiple successful exits. Previously built Smart Saver, a brand loyalty app that scaled to 200K+ users. Computer Science graduate from Mumbai University and an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad.

Punit Chokhani

15+ years of experience in the Indian Equity markets – worked with ENAM group /Axis Capital as a Midcap Specialist and built a strong reputation in the Indian capital markets. Invested in over 2 dozen startups with multiple successful exits. Co-founded a global digital-first Fashion ecommerce business – 16 Stitches. Electronics and Telecom graduate from Mumbai University and an alumnus of Jamnalal Bajaj.