About
Gemba Capital invests in post-seed stage startups that are scalable and looking for angel investments.
Key staff
Adith Podhar – Founder – An Entrepreneur by heart and an investor by profession.The experience as a PE investor and as an Entrepreneur has given him unique skill sets to understand businesses and people. Gemba Capital (www.gembacapital.in) which invests in angel rounds in tech enabled startups focused on India consumption and cross border SaaS. Prior to this he worked at Motilal Oswal PE fund in Mumbai. Responsibilities across the investment cycle from deal sourcing – due diligence – negotiation – execution – monitoring – exit.
Involved in 2 stellar exits:
Dixon Technologies and Minda Industries
Kamini Shivalkar- Associate Vice President: Kamini has over 4 years of experience in early stage investing and overall 8 years of experience in different sectors. She has recently worked as an Investment Associate at Axilor Ventures focusing on Enterprise tech and SaaS investments and built investment thesis. Prior to Axilor, Kamini has spent 3 years as an Associate at Gemba Capital building investment thesis, sourcing and evaluating venture investments in SaaS and Consumer tech. In the past, she has worked as a Business Analyst at Indus Valley Partners and was part of product development team at BYJU’s. She has completed her Masters in Finance from JBIMS and B. Tech Electrical and Electronics Engineering from NIT, Nagpur.
Vipul Rawal- Associate : After completing engineering, Vipul worked as Business Development Manager in an EdTech and an Ecom marketplace for 3 years. Then became CMO for Sattviko (packaged food brand). In 2014 Vipul started Bakerybite (marketplace for bakery items). In 2015 he started FinTechLabs (digital lending platform as a service) which got acquired by Perfios in 2019. In 2017 FinTechLabs’ second product Fin360 got acquired by FinBit which got acquired by Yodlee. Vipul also works as VP of International Business Growth at Perfios
Investment philosophy
We will be successful if we get the below mentioned things right
To be at the right place and at the right time
Constantly grow our network of relationships
Be bold. Be decisive. Back quality entrepreneurs
Believe in our gut as much as we believe in our analysis. Gut comes from experience
We strongly believe in references
Stay deep rooted. Understand Gemba
Have empathy. Guide only when required. Add value
What they look for
We look to invest in visionary creators, the disruptors, the brand builders.
Significant growth potential over the next 3 to 5 years.
Startups having paying customers.
We prefer backing founders with at least 4-5 years of prior experience.
Differentiated products or services that have strong ‘moats’ built around it.
How we invest
We invest ~US$ 200K per startup in the first round.
We prefer to co-invest along with other funds/angel investors.
We invest in pre-seed and seed rounds.
We are open to investing through convertible structures and instruments, however we prefer straight equity. It just keeps things simple and easy.
In a larger round of fund raise – we co-invest with our select Limited Partners.
If we are the lead investor, then we do demand standard investor rights akin to a PE fund.
Media
Plum, a young startup that is making it easier and more affordable for more firms in the nation to provide insurance coverage to their employees, said on Monday it has raised $15.6 million in its Series A funding to accelerate its growth.
Tiger Global led the new funding round, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, Tanglin Venture Partners, Incubate Fund and Gemba Capital. TechCrunch reported earlier this year that Plum was in talks with Tiger Global for the new financing round.
https://yourstory.com/2019/12/funding-alert-finly-raises-money-gemba-capital-angellist/amp
Bengaluru-based technology company Finly, which automates accounts payable for mid and large sized businesses, has raised a fresh round of undisclosed funding from Social Capital, AngelList India, Gemba Capital, Omphalos Ventures, and 91springboard via Atal Innovation Mission and Niti Aayog. The startup said it will be using the funds to expand product offerings with a focus on enhancing the intelligence layer and to handle the next phase of growth.
https://yourstory.com/2020/11/funding-gurugram-grip-invest-pre-series-a-round-anicut-angel-fund/amp
Grip Invest, a Gurugram-based digital platform for facilitating investments, has secured its first round of equity funding in a round led by Anicut Angel Fund with participation from Gemba Capital and well-known angel investors such as Anupam Mittal, Sunjay Kapur, and Maninder Gulati. Launched in June 2020, Grip Invest provides a lease finance platform where investors can purchase and lease assets to companies, providing them an additional investment instrument while enabling companies to grow faster by converting capex to opex.
“We continue to see over 15 percent week-on-week growth in new investing users, close to 50 percent repeat investment rate as well as great traction for leasing opportunities, including with large ventures like Bounce, Rentomojo and Furlenco,” said Nikhil Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, Grip Invest.
Strata, a tech-enabled commercial real estate (CRE) investment platform, has raised $6 million in Series A round, co-led by Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd, Gruhas Proptech, a fund by Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha, Abhijeet Pai of Puzzolana Group for proptech investments and special situations, and Sabre Investments, which is the investment arm of Rahul Talwar, who belongs to the promoter family of DLF Ltd. Elevation Capital, Mayfield India and Gemba Capital also participated in the round.
Analyst questions
What are your plans going ahead ?
Prepared by – Aryan Pandey
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