Huddle Ventures

Excited to meet the founders at After Hours by #WeWorkLabs tomorrow in Gurgaon! The script is going to flip here, where I’ll be pitching our investment ethos at Huddle Ventures. Register using the link: https://lu.ma/79oba6if WeWork India

True Diamond was highlighted as part of Inc42 Media's 30 Startups to watch, January 2025 edition. Led by founders Parin Shah and Darayus Mehta, True Diamond is building India's most premium and boutique lab-grown diamond brand. Visit here: https://truediamond.in/ Read more: https://lnkd.in/gTU-a7-h

Funding rounds validate a company’s vision, and growth rounds reflect momentum — but for Bold Care, this milestone represents something deeper. Men’s sexual wellness is a massive yet underserved space, filled with both opportunities and challenges. The momentum shift in Bold Care’s trajectory has been nothing short of remarkable. One of the biggest questions in this category has always been distribution — how do you reach consumers at scale while addressing taboos around purchase behavior? Bold Care has navigated this brilliantly. Quick commerce has helped overcome the constraints of traditional retail, allowing the brand to scale rapidly. Today, Bold Care contributes to one-fifth of all sales in this category across quick-commerce platforms and holds the #2 market share in both condoms and lubricants — just behind global giant Durex. Beyond distribution, Bold Care has redefined brand-building in this space. Their marketing playbook has been nothing short of genius — leveraging the star power of co-founder and brand ambassador Ranveer Singh alongside well-planned, viral campaigns featuring Johnny Sins. They’ve pushed boundaries, creating unmatched brand recall while capturing significant market share. Excited to continue backing the team as they reshape this category and challenge perceptions around how a digital-first brand can scale in men’s sexual wellness. Rajat Jadhav | Rahul Krishnan | Mohit Yadav 👏🏼 Huddle Ventures Read more: https://lnkd.in/gQGGCJg4

Breaking the Silence on Sexual Health in India! 🚀 Our founder, Rajat Jadhav, recently joined Pranay Jivrajka from Allo Health and Dilip Kumar to discuss a topic that needs urgent attention, sexual health and the stigma surrounding it in India! 🙌 The podcast deep dives into:  ✅ What’s holding back sexual health awareness? ✅ Misinformation leading to quick fixes & self-medication as well as Myths around privacy, treatments, and trust ✅ The overlooked link between mental & sexual health ✅ The impact of lifestyle choices (smoking, alcohol, and porn consumption) ✅ Challenges encountered while building a start up in this space Misinformation, quick fixes, and stigma are making sexual health a silent pandemic. It’s time to change the conversation! Watch the full episode here : https://lnkd.in/gn_AnwHy #SexualHealth #TakeBoldCareOfHer #BoldCare #AlloHealth

India needs more sources of govt-supported institutional capital, and hence the focus on capital access is the biggest tangible takeaway from the budget. An additional capital commitment of INR 10k Cr via the FoF route in FY26 continues to offer domestic managers a viable source of institutional capital from India. In addition, the proposed launch of a deep-tech focused FoF will hopefully fuel access to deep-tech funds and in turn help drive further innovation from India. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gXyv7zPn

With the Maha Kumbh being a once-in-12-year event, spiritual startups have capitalized on the opportunity by providing virtual access to rituals and ceremonies. With the event boosting religious tourism and digital participation, the Maha Kumbh has become a pivotal moment for innovation in Indias spiritual ecosystem. Proud to see VAMA App leading this journey alongside others with accessibility, engagement, and sustainability. Manu Jain | Aacharya Dev Read more: https://lnkd.in/g_5EbF5J https://lnkd.in/grd2h-9g Sanil Sachar, Ishaan Khosla, Rishiraj Kalita, Sarthak Rastogi

We closed another session of the Inside Intel last week in association with Amazon Web Services (AWS), where we brought around minds who have had their fair share of experience in Consumer Tech. The panel, consisting of Kunal Suri, Manu Jain, Rishabh Katiyar, Sanjay Suri, Laksh Sharma, Arun Tadanki, Sanil Sachar and Ishaan Khosla, dived upon the learnings from the past and trends to keep an eye on as Indian consumption rises dramatically. Noting some key takeaways from the detailed blog here: https://lnkd.in/gvhsRiPf Travel: When it comes to trip planning or travel social related models, we often have seen low CAC's with impressive top of the funnel but also lower AOV's (or the margins made from discovery of experiences/DMC's). The need to innovate for conversion at the funnels below is ardent to be solved for, as India's outbound travel is estimated to grow >6X in the next 5 years. Spirituality: The segment is at a juncture where restaurants were in 2014. The supply is moving online and we expect to see product innovation that improves platform experience to increase stickiness dramatically. Content: Expecting to see a sustained growth in PGC (platform generated content) as consumers are opting for content from controlled environments. However, as cost of production remains a concern in 0-1 stages, AI experimentation is critical to test content efficacy (fast), reiterate (faster), and maintain optimal recovery periods. Commerce: With multiple early stage players scaling fast within vertical commerce, it is evident that incumbents will be slow in doing a great job within a niche. We should expect winners within such sub-segments, but the scale remains a thought to critically ponder upon. If you're building in consumer tech, we'd love to speak with you. Our DM's are open! Huddle Ventures | Sanil Sachar, Ishaan Khosla, Sarthak Rastogi

We hosted our roundtable in association with Amazon Web Services (AWS) focussing on a key and ever-growing segment - Consumer Tech. India is witnessing a surge of applications across segments that cater to this consistently growing segment. Categories like travel, spirituality, vertical commerce, content, the list goes on where we’ve seen seen winners emerge across categories and many others that are on path to become leaders. While we sat in a room filled with enablers who have been operators of successful companies, funds backing companies in this segment, three key points emerged as common points - 1. Timing is key in building a successful consumer tech. Timing of when to launch your product. Timing of when to productise and add more features. Timing of when to accelerate your marketing efforts and yes, timing for when you choose to monetise. 2. The best consumer tech products evolve their features and figure their own unique growth hack by listening closely to their users. Think of this as the 80:20 rule. Focussing on your power users behaviours and uniquely analysing different cohorts behaviours teaches you to key points - What NOT to focus on and when and where to accelerate to achieve the correct ‘Timing’ across each of the above verticals. 3. The best form of marketing in the earliest days is a product that caters to stickiness and habit forming patterns. Figuring out which product leads to strong retention cohorts is one of the most efficient, frugal and effective ways to lead to a product that can be viral (once you activate push marketing techniques). Lastly the philosophy of build fast, fail fast and moving onto what could work on your product is key when you assess companies that have outperformed in this segment. The user base across cohorts is surely here for the taking. We will share more notes highlighting what was covered in the coming days, do share what are key tools that you’ve observed or implemented in this segment. Ishaan Khosla | Rishiraj Kalita | Sarthak Rastogi | Huddle Ventures | Kunal Suri | Sanjay Suri | Arun Tadanki | Manu Jain | Rishabh Katiyar | Laksh Sharma

I've come to understand this: India's cleantech/climatech startups need an ecosystem to grow. I firmly believe that while access to private capital for good early stage startups exists in abundance, it will likely only be dispensed if it is supported by the government, through various angles. It was good to spend some time last week with Invest India, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, and others at Bharat Climate Forum discussing these very challenges. Huddle Ventures

How can we revolutionize the fintech ecosystem through AI-driven solutions? Last week, we brought together a select group of 12 leading investors at the MeitY- nasscom Center of Excellence in Gurgaon for a closed-door Fintech Roundtable. The focus was on exploring investor perspectives and identifying the opportunities and challenges in the rapidly evolving fintech space. Key insights emerged around: ✔️ The transformative role of AI in creating scalable and secure fintech solutions. ✔️ Overcoming barriers that prevent early-stage fintech startups from securing funding. ✔️ Strategies to enhance collaboration between startups and investors to unlock greater value. ✔️ Practical approaches to balance innovation and compliance in the financial sector. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to the powerhouse investors who joined us for this discussion. 🎯 Aakanksha Sharma, Principal at General Catalyst 🎯 Deepak Sharma, CEO and Managing Partner at India Accelerator 🎯 Ashish Taneja, CEO and Founding Partner at growX ventures 🎯 Sandesha Jaitapkar, Chief Operating Officer at Artha Group 🎯 Aashish Gupta, Vice President at IvyCap Ventures Advisors Private Limited 🎯 Abhishek Kakkar, Vice President at IAN Group (formerly Indian Angel Network) 🎯 Amit Singal, Partner at Fluid Ventures and Realtime (RTAF) 🎯 Vinu Saini, Founder at Principal Advisors 🎯 Raj Snehil Juneja, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Tribe Capital India 🎯 Rishiraj Kalita, Associate Vice President at Huddle Ventures 🎯 Brijesh Damodaran, Managing Partner at Auxano Capital and Bellwether Associates Your invaluable insights and forward-looking perspectives have truly enriched the dialogue around the evolving fintech market space. #WeBuildTheFuture #Roundtable #Fintech