E103: Shyam Menon (Founding Partner, Bharat Innovation Fund)

The Desi VC: Indian Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startups | VC

Shyam Menon is the founding partner of Bharat Innovation Fund (BII), an India-based early-stage venture capital fund that invests in IP-driven deep tech, healthcare, agritech, fintech, mobility, logistics, enterprise and renewables startups. The fund has invested in Fire Compass, CreditVidya, Shifu, Detect Technologies, among many others. He has worked in the technology industry for over 25 years.

Prior to launching BII, Shyam co-founder Infuse Ventures, India’s first clean tech focussed early-stage venture capital fund backed by BP, IFC, MNRE, SIDBI and other prominent LPs, and spent several years abroad working across global institutions such as the World Bank, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Conduit Ventures, Fuel Cell Energy, and Acumentrics Corp.

Shyam graduated with honors from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology with a Bachelor's degree in Metallurgical Engineering and Missouri University of Science and Technology with a Master's degree in Material Sciences. Despite beginning his Ph.D. at UC Davis, he decided to discontinue it and pursue a career in the impact space.

Episode Notes:

1. Intro (2:20)

2. The origin story of Bharat Innovation Fund (3:00)

3. Why did Shyam decide to bet on the Indian startup story in 2007/08? (37:47)

4. Backing dreamers and disruptors (44:30)

5. How has Shyam evolved as a fund manager (1:02:30)

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