Vaas Bhaskar

🗣️New Day One podcast episode! "We are not in the business of Maruti Suzuki. We are in the business of Airbus…" @amangoeliitb uses this analogy to explain @GreyLabsAI's approach to serving their customers - working closely with each enterprise customer to deeply integrate, customize, and deliver a solution that fits the customer's unique needs. This philosophy of being an end-to-end solution provider, not just a tech provider, is why GreyLabs AI has landed several marquee BFSI customers in just one year since launch. GreyLabs AI is bringing voice AI agents to India's BFSI sector with a level of customer obsession rarely seen in enterprise software. After a successful exit from his first venture, Cogno, Aman came back to build in the exact same space driven by one conviction: founder-market fit matters more than any other advantage. In this conversation with @vaasbhaskar (Partner, @ElevCap), Aman shares how they discovered their first product (speech analytics) by shadowing bank field agents for days, why he personally interviews every hire, including interns, and his vision of enabling delightful financial services for 140 crore Indians. In this episode, you will gain insights into: > Why verticalized AI solutions win in regulated industries > How GreyLabs acquired marquee logos in their first year > The concept of founder-market fit > Working with your life partner as co-founder > When to bootstrap vs. raise institutional capital Watch the full episode here: tinyurl.com/GreyLabsAIDayO…

🔊New Day One podcast episode! 🎙️ 📈 "2x the number of traders are profitable on @Sahi_HQ compared to the industry average..." Just six months after launch, these early results are validating @dale_vaz's thesis that India doesn't need another broker, it needs a broker that actually helps traders win. When a SEBI report revealed that 91% of F&O traders lose money, most saw it as proof that retail trading is irresponsible. Dale saw it differently: "It actually points to a gap…people need a tool that can help them become better in their craft." To get here, @Sahi_HQ reimagined every aspect around actual trader workflows. Single-screen trading that eliminates constant tab-switching. Real-time market analysis that updates every five minutes. Professional-grade charts built in-house from scratch. All delivered at ₹10 per order - half the industry standard. This obsession with trader success stemmed from Dale's own 17-year trading journey. As CTO at Swiggy, he'd quiz colleagues about their investing habits, discovering a pattern: everyone had broking apps, but nobody knew how to trade successfully. Dale watched retail traders struggle with tools designed for execution, not success. In this conversation with @vaasbhaskar (Partner, Elevation Capital), Dale reveals how personal obsession, customer-backward thinking, and a willingness to take the hard path have shaped Sahi. In this episode, you will gain insights on: > Why Sahi decided to build their own chart engine > Creating single-screen magic for mobile traders > Blending professional-grade tools and delightful experiences > Building an AI-first company …and more Watch the full episode here: tinyurl.com/SahiDayOneX

We're thrilled to co-lead @Sahi_HQ's Series A round, deepening our partnership that began with their Seed round in September 2023. @dale_vaz, @BeingMojo and the team are making high-performance trading accessible to all through a proprietary chart engine and single-screen trading experience that eliminates friction between analysis and execution. Since their launch just six months ago, Sahi has achieved remarkable traction with over 200,000 app downloads and 50% month-over-month growth in active traders. The platform's pro-grade features have driven exceptional engagement - 50% of users have executed 100+ trades in just five months. Enabled by lean teams and extensive AI use in platform development, Sahi brokerage fees is 50% lower than major incumbents. Looking ahead, Sahi is building advanced automation features as SEBI opens up algorithmic trading for retail participants, as well as visual no-code strategy builders and multi-leg options execution. Dale and Manish are building with deep customer obsession and have built a never-before seen broking experience, combining all parts of the trader’s journey - research, execution and post-trade. We are thrilled to continue to back them further in this journey. Here's to empowering individual traders with professional-grade tools and creating a future where everyone can trade like the pros. Onwards and upwards! 🚀 Mridul Arora | @vaasbhaskar

2024 has been a year of interesting contrasts amid consistent progress for India's fintech and financial services ecosystem. While traditional financial services continued its steady compounding journey, fintech navigated a period of recalibration and is emerging stronger with clearer operating models. We're excited to share our 'Fintech & Financial Services: Year in Review 2024' newsletter, where we analyze the key trends that accelerated this year - from our evolving DPI and regulatory landscape to the emergence of robust non-lending fintech revenue pools and the rapid adoption of AI. As we step into 2025 with fresh goals and renewed energy, we pause to reflect on the lessons from the past year and revisit our activities across investments, knowledge initiatives and ecosystem engagements. Read here: linkedin.com/pulse/fintech-… Mridul Arora, @vaasbhaskar, @AshrayIyengar, @kshitijjay, Ishwar Prasad, @SaiAkshayaR, Siddhant Agarwal, Keshav Gupta, Raghav Gupta, Ishan Das, Pulkit Deshmukh, Karan Agarwal, @InfinyteClub, @AnkiTandon, @Joylita, @rupeekapp, @sumitmaniyar, @Sahi_HQ, @dale_vaz, @BeingMojo, @VegapayHQ, Gaurav Mittal, Himanshu Agrawal, Abhinav Garg, Puneet Sharma, @zfundsapp, @manishzfunds, @VidhiTuteja, @Zopper_IN, Surjendu K., Mayank Gupta, @DezervHQ, @sandeepjethwani, @vaibhavpor, @ContractorSahil, @sarvagram, Utpal Isser, Sameer Mishra, @skydo_official, @movinj, @srivats80, Vridhi Home Finance, Ram Naresh Sunku, Sandeep Arora, Sunil Mehta, @add_axio, @sashankr, @gdhinduja, @ayefinance, Sanjay Sharma, Mintifi, @CEO_Mintifi, Sanjoy Shome, Ankit Mehta

🎉 Announcing our third report in The Bottomline series - ‘Reaching a Billion: India’s $25 Billion Embedded Fintech Opportunity’ In the first part of The Bottomline, we explored the transformative impact of fintechs and projected the fintech ecosystem to create $400 billion in value by FY30. We then mapped India’s billion-plus heterogeneous, addressable fintech users in the second part, identifying underserved areas and outlining opportunities for fintechs to create value across different segments. We are thrilled to unveil ‘Reaching a Billion’, which explores how fintechs can acquire and serve India’s billion-plus users. We delve into how financial services are becoming increasingly contextual, embedded at the point of user interaction, and omnipresent across India’s digital economy. You can view and download the report here: tinyurl.com/ReachingABilli… As supply chains digitize, open digital networks emerge, and consumer platforms scale, financial services are rapidly expanding their reach. We examine how the convergence of these trends could create a $25 billion revenue opportunity by FY30. 📈 Some highlights from the report: 🔹Many large consumer platforms have an ‘at-scale fintech unicorn’ hidden within them. It is estimated that Indian platforms can create additional annual revenue of $10-15bn by FY30 by embedding fintech across payments, lending and insurance. 🔹India has one-of-a-kind open digital networks that can fundamentally reach an enormous scale and embedding financial services can generate potential annual revenue of >$5bn by FY30. 🔹Digitization of fragmented B2B supply chains in India can potentially unlock supply chain financing revenue of $10-12bn by FY30. As with all reports in The Bottomline series, this report captures our deep thesis on the fintech sector, insights from a comprehensive survey of 70+ industry experts and in-depth conversations with ~30 industry leaders, and leverages our knowledge partner @McKinsey's analytical fact base of the Indian financial ecosystem. @radusuma, Mridul Arora, @vaasbhaskar, @AshrayIyengar, @kshitijjay, Ishwar Prasad, Sai Akshaya Ramaseshan, Siddhant Agarwal, Rahul Humayun, Keshav Gupta, Raghav Gupta, Pulkit Deshmukh, Karan Agarwal, Ishan Das

@PoojaDubey97 Thank you @PoojaDubey97 It has been a pleasure to build with you and @_adityasharma1! Here is to many more years to come 🥂

Congrats @vaasbhaskar! 🚀🚀You are one of the best partners to have for any company.

Mark your calendars for 22nd August! We're excited to bring back the Elevation Fintech PM Mixer, building on the success of last year's debut edition. In a year that has seen fintech undergo significant shifts, product managers are, now more than ever, in need of practical, actionable insights. Join us and our incredible lineup of panelists as we discuss topics ranging from frameworks for building cross-sell and engagement levers to thinking through playbooks and guardrails when building systems alongside regulated entities. Our panelists for the evening will be: ➤ Akshay Aedula (Product, CRED) ➤ @kannanmurali (Head of Product and Engineering, M2P Fintech) ➤ @khilanharia (SVP Product, Razorpay) ➤ @npulyani (Former Product Leader, Jupiter) ➤ Omkar Shirhatti (CPO, Perfios) ➤ Vikas Bansal (Product, Groww) ➤ @psripad (Head of Product, Dezerv) Register for the event using this link: tinyurl.com/PMFintechMixer Stay tuned for more details about the exciting discussions we have in store with India's top fintech product leaders! @mukularora, Mridul Arora, @vaasbhaskar, @kshitijjay, Rahul Humayun, Raghav Gupta, @AshrayIyengar, Ishwar Prasad, Karan Agarwal, Pulkit Deshmukh, @SaiAkshayaR, Siddhant Agarwal, @vikramnanda169, Ishan Das, Keshav Gupta

I am excited to announce that Dezerv has raised INR 265 crore in a funding round led by Premji Invest and backed by our existing investors @ElevCap, @matrixindiavc and @accelindia. This is going to be majorly dedicated to building innovative investment products, delivering personalisation through tech and hiring the best-in-class investment minds to work on outperforming your portfolio. Read more about the announcement, fundraise and what this means for India’s wealth creators here: bit.ly/Dzv-fundraise A big shoutout to @VikramV23, @AbhinavC, @Anish_Pats , @vaasbhaskar, @kshitijjay, @manasishah25, for being a part of this journey with us!

🚀 New SummitUp episode alert! In the latest episode of SummitUp, @vaasbhaskar (Principal, Elevation Capital) and @kshitijjay (Vice President, Elevation Capital) from our fintech practice join Vishy V (Head of Marketing, Elevation Capital) to discuss the incredible growth of India’s fintech ecosystem and the $400 billion value creation potential in this decade. They explore how India became a trailblazer in fintech and the key drivers fuelling transformation in financial services. The episode dives into some exciting themes where we are actively looking for founders building innovative solutions. Catch the full episode here: tinyurl.com/IndiaFintechOp… In future episodes, we will be double clicking on some of the themes that will unlock this value creation. Stay tuned! Dive deeper into these themes and discover more thought-provoking perspectives from our fintech practice at The Bottomline - bottomline.elevationcapital.com

Read more about our thesis on vertical specialists here: bottomline.elevationcapital.com/vertical-speci… 3/3 Also, glad to share our views on the sidelines of our Bottomline report release: economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/… @ETtech @AjayRag3 @ElevCap

This is a theme we believe strongly in and have seen this play out across Jodo, Skydo, Fam and others in our portfolio – there are another 10+ segments with sizeable revenue pools. 2/n

Wave 1 of Fintechs unbundled the bank (payments, investments, insurance etc.) Wave 2 is re-bundling this bank for targeted verticals. We call this the rise of vertical specialists. 1/n

[Announcement] I am stoked to announce that Airblack has raised INR 33 crores led by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (@DellFdn), with participation from Elevation Capital (@ElevCap), Info Edge Ventures (@InfoEdgeVC), Blume Ventures Founders Fund (@BlumeVentures), and angels, to expand on our mission of taking outcome-led education to the 'next 100 million people'. In the last 3 years, Airblack has trained over 35,000 women to launch an independent livelihood in the Beauty sector, and our confidence in the opportunity-hungry people of India is as high as ever. For the right outcomes & and opportunities, the demand is unparalleled. We cannot wait to take Airblack's impact on hundreds of cities in India and introduce millions of people, especially women, to the dream of an independent livelihood. A big thanks to our existing supporters @KhandujaM, @vaasbhaskar, Kitty & @katrishabh, as well as new supporters Debo, Sanjay Modi, Avleen, @sajithpai, @harshilmathur, @shashank_kr (and others at @MarsShotVC), Vijay & Raji from NIIT Group, @Sairee, @drriteshmalik, @7rahulc, @manasjsaloi and @_mekin for vote of trust. Lastly, any new industry change requires extreme patience and resilience, and I am very privileged to work daily with the passionate team at @clubairblack - building this wouldn't have been so fun and fulfilling had it not been for this team.

Last week at the @theindiagdc 2023, @KhandujaM (Partner, Elevation) shared the stage with builders and investors from the gaming ecosystem for a panel discussion, diving deep into the role of capital in fueling the success of a gaming startup. The panelists were @KarthikPrabhakr (Managing Partner, @PeerCapital_VC), @ApteAjinkya (Scout, @a16z - Games & Founder of @SnapserEngine) and @Jhuang114 (Principal, @BitkraftVC). The group shared deep insights on the importance of effective storytelling for raising early rounds, picking the right VC partner, what makes a successful gaming founder, global lessons on fundraising, evolution of India’s gaming investment landscape, and the emerging gaming sub-sectors that hold potential. Watch the complete discussion here: tinyurl.com/ElevationIGDC On the sidelines of IGDC, we also had the pleasure of hosting an exclusive gaming mixer that brought together over 60 leading game developers, global investors, and operators for a delightful evening of networking over dinner and drinks. We are excited to continue our partnership with IGDC 2023 as an Associate Sponsor. @khandhujaM @vaasbhaskar @kshitijjay Rahul Humayun @raghavg93 @PrernaChhaparw1

🎉 Announcing ‘Mapping a Billion: Understanding The Indian Fintech User’, our second report in The Bottomline series In the first part of Bottomline, we had projected India’s fintech ecosystem to create $400Bn in value by FY30 and identified ten key themes that will unlock value over the coming decade. We are thrilled to unveil ‘Mapping a Billion’, which deep dives into four of those themes. You can view and download the report here: tinyurl.com/mappingabillio… India is a large country with 1Bn+ addressable fintech users - these are heterogeneous users with nuanced needs and contexts. We map the unique context, identify underserved areas and outline opportunities for fintechs to create value across different segments through this report. 📈 Some highlights from the report <> As India’s financial services market deepens, vertical fintech specialists are emerging - moving from a product-led to a segment-led focus. >10 deep verticals exist in India, with a potential addressable revenue pool of >$1bn each <> India’s most affluent (~1% of the population) drive disproportionate spends – 50-60% of all retail investable assets, 50-60% of online spends. This segment presents annual revenue unlock opportunity of $80-100bn by 2030 <> Of the overall lendable base of >300mn customers in India, formal credit has only been extended to ~120mn customers to date, presenting a significant opportunity to target the next ~200mn. <> It is estimated that increased protection and wealth penetration in the ‘missing middle’ can potentially unlock additional annual revenue of $30-40bn by 2030 As with all reports in The Bottomline series, this report captures our deep thesis on the fintech sector, insights from a comprehensive survey of 70+ industry experts and in-depth conversations with ~30 industry leaders, and leverages our knowledge partner @McKinsey's analytical fact base of the Indian financial ecosystem. @radusuma Mridul Arora @vaasbhaskar @kshitijjay @_vasudha @AshrayIyengar Ishwar Prasad Rahul Humayun @VardhanShah14 @vikramnanda169 @raghavg93 @PrernaChhaparw1

We have known @dale_vaz for 5+ years and have been deeply impressed by his mastery of both tech and business. We are thrilled to partner with him on his mission to build Aaritya Tech.

Excited to put out our point of view and thesis for India Fintech. We also introduce 10 themes we are most excited about here. bottomline.elevationcapital.com We are releasing this in parts - if this resonates, please bookmark for more content and deep-dives. @ElevCap

🛎️ New article alert! It’s a Fintech x Consumer Tech collab India today has multiple consumer platforms at a significant scale, and we believe they can gain a sizeable share of the fintech revenue pool as well. By 2030, 700M+ users in India will spend $500B+ online. Consumer platforms capture the lion's share of these spends and are ideally positioned to integrate fintech products to make the most of their large distribution. There are many global examples of non-fintech platforms (such as GoTo, Sea, Shopify, and Starbucks) that are deriving meaningful revenue from fintech. Our experiences with prominent Indian consumer distribution platforms (@bookmyshow, @firstcryindia, @ixigo, @makemytrip, @Meesho_Official, @nobrokercom, @sharechatapp, @myspinny, @Swiggy, @unacademy, and @urbancompany_UC ) and fintech (@ACKOIndia, @add_axio, @ClearfromCT, @MintifiPL @mintifi, @Paytm, and @cards_uni ) have shown the immense customer pull that contextual financial services products can create. Co-branded credit cards, bill payments, BNPL, and contextual insurance are some of the fintech products that Indian consumer platforms have begun to adopt. In this article, we go even deeper and explore the various fintech products available in payments, insurance, lending, and wealth domains, and which consumer platforms each of them are best suited for. We also have a handy calculator inside to estimate the revenue addition from such products, along with essential considerations for consumer tech founders thinking of fintech optionalities. Link to the full article: lnkd.in/gTG9Rukh Mridul Arora @vaasbhaskar @_vasudha @kshitijjay @utkbajpai Rahul Humayun @vikramnanda169 Vardhan Shah Raghav Gupta @PrernaChhaparw1

We have an announcement! @DezervHQ is now tracking financial assets worth INR 10,000 crores. 2022: I met a prospective client in his late 50’s who was worried about not being financially secure to retire as planned at 60. 2023: I meet a 42 year old entrepreneur who tells me she needs a guiding hand on how to plan her retirement in the next 3 years.  For both these prospects, my suggestion was the same – let’s review your existing portfolio and take stock of the situation. The only difference between these meetings is one – @DezervHQ Wealth Monitor. Let me tell you more. Back in 2022, as the user base of @DezervHQ was expanding, we noticed one major problem that investors were facing – the lack of agency to review investments in an unbiased manner. There was a pertinent need to give investors the power to review their investments and take a bird eye view of all their investments, enabled by technology. That's when we launched Wealth Monitor to help our users – 🎯 Review their existing portfolio 🎯Identify the underperformers and misses in their investments 🎯Receive exit recommendations for investments 🎯Get access to Dezerv’s personalised portfolios and its team of experts Today, as we have crossed 100K+ downloads, the Wealth Monitor and its features have been a revelation – 💎 INR 10,000 crores of financial assets tracked 💎INR 670 crores of missed gains identified Let me tell you why portfolio reviews are critical: a timely portfolio review is the difference between retiring and not retiring. Or the difference between an underperforming portfolio and creating wealth. And the repercussions of a grossly underperforming portfolio or delayed retirement are critical. That is why such tangible findings from a portfolio review are invaluable. For us, the objective is clear, an investor should not look back and regret not actively reviewing their portfolios or not optimising their investments. Review your portfolio and get an understanding of what timely actions can help you create wealth. wealthcheckup.onelink.me/aenA/p4z8z6et