Pankaj Makkar
Managing Director, Bertelsmann India Investments. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
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Pankaj Makkar established and leads Bertelsmann India Investments, directing early-growth and growth-stage investments across Indian tech-enabled businesses. He is known for backing category-defining Indian scale-ups and unicorns, including Shiprocket, Eruditus, Licious, and LetsTransport.
1shows
1appearances
9statements
1resolved
1supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
Everything Pankaj Makkar said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
A VC's greatest value add is emotional companionship during difficult situations
“Entrepreneurship is a very lonely journey. And within that, if you can make some friends and you can talk to each other in a very informal fashion so that Any inhibition or difficult situation that the entrepreneur is facing, you're able to talk out as friends…”
In 2013, no dedicated VC funds targeted Indian Series C or D
“What we did realize was there was a significant market in Series D and Series C stage, which at that time we called as a growth investing in a VC market.
And honestly, we did not find even a single dedicated fund which was focused on that market, and we decide…”
Bertelsmann targets hard-to-replicate operational capabilities over specific startup sectors
“The idea is not to be sector specific, but look at capabilities and understand if there are capabilities which are very difficult To replicate and that's what we call as a complex business. We like those businesses because we ourselves are in such business.”
Merging Saavn with Reliance was the best path against new strategic rivals
“After some time we did see a lot more strategic entering into the game as soon as they realized that this is a large market. And at that point we realized that the best bet we had to make sure that the company becomes fairly viable and sustainable is to join h…”
Pepperfry will benefit significantly post-COVID from the shift to online shopping
“We think that a company like Pepper Fry may end up Eventually benefiting significantly after this COVID episode is behind us. The reason of course is that it is part of an online trend where people will spend less time looking at offline options, but may go si…”
Growth investors must distinguish fundamental business drivers from paid marketing scale
“Make sure that you look at fundamental levers behind the growth of the companies versus artificial levers like using digital marketing to get scale.”
Startups must secure an 18 to 24 month runway during major crises
“You don't know how long this crisis will last. You don't know how the recovery will be. And hence having at best 18 to 24 month runway is needed in the business at this point. If you think that there are ways in which you can cut your costs delay some amount o…”
Bertelsmann India writes $5M to $15M checks for 15-20% equity stakes
“As a series B, series C investor, we would typically come at with a check size of about five to fifteen million dollars let's say average of 10, and typically take anywhere between 15 to 20% in a company.”
Eruditus and Shiprocket scaled into great businesses using very little capital
“One, you know, so a few companies on ours, but the one that kind of stands out is Eruditis, which is a company being run by Ashwin Damera and Chaitanya, and both the entrepreneurs have built a fantastic company with very little capital. Another company in our …”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Pankaj's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 NEON SHOWLEDGER | Managing Director, Bertelsmann India Investments | 1 | 9 | 100% 1/1 | full record on the Neon Show → |