Feb 23, 2021 · 25m · neon-show
Bhaskar Majumdar, Founder of Unicorn India Ventures on his unconventional bets in Investing
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Bhaskar Majumdar, founder and managing partner of Unicorn India Ventures, discusses his contrarian investment thesis centered on B2B supply chain digitization, cross-border technology scaling, and backing mature, second-time founders on the 100x Entrepreneur Podcast.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
Siddhartha as informed peer 2.7 Guest teaching 1.6 Guest disagreement 0.1 Siddhartha pushing back 0.4
speaking balance: gold is Siddhartha, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 14:19 Bhaskar defends deviating from non-consumer thesis
Bhaskar directly addresses the host's pointed question about breaking his own rule against consumer investments, acknowledging LPs ask the same thing.
Hardest push from Siddhartha ▶ 14:10 Host calls out contradiction on consumer betsSiddharth challenges Bhaskar's framing by reminding him he stated earlier that his fund strictly avoids consumer-facing companies.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 11:50 Comparing neobanks to telecom MVNOsBhaskar provides an educational breakdown of open banking regulation in London and draws an analogy to how telecom MVNOs unbundled legacy infrastructure.
Siddhartha holds their own ▶ 14:10 Host cross-checks fund thesis against actual portfolio betSiddharth demonstrates attentiveness and industry knowledge by holding Bhaskar accountable to his earlier stated fund thesis.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Siddhartha as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Siddhartha pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bhaskar Majumdar's Career and Path to Investing | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth prompts Bhaskar to reflect on his career progression and partnership with Anil Joshi. Bhaskar answers comprehensively in a friendly, conversational tone. | |
| Unconventional Sector Investments: Probus, Chitmonks, and Sascan | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | The host identifies several unconventional portfolio companies, prompting Bhaskar to break down the thesis for digitizing traditional supply chains, RBI chit fund regulations, and unbacked Indian medtech acquisitions. | |
| Pioneering Neobanking Bets: Open and Finin | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | Siddharth asks about neobanking and astutely catches a contradiction, noting Bhaskar earlier claimed to avoid consumer plays yet backed Finin. Bhaskar acknowledges the LP-level challenge and explains the transactional rationale. | |
| The UK-India Cross-Border Extension Fund Rationale | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The host asks for case studies regarding the UK-India cross-border fund. Bhaskar educates on the differences between the UK deep tech ecosystem and the Indian market scale. | |
| Supporting Portfolio Expansion to the UK and US | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth inquires about portfolio internationalization and the mechanics of Fund II. Bhaskar outlines the cross-border support structure and fundraising numbers. | |
| Backing Experienced Founders and Top Portfolio Performers | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The host quotes Bhaskar's social post about business failure vs founder resilience and asks about top portfolio performers. Bhaskar elaborates on backing mature, second-time founders and names top revenue and valuation drivers. | |
| Episode Conclusion and Final Remarks | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Standard cordial closing remarks and pleasantries with zero friction. |
Statements from this episode (13)
AltaVista was larger than Google when Majumdar joined as UK COO
“And then I joined AltaVista as employee number three in UK as chief operating officer, and then build the whole team of AltaVista, which at that point in time was a bigger search engine than even Google.”
Majumdar: Starting a VC fund is identical to launching a startup
“At the end of the day fund is nothing. Starting a fund is exactly the same as starting your own startup venture.”
Why Unicorn India Ventures fundamentally avoids consumer internet and B2C bets
“Our fundamental thesis is we stay away from consumer, you know, consumer internet, classical B to C businesses.”
Majumdar predicts massive opportunity in digitizing Indian supply chains
“I fundamentally believe that given where India is, the size scale, the broken supply chains, the fact that there is still lack of transparency, a whole lot of sectors, this whole area of digitization of business processes is going to be massive.”
GE Medical acquired multiple unbacked early-stage Indian medtech startups recently
“There's a whole bunch of very early medtech companies out of India, which in the last two or three years may not have been, most likely have not been VC invested, but have been acquired by the likes of GE, Medical, and others.”
UK FCA was the first regulator to legislate open banking architecture
“FCA was the first ones to legislate open banking architecture.”
Majumdar: Traditional banks will be reduced to backend compliance providers
“I saw a similar trend happening over here in the banking, where the traditional banks, be it in UK, in NatWest, Barclays, all they would do was become the infrastructure provider, which in case of banking meant compliance providers, be the depository, the trea…”
Finin was the first consumer-facing neobank to launch in India
“Finin as you well know, is the first new bank to be launched in India from the consumer side.”
UK founders are older deep-tech industry veterans compared to Indian founders
“In a way, it is an environment where, The founders tend to be older founders. They tend to be founders who worked in a particular industry for a long time and then come up with propositions within that industry. And therefore what happens is these tend to be v…”
The average founder age in Unicorn India Ventures Fund I was 41
“You know, the average age of our founder in the first fund when we signed the check was 41 years.”
Majumdar: Businesses and circumstances fail, but true entrepreneurs do not
“So I strongly believe in it that, you know, entrepreneurs, true entrepreneurs don't fail. It's the businesses and the circumstances that lead to failures.”