# VC10X - Emerging Markets Are The Opportunity of Our Lifetime - Eva Yazhari, Founder, Beyond Capital Ventures

An episode of [VC10X - Investing, Venture Capital, Asset Management, Family Office, Wealth Management](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1632806986), 19 Aug 2025, 36 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/a453ddd4/podcast/play/107064144/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-7-19%2F405917428-44100-2-a21a7383061d9.mp3

Eva Yazhari is the founder of Beyond Capital Ventures, who believes that the "high risk, high return" philosophy we all take for granted is actually a myth. She's taken her Wall Street hedge fund background and built a VC firm focused on emerging markets in India and East Africa - and believes her portfolio is actually less risky than Silicon Valley VC. ⭐ Sponsored by Podcast10x - Podcasting agency for VCs - https://podcast10x.com Beyond Capital Ventures Website - https://www.beyondcapitalventures.com/ Eva Yazhari on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-yazhari We talk about: - Eva's journey from Wall Street hedge funds to impact venture capital - Why "high risk, high return" is a myth in investing - Conscious leadership framework for evaluating founders - Investment criteria: post-revenue, local teams, stakeholder focus - Emerging markets opportunity in India and East Africa - Abundance mindset vs scarcity mindset in capitalism - Sharing carry with portfolio founders & lots more Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (02:24) Eva's background from Wall Street to impact investing (04:20) Challenges and learnings in transitioning to impact-focused venture capital (07:21) Discussing the myth of high-risk, high-return philosophy (10:05) Deal diligence process and investment criteria (12:42) Approach to evaluating exit potential for portfolio companies (16:12) Emerging markets opportunity in India and East Africa (19:17) Identifying founders aligned with conscious leadership values (22:10) Being a preferred investor and building strong founder relationships (25:10) Abundance mindset in investing (27:23) Sharing carry with founders (29:24) Interesting portfolio companies and their solutions (31:30) Biggest learning from investing in startups (34:09) Rapid fire round begins - discussing investment sectors and stages For sponsorship or guest appearance requests, write to prashantchoubey3@gmail.com Subscribe to VC10X on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts.

## Transcript

[0:00] Investing in emerging markets is one of the biggest opportunities
[0:03] of our lifetimes. 53% of the world's growth over the next 10
[0:07] years will occur between Africa and India.
[0:11] Our companies have raised 8 times the amount of money in
[0:14] following capital that we put into them.
[0:16] We've also mobilized double the amount directly of our fund size
[0:20] in in additional capital and we have an 87% Net Promoter score
[0:25] means, meaning that our founders are highly likely to refer us to
[0:28] other founders. And we do give a percentage of
[0:31] the profit share of all of our venture funds to the founders in
[0:35] the portfolio as well. Hey everyone, this is Prashanth
[0:41] and I'll be host for the VC. Tenex podcast and today we have
[0:44] Eva Yazari with us. Eva is the founder of Beyond
[0:47] Capital Ventures who argues that high risk, high return
[0:50] philosophy we all take for granted is actually a myth.
[0:54] She has taken her Wall Street hedge fund background and built
[0:57] a VC firm focused on emerging markets in India and East Africa
[1:01] and believes her portfolio is actually less risky than Silicon
[1:05] Valley VC's. We'll dive deep into what she
[1:08] calls conscious leadership, why emerging markets represent one
[1:12] of the biggest opportunities of a lifetime, and a completely
[1:15] unique approach of sharing carry with the founders in a
[1:18] portfolio. So without wasting any time,
[1:21] let's dive straight in. This episode is sponsored by my
[1:23] own podcasting agency called Podcast NX, where I help venture
[1:27] capitalists, asset managers, allocators and family offices
[1:31] and starting their own podcast and building a strong brand.
[1:34] Podcast NX is designed in a way to work well with the busy
[1:38] schedule of investors where we handle every aspect of podcast
[1:41] production so you can focus on investing.
[1:44] If you're looking to build a strong investor brand, starting
[1:48] a podcast should be right up your priority list.
[1:51] It's the only form of marketing where you can showcase your
[1:54] strong network. In other words, access to
[1:57] limited partners and founders and grow that network further.
[2:01] And contrary to what most people hear, it's still very early to
[2:04] start a podcast. There are at least 10X more
[2:06] newsletters and thousand X more blogs than there are podcasts in
[2:10] this world. You can learn more about our
[2:13] podcasting services at Podcast ten-x.com.
[2:16] I'll make sure to add the link in the description below.
[2:19] Enjoy this episode. Hey Eva, so good to have you on
[2:22] the VC10X podcast. How are you doing?
[2:24] I'm doing well Prashant, so good to be here with you today.
[2:27] Yeah, it's a pleasure having you on.
[2:29] To start things off, can we first have your story and your
[2:32] journey from managing hedge fund investments to now launching
[2:36] Beyond Capital Ventures? What inspired you to focus on
[2:39] conscious investing and emerging markets?
[2:42] Absolutely. So I grew up in New York City.
[2:48] I am American, but my father grew up in Tanzania.
[2:52] And when I thought about what I wanted to do with my, my career,
[2:59] I was actually initially A mathematician.
[3:01] I have a degree in math and then ended up working on Wall Street.
[3:06] I worked in the fund of hedge funds business.
[3:08] But it was a very unique time. It was actually during the great
[3:11] financial crisis, I was investing in Wall Street's top
[3:15] hedge funds. Many of them actually did quite
[3:17] well or, you know, didn't actually perform poorly during
[3:20] that time. But the skills that I had
[3:23] acquired were deep due diligence, portfolio management,
[3:27] portfolio construction, and knowing how to run a fund
[3:31] business and scale a fund business.
[3:33] And because of my upbringing, when the great financial crisis
[3:39] happened and Lehman went bankrupt, I decided simply to
[3:42] think a little differently about how to use those skills and
[3:46] thought a lot about the opportunity to invest and maybe
[3:49] what what a hedge fund manager would call a contrarian bet, a
[3:53] bet that was very different than what others were doing.
[3:56] And that was betting on the future of global growth.
[4:00] It was betting on the future of the global consumer let who
[4:04] actually is lacking access to need to haves.
[4:08] And that's what we invest in it beyond capital ventures.
[4:10] So that was kind of my pivot, not not as easy as it sounds,
[4:14] but that was, you know, the thinking behind moving into
[4:17] very, very different markets and even a very different asset
[4:20] class. Absolutely.
[4:21] Yeah, that's quite interesting. What were the biggest challenges
[4:25] you face in this transition from traditional finance to impact
[4:29] focus venture capital? And also the key learnings or
[4:31] maybe surprises that you found along the way.
[4:35] Yeah. Well, I never felt that the
[4:39] transition from traditional finance to impact needed to
[4:43] there. There needed to be any sort of
[4:45] giving up of specific skills or, or, or any sort of, let's say,
[4:51] you know, rigor in the due diligence process.
[4:53] I always came to the table with the same mindset that I would
[4:57] have when allocating hundreds of millions of dollars to hedge
[5:00] funds. And because of that, I think
[5:03] I've actually been quite successful.
[5:05] And so, you know, we have a mantra at Beyond Capital
[5:10] Ventures, no money, no mission. And that that mantra is really
[5:14] important because a company actually can't have impact if
[5:17] it's not sustainable. And I thought what what is more
[5:21] of a beautiful tool than capitalism to create change,
[5:26] whether it's social change or or environmental change and support
[5:30] growth in areas that we need as as a human race.
[5:35] And therefore the pivot wasn't that complicated because I just
[5:40] poured it over my traditional finance skills.
[5:42] However, I was in public markets, largely the hedge funds
[5:46] we were investing in were trading in equities, in bonds.
[5:51] There were a few private investments, but they were not a
[5:53] large component of their strategies.
[5:55] And So what I did, like, like anybody who's moving into a new
[5:58] field is I sought out mentorship and I had a number of mentors,
[6:02] not only prior VCs or individuals who had worked in
[6:06] the VC ecosystem, but also Angel investors who taught me about,
[6:12] you know, the nuance of doing a deal.
[6:14] Not just, you know, there's a safe note and here's the cap and
[6:19] potentially there's a discount. Really, you know, what happens
[6:23] when you get to the table and you don't agree with a founder
[6:25] and you still want to invest in our company, How do you get that
[6:28] deal done? So I learned that first hand
[6:30] from a number of people. And I would say my, my lessons
[6:34] learned were really to believe that there doesn't need to be a
[6:39] trade off when thinking about impact because what wherever we
[6:43] place our effort, that's where the results ultimately come.
[6:46] And then we have been able to generate top quintile returns in
[6:49] our first fund. But the second was to not think
[6:52] of impact as secondary or as you know, kind of a younger
[6:55] stepchild or you know, something that wasn't necessarily
[7:00] valuable. It was to use the tools and the
[7:02] information that Impact gave me in order to make better
[7:06] decisions. And that is why I think we have
[7:09] become a preferred venture capital firm on investors cap
[7:14] table, on companies cap tables because we have a deeper
[7:19] awareness of what businesses actually achieve.
[7:22] Absolutely. Yeah, quite interesting.
[7:24] And you've called the high risk, high return of philosophy A
[7:29] myth, right? Can you unpack this for us?
[7:32] Absolutely. I mean, so I'm an American and I
[7:36] live between London and Los Angeles and I'm in India twice a
[7:39] year. I'm in Delhi twice a year, and
[7:42] I'm in Africa twice a year. And we have local teams in India
[7:46] and Africa. So that's kind of like the
[7:47] context by which I, I come to this conversation.
[7:50] So I do spend most of my time when I'm not traveling in the
[7:55] state of California. So like the home of Silicon
[7:57] Valley, BC and and here's the deal.
[8:00] Risk is in the definition of the investor.
[8:03] And This is why high risk, high return is a myth.
[8:08] I believe that from my 14 years of investing in emerging
[8:12] markets, which we haven't defined yet, but those are East
[8:15] Africa and India and having incredible portfolio companies
[8:21] that My Portfolio actually has less risk than Silicon Valley.
[8:25] VCI get the opportunity to do more due diligence.
[8:29] I have a framework around getting to know founders.
[8:32] We call that conscious leadership, understanding
[8:34] leaders for who they are. Are they abundance mindsets?
[8:38] Do they see possibility? Are they not just leaders?
[8:42] Are they also listeners and do are they in love with the
[8:46] problem and not just the solution?
[8:49] Whereas a lot of VCs, even the best ones often are given a term
[8:54] sheet, told what the valuation is, a few details about the
[8:58] business and have to decide right there because otherwise
[9:02] that company will move on to the next to their competitor.
[9:05] And so risk is really, I think our view of risk is skewed.
[9:11] People believe that emerging markets are too risky when
[9:14] investing in healthcare, financial services, mobility,
[9:17] agriculture, those are the areas that we invest in all tech
[9:20] enable businesses can be steady investment returns and many
[9:25] investments that we make, we kind of model them between 5:00
[9:29] and 8:00 acts across the spectrum.
[9:30] We're not looking for a, you know, portfolio approach where
[9:33] businesses, all of them fail in a few or 10 to 100 acts.
[9:39] So I think that's a much more risky game and therefore the
[9:43] perception of risk is incorrect and our willingness to think
[9:47] about what type of return comes along with that also needs to be
[9:51] adjusted. Absolutely, Yeah, that's quite
[9:53] interesting. And when you're making these
[9:55] investments at the very early stages of a business, what are
[9:59] the key things that you're looking for, how you're
[10:01] diligenting the deal, like you said?
[10:03] Give us a look into that. Yeah.
[10:07] Well, I mean, of course, we, you know, have a very traditional VC
[10:12] process in the sense of market model, even company mission.
[10:17] Like what are they looking to achieve?
[10:19] What's their big vision? Who's the management team?
[10:23] What are the metrics that they're tracking?
[10:25] I can see those are all Ms. because we have a number of
[10:27] frameworks within Beyond Capital Ventures.
[10:31] So his business always has to be post revenue for us.
[10:35] We don't just meet the founder, see the tack, write the track on
[10:37] a piece of paper business plan. There needs to be some element
[10:41] of product market fit as well. We also invest in companies that
[10:47] are are typically, you know, we have some criteria around all
[10:52] businesses being based locally where we invest.
[10:55] It can't be a company run from far afar.
[10:58] That just doesn't work. But what we really are looking
[11:01] for are leaders who believe in evaluating the needs of all
[11:08] stakeholders and that is how we bake impact into business models
[11:12] that are sustainable, profitable and business models that we
[11:16] believe will grow in scale and produce venture capital.
[11:21] You know style exits such as IPOs or secondary sales or be
[11:27] acquired by strategics. And 57% of our portfolio
[11:31] companies in our last fund have exit pathways built into the
[11:36] businesses, whether it's through partners or through those
[11:41] investors actually already being on the cap table.
[11:44] So that's also something that we look for upfront because one of
[11:47] our other mantras at Ban Capital Ventures is that exit start on
[11:50] day one. That's quite interesting.
[11:52] Yeah, there there's sort of a divided opinion on that that
[11:56] should found. Should we see especially
[11:58] investing in the earlier stages be looking at the exit potential
[12:03] because you really don't know much about the business at that
[12:05] stage, There can be pivots and so many other things that can
[12:08] happen. How do you look at that?
[12:11] What's your perspective, What's your lengths at evaluating for
[12:15] exits? Do you want clear founders to
[12:18] have a clear mindset? They want to optimize for exits.
[12:20] Let's say the founders don't want to optimize for that.
[12:23] That can be a scenario as well. They want to go build for the
[12:26] long haul and maybe turn down exit options if they're not
[12:30] lucrative enough as well, right? So you also have like, OK, when
[12:35] you're signing the agreement that I should also have a save
[12:37] and there's an exit option on the table, would you exit or
[12:40] not, right? So give me a look into that.
[12:43] Sure #1 I think we are try to aim to be conscious leaders
[12:49] ourselves and be listeners and what we really want to hear is
[12:53] an explanation that there is a view towards an exit.
[12:58] We would not invest in a business that is intended to be
[13:01] an SME or a family business run into the future.
[13:06] That is not why we are in the business of managing people's
[13:09] money. And I explained that over and
[13:12] over to our portfolio companies sometimes even when they're
[13:15] already in the portfolio, not necessarily run exits, but that
[13:18] like we run a business too and our job is to produce exits and
[13:22] returns for our LP's. And so exits do start on day
[13:26] one. And when we do our portfolio
[13:28] modelling, we define the specific route through which we
[13:31] do believe in exit will happen. We also define a particular
[13:35] value at which we think that exit will occur and we look at
[13:40] the entire portfolio and this is part of the portfolio
[13:42] construction conversation and decide whether this port, this
[13:47] company fits into our portfolio. From that perspective, let's say
[13:51] that we have you know too many businesses that you know we
[13:55] think are potentially more moon shots.
[13:57] We may not add another, we may add a more stable business that
[14:01] we know will, you know, disrupt an industry and be acquired by
[14:06] an incumbent in that industry. And it's pretty obvious that
[14:10] that's going to happen. And we we like companies like
[14:13] that. So there are logical ways I
[14:15] think to think about exits again, already having strategics
[14:19] on cap tables or as partners in the company, investing in
[14:23] sectors with, you know, what we call kind of formalizing the
[14:26] informal, you know, sectors where there's a little bit less
[14:31] of tech or kind of, you know, a scale in, in those industries or
[14:36] frankly not a product available. We just are adding one of those
[14:40] to fund 3 in India that I'm happy to talk about.
[14:43] And therefore, I think all of these these qualities really add
[14:49] up to exits being possible. And then finally, yes, we do
[14:52] talk to founders about exits in our major when we have when we
[14:55] lead rounds and we lead the majority of our rounds at Beyond
[14:58] Capital Ventures. We have major investor status
[15:01] and in having major investor status, we do have say over when
[15:05] and and where exits come from. We also have promoter buybacks
[15:08] in India to be able to protect us in the event that something
[15:12] does change. Now the reality is things always
[15:16] change that that I know as an investor.
[15:20] And so then it's our job to help navigate how things change.
[15:26] So if a company is not meeting their revenue targets to be able
[15:30] to attract a strategic, are they meeting their revenue, revenue
[15:34] targets to grow and potentially list their business or you know,
[15:39] even allow us to have a secondary sale.
[15:43] And the final thing I'll say is our very strong relationships
[15:46] with our portfolio companies lend to secondary sales and we
[15:51] have had multiple of those in our in our track record that
[15:54] have created exits for us. So we kind of are aware of what
[15:58] the options are. We model it out.
[16:00] And then finally, we rely on strong relationships as well as,
[16:05] you know, internal strategy to be able to drive towards the
[16:08] right exits for each portfolio company hand in hand with those
[16:12] founders. Right.
[16:14] Got it. Quite interesting.
[16:15] And while you're investing in markets like India, East Africa,
[16:20] how do you look, look at those markets in general?
[16:23] At what stage do you think they are in the journey and what are
[16:28] the interesting, you know, opportunity areas that you're
[16:32] carefully tracking in these areas?
[16:35] Yeah, the biggest. I think investing in emerging
[16:39] markets is one of the biggest opportunities of our lifetimes.
[16:43] I I'll state that I also think venture capital as well as
[16:46] artificial intelligence for our two others that fall into that
[16:49] category. But EM is one of the three and
[16:52] the reason is 53% of the world's growth over the next 10 years
[16:56] will occur between Africa and India.
[16:59] We also know India has the world's largest working age
[17:03] population and a something called long tail India, which is
[17:10] kind of the potentially off the outside of the kind of
[17:14] commercialized part of the country that can grow their
[17:17] incomes and demand access to need to haves as well.
[17:21] And that's why we focus on need to haves because the demographic
[17:24] dividend and the demographic tailwinds really support the
[17:31] kind of growth of healthcare, financial services, client
[17:35] climate for us. But we break that down into
[17:37] mobility and agriculture. And those are the areas that we
[17:41] are really watching. I have, you know, been in, in
[17:43] this market long enough. I, you know, I've been an
[17:47] investor in emerging markets for 14 years to see some of the
[17:51] trends create bubbles. One of them is that, you know,
[17:54] it doesn't matter what sector it is, but anything tech is, you
[17:58] know, should be invested in and valuations get really high.
[18:03] There's obviously a wave of potential, some some people
[18:06] taking money off the table and then there are a lot the bubble
[18:08] bursts. We are very careful about the
[18:12] inclusion of tech into our portfolio companies depending on
[18:14] where they are based in Africa, really businesses need to have
[18:18] more of a tech enabled approach rather than a, you know, end to
[18:25] end tech solution. In India, end to end tech is
[18:28] definitely possible, but we're still very cautious about, you
[18:32] know, investing in only one type of company.
[18:36] We have a very, you know, beautifully diversified and
[18:39] intentionally diversified portfolio to be able to produce
[18:41] the returns that we have also promised our investors.
[18:45] Got it. Yes.
[18:46] And these companies can be locally restored as well.
[18:50] They don't need to be restored, maybe as Seacorbs right?
[18:54] Is that correct? Yeah.
[18:57] So actually our investment strategy includes African
[19:02] businesses registered to see corps mostly.
[19:06] That is typically the norm to create your whole Co off the
[19:09] continent. Whereas in India, we invest
[19:11] directly into businesses that are based within India and
[19:16] registered. Got it.
[19:19] Yeah. Thanks for sharing that.
[19:20] And how do you identify these founders and startups that truly
[19:24] align with your values of conscious leadership and impact?
[19:29] Yeah. Well, we have team members in
[19:33] Bombay, in Delhi and in Bangalore.
[19:37] And as what our senior investment Associate recently
[19:41] said, India's a big country, but a lot of the startup activity
[19:45] really occurs within a small group of VCs, a small group of
[19:50] people between Bombay, Delhi and Bangalore.
[19:53] And so while I love many parts of the country, I, I'm typically
[19:58] only in those cities when I'm spending time with founders.
[20:02] We we do have companies that have expanded across the entire
[20:05] country. But we are looking for our deal
[20:09] flow in those ecosystems. Now when it comes to impact, we
[20:15] we view impact uniquely. It doesn't.
[20:18] Again, it's not a concessionary bet.
[20:20] And so sometimes the accelerators that are focused on
[20:24] impact are producing a little bit too much of A skew towards
[20:30] impact. First, we are looking for this
[20:33] perfect blend of impact baked into a business model and
[20:35] therefore we have our own assessment and that is really
[20:38] the conscious leadership framework.
[20:39] And in our screening just for your knowledge, we have a below
[20:42] 2% selection rate on our all time deal flow.
[20:46] So with funnels very wide at the top, we narrow it down to you
[20:51] know not many businesses and in fun too we made 15 unique
[20:55] investments and six of them were in India and nine of them were
[20:58] in Africa. But when we filter in our
[21:01] process, we are asking questions about leaders who are thinking
[21:05] about all stakeholders. Are they behaving above the line
[21:09] or below the line? Are they do they see possibility
[21:12] or are they more kind of short sighted and scarcity mindset.
[21:16] We, we screen for this and this is this is how we get to the
[21:19] heart of impact. Of course their business should
[21:23] be impactful, but we find often find that conscious leaders are
[21:28] creating impactful companies and that's a project that I did.
[21:33] You may know that I have two podcasts.
[21:36] One is called the Beyond Capital Podcast.
[21:38] And the Beyond Capital podcast was effectively a research
[21:41] project where I interviewed over 100 purpose driven leaders to
[21:45] assess what drove their purpose. And what it really was, was
[21:51] awareness of all stakeholders. Absolutely.
[21:54] I completely agree on that. And what what does it mean to be
[22:00] a preferred investor right in today's competitive venture
[22:03] landscape? And what advice do you have for
[22:05] investors are looking to build a stronger relationships with
[22:10] founders? Yeah, I think there are a few
[22:13] really key ingredients to being a preferred investor on cap
[22:16] tables. But I'll tell you the secret for
[22:20] us to be on capital ventures is really that where where we get
[22:27] our most goodwill with our portfolio companies stems from
[22:32] the beyond capital support that we put into them.
[22:34] It stems from what was called GP value add.
[22:37] The whether it's 'cause we're willing to take day in and day
[22:43] out the advice we're willing to give, the financial modelling
[22:46] assistance that we can support them with the business model
[22:49] pivots that we can help them think through the marketing
[22:52] plans that we can review the introductions to founders.
[22:55] And we have a lot of metrics around this.
[22:57] Our companies have raised 8 times the amount of money in
[23:00] following capital that we put into them.
[23:03] We've also mobilized double the amount directly of our fund size
[23:07] in in additional capital. And we have an 87% Net Promoter
[23:12] score means, meaning that our founders are highly likely to
[23:14] refer us to other founders. And let's be honest, we're not
[23:18] always the largest check. But here's the deal.
[23:21] I know the language of I give you, didn't you the money and
[23:24] you do what I say. That's a Wall Street old school
[23:28] tactic. There's nothing interesting
[23:30] about that anymore like that. If you want that, just go invest
[23:33] in a hedge fund. You know, a lot of hedge funds
[23:36] are relational, but a lot of them also still operate with
[23:40] this very kind of specific framework of I provide the money
[23:44] and you take you take you take all the terms that I give you.
[23:47] And the reality is, is that just creates financial crisis after
[23:50] financial crisis, whether it's blow UPS like Madoff or FTX or,
[23:55] you know, discreet credit default swap trades that leave,
[23:59] leave people holding the bag, including the banks, the
[24:02] government and the taxpayers in America.
[24:04] And and So what we're trying to do is really create new ways of
[24:10] building capital markets and then creating new ways of
[24:13] building capital markets. The relational and the
[24:16] supportive approach earns a lot of credibility and that's why
[24:21] we've been able to become a preferred investor.
[24:23] Now Prashant, there are other ways.
[24:25] We also have a credit fund. So we are a multi strategy firm.
[24:29] So we are able to provide debt to our portfolio companies when
[24:33] they need it for working capital quickly and our underwriting is
[24:38] relatively straightforward. And then we do give a percentage
[24:41] of the profit share of all of our venture funds to the
[24:44] founders in the portfolio as well.
[24:47] Yeah, Yeah. That's a quite unique approach
[24:50] there. And now talking about the
[24:52] abundance mindset, which you talk about, right, and the need
[24:55] to shift from scarcity mindset to abundance mindset.
[24:58] How do you look at that play out in in the in your maybe your
[25:03] portfolio or an example you can give or what it means to have
[25:08] abundance mindset in practice? I believe that for some reason
[25:17] capitalism has been become synonymous with when I win you
[25:22] lose and that this is a 0 sum game and that there can't be a
[25:29] win win. And I never really understood
[25:33] that. The reality is win wins are all
[25:39] over the place. You know, a company needs
[25:42] capital and investor can provide that capital and that capital
[25:47] can then help them produce results.
[25:49] And this management team does well, the customers are happy,
[25:54] the employees are happy, etcetera.
[25:58] And so that's what the definition of abundance is.
[26:00] It's understanding the understanding that the pie is
[26:03] not finite and the thinking, and this is, you know,
[26:07] scientifically proven that the pie is finite, AKA scarcity
[26:12] mindset is limiting. And I mean, I grew up in the
[26:20] Bombay of America in New York City, and there's no limiting
[26:27] beliefs there. You know, this is, it's all
[26:30] about possibility. And that's why I believe so
[26:34] strongly that the abundance mindset is really important,
[26:38] because why would I want to limit my investment strategy?
[26:41] Of course we have our parameters.
[26:44] Of course we have criteria. That's called boundaries and
[26:46] that's called having a strategy. But to limit my thinking around
[26:51] what's possible, I think limits my business.
[26:54] And you'll you see as I mentioned, we go above and
[26:57] beyond in terms of how we work with founders.
[27:00] We give them a share of our profit.
[27:04] It is money out of my pocket. We also, you know, kind of
[27:10] support them with introductions. We don't really have to do any
[27:14] of this, but we do it because the relational approach yields
[27:20] much stronger results for company and for the investor.
[27:24] Absolutely. And you mentioned about giving
[27:26] money out of your pocket and I've also learned to share carry
[27:30] with founders. So give us a view into that.
[27:32] What does that look like? Yeah, it's pretty simple.
[27:37] I was several years ago, mid pandemic in my home in Los
[27:43] Angeles, listening to a podcast of AUK based VC.
[27:49] And that VC simply wanted to create a fifth partner.
[27:52] They had four, four general partners and they wanted to
[27:55] create a fifth. And they decided to give 20% of
[27:58] their carry to all the founders in their portfolio to create
[28:02] this kind of community of their fifth partner.
[28:06] And it made so much sense to me, not only as an investor who
[28:10] invests in primarily American money.
[28:12] And there's we have of course some European LP's and some
[28:15] African LP's because of our fund structure, not so many Indian
[28:19] LP's, although very happy to talk to them.
[28:24] So taking money out from outside of where we invest, primarily
[28:27] investing it and then returning Capital plus returns it, it
[28:32] felt, it felt also more like a win, win to be able to give the
[28:38] founders who are doing the hard work some element of our profit
[28:43] share back so that they can share in the profit of the other
[28:47] companies in the portfolio. And, and it's created a glue
[28:50] amongst our founders that where they actually want to support
[28:54] one another, they actually want to connect, understand each
[28:59] other's challenges and potentially even work together
[29:02] in the future. And that I think has really
[29:05] helped the success and the resilience of what we built.
[29:09] So it's pretty much a no brainer.
[29:11] I mean, when you carve out 10%, companies do have to meet
[29:14] specific milestones. There are, you know, ways that
[29:16] they earn this carry, but at the end of the day, they just got
[29:20] their distributions like any other recipient of GP carry as
[29:24] well. Yeah, Yeah.
[29:26] That's quite, quite interesting there.
[29:29] Yeah. So talking about your portfolio,
[29:31] would you like to mention some interesting companies that your
[29:34] bag that are solving important problems?
[29:36] Yeah, it's really hard to pick favorites.
[29:40] I'll run down a quick list. We're invested in Fossil
[29:43] Fossils, the IoT device for horticulture farmers.
[29:49] It's basically a digital scarecrow expanding within the
[29:54] country, in India as well as in Southeast Asia and potentially
[29:59] Africa. Great business, incredible
[30:01] founders, very thoughtful and frankly, I think one of the
[30:05] first AG tax that has been able to grow in scale, you know, kind
[30:12] of almost Generation 2 and learn from those in the past.
[30:15] We're also investing in clinic, which is a brick and mortar
[30:20] health chain, but also has very innovative and very innovative
[30:26] approach to offering insurance for outpatient.
[30:30] I'm sorry for inpatient for their patients who, you know,
[30:34] have more serious needs. They also have a subscription
[30:37] model. And their whole market segment
[30:40] is really focused on the aspirational Indian who doesn't
[30:43] have access to either private, you know, higher end private
[30:48] doctors or higher end public hospitals who don't have the
[30:53] connections to get the healthcare that they really need
[30:57] and make that healthcare affordable and quality.
[31:00] And then we are also invested in Alt mobility.
[31:04] It's an EV leasing platform. The company helps to maintain
[31:10] fleets, but also lease fleets. And this is mostly 2 Wheelers
[31:16] and three Wheelers in the Indian ecosystem.
[31:19] And it's a number of second time founders who are very dedicated
[31:23] to the climate space. So those are three great
[31:25] examples in India in our portfolio.
[31:27] But the list, the list goes on a little bit more than that.
[31:31] Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for sharing that.
[31:33] And coming to a last main question before we move to the
[31:36] rapid firearm, this is what's been your biggest learning
[31:40] investing in start-ups over the years?
[31:44] Well, I think one thing I've learned is that the relational
[31:48] approach always succeeds, good and bad.
[31:54] I mean, you know, let's be honest, I said things change.
[31:58] Being an investor is you have to love the journey of being an
[32:02] investor because not every day is what you want it to be.
[32:06] It there's it's a running a fund is operationally complex.
[32:10] B Raising money is also not just just not easy for anybody.
[32:16] And C companies do have ups and downs and need some serious
[32:22] support over time. And you basically have a
[32:25] portfolio of, for us, 16 of them.
[32:29] And for many VCs, it's much more than that.
[32:32] I think my biggest learning is, is really, you know, leaning
[32:35] into relationships, supporting founders where they're not.
[32:39] I didn't mention, but in addition to some of the other GP
[32:42] value add found, our founders have a trust circle where they
[32:46] can talk to other founders in the portfolio in their region
[32:50] confidentially without Beyond Capital ventures input.
[32:54] And that glue goes the extra mile for sure.
[32:59] And so, and that is also a relational approach.
[33:03] So believe it or not, we can do all the analysis that we want.
[33:06] And of course we won't stop doing that.
[33:08] But if if we don't engage in the way that founders are, you know,
[33:14] needing more support, we'll be no better than our competitors,
[33:18] no better than any other VC. And I really do believe our
[33:21] secret sauce is in our ability to support in a meaningful way
[33:28] and know the nuance, the deep nuance of what our portfolio
[33:31] companies actually need, which is why we can also operate with
[33:35] a lean team. We don't, we don't need a team
[33:38] of former investment bankers. Our companies are smart enough
[33:41] to have a lot of those skill sets, of course.
[33:43] And of course, if we need that, we can hire it out.
[33:46] We need a team that is trained in conscious leadership so that
[33:50] we can steward the future conscious leaders in the markets
[33:54] where we invest. Absolutely.
[33:56] Yeah, great approach there. With that, we come to the rapid
[33:59] fire down and we have 6 questions for you that you'll
[34:03] need to give quick answers to, right.
[34:06] So the first one goes, what are the sectors and regions you
[34:09] invest in? India and Africa and sectors
[34:13] Healthcare, financial services, mobility and agriculture.
[34:18] Got it. What's the typical stage you
[34:20] invest in? C2 Series A+, sometimes a little
[34:24] bit of Series B with with good pricing.
[34:27] Got it. Do lead rounds.
[34:29] Yes. What's the typical check size
[34:33] you put in? We in our last fund just a
[34:37] little smaller, we started around half a million to
[34:39] 1,000,000 in the fund three, we will, we started out with half a
[34:44] million. We'll be moving up to 202 1/2 as
[34:47] well in some later stage rounds or follow-ups.
[34:51] Got it. Where you can founders get in
[34:53] touch if there's a directory. Linkedin's always great.
[34:57] Go to the contact page on our website.
[34:59] There's a form to fill out for Deal Flow and you can follow me
[35:04] on Instagram on Conscious at Conscious Investor.
[35:09] That's great. Last one is where you can
[35:11] listeners follow. I guess it's the same Instagram
[35:13] and LinkedIn. Sure.
[35:15] All right. Yeah.
[35:16] So I'll make sure to put these links in the show notes below so
[35:19] our listens can get there easily.
[35:21] Thanks so much for taking the time for doing this episode,
[35:24] Eva, and I wish you happy investing.
[35:26] Thank you, It was a pleasure. Thanks for hosting the show.
[35:31] Likewise, Thank you.

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