Angel investor.✶First cheques for↗Indian founders.
Four years of writing first cheques across AI, Edtech, D2C and Agritech. Backing Indian founders before the category has a name. ₹5 crore committed, and open to founders raising a first round.
A founder’s first cheque.
For the last four years I have put my own money into early stage Indian companies, across artificial intelligence, education, consumer brands and agriculture.
Four unrelated sectors, one pattern. In each case the founder was early to something the market had not priced in yet, and was prepared to spend years being told it was too small, too hard, or too soon.
That is the only thesis I have ever really had. I am not looking for the category everyone agrees is hot. By the time there is agreement the round is priced, the founder has forty investors on the cap table, and every one of them says the same things.
Five crore is now committed to the next set of companies. It is my own money, which is the only reason I can give a founder a real answer inside a week.
Where the money has gone
How I invest
Sea Masters
Open · investing now₹5 crore committed · Pre-seed and seed · India
Five crore committed, a handful of companies, and one person making the decision. Which is why a founder gets an answer in days rather than a process that runs for a quarter.
- Committed
- ₹5 croreMy own money. Nobody standing between you and a yes.
- Cheque
- ₹20L to ₹1 CrEnough to write the first cheque, or to anchor a seed alongside institutional money.
- Stage
- Pre-seed and seedIdea through early revenue. Having no product yet is not a disqualifier.
- Companies
- 5 to 10Concentrated by design. Fewer names, more of my time on each.
- Sectors
- AI · Edtech
D2C · AgritechOccasionally outside these, if you can argue it well. - Decision
- Two conversationsOne to understand it, one to go deep. Then a yes or a no, with reasons.
“Investing my own money means I never have to explain a decision to anyone except the founder.”
Four sectors, one pattern.
Different industries, the same question in each: is this founder early to something real, or early to something that only sounds real?
Artificial intelligence
Applied products with a wedge into a real workflow, not model demos. Distribution and proprietary data beat benchmark scores. Show me why a customer switches, and why they stay once the novelty wears off.
Not for me: thin wrappers, and anything whose moat is a prompt.Edtech
Outcomes you can prove, and unit economics that survive without discounting. Learning that leads somewhere specific: a job, a licence, a score. Not content sold on aspiration.
Not for me: growth bought through heavy commission sales floors.D2C
A product people buy again without being paid to. Healthy contribution margin by the second order, and a founder who understands supply chain at least as well as they understand branding.
Not for me: a brand that is really a performance marketing account.Agritech
Businesses that put more money in the farmer’s hand and can show the arithmetic. Hard, unglamorous ground operations are a feature here, not a red flag. They are usually the moat.
Not for me: marketplaces with no answer on collections.Portfolio companies and founder references are shared on request. Ask in the form below and I will send the list, along with founders you can speak to directly, without me on the call.
What a founder gets, and what they don’t.
Four commitments, deliberately narrow. I would rather be genuinely useful on a few things than vaguely available on everything.
A decision in two conversations
Not two months of process. One call to understand what you are building, one to go deep. Then a yes or a no, with the reason attached either way.
Help on four things, honestly
Getting to a first version people pay for, finding the first customers, hiring the first ten, and being ready for the next round. Outside those I will introduce you to someone better rather than improvise.
Available when it matters, quiet when it does not
You will not hear from me for the sake of it, and there are no monthly reporting rituals. When you need a call the same day, you get one.
The same answer in public and private
If I have doubts you hear them from me first, in plain language, while there is still time to do something about them.
Tell me what you’re building.
No warm introduction needed. Seven fields, two minutes, and a reply either way.
Let’s talk.
Founders building something meaningful, reach out any time.