Abhinav Kumar, Investment Analyst Ventureast.

Questionnaire:

1. A bit about yourself, how got interested into finance

I graduated in 2015, chemical engineering was my branch but finance and Investing was my passion all along. I got introduced to concepts of finance in a workshop session conducted by Futures First, which used to recruit from the campus. What got me excited that time was 2 things: a) the dynamic nature of the stock prices and b) the eager to find a winning formula to earn money by playing that dynamism

2. About your company, your work profile.

I have spent more than 4 years in investing industry. I worked with Premji Invest, which is a large family fund (USD 4Bn AUM) of Mr. Azim Premji, for 2.5 years. Premji invests invest in India and US Public and Private market. It was a buy side equity research role. I helped the firm in tracking and recommending investment across various sectors such as FMCG, Retail, and Cement. Post this stint, I joined Ventureast, which is a Venture Capital fund focussed on Technology sector. It invests in tech startups solving problems in healthcare, financial services, retail, and enterprise sectors. I help the firm in the entire spectrum – from deal sourcing to deal evaluation to deal closure. I also have the opportunity to work with the portfolio startups.

3.Your daily life as an analyst/associate

A typical day involves talking to entrepreneurs to source deals or to understand deeper about the problem statement that the startup is going after and to decide if the opportunity is exciting enough from investment perspective. The balance time is split
among reading about sectors that I track, understand the trends, network in my ecosystem and some adhoc work.

4. What’s the current scenario in fin sector, what is in demand (some certification or
coding skills etc)

The quantum of private equity and venture capital Investments in India grew significantly in the past – from USD 8 Bn in 2011 to USD 60Bn in 2019. The amount of venture investing increased from USD 0.6 Bn in 2011 to 1.6Bn in 2019. 2015 was the most active year,which saw USD 2.5 Bn going into venture capital investing. The quantum is expected to continue to grow given India’s attractive growth opportunities if we ignore intermediate hiccups such as current situation. CFA is highly recommended if one is looking to enter into finance/investment domain. This helps to show that you are motivated to learn about the sector and that you are investing your time in the right direction. Other ways to demonstrate interest could be – to be a part of Finance Club and drive meaningful activities within and outside the club, participate in business evaluation competitions, start following a sector (retail, FMCG, tech startups in different sectors such as Healthtech, FinTech, etc.) and develop your opinion.

5. Exit opportunities

Exit opportunities from investment domain could be into an industry role. Once you have tracked a sector, and made and managed investments for good number of years, then you can switch to a company in that sector. Type of exit depends more on the sub-sector of finance/investment domain. Other exit option could be MBA.

6. What’s your future plan and some advice to students!

I will be starting MBA program at London Business School this August. Post MBA, I want to be in either investment domain or join an exciting startup which is building a new age business such as Neo Banks.
Advice: Do good and push for more in whatever you are doing. You’ll figure out eventually. There is no standard formula ☺