E61: Arjun Vaidya (Venture Lead, Verlinvest India)

The Desi VC: Indian Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startups | VC

Arjun Vaidya is the Venture Lead for Verlinvest, a leading family owned investment group with over €1bn assets under management backed by families who have together built one of the world’s largest consumer businesses.

Before embarking on his venture journey, Arjun was the co-founder and CEO of Dr. Vaidya’s, a new age Ayurveda consumer startup which was acquired by RP Sanjiv Goenka Group in March 2021.

Prior to founding Dr. Vaidya’s, Arjun spent a few years as an investor working at LVMH's private equity arm, L Catterton.

He also runs his own podcast – Direct To A Billion Consumers, where he talks to leaders building disruptive consumers brands in India.

In this episode, we cover:

1. The journey from being an operator to an investor (2:30)

2. How does a founder evaluate an acquisition offer? (11:32)

3. What does it mean to build a consumer brand in India (17:38)

4. What kind of investor is Arjun? (25:28)

5. D2C businesses from a VC lens (30:30)

6. How do the diligence cycles within the consumer space look like? (37:24)

7. Where are the opportunities within Indian consumer market? (40:41)

8. Why venture capital? (46:40)

9. When should consumer businesses raise capital (48:12)

10. How do/should you think about branding for consumer businesses? (50:35)