E80: Sandeep Patil (Partner, QED Investors)

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

Sandeep Patil is a partner at QED Investors, and heads the fund’s investments in Asia. Founded in 2007, QED Investors has invested in more than 180+ companies, including 27 unicorns, and has more than $5 billion under management. Notable investments include Nubank, SoFi, Credit Karma, Klarna, GreenSky, Avant, Flywire, Remitly, QuintoAndar, Creditas, ClearScore, and Konfio.

He has extensive consumer internet experience and is a global banking and financial services industry veteran. Over the course of his career, he has helped launch consumer and SME lending businesses at Flipkart, as well as contributed to the company's fundraising and eventual sale to Walmart. He was also the Managing Director and CEO for India at Truecaller, where he oversaw the Adtech, Payments, FinTech, SME/Enterprise, and Developer businesses, doubling revenue and achieving net income profitability despite the pandemic.

Sandeep brings extensive consumer credit experience from Capital One in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as experience serving global investors, banks, and insurers at McKinsey & Company.

Sandeep holds a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and an MBA from the London Business School (LBS).

In this episode, we will cover:

1. How and why did Sandeep become a venture capitalist? (3:03)

2. What are the parallels and differences between the 2007/08 crisis and the post-pandemic economic slowdown? (14:56)

3. QED's assessment of the current market and its implications for venture investing (24:15)

4. What is the balance between founder-market-fit and investor-founder-fit? (31: 37)

5. Consumer vs. enterprise in Indian fintech: where is the opportunity? (40:00)

6. From where will the winners in Indian fintech emerge? (46:55)

7. How easy is it to keep an eye on Asian markets from the UK? (51:15)