Prime Venture Partners Podcast

Building a Voice AI agent is getting easier. But getting a bank or insurance company to trust it with thousands of customer conversations? That's a different challenge altogether.A great demo might get you a meeting. A successful POC might get you through the door. But neither guarantees your AI product will reach production.That's something Uttam Tiwari and Omkar Raikar, co-founders of Desible.ai, have learned firsthand.Fresh off raising ₹32 crore in a Seed Plus round led by Prime Venture Partners, Desible.ai is building an agentic AI platform that goes beyond voice bots to automate entire workflows for regulated enterprises.In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Gaurav Ranjan sits down with Uttam and Omkar to discuss what it takes to build and sell agentic AI in Indian BFSI, from product engineering and compliance to enterprise sales and scaling beyond the first use case.Episode Timestamps00:00 Introduction to Uttam, Omkar and Desible.ai05:16 Why Voice AI is only the beginning07:40 Why Desible.ai chose insurance workflows14:14 Voice AI vs traditional IVRs and chatbots18:01 Why the founders chose the harder BFSI market21:04 Building trust, security and compliance into enterprise AI25:42 What Indian enterprise buyers prioritise38:33 How enterprise AI evaluation criteria are changing40:18 Why AI POCs don't always reach production44:19 Voice AI pricing and the race to the bottom48:34 How to land and expand within enterprise accounts52:47 The realities of enterprise sales in India57:53 Is Voice AI overhyped or underhyped?01:01:07 Why Indian Voice AI companies could become global leaders01:07:35 What changes after raising venture capitalFor Uttam and Omkar, building enterprise-ready AI goes far beyond making voice agents sound human. It means solving complex engineering challenges, from multilingual conversations and interruption handling to deterministic workflows, backend integrations and BFSI compliance.They also get into why impressive AI demos often fail to reach production. One of their biggest lessons? Your champion may not be your buyer. Getting an enterprise deal across the line means navigating InfoSec, legal teams, budgets and multiple decision-makers.The conversation also explores how Indian BFSI buyers evaluate AI solutions, why competing on cost per minute can become a trap, and how Desible.ai is approaching workflow-based automation rather than simply selling voice calls.For founders building AI products, selling to large enterprises or exploring AI adoption in banking and insurance, this episode offers great insights into what it takes to move from POCs to production.Connect with Uttam Tiwari and Omkar RaikarLinkedIn:Uttam Tiwari: linkedin.com/in/uttam-tiwari-2b4b4861?originalSubdomain=in Omkar Raikar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omkarraikar/ Follow Gaurav RanjanLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gauravrnjn/?isSelfProfile=false X: https://x.com/gauravrnjn Read the full transcript: https://bit.ly/Desible-Voice-AI About Prime Venture PartnersPrime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet, and enterprise software.Learn more: Prime Venture PartnersFollow Prime Venture Partners:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/ X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_in Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/ Learn more about Desible AI:Website: https://desible.ai/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/desible?originalSubdomain=in #VoiceAI #AgenticAI #BFSI

What makes a restaurant worth backing when 80% of them fail?Hotshare, an F&B investment platform that backs restaurant businesses at the outlet level, evaluated 41 brands in its first year and invested in just three.So what made those three worth backing?For Lavanya, Founder and CEO of Hotshare, the answer is not just great food, a packed dining room or a strong brand.She wants proof that the outlet itself works.That means profitability. Clean operating data. Healthy unit economics. Repeat demand. Tight execution. And a clear reason to believe the same economics can hold when the business opens its next location.In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Jerome Manuel sits down with Lavanya to understand how Hotshare decides which restaurant businesses are ready for capital, why traditional venture frameworks do not always fit F&B, and what founders need to prove before asking someone else to fund outlet #2.00:00 Introduction to Lavanya and Hotshare03:35 How Hotshare evaluates F&B brands10:03 Capital flowing into India’s F&B sector15:32 Hotshare’s “missing middle” thesis22:57 How Hotshare thinks about outlet-level returns30:16 The numbers behind a healthy restaurant34:02 Common mistakes restaurant founders make38:21 Market research and the data gap in F&B43:19 Profitability and CapEx benchmarks53:06 Can hospitality become an investable asset class?59:12 Red flags and green flags Hotshare watches for1:01:38 Rapid fire: discipline vs talent, food vs unit economics1:10:16 BeyondBurg founder Anas joins the conversation1:13:07 Why Hotshare invested in BeyondBurg1:28:29 Restaurant recommendations from Lavanya and AnasHotshare does not fund first outlets. Lavanya wants to see at least one profitable outlet, backed by operating data, signed financials and ongoing MIS, before considering the next one.She also gets specific about the economics, from COGS, EBITDA and rent to profitability and CapEx recovery, and why a strong month matters far less than the trajectory of the business.The conversation also gets into Hotshare’s “missing middle” thesis: many restaurants need ₹50 lakh to ₹5 crore to expand, an amount that can fall between informal funding and traditional institutional capital. Lavanya explains why outlet-level cash generation and yield can offer a different way to think about returns in F&B.Then BeyondBurg co-founder Mohammed Anas joins the conversation.BeyondBurg started in 2017 as a four-seat kiosk selling around 40 to 50 burgers a day. At the time of the podcast, it was doing roughly 3,000 burgers a day and preparing to open its sixth location.Lavanya and Anas talk about what Hotshare saw in the business, from disciplined unit economics and operating data to a focused product, strong systems and a hospitality culture that could hold up as the brand expanded.For F&B founders thinking about raising capital and investors trying to understand what makes a restaurant worth backing, this is a detailed look at how those decisions are actually made.Connect with Lavanya JayashankarLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lavanyajayashankarInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/mowglikima/X: https://x.com/LavsJSFollow Jerome ManuelX (Twitter):https://x.com/JeromeAndManuelLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromermanuelRead the transcript for the entire podcast here:https://bit.ly/HotshareAbout Prime Venture PartnersPrime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet and enterprise software.Learn more: Prime Venture PartnersFollow Prime Venture Partners:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_inInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/Learn more about:Hotshare:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hotshare.in/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hotshare/BeyondBurg:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyondburginc/?hl=en#F&BInvestment #Entrepreneurship

How was Puma India built, how did Virat Kohli’s one8 come about, and what is Agilitas trying to build in India’s sportswear market?Abhishek Ganguly spent 17 years at Puma, joining when the brand was virtually unknown in India and helping build it into the country’s largest sportswear brand. Puma India went on to cross ₹2,000 crore in revenue, ahead of Nike and Adidas combined in India. Then, after nearly two decades in the industry, Abhishek chose to start again.Today, as Co-founder & CEO of Agilitas, he is pursuing a much bigger idea: can a sports brand from India compete with the best in the world?In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Amit Somani speaks with Abhishek about the journey from Puma to Agilitas and one8, how Indian consumers have changed over the last two decades, why past success can become a disadvantage, and what it takes to build a brand people genuinely care about.Timestamps00:00 Introduction00:59 Building Puma India From Scratch05:29 How the Indian Consumer Has Evolved12:06 Staying Close to the Consumer16:36 Why Consumers Don’t Need More Products18:33 “Made in India, Unfinished on Purpose”21:19 Why Start Agilitas?24:20 The Risk of Past Success25:12 “Disruptors Don’t Disrupt Again”28:16 Building With Virat Kohli32:09 Why India Needs a Global Sports Brand34:16 Why Virat Kohli Backed Agilitas36:45 Building a Brand From India37:32 Virat Kohli Rejected 17 Prototypes39:28 The Future of one841:35 Advice for EntrepreneursA major thread in the conversation is Abhishek’s long-standing relationship with Virat Kohli. He goes back to 2016, when he proposed that Virat should build a brand of his own rather than remain only a brand ambassador. That idea became one8.Years later, when Abhishek left Puma to start Agilitas, Virat became one of the company’s early believers, investing in the business and merging one8 with Agilitas. The conversation also explores why Abhishek believes Indian consumers are evolving too quickly for old global playbooks, why founders need to stay close to the consumer, and why experience can sometimes become baggage. His own reminder to himself is simple: “Disruptors don’t disrupt again.”At the heart of Agilitas is a larger ambition: to build a sports brand from India that can compete with the best in the world, not on price, but on product, performance and brand.Connect with Abhishek GangulyLinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/abhishekgangulyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/abhishekganguly/?hl=enX: https://x.com/gangulyabhishekFollow Amit SomaniX (Twitter): https://x.com/amitsomani?lang=enLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thesomani/Read the transcript for the entire podcast here: https://bit.ly/Abhishek-Ganguly-Agilitas About Prime Venture PartnersPrime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet, and enterprise software.Learn more: Prime Venture PartnersFollow Prime Venture Partners:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_inInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/Learn more about AgilitasWebsite: https://agilitas.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agilitas-sport/home/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agilitas_sports/?hl=en#SportsEntrepreneurship #BrandBuilding

What does it take to build original deep tech in India, get some of the country’s largest companies to adopt it, and eventually take the business to a ₹1,000+ crore IPO?In 2007, Professor Shashikanth Suryanarayanan started @SEDEMAC Mechatronics out of an IIT Bombay lab. Nearly two decades later, SEDEMAC has become one of India’s standout deep-tech success stories. The company crossed ₹1,000 crore in annual revenue, ships around 1 million motor controllers every quarter, and its ISG (Integrated Starter Generator) technology is now on an estimated 12 to 13 million vehicles on the road.It also reached a milestone very few Indian deep-tech companies do: the public markets, through a ₹1,087 crore IPO that was entirely an Offer for Sale, with no fresh capital raised by the company.In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Jerome Manuel sits down with Shashikanth to explore how SEDEMAC went from building proprietary control technologies to creating products adopted by major two-wheeler and generator manufacturers.00:00 Introduction00:59 What Does a Motor Controller Do?03:53 What Is Control Technology?08:43 The Sensorless Commutation Problem16:55 How Technology Creates New Markets22:44 How Sedemac Reached Millions of Vehicles27:33 Why India Needs More Original Technology31:34 “You Will Not Produce a Virat Kohli in Spain”41:50 What Made Sedemac Work?47:40 Building a Technical Team54:53 From Professor to Founder1:00:27 Getting OEMs to Adopt Deep Tech1:09:19 ₹36 Crore to ₹1,058 Crore1:20:08 Competitive Advantage, Profitability & ROCE1:22:44 The Road AheadShashikanth explains SEDEMAC’s work in sensorless commutation and Integrated Starter Generators, but the bigger story is how a technology moves from an engineering breakthrough to something millions of people actually use. SEDEMAC had to demonstrate something customers were not asking for, convince large OEMs to test it, validate it over years, and gradually earn adoption across multiple vehicle models.That leads to one of the central ideas of the conversation: technology creators do not always enter existing markets. Sometimes they create the market itself.Finally, Shashikanth breaks down SEDEMAC’s growth from ₹36 crore in revenue in 2016 to ₹1,058 crore in FY26, and makes a provocative argument: if a technology company has genuinely created something differentiated and reached scale, that advantage should eventually show up in pricing power, profitability and capital efficiency.A rare look at what it takes to turn deep-tech innovation into a scaled business in India.Connect with Professor Shashikant LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shashikanth-suryanarayanan-6ba85010/Follow Jerome ManuelX (Twitter):https://x.com/JeromeAndManuelLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromermanuelRead the transcript for the entire podcast here: https://bit.ly/SEDEMAC-Mechatronics About Prime Venture PartnersPrime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet and enterprise software.Learn more: Prime Venture PartnersFollow Prime Venture Partners:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_inInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/Learn more about:Website: https://www.sedemac.com/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/sedemac-mechatronics#DeepTech #OEM #Innovation #Entrepreneurship

India’s alcohol beverage industry is worth around ₹5 lakh crore, and spirits make up roughly three-fourths of the market. But building a successful alcohol brand in India involves much more than making a good drink.00:00 Introduction01:21 How Big Is India’s Alcobev Industry?02:13 Why Spirits Dominate India04:00 The Alcobev Ecosystem & Jobs07:00 India vs Global Alcohol Markets10:00 How the Indian Whisky Market Has Changed14:00 Premiumisation & Changing Consumer Preferences18:00 Building Premium Indian Alcohol Brands24:54 How Radico Kaitan Built Categories27:46 Are Alcohol Companies Profitable?29:05 What Does It Take to Launch an Alcohol Brand?35:00 Building a Brand Beyond a Great Product40:00 Distribution, Retail & Getting on Shelves45:00 Why Every Indian State Is a Different Market50:00 Regulation, Excise & Government Control55:00 How Alcohol Brands Scale Across India1:00:00 Indian Whisky vs International Brands1:10:00 The Future of Premium Indian Spirits 1:18:29 Ankur’s Favourite Spirits 1:21:52 Final ThoughtsAnkur Sachdeva has spent around 25 years in the Alcobev industry, with stints at William Grant & Sons, Radico Kaitan, the Kajaria Group and Allied Blenders & Distillers. He was also involved in bringing Glenfiddich and The Balvenie to India, and today is building premium Indian whisky brands of his own.In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Jerome Manuel sits down with Ankur Sachdeva, Co-founder & CEO of Uppal Brewers and Distillers to understand an industry that most people consume, but few understand as a business.They start with the scale of the Indian market. Ankur explains why India's alcohol industry looks very different from global markets, where beer is the largest category, while spirits dominate India and account for around three-fourths of the market.The conversation then moves into the rise of premium Indian spirits. Ankur discusses brands such as 8PM, Magic Moments, Jaisalmer, Rampur, Indri and Royal Ranthambore, and how Indian companies have identified gaps in the market and built brands around them.But a good product is only the beginning.Ankur explains what it actually takes to launch an alcobev brand: from having a clear idea and building the product to manufacturing, capital, distribution and getting consumers to pick it off the shelf. He also talks about why a clever bottle or an unusual flavour may make an interesting product, but that alone does not necessarily make a successful brand.The episode also gets into the economics of the industry, including why established Alcobev businesses can operate at strong EBITDA levels, and what makes the category attractive once a business has established its model.For anyone interested in consumer brands, whisky, premiumisation, distribution, regulation or building businesses in India, this conversation gives a detailed look at how the alcobev industry actually works.Connect with Ankur SachdevaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asachdeva/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ankursachdevaind?igsi=MTdwNGljOGZ2dWtudg==Follow Jerome ManuelX (Twitter):https://x.com/JeromeAndManuelLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromermanuelRead the transcript for the entire podcast here - https://bit.ly/Prime-Venture-Partners-And-Uppal-Brewers-And-Distillers About Prime Venture PartnersPrime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet and enterprise software.Learn more: https://www.primevp.in/Follow Prime Venture Partners:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_inInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/Learn more about:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uppal-brewers-distillers/Website: https://soorahi.com/#IndianStartups #Alcobev #Whisky #ConsumerBrands #Entrepreneurship