"As a VC Fund, We're a Service Provider" Sandeep Murthy

The popular narrative around venture capital, whether in India or in Western markets, has largely revolved around the ticket sizes of funding rounds and valuations. But venture capital is much more than just betting on a business or an idea. In order to build sustainable businesses and create value, venture capitalists have to as involved as entrepreneurs in the journey of scaling ideas into viable businesses. This has been the Lightbox philosophy since inception, a strategy that has enabled the firm to weather the market downturns that are common in this business.

"I think that as a venture capital firm, we're a service provider. I get a little bothered with the representation of what venture investing is in the popular media… It's this much equity for this much money, and that's all it is. If just money solved the problem, every big company would solve everything they needed to and we would have no startups," Lightbox founder and managing director Sandeep Murthy recently told Vishal Krishna on The UpStreamLife podcast. 

Beyond investing capital in startups, the suite of services the Lightbox team brings to the table for portfolio companies includes business optimisation, governance, talent sourcing and access to seasoned industry operators. 

Watch the video for more on Lightbox's approach to early stage investing, what makes India a compelling market for building next generation consumer brands and how venture capital here is evolving differently from traditional Western markets.