Rahul Chandra

RAHUL CHANDRA has been investing in technology startups as a venture capitalist for more than twenty years. His investing journey has taken him through venture ecosystems in India and Silicon Valley. He was the first employee in the 1998 vintage, $30-million India-dedicated Walden International Fund. He moved with Walden to work out of Palo Alto, California, evaluating Silicon Valley startups. He saw India transforming with booming domestic consumer consumption and conceived a new India-dedicated venture fund. In 2006, he co-founded Helion Ventures and relocated back to India. His investments at Helion in SMS Gupshup, Equitas Small Finance Bank (IPO), Spandana (IPO), Shubham Housing Finance, UnitedLex, Toppr, RailYatri and MoEngage led to the creation of many market leaders. His Helion journey was captured in his previous book, The Moonshot Game. In 2020, he started Arkam Ventures, a technology venture fund that invests in companies serving middle-India consumers and India-born SaaS startups for the world. Some of the companies he has invested in at Arkam include smallcase, Jar, Jai Kisan, BharatAgri, Fyno, Trential and Skyroot. Rahul has an undergraduate degree from BITS Pilani and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in Bengaluru, Karnataka.