WaterBridge Ventures

We started 8 years ago with a simple, but powerful belief - that the capital we invested could do more than just build businesses. That it could build lives. A billion of them, no less. With that clarity of purpose, we endeavoured to align with our founder-partners to not only build category leaders (and creators) but also empower those communities that have been traditionally overlooked. In fact, in 2021, Forbes India succinctly referred to our portfolio as the "Bharat Army". Today, as we release the 2024 edition of our Sustainability Report, we’re pausing to reflect on what this journey has truly meant. 🧑🧑🧒🧒 190M lives touched, well on our way to touching a billion by 2030 🙋🏽♀️ 35K+ women empowered as micro-entrepreneurs 👩🏽🍳 315K micro-entrepreneurs and 730K kirana shops digitally enabled 👩🏽💻 20% women representation in our portfolio teams 💰 $150M of credit disbursed 🌍 1M tonne of CO2 emissions saved, equivalent to 38M trees ⛓️ Signatories to Principles for Responsible Investment and 2X Global But resilient outcomes can't be tracked just with numbers. It lies in ethical decision-making concerning actions that create a future that our children would want to inherit. We’ve seen hope in the eyes of women — who were once told they had no voice in business — and now proudly call themselves entrepreneurs via CityMall, ZET, Yellow Metal. We’ve witnessed ambition in students from far corners of India who, through a simple app, could access quality education for the first time, through Doubtnut. We’ve heard the sigh of relief in a daily commuter's voice when the bus arrived at the stop at the scheduled time, saving precious minutes of wait time via Chalo. We've felt the sense of satisfaction when small business owners earned more income, and got a chance to safeguard their livelihood and their families' future via magicpin, bijnis, Trampoline, BimaKavach They are the quiet, powerful proof that early-stage investing can be a force for dignity, opportunity, and hope. We promised that we would patiently build value with capital, honouring the trust placed in us by our LPs and further by our founder-partners. And that we would never compromise on doing what’s right, no matter how difficult. We're sharing the story of that promise with our Sustainability Report 2024, which we released yesterday in Mumbai at the Winpe Leadership Summit 2025. At the same event, Anjali Sosale hosted a panel discussion on "Responsible Investing - Sustainability & Diversity in VC" featuring Diane Jegam (Proparco), Craig Gifford (British International Investment), Ashwini Thulsaram (3one4 Capital) and our very own Priya Singh (Chalo). Each of the panellists discussed what responsible investing means and how it has evolved within their organisation. We were humbled and honoured to share the stage with them. A huge shout out to Nupur Garg and Winpe, whom we are proud partners with, for enabling this. Manish Ashish

What separates a winner, from the crop of startups that emerge every year building to sell banking SaaS? As D Venkatesh, co-founder & CEO of Lentra puts it - with the entry barriers so many and landmines aplenty, many technology solution providers give up on their pursuit. But if one is fully convinced and dedicated to their solution (i.e. the solution works at 99.99% level), persisting through the roadblocks (numerous compliance and security adherences), they will eventually make money. What else do you need to succeed? Listen here - https://lnkd.in/g2Hn5Xhj In S04 E05 of That One Idea, Rahul Boggaram, co-founder of Yellow Metal sits down with DV to decode the lessons on building and scaling up a SaaS business whose buyers today include all the major banks (HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and many more) and financial institutions (HDB Financial Services Ltd. and the likes) in the country. A few pertinent questions that can't be brushed off - 🍄 Luck - does it matter? 🏌🏽 Having friends on the inside. Yes, luck does matter. Everyone needs a little bit of it, at least. But one needs to be out there, taking risks and working extremely hard to make that work. DV (an extremely humble gentleman) took a bet on himself to spin off Lentra from its parent company, and innovate constantly - rewriting Lentra's codebase 4 times over. And having friends at the top banks? That does not help much. All that leads to is a meeting, starting where the process is the same as every other vendor. Lentra's SaaS still had to stand its ground, deliver on its promises, outperform the competition, come with its security clearances and at a pricepoint lucrative for the banks to bite. The decades of experience from building Softcell? That did its wonders too. Encore entrepreneurs have this advantage - the wisdom that comes with age, and the youthfulness that comes from ambition. Anjali Manish Ashish

Recruitment is more than just ticking boxes—it’s about seeing potential others might miss. With 6 years of experience, Mr. U (name concealed for confidentiality) has turned challenges into impact by finding talent that not only fits the role but drives growth and leadership from within. From tight deadlines to niche hires, his story is a testament to the power of foresight, cultural fit, and the right tools. We’re proud to be part of Mr. U’s journey at CBREX—where recruiters become game-changers. #ImpactThroughHiring #HiringSuccess #CBREXPartner #RecruiterLife

🚨 Episode 5 of #ThatOneIdea podcast Season 4 drops next week❗🎙️ We're excited to bring to you Episode 5 with Saurabh Jain, Co-founder of Stable Money—a fintech platform that helps Indians grow their wealth through long-term, stable investments starting with fixed deposits (offering returns up to 9.1%) with RBI-regulated banks. Before co-founding Stable Money with Harish Reddy, 3X founder Saurabh had illustrious careers with Navi (promoted to MD & CEO of Navi Mutual Fund from Chief of Staff within 11 months), Swiggy (from CoS to AVP - Business Projects in 14 months), and Fractal. We dive deep into: 🌟 Saurabh's childhood growing up with the hunger to make a mark ⚓ Intentionally building for the long-term 💹 Building India's first FD platform, now at ₹1000Cr AUM and growing At a time when the charm of the capital markets is waning, watch this podcast to add more color to your investment portfolio! 🎧 Stay tuned! And a very happy Holi to you all from Team WaterBridge 🌈 #startups #VC #podcast #StableMoney #entrepreneurship #fintech #FD Anjali Manish Ashish

A 58-year-old, encore entrepreneur's thoughts before deciding to raise external capital 👇🏽 Tune in to S04E04 of #ThatOneIdea podcast to know why D Venkatesh, co-founder & CEO of Lentra, decided to start speaking to VCs when his previous startup, Softcell, could have bankrolled this new project. Link 👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/g2Hn5Xhj Softcell, started in the 1990s by DV and his neighbour from Hubli, sold IT services projects to large enterprise clients back then. It had grown to a few crores in PAT in the 2000s, and it was time for them to step into the big leagues, selling multi-bureau to the banks. Nucleus Software, Polaris and Indus Software (now acquired by EbixCash) were the heavyweights in the market. Together, they controlled 95% of the banks' software market for their assets division. These three had been in existence for the last 30 years. Loan application, records, account management and disbursement - all needed software, which these three companies sold. DV wanted to partner with them, but his knocks went unanswered. So, DV decided to break down the wall and build his own door. He started writing code for the platform himself. Within a year, he realised that he needed more people. Headcount started increasing in geometric progression. The first 2 hires got 2 more folks in, and that's how the next 4 joined. Very soon, it became a team of 16 coders + engineers, and DV realised that this sub-division needed more capital from Softcell, in return for a promise that had a long gestation period. A classic case to raise equity capital, particularly venture. This asset class has the appetite to underwrite such risks. DV spun out Lentra and started pitching to investors at the age of 58. He was worried, and raising funds was not easy. But the mission statement, of building the most trusted platform for banks to build their loan book, was worth all the efforts he put in. Manish Ashish Anjali

Monthly Spotlight: WaterBridge launches Season 4 of That One Idea podcast series themed "The Encore Entrepreneurs - Wisdom & Wild Ambition" WBV Portfolio Milestones and News: 🏆 magicpin triples revenue to ₹870Cr in FY24 🚛 CityMall expands footprint to 11 more cities 🐝 Loopworm wins Aegis Graham Bell Award for Innovation in Agriculture category 🧱Trampoline sells out debut lamps & dining tables collection at January Furniture Show 🏭 BimaKavach launches India's first fully DIY digital commercial insurance purchase 💙 Atlan paints the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit 2025 blue  🚍 Priya Singh recognised as one of Dun & Bradstreet’s “Dynamic Women Business Leaders 2025” 🍲 Posha (formerly Nymble) featured as a live case study at Stanford University Graduate School of Business  🎙️ Girish Vishwanath C on why publishers struggle to scale monetisation, with Sam Bell Anjali Manish Ashish

Today marks a seismic shift in India's insurance industry: We just processed our first fully digital commercial D&O insurance DIY purchase directly through bimakavach.com! 🎉 As India evolves, so does how businesses buy insurance. What traditionally took days or weeks now happens in minutes. While this milestone represents significant progress, it also reminds us of the responsibility we carry at BimaKavach—to deliver insurance with utmost precision, simplicity, and transparency for businesses across India. A big thank you to Himendra Saxena, Ramit Goyal, and the Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited team for being such great partners in this journey! 🙏 This is just the beginning. Stay tuned for more updates on how we're revolutionising commercial insurance for India! 🚀 #insurance #business #digitalindia #india

✍🏽 Masterclass on selling SaaS to banks - from D Venkatesh, Co-founder & CEO of Lentra, who sold to 50+ leading financial institutions in India! 💣 Tune in to S04E04 of #ThatOneIdea podcast to listen to DV's unabridged thoughts. Link 👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/g2Hn5Xhj Banks are anchor customers for many fledgling startups in India's fintech. Serving about a billion Indians, banks lend immense credibility to the solutions offered by young companies. But countless founders wonder what their ideal GTM should be, when it comes to these mega-institutions. ❓Who should they sell to? ❓How should they pitch? ❓More importantly, why would banks even want to talk to them? The answer lies in these four secrets 👇🏽 : 🙋🏽 Availability > 99.99%: The software should lead to minimal downtimes while in maintenance. For systems that process thousands of queries per second, every minute of downtime directly correlates with business loss. ⏰ TAT & Efficiency: Can the software help banks be more agile? Does it help adhere to SLAs? Does the behemoth overall become more efficient? 💵 Pricing: As with every buyer, they are cost-sensitive. If you're creative with the pricing, you'll soon discover avenues to convert to pay per use/tokenised billing, which doesn't require a huge upfront payment. Creativity is indispensable not just in writing code but also while selling it. 🖇️ Interoperability: For anyone who looked at the intricacies involved, banks have a long list of legacy technology systems that talk to each other. Can the SaaS blend in and be responsive to different systems simultaneously? If you meet these four criteria, banks are willing to talk to you, pilot your SaaS and give you business. 🏋🏽♂️ Banks are extremely good buyers - they have huge ACVs, they're compliant, and they offer a huge breadth of coverage. But they are also designed to be risk-averse (ergo, resilient in times of chaos), tech-savvy (navigating business contours in a country like India needs tech at scale) and steady-paced (no sudden disruptions). It is up to the SaaS/AI companies to adapt themselves to these conditions, and not the other way around. Anjali Manish Ashish

Growing up, D Venkatesh had no plans to become a fintech entrepreneur. Today, he is the co-founder & CEO of Lentra, India's foremost banking SaaS platform used by 50+ leading banks and financial institutions. Curious to know the story behind this journey? 🎙️ Tune in to S04 E04 of #ThatOneIdea, showcasing our series on "The Encore Entrepreneurs - Wisdom and Wild Ambition", where Rahul Boggaram, co-founder of Yellow Metal, speaks to DV, CEO of Lentra. Link 👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/g2Hn5Xhj 🧑🏽 DV was born in a typical lower middle-class family in Hubli, a Tier II+ town that takes an overnight train from Bengaluru to reach. He wasn't the best student in school or college, and soon, he was struggling to get a job during campus placements. 🙅🏽♂️ He was left to fend for himself, and his family. Anybody would have written off the young DV back then. 🌟 But DV's is story of patience, perseverence, and most importantly, learning to reinvent oneself (and the company) many times over until success looks overnight. DV took up a job in the R&D unit of a TV manufacturer. His job was to examine and test the CKD (completely knocked down) kits imported to India, and identify comparable made-in-India alternatives. He did that for a year, and got bored. He took up a new job as a service engineer at a company that sold purpose-built computers during the pre-PC era. This was the late 1980s. He would be on the road 7-days a week, travelling to remote parts of southern India, repairing machines that had broken down. Travelling became so hectic that he came back to his home only to wash clothes. By the time the clothes dried, he would be out on the road again. DV knew in his bones that it was time to start a business. He paired up with his neighbour from Hubli to start Softcell, selling software to enterprises. Lentra eventually spun out from there, but that's a story you'll have to tune in to the podcast for! Anjali Manish Ashish Rajesh Pritish #startups #venturecapital #investing #podcast #Lentra #Banking #SaaS #lending

🎙️🥁 Launching Episode 4 of #ThatOneIdea with D Venkatesh, co-founder & CEO of Lentra❗🎙️ 👨🏽⚕️ S04 E04 is a continuation of "The Encore Entrepreneurs - Wisdom and Wild Ambition", where we speak to founders whose drive and passion, coupled with invaluable inexperience, outweigh all the naysayers. As DV puts it - "internally, I feel like a 20-year-old". 🤸🏽 In this podcast, DV talks about his childhood in Hubli, his struggles with campus placements, and how his compulsion to take care of his family forced him to take up the job of a traveling salesman. 💎 We have a special host - Rahul Boggaram, co-founder of Yellow Metal, for this episode! It is a masterclass conversation between a veteran who has sold to all the leading banks in India, and a sincere pupil who is just taking off with doorstep gold loans disbursal in Tier II+ towns. Tune in to listen to: 💻 Starting Softcell in 1991 with his Hubli neighbour Sunil, and scaling it to ₹7Cr in PAT by early 2000s 🎃 DV's journey as the accidental fintech entrepreneur, and the birth of Lentra 💥 The golden playbook of knowing how to sell SaaS to banks - DON'T MISS! Thank you DV for this exclusive conversation opportunity 🙌🏽 Watch the full podcast here: https://lnkd.in/g2Hn5Xhj Manish Ashish Ankur Handa Rajesh Kumar Kiran Moras #startups #venturecapital #investing #podcast #Lentra #Banking #lending