You use data to guide investments in tech sectors. How do you weigh hard numbers against gut feelings or market trends when leading tough investment calls?
We use data as both our compass and our filter. Every lead is evaluated not just in isolation but in the full context of its competitive set across tech-native startups, legacy incumbents, and broader sectors. This comparative lens helps us anchor each decision in reality and not just sentiment.
As tech bankers, our mandate is to remove as much subjectivity as possible. Gut instinct may be a starting point, but it’s never the final say. Our talent is deployed in translating hunches into hypotheses, and then validating them with hard data—market traction, cohort behaviour, unit economics, peer benchmarks & more.
Where founders bring vision, we must bring precision. It’s second nature for us to challenge assumptions, uncover blind spots, and help them build conviction with evidence. And this rigour isn’t just internal—it’s what earns trust with founders & investors.
Once we launch a deal, every investor should walk in with eyes wide open, knowing both the risks they’re underwriting and the levers within (and beyond) the company’s control.
The best deals aren’t just well-positioned—they’re well-prepared, and preparation is a shared responsibility. And we take pride in building that level of clarity and alignment before a term sheet ever changes hands.
In your opinion, what key trends in sectors like Energy are shaping high-potential investments in private markets?
Energy remains a core theme for private capital allocation, with strong tailwinds and systemic urgency driving innovation across the value chain. We’re seeing high-potential investments not just in energy generation (solar, wind, hydrogen) but equally in adjacencies that enable scale, efficiency, and sustainability.
Below are some key verticals:
- Storage & Transmission
- Energy Efficiency & Optimisation: Industrials, mobility, and the built environment (smart buildings, cities)
- Intelligence Layers: Energy SaaS, Grid digitisation, marketplaces, and asset orchestration tools.
- Circular Economy: Battery recycling, e-waste management, etc.
This is a structurally evergreen space. While parts of the ecosystem may appear crowded, we find persistent whitespaces where innovation meets infrastructure gaps.
As advisors, our role extends beyond capital — we actively help founders and funds navigate noise, calibrate narratives, and align with long-term capital. This is a day-zero, daily discipline that underpins our conviction in this sector.
Tech sectors like SAAS move fast. How do you lead investment decisions when new technologies or policies suddenly change what makes a company valuable?
SaaS has long been a high-multiple benchmark sector — not just for its predictable, scalable revenue but also for the discipline it has enforced across markets. It’s been a reliable, comparable set, shaping investor expectations on growth, efficiency and GTM scalability.
That said, we’re now at a convergence point where AI isn’t replacing SaaS but redefining it. The emergence of AI-as-a-Service is less a threat and more a natural evolution — where SaaS platforms are embedding AI to enhance autonomy, personalisation, and decision intelligence at scale.
From an investment standpoint, our lens shifts from simply backing software workflows to underwriting market-forming technologies that can continuously compound — not just through feature upgrades but through platform extensibility and ecosystem control.
But this also introduces signal-vs-noise challenges. Not all AI-SaaS combinations will be sustained. Our focus is on founders who aren’t just integrating AI reactively, but architecting for long-term defensibility and data advantage. Hence, we feel that in a fast-moving tech cycle, clarity comes from understanding what compounds and not just what trends.
Looking ahead, how do you see the evolving intersection of capital, technology, and infrastructure shaping the next generation of scaled businesses?
As evidenced, capital flows to businesses that can grow non-linearly. The winners today are those built on strong distribution,reliable & innovative tech, & capital efficiency—designed to compound over time. Going forward, efficiency is no longer optional or a trade-off; it’s the key.
*Disclaimer: The views expressed in this interview are solely of the author and do not represent the views of any organization with which they are or have been associated with.
About Krishna Dev Pathak:
Krishna Dev Pathak is a Senior Analyst at ValueBridge Capital, the investment banking arm of Merisis Group, focused on institutional fundraising for early-stage companies. ValueBridge is India’s leading advisor for Pre-Series A to Series A capital raises in the $3–15M range, with a sharp focus on founder-first execution.
Previously, Krishna was a Senior Associate at Boon Capital Advisors, where he led end-to-end deal execution and investor relations. He brings a deep expertise in early-stage capital markets, coupled with a keen insight into market timing and strategically positioning companies to attract high-conviction institutional investors.
