They went from three villas to 600 in just over two years — by betting that India’s next major travel brand would look less like a hotel and more like someone’s dream home.

Ritwik Khare and Karan Miglani, co-founders of ELIVAAS, had worked together in travel before building a company at the intersection of hospitality and real estate. They saw a growing market of second-home owners who needed help maintaining, monitoring and monetising their properties — and travellers who wanted the privacy of a villa without sacrificing hotel-level service. ELIVAAS has since grown from three villas to around 600 properties.

In this conversation with Rahul, Ritwik and Karan explain why India’s luxury villa market is larger than it appears, how group travel makes premium stays more affordable, and why customers increasingly choose the property before the destination. They also break down the technology and operational systems required to manage scattered homes consistently, the advantage of building dense micro-markets, and their ambition to make ELIVAAS the Marriott of villas and apartments.

IN THIS EPISODE

00:00 | Teaser

00:45 | Introduction: From Airbnb Host to ELIVAAS Founder

01:29 | Why Focus on Luxury Villas and Apartments?

02:50 | The Genesis: A Personal Problem to Solve

04:00 | Market Size and Growth Potential

05:40 | Changing Travel Behavior: More Frequent Luxury Getaways

07:33 | The 3M Promise: Maintain, Monitor, Monetize

08:35 | Customer Personas: Homeowners and Travelers

10:52 | ELIVAAS vs. Alaya Stays: Two Brand Segments

11:41 | Cross-Sell Services and Enhanced Experiences

13:25 | Evolving Consumer Behavior and Sustainability

15:18 | Surprising Consumer Insights

17:43 | Technology and Operations: The Execution Engine

19:34 | The Power of Micro-Markets

21:18 | Why Choose ELIVAAS Over Airbnb?

22:13 | Competitive Landscape and Early-Mover Advantage

22:47 | International Expansion Strategy

24:40 | Vision for 2035 and Key Risks

About Ritwik Khare

Ritwik Khare is the Founder and CEO of ELIVAAS, a technology-led luxury villa and apartment management company. His experience as a second-home owner helped shape ELIVAAS’ core promise: to maintain, monitor and monetise properties while delivering a consistent luxury experience for travellers.

Ritwik on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritwikk/

About Karan Miglani

Karan Miglani is the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of ELIVAAS. He leads the company’s technology and product systems across homeowners, travellers and on-ground hospitality teams, helping ELIVAAS manage distributed luxury properties at scale.

Karan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karanmiglani/

Rahul Thayyalamkandy

Director of Comms & Community, Vertex Ventures SEA & India

Rahul Thayyalamkandy joined the SEA/India team as the Director of Communication & Community in 2024 and is based in Singapore.

Before joining Vertex, Rahul served as a Product Manager at BLOCK71, an incubator and joint venture of NUS Enterprise and Singtel Innov8, where he developed scalable services for portfolio startups and designed mentorship programs. He also gained experience as a Summer Associate at Cocoon Capital, working with the Managing Partner on investment deals.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulthayyalamkandy/

—-

Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India is a pioneer in investing in tech start-ups in this region and has helped to build a number of unicorns. In this podcast, we seek to share and uncover the Hard Truth - raw, unfiltered insights and venture capital knowledge from across Southeast Asia and India. Tune in to learn from leading founders, innovators, venture capitalists, and industry experts in the region and gain industry insights from those in the know.

If you like what you hear, please follow or subscribe to the show so you don’t miss out on any of our upcoming discussions.

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Follow us to get notified whenever new episodes are shared.

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For more information, please visit: https://www.vertexventures.sg

He wants to build the “herbal Pfizer”... and he’s betting Kapiva’s future on proof, not blind faith.

I sat down with Ameve Sharma, founder of Kapiva, to understand how his personal connection to Ayurveda became a mission to bring 5,000 years of Indian medicine into modern healthcare. We unpacked his journey of scaling Kapiva, investing heavily in clinical trials, challenging traditional thinking, and convincing manufacturers to meet standards nobody else was asking for.

Ameve explains why Ayurveda must work alongside modern medicine, how Kapiva uses R&D, doctors, technology and AI-powered healthcare journeys, and why building trust matters more than selling another wellness product.

We also spoke about taking Indian herbal medicine global, competing with pharmaceutical companies, and his ambition to make Kapiva a respected global healthcare brand built on measurable results.

Timestamps

00:00 | Why Kapiva Is Rebuilding Ayurveda

02:17 | What Makes Ayurvedic Products Safe?

02:41 | Why Ayurveda Treats More Than Symptoms

03:36 | How Ayurvedic Medicines Actually Work

05:27 | Can Clinical Trials Prove Ayurveda Works?

07:51 | How Kapiva Personalises Your Treatment

09:51 | Why Big Ayurveda Brands Missed Healthcare

10:47 | How Kapiva Tests Products Like Pharma

13:15 | Why Kapiva Bet Big on Research

15:22 | What Doctors Need to Trust Ayurveda

16:26 | How Kapiva Tests Every Product Batch

17:15 | Are Heavy Metals in Ayurveda Dangerous?

18:04 | How Kapiva Builds Customer Trust

21:49 | What Ayurvedic Customers Really Want

23:43 | Can Ayurveda Work With Modern Medicine?

25:22 | The Hardest Parts of Scaling Kapiva

28:03 | Can Indian Ayurveda Become Global?

30:48 | What India Can Learn From China

33:49 | What Could Unlock Ayurveda’s Growth?

35:04 | Why Prevention Isn’t the Biggest Market Yet

37:18 | Kapiva’s Goal: Become the Herbal Pfizer

About Ameve Sharma

Ameve Sharma is the founder of Kapiva, an evidence-based Ayurveda brand based in India. He started his entrepreneurial career with a cold-pressed juice company before pivoting to Ayurveda, where he saw an opportunity to apply scientific rigor to one of the world's oldest wellness traditions. Under his leadership, Kapiva has conducted 28 clinical studies, raised over $60M, and grown from a D2C-first startup into an omnichannel brand with 250 field sales staff across Tier 2 and Tier 3 India. Kapiva is an official health partner of the IPL.

Ameve on LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/amevesharma

Kapiva website: https://kapiva.in/

Rahul Thayyalamkandy

Director of Comms & Community, Vertex Ventures SEA & India

Rahul Thayyalamkandy joined the SEA/India team as the Director of Communication & Community in 2024 and is based in Singapore.

Before joining Vertex, Rahul served as a Product Manager at BLOCK71, an incubator and joint venture of NUS Enterprise and Singtel Innov8, where he developed scalable services for portfolio startups and designed mentorship programs. He also gained experience as a Summer Associate at Cocoon Capital, working with the Managing Partner on investment deals.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulthayyalamkandy/

—

Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India is a pioneer in investing in tech start-ups in this region and has helped to build a number of unicorns. In this podcast, we seek to share and uncover the Hard Truth - raw, unfiltered insights and venture capital knowledge from across Southeast Asia and India. Tune in to learn from leading founders, innovators, venture capitalists, and industry experts in the region and gain industry insights from those in the know.

If you like what you hear, please follow or subscribe to the show so you don’t miss out on any of our upcoming discussions.

_

Follow us to get notified whenever new episodes are shared.

_

For more information, please visit: https://www.vertexventures.sg

#Kapiva, #Ayurveda, #D2C #IPLsponsor, #FiresideVentures, #FMCG, #foundermistakes, #quickcommerce, #Blinkit, #Zepto, #startupculture

I sat down with a founder who almost lost his company twice… and still built one of Indonesia’s biggest e-commerce enablers.

Brian Marshal took SIRCLO from a Shopify-style startup to powering major brands across TikTok Shop, marketplaces, live commerce and fulfillment… all while surviving the startup crash, failed fundraising rounds and the tech winter.

We spoke about profitability, AI agents, startup governance, IPO readiness, scaling outside Jakarta, and why most Southeast Asian startups got growth completely wrong.

IN THIS EPISODE

00:00 | Why SIRCLO Almost Died Twice

01:38 | The Shopify Idea That Failed in Indonesia

02:25 | Why Brands Need More Than Just a Storefront

04:06 | The Brutal Reality of Startup Fundraising

06:30 | How SIRCLO Finally Became Profitable

07:53 | Preparing SIRCLO for a Possible IPO

11:37 | The Governance Mistakes Startups Keep Making

15:24 | Why Good Tech Infrastructure Pays Off

17:10 | How SIRCLO Is Using AI Agents Internally

19:38 | Scaling E-Commerce Without Owning Warehouses

22:05 | How TikTok Changed E-Commerce in Indonesia

23:31 | Why Catalog Commerce Is Dying

24:00 | Building for TikTok, Live Selling & Creators

25:07 | Why Sales and Marketing Are Merging

26:05 | The Future of Live Commerce in Southeast Asia

26:19 | Will Indonesia Become Like China’s E-Commerce Market?

27:23 | Balancing Profitability and Innovation

28:22 | Why Innovation Failed at SIRCLO Earlier

32:30 | Why Southeast Asian Tech IPOs Struggle

35:10 | Is Indonesia Still a Great Startup Market?

36:36 | Brian’s Vision for SIRCLO’s Next Chapter

Brian Marshal

Brian Marshal is the Founder and CEO of SIRCLO, a leading Southeast Asian e-commerce enabler that helps brands sell online across their own web stores and platforms like TikTok and Shopee. What began as a simple website-builder idea in 2013 has grown under his leadership into an integrated solution powering millions of monthly orders. Over the past decade, Brian has guided the company through organic and inorganic growth, shifting market conditions, and a steady push toward profitability, rooted in a commitment to resilience and integrity.

His personal journey bridges Indonesia and Singapore, built on a background in computer science and data analytics alongside a firm belief in technology's power to unlock new opportunities. Beyond SIRCLO, Brian is deeply committed to nurturing Indonesia’s future leaders through his active involvement in the Informatics and AI Olympiad communities, as well as the McKinsey Young Leaders for Indonesia program.

Rahul Thayyalamkandy

Director of Comms & Community, Vertex Ventures SEA & India

Rahul Thayyalamkandy joined the SEA/India team as the Director of Communication & Community in 2024 and is based in Singapore.

Before joining Vertex, Rahul served as a Product Manager at BLOCK71, an incubator and joint venture of NUS Enterprise and Singtel Innov8, where he developed scalable services for portfolio startups and designed mentorship programs. He also gained experience as a Summer Associate at Cocoon Capital, working with the Managing Partner on investment deals.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulthayyalamkandy/

—-

Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India is a pioneer in investing in tech start-ups in this region and has helped to build a number of unicorns. In this podcast, we seek to share and uncover the Hard Truth - raw, unfiltered insights and venture capital knowledge from across Southeast Asia and India. Tune in to learn from leading founders, innovators, venture capitalists, and industry experts in the region and gain industry insights from those in the know.

If you like what you hear, please follow or subscribe to the show so you don’t miss out on any of our upcoming discussions.

—

Follow us to get notified whenever new episodes are shared.

—

For more information, please visit: https://www.vertexventures.sg

#hardtruthsbyvertexventures #vertexventures #entrepreneurship #startups #venturecapital #vc #podcast #businessleaders