India may be late to the AI gold rush… but Piyush Kharbanda thinks we might be looking in all the wrong places.

I sit down with venture investor Piyush Kharbanda to unpack how he’s thinking about AI startups, venture capital and India’s place in the global AI race. We get into why Indian AI companies are still behind the US, why the old SaaS playbook is breaking, and what he actually looks for when investing in Series A and Series B startups.

Piyush also explains why boring industries like manufacturing and industrials could become India’s biggest AI opportunity, and why execution, not technology, may be the real moat. If you’re building an AI startup, investing in one, or trying to understand where India’s AI ecosystem is headed next, this conversation gets very practical, very quickly.

IN THIS EPISODE

00:30 | Why India Is Missing the AI Boom

01:52 | Why the US Pulled Ahead

03:45 | Can India Catch Up?

04:46 | Why India’s AI Apps Lag

05:35 | AI Is Still at Day Zero

08:29 | Why the SaaS Playbook Is Breaking

10:44 | The Real Moat in AI

15:32 | Why Proximity to the Edge Matters

17:34 | Where AI Moats Will Come From

19:17 | Why the Harness Could Be the Moat

20:45 | India’s Biggest AI Opportunity

23:23 | Why Legal & Health Are Overcrowded

25:12 | Why AI Startups Grow So Fast

28:29 | What VCs Want From AI Now

30:12 | Why “Boring” Industries Could Win

Piyush Kharbanda

Piyush Kharbanda joined Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India in 2016 and focuses on opportunities in India. Piyush is a technologist at heart and has invested across consumer and enterprise focused companies that use software technology to build strong business models. Piyush works closely with Kissht, Kuku FM, Signzy, Ayu Health, Beepkart, Tortoise, Threado and Certa. Piyush has also successfully helped exit Recko and Hansel.

Prior to Vertex, he spent five years doing growth investing in the Financial Services and Technology verticals with Multiples, a leading India based mid-market fund, where he was involved in investments through portfolio management and exit. Before that, Piyush worked with Alvarez and Marsal on performance improvement and strategy consulting assignments.

Piyush holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, and a Bachelors in Electronics and Communications from the Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi.

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/

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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.

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

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