Why 70% of India Is Invisible to VCs | Jyotsna Krishnan (Elevar/ EPIC)

Founder Thesis

India’s real economic engine isn’t in big cities - it’s in the 400 million+ people building, trading, and growing across Middle India.

In this episode of the Founder Thesis Podcast, host Akshay Datt speaks with Jyotsna Krishnan (Managing Partner, Elevar Equity; CEO and Co-Founder, Epic World) on how to invest, build, and scale startups for India’s underserved majority.

With 15+ years in impact investing, Jyotsna shares how Elevar Equity has backed 50+ companies, catalyzed $3B+ in follow-on capital, and impacted over 60 million low-income households - proving that profit and purpose aren’t mutually exclusive.

She also introduces Epic World and Epic Intelligence, a data platform designed to map the $10 trillion informal economy of entrepreneurial households in India.

Key Insights:

👉Elevar’s customer-backward investment thesis

👉Why India’s middle 70% is the biggest untapped market

👉Building startups with distribution, dignity, and deep context

👉Epic World’s vision to productize ground-up insights

👉Why Middle India needs its own startup playbook

👉The real size of India’s economy - beyond GDP metrics

#ImpactInvesting #IndiaStartups #FounderThesis #MiddleIndia #VCIndia #SocialImpact #CustomerCentric #InclusiveGrowth #InformalEconomy #StartupIndia #MSME #StartupPodcast #VCPodcast #BusinessStrategy #InvestmentStrategy #StartupEcosystem

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the speaker, not necessarily the channel