Gemba Capital: Bengaluru's 'platform-first' pre-seed specialist with a ₹250 Cr second fund

Gemba Capital is a Bengaluru-based micro VC that calls itself a "seed and pre-seed stage specialist" investing in "category creators" across fintech, consumer tech and B2B platforms. "We Lead. We are Fast. We dare to be the First." Founded in 2017/2018, it has scaled from proprietary capital to a ₹250 crore second fund, keeping a narrow focus: fewer than 10 deals a year.

Investment thesis

Gemba Capital backs "platform-first" businesses — digital businesses that can build compounding moats through ecosystem creation, network effects or stacked value-add layers. Founder Adith Podhar says the firm solves India-specific problems with tech-first solutions, holding high-conviction views in fintech and consumer tech given their underpenetration and favourable macros. It began with proprietary capital, moved to an angel syndicate, then raised Fund-I and now Fund-II targeting institutional LPs.

On its site, the firm says it looks for founders who will "change the world" — valuing clarity, resilience and hustle over pedigree — and it pointedly does not look at market size, revenue or competition, disliking "scaling before proving hypothesis." It uses a proprietary in-house "Founder Market Fit Framework" to identify teams, and supports startups with customer and investor introductions, service-provider access and strategic hiring, staying actively involved through Series A.

Funds, stages and cheque sizes

Fund-I (2022 vintage) had a corpus broadly reported as ₹70 crore, an average cheque of about ₹2 crore and roughly 35% reserved for follow-ons, raised from family offices, founders and CXOs. Fund-II was launched in July 2024 with a target corpus of ₹250 crore including a ₹50 crore green-shoe option, to invest in about 30 early-stage platform-first businesses over three years, with first cheques of ₹5 crore and a 30% follow-on reserve. The final close of Fund-II has not been publicly confirmed. The firm invests only at pre-seed and seed, doing roughly 8–10 deals a year.

Notable portfolio

The firm's site names Sanlayan (aerospace and defence), Plum (group health insurance, described as India's fastest insurtech covering 5 lakh+ lives), WintWealth (alternative investing), Inamo (quick-commerce enabler), Showroom (B2B fast-fashion sourcing, trusted by Shein, Myntra and Vishal Megamart), EternZ (B2C jewellery marketplace), ClickPost, Grip, LightFury Games, Navadhan, Pazy, Shoption, Unnati and Volt. News coverage adds names like Strata, Zuper, Smartstaff, Verak, Threado, Tranzact and Finly. Self-reported stats on its site: 60+ seed/pre-seed investments, ₹3,600 crore+ raised by portfolio companies, and a 64% "graduation rate."

People

Adith Podhar — founding/general partner (ex-Motilal Oswal Private Equity and ICICI Bank). Govind Lohia — principal. Venture advisors include Vipul Rawal (ex-Perfios), Ranjeet Pratap Singh (founder & CEO, Pratilipi) and Sahil Sharma (Natwest/Mastercard/PayPal).

Credits and perks

A 2021 fund-launch press note said ecosystem partners offered free credits to all portfolio companies — but partner names were never disclosed and the programme's current status could not be verified.

How to engage

The firm lists no public pitch email, and third-party claims about its email format are unofficial. Founders can reach it through its website (gembacapital.in).