Whiteboard Capital: The Founder's Fund That Backs Ideas Before They Are Fully Formed

Most funds want a polished pitch deck. Whiteboard Capital wants you before the deck is finished. Founded by Freecharge co-founder Sandeep Tandon (CRED founder Kunal Shah was a co-founder in the early days, departing in 2017), this Mumbai-based early-stage firm famously invests in founders even before their business plans are fully formed — most of its bets were placed when startups were less than two months old or not yet incorporated.

In August 2024, Whiteboard marked the final close of Whiteboard Capital Fund II at Rs 300 crore, doubling its initial target of Rs 150 crore, with family offices and domestic institutions among its limited partners. The fund aims to back around 50 companies, with a distinctive strategy: 30–35% of deployable capital for new cheques and roughly double that reserved for follow-on investments into existing winners. It was a deliberate correction — the first fund, a $10 million vehicle backing around 45 startups, returned 1X to investors with around 6X unrealised gains, but could not write enough follow-on cheques. Fund II is built to fix that, holding core positions of more than 7.5% ownership with over $200,000 invested per company.

Thesis: time, not just capital

Whiteboard's philosophy is that great investing goes beyond capital — the firm invests its time, expertise and resources in the ideas and teams it believes in, effectively merging an incubator's hands-on role with an early-stage fund. It is sector-agnostic, with roughly 40% of its portfolio in consumer (brands and consumer tech) and 30–35% in financial services, plus healthcare. Whiteboard says its name reflects the idea of starting from a blank whiteboard: low-valuation, high-conviction bets at inception.

Portfolio: Rockstar Bets

The firm's own site groups its stars under “Rockstar Bets”: CRED, Apnaklub, Atomberg, DaMENSCH, Dezerv, SuperTails, Traya and Zeno Health, alongside names like Jupiter and NatHabit. Recent activity shows the pipeline is hot: a $600,000 pre-seed co-led with First Cheque into rewards startup Onpoint, a $1.5 million seed round for jewellery marketplace Mabel, plus bets on Globalise, chipmaker Mindgrove Technologies, kids' care brand Tuco and AI startup BiteSpeed.

Partners

Sandeep Tandon is the founder and managing partner — a builder himself, who has driven the firm's push into hardware and “Made in India” manufacturing startups. Anshu Prasher is a general partner who joined after Kunal Shah's departure, previously an early-stage investor at Innoven Capital and Saama Capital. Founders can pitch directly through the firm's Submit Your Pitch page — no warm intro required.