WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.840 There has been a lack of liquidity in venture capital, 00:00:02.840 --> 00:00:05.561 private equity across the private capital ecosystem. 00:00:05.881 --> 00:00:06.841 Raj, welcome. 00:00:06.841 --> 00:00:07.761 It's great to have you here. 00:00:07.921 --> 00:00:08.641 Thanks for having me, Vikas. 00:00:08.681 --> 00:00:11.642 In the world of venture capital, what are you seeing— 00:00:11.642 --> 00:00:14.923 some of the major changes, most interesting innovations? 00:00:15.523 --> 00:00:18.083 I think the last five years have been a 00:00:18.083 --> 00:00:20.924 really transformative time for venture capital. 00:00:21.244 --> 00:00:25.925 You had the 2020-2021 kind of boom, which was somewhat driven by 00:00:25.925 --> 00:00:29.525 macroeconomics and rebound from the COVID period. 00:00:29.525 --> 00:00:32.806 Really since then, you've seen kind of three key forces 00:00:32.806 --> 00:00:34.246 defining venture capital. 00:00:34.246 --> 00:00:36.607 The first has been the rise of AI, 00:00:36.607 --> 00:00:38.407 I think. It is transformative. 00:00:38.407 --> 00:00:39.968 It's a foundational technology. 00:00:39.968 --> 00:00:44.008 It'll probably take a little bit longer than we think for it to fully impact, 00:00:44.008 --> 00:00:47.329 and the impact today's uneven, but we all agree it's foundational. 00:00:47.809 --> 00:00:52.410 Second has been the more polarized macroeconomic world that we live in. 00:00:52.450 --> 00:00:58.331 We're seeing the rise of AI models that are driven by national sovereignty. 00:00:58.331 --> 00:01:02.732 And you see models in places like Europe where they don't want to become fully 00:01:02.732 --> 00:01:05.733 reliant on just models from other parts of the world. 00:01:06.213 --> 00:01:09.254 And then third, there has been a lack of liquidity in 00:01:09.254 --> 00:01:13.614 venture capital, private equity across the private capital ecosystem. 00:01:13.734 --> 00:01:17.135 So I think we're all becoming more creative about how do we return capital. 00:01:17.135 --> 00:01:19.976 We can't always just rely on the IPO cycles, 00:01:19.976 --> 00:01:24.897 which we know historically only happen a couple of years out of every decade. 00:01:24.897 --> 00:01:29.538 Some more M&As, more corporate exits, but also more secondary exits, 00:01:29.538 --> 00:01:34.459 and more ways for us to drive liquidity across the venture capital ecosystem. 00:01:34.459 --> 00:01:36.659 And so it's a transformative period. 00:01:36.659 --> 00:01:41.020 I think you'll see that there will be certain firms that really understand how 00:01:41.020 --> 00:01:42.780 to navigate through this period. 00:01:42.780 --> 00:01:46.581 And those firms will probably be the winners over the next decade. 00:01:46.581 --> 00:01:51.302 Can you tell me a little bit more about B Capital's value-creation strategies, 00:01:51.302 --> 00:01:55.623 and what are you seeing in how you're being able to help your portfolio 00:01:55.623 --> 00:01:56.823 companies currently? 00:01:57.263 --> 00:02:01.384 I think value creation is really key to what we do. 00:02:01.904 --> 00:02:04.425 Most of us who started the firm and who run the firm, 00:02:04.425 --> 00:02:06.585 we were founders before we became investors. 00:02:06.945 --> 00:02:11.146 And this really goes back to the core of the partnership between B Capital and BCG. 00:02:11.866 --> 00:02:16.707 From our very inception, we've believed that the expertise that 00:02:16.707 --> 00:02:21.668 BCG very uniquely is able to bring to private, high-growth tech, 00:02:21.668 --> 00:02:25.389 health care companies, and now energy companies, 00:02:25.389 --> 00:02:29.350 really can help these founders and these CEOs drive 00:02:30.190 --> 00:02:34.711 incredible growth and efficiency and really help them hone their businesses as 00:02:34.711 --> 00:02:38.232 they're going through those rapid exponential growth periods. 00:02:38.232 --> 00:02:41.952 And so the partnership continues to be really core for what we do. 00:02:42.232 --> 00:02:46.473 We continue to leverage our portfolio company executives to help each other. 00:02:46.713 --> 00:02:49.594 We now have over 200 companies in the portfolio, 00:02:49.594 --> 00:02:53.755 and we think there's lots of opportunities to have portfolio value add. 00:02:53.835 --> 00:02:57.715 And I think beyond that, our global reach is probably the third 00:02:57.715 --> 00:02:58.956 most important thing. 00:02:58.956 --> 00:03:01.716 The best founders, whether they're from Silicon Valley or 00:03:01.716 --> 00:03:04.277 they're from Bangalore, they're normally big thinkers. 00:03:04.277 --> 00:03:06.397 They want to build big global businesses. 00:03:06.757 --> 00:03:10.358 And our global footprint, which is further enhanced through our 00:03:10.358 --> 00:03:13.079 partnership with BCG and BCG's global footprint, 00:03:13.079 --> 00:03:16.319 are a key part of helping companies scale across borders. 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:18.600 Just talk a little bit more about AI. 00:03:18.600 --> 00:03:21.600 You talked about the role that AI is playing in terms of investments. 00:03:22.040 --> 00:03:24.761 What about AI internally within B Capital? 00:03:24.761 --> 00:03:25.921 How are you thinking about that? 00:03:26.161 --> 00:03:31.362 So we are firmly committed to being an AI-driven private capital investment firm. 00:03:31.362 --> 00:03:36.083 We think AI will be transformative not just to every other industry but also to 00:03:36.083 --> 00:03:36.843 our industry. 00:03:37.083 --> 00:03:38.684 So we're very committed to this. 00:03:38.684 --> 00:03:40.444 We have an internal AI team. 00:03:40.444 --> 00:03:44.925 We've been building our own AI that's really changed the way that we invest. 00:03:44.965 --> 00:03:50.126 A very simple example is our health care team uses AI today to develop market maps 00:03:50.126 --> 00:03:53.767 that used to take an associate or analyst days to develop, 00:03:53.767 --> 00:03:57.168 now it takes 10 to 15 minutes to develop those market maps. 00:03:58.128 --> 00:04:02.849 And I think you'll see that the whole private capital investment world really 00:04:02.849 --> 00:04:04.929 adopts AI over the next few years. 00:04:04.929 --> 00:04:06.329 We want to be leaders in that. 00:04:07.130 --> 00:04:09.930 And our partnership with BCG has also been core to that. 00:04:09.930 --> 00:04:13.531 We're excited that we now have an internal AI leader, 00:04:13.531 --> 00:04:18.372 our partnership with BCG on AI, and we look forward to continuing to be 00:04:18.372 --> 00:04:20.652 an AI-driven venture capital firm. 00:04:21.252 --> 00:04:24.373 Raj, thank you for your insights and for your partnership. 00:04:24.493 --> 00:04:25.173 Thank you, Vikas.