- 6/26/2025
Will India Emerge as the Next Web3 Hotspot by 2025?
Join Thomas Abraham, CRO of Zeeve, and Prateek M, General Partner at Levitate Labs, as they explore the future of Web3 in India. In this insightful discussion, they dive into critical topics such as:
Venture funding trends for Indian Web3 startups
The distinctive strengths of Indian founders and what draws investor interest
The infrastructure required to support a robust Web3 ecosystem
Key challenges and emerging opportunities for Indian Web3 companies
The potential for India to become a global Web3 leader by 2025
Whether you're a Web3 enthusiast, entrepreneur, investor, or simply curious about the next phase of the internet, this video is a must-watch.
Join Thomas Abraham, CRO of Zeeve, and Prateek M, General Partner at Levitate Labs, as they explore the future of Web3 in India. In this insightful discussion, they dive into critical topics such as:
Venture funding trends for Indian Web3 startups
The distinctive strengths of Indian founders and what draws investor interest
The infrastructure required to support a robust Web3 ecosystem
Key challenges and emerging opportunities for Indian Web3 companies
The potential for India to become a global Web3 leader by 2025
Whether you're a Web3 enthusiast, entrepreneur, investor, or simply curious about the next phase of the internet, this video is a must-watch.
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00:46Well that was a famous Bollywood song titled Bar Bar Dekho
00:53which also happens to be one of the favorites of my next guest
00:58and that is Prateek who is the general partner at Levitate Labs
01:02which is an India focused venture fund sharply focused on the Web3 ecosystem
01:08and who else better qualified than Prateek to have this conversation with me around
01:14whether India would become the hub for Web3 startups in 2025.
01:22So let's get on with the chat.
01:25Good afternoon viewers. I have with me today Prateek who is the general partner at Levitate Labs
01:32which is a Web3 native India focused venture fund.
01:38So Prateek it's you know great to have you on the show today.
01:42Thanks Thomas for inviting me and looking forward to our conversation.
01:48Yeah absolutely and I've always been intrigued about how the Web3 ecosystem in India is evolving
01:55so I thought you know no better than you to have a chat with
01:58to really figure out whether India would emerge as the Web3 startup hub you know in 2025.
02:06You know lots of things will happen in 2025 and you know I'm sort of figuring out
02:12whether India would actually emerge on the forefront of Web3.
02:18So you know it's great to have this chat but I thought it might be good Prateek
02:22just to get the conversation going maybe you could tell us a little bit about
02:27your own personal Web3 journey.
02:31Yeah so I got into Web3 just post COVID you know was associated with you know few of the
02:41accelerators in the past and being in the founder's shoes myself in the previous five years in the
02:48Web2. I was more intrigued into the operator space so that's where naturally the venture fund
02:55you know sort of thing came in. So started investing you know right from that capacity
03:01and it's been like almost four years now and you know I think the investing journey is going on pretty
03:11well. I mean we've been fortunate to you know invest and support you know few of our Indian
03:18entrepreneurs and see some success stories emerging right because at the end of the day
03:22we want to have that KPI as well you know what sort of success metrics were generated
03:27and back few use cases which are really making some impact you know over here in India over there in
03:34the world you know in that particular way. Yeah yeah fabulous. So I mean great to see someone who's
03:43been here for four plus years in the Web3 world. You know I'm a relative newcomer to Web3. I've been
03:49around less than two years so but you know it's a when in the Web3 when you get into it your
03:55learning curve is rapid right. I mean you're you're you know there's so much of innovation happening
04:00every day is a new day and I know you and I I don't think we've probably ever met in India right.
04:07I mean you're in Bangalore I'm in Delhi. Most of our meetings have been in either in you know San
04:13Francisco or New York or Denver or whatever it is right at all these conferences and you know those
04:18are great learning opportunities because you meet get to meet a wide cross-section of people.
04:23So most of my learning has come from you know my own colleagues at Zeev as well as you know people
04:29that I meet around the world at all these conferences and it's never a dull day. I mean I find it
04:35so exciting to be in Web3. Yeah I mean yeah absolutely I think that's the beauty of this industry right
04:43either high or low there's always some entertainment activity which is going on. Yeah absolutely.
04:50Which seems to be very stupid when you you know look from outside but you're really into the system
04:57you know you're absorbed by it and then you know you know what sort of the culture the communities you
05:03know what sort of things are playing around. So it's always exciting day. Yeah absolutely. Yeah so
05:08so perhaps Prateek we can dive a little deeper into you know what Levitate Labs is all about maybe a
05:15little deeper what kind of traction you've had and maybe you can also clarify I mean are you
05:21more like a venture fund or it's an accelerator or it's a combination of actually both of these
05:28because when I was looking at your website and trying to and you I think you had you had some
05:32unique positioning of Levitate Labs. Yeah. It'd be great to hear from you on all that. Yeah so we
05:38initially started you know as an accelerator so you know in our first couple of cohorts it was more
05:45about you know we used to write checks of like 50,000 dollars and have you know a couple of
05:51percentage as equity tokens and support these entrepreneurs over a period of time. But I think
05:57the problem with the Web3 is the kind of evolution it happens I think every two or three months the
06:03industry is very very skeptical on changes and you know I think it's more community oriented
06:08more sort of rewarding to the users you know sort of thing. So that's where we realized I think you
06:14know this model will not scale up as easily particularly in India you know given the kind of
06:19you know development that we are having. So that's where you know we changed or we repositioned into
06:26like a venture fund you know sort of an aspect. So right now the way we do is we are focused on like
06:33Indian founders a lot and a lot of things which are happening in India. So that's our core friend. So
06:38on one side we are supporting and investing in a lot of Indian founders. These are primarily early
06:45stage founders who are probably you know going through their round one. Now once this investment
06:51has been done then we support them through various journeys you know support them in raising their next
06:57round or connecting them to the next set of lead VCs or even help them in GTM or you know onboard more
07:04angels or you know help them in BD aspects or community aspects or whatever ways you know that
07:10are possible. I think we have a healthy portfolio of I think 60 plus companies now and there have been
07:16a lot of learnings in the last you know four years. So our general approach is to give the right set of
07:21examples so this founders know you know the advice where it is coming from and you know what sort of
07:28weightage you know it carries on. And on the second part we do invest in a lot of international
07:33startups as well who primarily want or have India as one of their GTM markets because what we think is
07:40and our thesis is India relatively has not seen enough success stories right apart from Polygon,
07:47Bykonomi, Push and you know few other initial days protocol. There has not been those crazy billion
07:54dollar you know companies you know that are emerging out and the primary reason for that is
07:59there's not enough ecosystem over here. Regulatory concern is one thing but you know not diving more
08:05into it but it's more about the support system you know which which has to be provided. I mean in the
08:10initial days of the web 2 where you know the venture funding was pretty less and I think the more focus
08:15was on how these applications would run what sort of users would come. I think we are still in those
08:21initial phases and while these startups you know they need some stronger partnerships they need some
08:26stronger examples that hey you know what in India this billion dollar company is there their vision
08:32is pretty clear they are very sharp on what sort of target they want to achieve how they are operating
08:37and something. So that's where our second thesis of investing into international companies and you know
08:42having India as one of their GTM then we introduce them to our you know early stage or India focused
08:49you know companies and that's where the cross collaboration happens. We were skeptical initially
08:55when we took this approach but I think in last 12 months we have seen enough you know success stories
09:02and I think you know we are doubling down on that aspect. So that's more about Levitate you know and
09:07you know generally I mean the whole team's approach is to support the founders you know it doesn't matter
09:13whether you know we are investing or not investing or something but we have a very very fair approach
09:18on say if that particular you know company does not lie in the thesis we help them with a lot of
09:25connections. We organize a lot of demo day events in India and internationally as well so we give this
09:32opportunity to a lot of these founders you know to come and present with larger set of international
09:37VCs get the feedback and you know then move ahead. So our focus is like India success stories and you
09:45know have some really credible use cases coming out. Yeah so I'm a little intrigued around this entire
09:51concept of early stage you know companies. In my earlier avatar I used to run an accelerator of my own
09:59like which was focused more on the HR tech space and whatever and you know these were mostly early stage
10:06companies and what I realized was that it took me about three months or so to really figure out
10:12if that company would make the cut right I mean that level of engagement was required
10:18and I figured out that look there was a lot of effort required to establish product market fit
10:24right a very critical component and as part of the product market fit
10:28acquiring the first few customers right to really first few paying customers apart from you know some
10:36three POCs and so on to really make sure that you know is that your customer is actually saying
10:43who's cutting a check is actually saying that look that actually your proposition is actually working
10:48for me and what also happens is that once you have paying customers then you're showing some
10:53revenue and then when you have revenue it's much easier to raise capital right now and then of course
11:00how do you scale them across geographies and things of that kind so so the challenge really I mean I guess to a lot of
11:07accelerators and other VC funds would be how do you really assess an early stage company right and how do you
11:15really make sure that it is going to be a viable proposition for you particularly if you're the only fund or the
11:24only accelerator which is cutting a check into that particular company because in the failure and you may not have
11:30those three months like I used to have because mine was a you know I didn't have a fund it was only
11:36hands-on support you know to these early stage companies so I could afford a three-month dating phase before
11:43figuring out you know whether we had to you know go the whole way so I think that could be a significant
11:50challenge so you know how do you really determine whether this particular startup is viable whether
11:59it is scalable and whether it can make a difference you know in a in a short period of time yeah so I
12:07think traditionally if you see Thomas I think a lot of these companies who have gone to the next level
12:13of success I think that community orientation has been one of the most fundamental you know aspects of
12:20in it and I was debating the earlier day with a few of my colleagues saying that why you know web2
12:26founders or someone you know who are coming have not been you know predominantly successful because
12:31it's it's a very different you know a complete environment where I think the focus is lot on the users lot on
12:38the other aspects of it and I think you see that right from the tokenomics perspective because with founders
12:44and advisors I think it's just 20-25 percent rest is all you know for other efforts you know which goes on
12:49so I think it's it's a whole level you know different field and that's why we need those
12:55specific founders or that specific ideology if we want to see some success story so it right away starts
13:01on how big the vision is and how are you going to market that vision because I think that is one of
13:07the most fundamental things if you are not you know good into that particular aspect then it's a very
13:14questionable thing because you know there are tons of tokens out there there are tons of innovations
13:19happening around you need to stand out yourselves in some of the other capacity so we really see that
13:24particular is there a charm or is there a you know a fire you know in that particular team or a founder
13:32to make it happen you know to make it you know that sort of a big and with the valuations that we go in
13:38generally in the first round you know it's typically early stage you know 15 to you know 30 million you
13:44know sort of a general valuation range so we obviously try to see you know how big you know
13:49this particular thing could be so for example if it is a d5 project we try to see you know what sort
13:56of other aspects it can mean how big it can be and what sort of different strategies this team is
14:01pushing you know to really make it happen uh and if and we get the answer over there does it does this
14:07team have that capability to do like a 100 or a 200 or a 500 million ftv or you know more beyond that
14:13now we've seen some you know really crazy stories where from the first round itself like we knew you
14:20know this founder has that capability to make it beyond a billion dollar ftv and you know those success
14:27stories have spun out because you know they have like a very specific focus on the what they want to
14:33achieve and they are very very fundamentally aligned you know onto where this thought process is now the
14:40second or the other part of also thing is a lot of post you know the ftx and other things a lot of
14:47founders have been focusing on fundamental part of it you know is this revenue generating you know what
14:53sort of customer you know acquisitions has to happen do they have the clear roadmap on what the product
14:59is is the product live and you know do they have any sort of customers you know what sort of
15:04adoption is being there so you know certain set of things you know goes around that yeah so it's a mix
15:09of you know all these kind of things and given our market i think the hot narratives you know obviously
15:15change after 6 to 12 months right i mean last year we saw ai deep in and meme coins really burst out
15:21right this year we are seeing ai d sci uh deaf ai i think you know few new things you know coming in
15:28so we gotta come to that thing and you know then then we generally evaluate yeah you know absolutely
15:34so now moving uh diving a bit deeper into the uh you know indian ecosystem as far as web 3 is concerned
15:40i mean we keep hearing a lot of positive reports in the press i mean we know there are thousand plus
15:47startups there are when india contributes to about 12 percent of the developer pool worldwide i think
15:53second to the us and people say by 2027 india will be the number one as far as you know the developer
16:00pool is concerned uh but i think on the other hand you know one also reads about a lot of people who
16:06are indian origin so they're based here they you know maybe start their business here they have a
16:13dev shop in india but pretty much you know the companies are all incorporated globally right and
16:18the founders move overseas after they achieve some level of success raise some amount of capital and
16:24what have you so uh uh and then uh you know we're not uh you know fully clear about you know what the
16:31regulatory situation is and you know and and all that you know what's going to happen if somebody
16:36wants to you know list a token in india and you know how is how are the token treated by
16:42the government by the tax people for the people who will own those tokens and what i view so uh so
16:48the question really is that uh is it that there is a there is more hype at this point in time
16:54uh or is it is this something uh solid happening uh at the grassroots level and we will definitely see
17:042025 as a year when a lot of founders will emerge a lot of startups will emerge
17:11in the web3 space and therefore it becomes very interesting for accelerators and you know
17:18investment vehicles like yours uh to have a piece of that particular pie i mean what's your what's
17:24your take on the landscape and what exactly is transpiring there today and how do you see it you
17:30know changing in let's say in the next 12 months yeah so india is always an interesting uh you know
17:37market right i mean if you see the number wise i think we are the second largest developer pool i
17:42think 12 or 13 percent share in the entire world is where you know these things are so that's where
17:48we see all the ecosystem setting up the local shops uh and you know like really you know helping
17:55and supporting these entrepreneurs to build applications on top of them so it's a very suitable
17:59market from a bigger company to come into india because obviously you have a lot of people
18:04uh you know to experiment and you know play around with but if you see the startup journey uh you
18:10know generally uh the reason why you know we haven't seen a lot of success stories and still you
18:16know we have got that threshold time is because we don't have you know like the bigger capitals you
18:23know coming out from here we don't have folks who are leading the round or we don't have you know
18:28people putting up this large you know check sizes now consider a scenario uh where a very sharp founder
18:35you know he has some fantastic idea and he has got the appropriate team you know to make this thing
18:41happen and you know make it there if he's sitting over here there's a very you know chance i think
18:47with the angels and you know with with fund like ours or you know suppose he can go max 200 250k
18:54he can there's no way you know to raise you know more capital than here now the next thing is you
18:59know he wants to have some contacts with venture funds so it's either the east part in singapore hong kong
19:06where you know he tries to attend some workshops make some connections or then you know head to the
19:11us you know to have similar set of approach now since the ecosystem is not in the place it's very hard
19:18for that founder to have a you know communication channels with these folks and you know stand him
19:25out over there it's it's it's fundamentally really hard thing to do and that's where the funding cycles
19:30for a lot of these entrepreneurs are really you know at large if you compare similar set of talent
19:36pools in in the other parts of the world and i think this will fundamentally change only when uh you
19:43know we have a lot of support ecosystem in there and and it is happening as we speak it's not that you
19:47know it's completely not there now you know there are some fantastic projects you know in the last
19:52year that have brewed from india like bit scrunch like kelp like open ledger you know who are you know
20:00at the crusp of you know like cross of 500 million ftb now a lot of these foundations have pledged in to
20:07support you know these entrepreneurs and you know we we are working alongside them uh to support you know
20:13these sort of things and whatever the investors they have on the cap table or make sort of a
20:18consortium to help their ideas grow and you know help them execution so we're trying to bridge the
20:23gap where a founder comes he's got a fantastic idea he's got a fantastic team he's got a fantastic
20:28product now you know just let's help him and you know help him close the round and you know move
20:33to the next uh you know steps of ahead so it will happen uh good founders obviously you know
20:39come in trenches so you know it will happen at its own pace but i think the situation will drastically
20:45improve when we have a lot of you know venture funds who are focusing on solutions or you know
20:51founders who are building over here one other uh thing which is a bit back thomas's i think the web2
20:58industry flourished because the products were made here which were consumed here so that cycle was you
21:04know pretty much and that's where we have i mean in a city like bangalore we have got 200 plus
21:08venture capital firms over here because you know they are looking at you know all these companies
21:14who primarily are serving the audience here uh you know are there but in web3 it's very difficult
21:20because from day one you have that global market you have you know those other scenarios so it's
21:25taking time but you know we will be eventually be there yeah no i think i think i think that's true i
21:31think maturing of the ecosystem is a very critical thing number one number two a significant web3
21:37market in india and then you know we've heard some reports recently of some telcos getting into it
21:44very actively you know maybe things will change right also the government initiatives are happening
21:49so i think uh i think they're more on the government side uh but uh i think the concept of
21:55blockchain web3 will will become more mainstream as people start seeing applications around them that they're
22:02using which are more web3 and sort of blockchain driven uh yeah but from our perspective from zeep's
22:09perspective you know we're trying to do our bit we we're saying that look uh can we really offer
22:14because one of the things that we see in india is that a lot of founders uh you know the first thing
22:20when you meet them is they want a grant right i mean even before i mean then i don't think the
22:26conversation is much around their value proposition and how are they going to make a difference but it's more
22:31around you know can we get some money right to actually start something right so you know from
22:38our perspective you know we have recently launched uh you know with avalanche l1 we have launched uh
22:43you know at a price of uh of which is actually a no-brainer at fifty dollars you could set up a test
22:49net right fifty dollars a month and at nine nine five dollars you could you know have a main net which
22:55so we've really brought down the costs the prices is you know significantly and hopefully uh it should
23:01encourage uh and be starting seeing some traction in india quite a few indian founders have started
23:06knocking on our doors and we are having some of these conversations so you know uh so how do you how do
23:13you see uh you know us being able to let's say collaborate with levitate labs given your focus being
23:19significant in india and uh you know how do you see some synergies uh coming out of this
23:24yeah uh i think what you guys are doing and you know with the recent partnerships i think it's really
23:32helpful for a lot of early stage developers who are still planting on that idea uh they have the
23:38idea and they want to get into quick execution and quick adoption i think you know it's one of the
23:42fastest way uh i think we can definitely explore uh a few joint programs you know where the startup
23:50supply and you know then you guys provide some credits or you know help them in certain hand
23:55holding and then you know take it to the last uh i think these could be the start of it and then
24:00eventually we can see some strategic help to certain founders who are doing on some use cases you know
24:07which really matter you know here in india so we've seen like couple of uh projects that are
24:12working with government on the blockchain technology in various government departments you know to
24:18have it happen so you know that that could be a fantastic you know cases as well yeah yeah great
24:23so uh so finally uh prateek i don't know are you traveling to denver eat denver yeah so uh you
24:30should uh join us on the 28th of february at eat denver we are hosting a roll up an app chain day
24:37uh and avalanche is going to be co-hosting with us and uh you know we expect some some great uh
24:44keynote speakers some uh exciting you know debates on various panels and fireside chats uh so that's
24:51the third of our uh roll up days the roll up app chain days that we're running uh we're very excited
24:57and uh yeah hope i think we should uh catch up in denver next right we don't meet in india but
25:02we will meet in denver next yeah so uh so so thank you so much uh prateek for your time it was
25:09great to understand uh your take on the indian uh you know web3 startup ecosystem uh and you know
25:16some of the challenges that you know some of these startups are facing and also the fact that this
25:21ecosystem uh with the investment uh environment and so on you know that has to evolve right uh to make
25:28it a lot more vibrant but uh uh yeah but what's your final note i mean do you think 2025 something
25:35significant will happen with uh startups in india yeah definitely i think we are seeing like uh you
25:41know large amount of uh developers you know coming up with some fresh ideas for some implementations and
25:47if you observe markets in last two months i think you know uh not raising from vcs and going for a
25:54launch you know kind of theme is also picking up so if these you know folks are quick enough they
25:59understand how the market sentiment is yeah uh they you know partner with right sort of people and you
26:04know do blast on marketing i'm pretty sure we'll see some success stories uh you know coming out and
26:09apart from that i think uh we've also got some uh global you know funds who are you know looking uh
26:17you know to have some serious you know investments over here in india so hopefully you know this year is
26:22going to be you know more fruitful for you know a lot of these companies yeah that sounds very
26:28encouraging and very exciting and and we hope that 2025 something significant will happen here
26:33so thanks so much prateek for your time it was uh fantastic chatting with you
26:37and uh we'll see you in the next couple of weeks in denver
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