THE LONG-TERM INVESTOR

The co-founder of Snapdeal and Titan Capital talks about his journey from entrepreneur to investor, what he looks for in early-stage companies, and his obsession with Virat Kohli's shaving routine

- Arun Janardhan

Rohit Bansal, the co-founder of e-commerce platform Snapdeal and early-stage venture investment firm Titan Capital, has an anecdote about Beardo, the male grooming company Titan invested in. During the early days of the company (founded in 2015), an in-house joke sometimes concern-used to be about cricketer Virat Kohli's facial fuzz. "Beards now have become a lot more mainstream," Bansal says, himself experimenting with a 10-day stubble. "It used to be sporadic; it sounded like a fad. I remember half the days we used to wake up-including the Beardo team-praying that Kohli should not shave his beard," he adds laughing. "Every other week, we would meet and say 'he still has it"."

Kohli's beard has survived well into 2024-as did Beardo, while Titan Capital continues to grow its portfolio of over 250 companies, including half-a-dozen unicorns (companies with a billion-dollar-plus evaluation). Titan Capital's inventory today includes Ola Cabs, Urban Company, Shadowfax, Razorpay, Khatabook, Zinier, Mamaearth, Bira, GoMechanic, and Yellow Messenger, among others.

Bansal and Kunal Bahl, who co-founded Snapdeal, formed Titan Capital in 2011 as a means to support budding entrepreneurs, a journey they themselves have traversed. "When we were starting (in the late 2000s), the number of venture investors were few. More importantly, there were almost no operator investors-people who had made something and could give feedback, especially at the early stages (of a business)," says Bansal. "We started meeting entrepreneurs with an open mind, not even with the intention of writing cheques or investing. It was more of just mentorship and support. That's how we started our investing journey."

At Taj Bangalore's Café 77 East near the airport, having just flown in from Delhi, Bansal, dressed in a black shirt, jeans and sneakers, brims with enthusiasm as he nurses a cup of coffee.