Sadev Capital Research
Investment Thesis
Sadev Capital (publicly branded as Sadev Ventures, and known as Eternal Capital prior to an August 2025 rebrand) is a Gurgaon-based, India-focused venture fund investing under the banner "By Bharat, For Bharat, From Bharat." The firm's stated thesis is that transformative businesses are built at the intersection of financial, social, and intellectual capital, and that remarkable companies are "always co-created by a tribe" rather than a single check-writer. In practice this means the fund pairs capital with an active bench of operator-advisors (including executives connected to CRED, Haptik, and Legacy Growth) who support portfolio founders directly.
Sector Focus
The fund is explicitly sector-agnostic but has concentrated capital in Indian consumer and fintech-adjacent categories: financial services and neobanking-style fintech (Rocket Pay, Embifi, Unipe, Prosperr.io, Liquide), D2C consumer and food/beverage brands (Gladful, Cookd, DrinkPrime, Cleevo, Nuuk, Asaya), ecommerce and quick-commerce (Furrl, Swish Club, Xneeti, AdmitKard), vertical SaaS (Crest, The Arc, Metamorphosys, Str8bat), and logistics (Pico Xpress, Apni Bus).
Stage Focus
Sadev invests from pre-seed through pre-Series A, with the bulk of checks landing at pre-seed and seed. A handful of portfolio companies (Basic Home Loans, DrinkPrime) have reached Series A, largely via follow-on participation rather than as the initiating check.
Check Size
Publicly stated check size is Rs 2-10 crore (roughly $240K-$1.2M), tightened from an initial Rs 2-6 crore range disclosed at the August 2025 rebrand. Checks are typically the first institutional capital into a company.
Lead Tendency
Mixed. Sadev has been reported as the lead investor in some rounds (Cleevo's $1M seed) and as a participating investor alongside a named lead in others (Fifth Sense's pre-seed, led by OTP Ventures). Treat lead tendency as "both" pending more examples.
Recent Activity
The fund rebranded from Eternal Capital to Sadev Ventures on August 26, 2025, aligning the public brand with founder Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl's family office name. At rebrand, AUM was Rs 120 crore (with a Rs 120 crore greenshoe option), roughly half deployed. By May 2026 AUM had grown to Rs 240 crore, with a target of Rs 1,000 crore over 18-24 months. In May/June 2026 the firm added Ishan Kansal (ex-CRED, ex-Snabbit Head of Product) as co-founder and Managing Partner to lead a second Indian office, and disclosed plans for a second equity fund and a formal entry into venture debt. The fund's most recent disclosed investment was in Fifth Sense (D2C fragrance brand) on April 17, 2026.
Portfolio Highlights
The portfolio spans two internal buckets referred to as "Fund 0" (19 companies) and "Fund 1" (15 companies), totaling 34+ named investments plus at least one 2026 investment (Fifth Sense) not yet reflected on the public portfolio page. Notable names include Bidso (toy/licensing platform with multi-year Hasbro, Hello Kitty, and Chhota Bheem licensing deals disclosed June 2025), Hypergro (AI-driven personalized video ad platform, profiled by Inc42), DrinkPrime and Basic Home Loans (the portfolio's two Series A companies), and Gladful and Cookd (food/beverage brands that raised follow-on rounds in mid/late 2025 with Sadev participating).
Team
- Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl, Founder & Managing Partner: former BharatPe COO; founded the fund in 2024; educated at INSEAD, Cass Business School, and Boston University.
- Ishan Kansal, Co-Founder & Managing Partner (joined ~June 2026): previously Head of Product at Snabbit and held a leadership role at CRED; tasked with standing up Sadev's second office.
- Divyakshi Satija, Principal, Investments: George Washington University and University of Warwick.
- Zeal Lilani, Portfolio Management & Operations: Alliance Francaise Bombay, University of Mumbai, Queen Mary University of London.
- Diksha Bharti, Investor Relations & Operations: NIFT and University of Delhi.
- Suryansh Mehrotra, Associate, Investments: University of Manchester.
- Advisory bench includes Suraj Malik (Legacy Growth), Suhail Sameer (OTP Ventures), Sunil Chawla (ex-Jacob Ballas Capital), Nikhil Bhandarkar (Panthera Peak), Miten Sampat (President, CRED), Aakrit Vaish (Co-Founder & CEO, Haptik), and Parul Soni (Thinkthrough Consulting).
Decision Process
Not publicly disclosed in detail. Given the small core team clustered around a single Founder & Managing Partner plus a Principal and Associate, decisions likely run through a partnership-style process centered on Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl and now Ishan Kansal, with the advisory bench providing diligence input rather than formal votes.
Founder Preferences
Public materials emphasize founders building "sustainable, India-rooted businesses with global reach" who have already reached product-market fit and show a credible path to profitable revenue, rather than pure pre-PMF bets.
Geographic Focus
Exclusively India-focused, with the founding team based in Gurgaon and portfolio companies concentrated in Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Chennai, Noida, Pune, and Indore. The planned second office (under Ishan Kansal) signals continued domestic expansion rather than international scope.