India's First Institutional Search Investor- Chaitanya Rathi, Searchlight ETA

Chaitanya Rathi has spent two decades as an operator, entrepreneur and investor in India. He helped build Sula Vineyards’ wine tourism business, later returned as COO and helped take the company public, and in between worked in both private equity and venture capital, investing in and helping build consumer businesses across India. He eventually began exploring an acquisition of his own, discovered ETA, and instead decided to build Searchlight ETA, becoming the first dedicated search fund investor in India. In this episode, we discuss: Why he believes India could follow the same trajectory in search that it did in private equity and venture capital How Indian business owners view search funds differently from traditional private equity, particularly around succession and preserving their legacy Why financing acquisitions remains one of the biggest challenges for Indian searchers, and how the capital stack differs from the US Where he sees the most attractive opportunities, including regulated SaaS, precision manufacturing and export-oriented businesses What he has learned from India’s first wave of searchers and acquisitions, and why getting the first few deals right is critical to building the ecosystem How India’s combination of aging business owners, returning diaspora talent and long-term economic growth could create a major opportunity for ETA   Send us Fan Mail Support the show Find us on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and YouTube.