Aakash Kumar
Managing Director at Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India) and Managing Director at DeVC
Actively posts about AI agents, cybersecurity, venture capital investing, and promoting portfolio companies and ecosystem events
Intro
I'm Aakash Kumar, a Managing Director at both Z47 and DeVC, focused on early-stage venture capital investing from pre-seed to Series B. My career has spanned from co-founding startups to leading growth at major companies like Hotstar, where I scaled subscriptions to over 40 million paid users. I'm passionate about backing missionary founders from day zero and believe the earliest stages of venture are truly special. I actively engage with topics like AI agents, cybersecurity, and the growth of India's tech ecosystem in DeepTech and Space Tech. I offer capital, collaboration, and connectivity for founders looking to raise pre-seed or seed rounds, and I'm always excited to connect with driven entrepreneurs building transformative companies.
Networking
What I can offer
- ›Capital for pre-seed or seed rounds
- ›Collaboration and connectivity for early-stage founders
- ›Early-stage venture capital investing expertise
- ›Startup growth and monetisation strategy
- ›Go-to-market planning and product building advice
What I'm looking for
- ›Founders looking to raise pre-seed or seed rounds
Best fit for
Focus
Current interests
Core competencies
Background
Career
Started as co-founder of Wings HR Solutions, then consultant at Star India, co-founder and CEO of Wings Intellect, Lead - Product & Business at Housing.com, Chief Strategy Officer at Housing.com, Products & Monetisation at Indus OS, VP - Digital Products and Revenue at Hotstar, SVP - Growth at Hotstar, Angel Investor, Managing Director at Z47, Managing Director at DeVC
Education
Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) in Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (2005 - 2011); Delhi Public School Vasant Kunj (2003 - 2005)
Achievements
- ›Scaled Hotstar subscriptions to 40M+ paid users and ads monetisation to $200M+ as SVP - Growth
- ›Partnered with 100+ founders as earliest angel investor with exits including Trell, Rupifi, Wakao
- ›Launched and scaled Housing.com primary real estate sales business to 60+ locations and 6K real estate developers as Lead - Product & Business
Opinions
- Backing and collaborating with missionary founders irrespective of how early they are
- The earliest stages of venture are so special
- Runtime protection is NOT optional
- AI security agents will act as a trojan horse for a dramatic platform shift against incumbent security data giants
- Most excited about system design and game design
Personality
Communication style
Enthusiastic, confident, and direct with energetic language and vivid metaphors
Formality — 4/10
Vocabulary