Aakash Kumar

Managing Director at Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India) and Managing Director at DeVC

Early-stage venture capital investingStartup growth and monetisationGo-to-market strategyProduct buildingCorporate strategy and M&AAd-tech and revenue operations

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About

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

Looking for

›Founders looking to raise pre-seed or seed rounds

Best fit for

Early-stage foundersMissionary foundersInvestors and venture capitalistsTech industry leaders

Current Interests

AI agents and open-source modelsCybersecurity and software supply chain securityVenture capital and startup ecosystem in IndiaDeepTech and Space TechEnterprise SaaS implementation

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