Ujwal Sutaria
Founder and Managing Partner at TDV Partners
About
I'm Ujwal Sutaria, Founder and Managing Partner at TDV Partners, a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm. My journey started in engineering, led me to found two startups—FruitOn and Athletto—and then into venture capital at InnoVen Capital before launching TDV. I'm deeply passionate about backing early-stage founders, especially in consumer spaces and AI-native marketplaces, and I strongly believe India is poised to produce the next trillion-dollar companies. I offer not just capital but active mentorship drawn from my operational experience. I'm always on the lookout for bold founders tackling risky or 'impossible' categories, and I value building relationships through what I call 'Sweat Equity Networking'—connecting offline through sports and fitness.
Networking
What I can offer
- ›Capital investment for pre-seed and seed-stage startups
- ›Active mentorship for early-stage startups
- ›Operational experience as a former founder
- ›Market trend and IPO analysis to educate the ecosystem
Looking for
- ›Founders building companies at pre-seed and seed stages
- ›Startups in the consumer space, especially AI-native marketplaces
- ›Risky bets and impossible categories
Best fit for
Current Interests
Background
Career
Started as an Engineer at Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, founded FruitOn and Athletto, served as Associate Director at InnoVen Capital India, was an Angel Investor, and is now Founder and Managing Partner at TDV Partners.
Education
PGP (Master's) in General Management & Entrepreneurship from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Bachelor of Technology in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology
Achievements
- ›At TDV Partners, built a select portfolio including TradeX, Aftershoot, Kindlife, and others
- ›As Associate Director at InnoVen Capital, portfolio companies raised USD 3B+ in funding and reached a valuation of USD 9B+
- ›As Founder of Athletto, raised seed funding, expanded to 8 Indian cities and internationally, and secured partnerships with Decathlon and Bengaluru Football Club
- ›As Founder of FruitOn, acquired over 500 monthly paying customers in less than 2 months
- ›As Engineer at PGCIL, filed ~60 tariff petitions worth ~Rs. 222.64 billion and achieved a 99.53% tariff conversion ratio
Opinions
- India is uniquely positioned to produce the next set of trillion dollar companies
- Has a significant bias for repeat founders or founders with domain expertise and a higher preference for high tech, low ops ventures
- The AI hype cycle is officially over. We are now in the era of utility
- The Marketplace graveyard is now a greenfield and AI is fundamentally rewriting marketplace economics by replacing matching with orchestration
- Advocates for Sweat Equity Networking, stating that physical presence becomes premium when everything is digitally abundant
- Critiques recent angel tax guidelines, stating they are hampering early stage startup funding
- Expresses that most day traders are not making money, comparing it unfavorably to gambling