Building enduring startups: Inside Yagnesh Sanghrajka’s founder-first philosophy at 247VC

In a Mumbai office that feels more like a well-run finance desk than a flashy startup hub, Yagnesh Sanghrajka is quietly rewriting what discipline can look like in early-stage venture.

A chartered accountant by training, seasoned CFO, and now Managing Partner at 247VC, Yagnesh’s career spans IPOs, acquisitions, and cycles of boom and correction in India’s startup ecosystem. Through all of it, one belief has hardened: enduring companies are built on fundamentals, not fashion.

Raised in Indore in a family of engineers and graduates, Yagnesh chose a different route: finance. Qualifying as a CA, he moved through corporate finance roles and boardrooms before taking on CXO responsibilities including CFO stints where he steered companies through public listings and strategic exits.

His entry into venture capital came in 2007 as Operating Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners India, followed by a pivotal role as co-founder at 100X.VC. There, he helped pioneer the use of India’s iSAFE note structure, evaluated tens of thousands of decks, and mentored thousands of founders. It was a masterclass in pattern recognition – not just of business models, but of human behaviour under pressure.

With 247VC, built in partnership with Shashank, Yagnesh has channelled those learnings into a focused, founder-first fund backed by a Rs 200 crore corpus. The firm gravitates towards sectors where India has structural advantages: advanced manufacturing, frontier and deep tech, enterprise AI, and, selectively, consumer technology.

For 247VC, the screening question is simple but unforgiving: is this a must-have solution? And is this a founder who can adapt when the market inevitably changes?

The fund’s portfolio includes companies such as fintech platforms serving blue-collar workers in Tier-2/3 India and other businesses building real infrastructure rather than vanity apps. Across these bets, Yagnesh emphasises principles like upbringing, humility, and coachability as much as pitch polish.

In his view, capital is not the start of the entrepreneurial journey; it is validation of groundwork already done.

How does a fund like 247VC maintain conviction in a market that constantly swings between FOMO and fear? What frameworks does Yagnesh use to say “no” more often than “yes” – and still stay founder-friendly?

The answers sit in the full-length profile of Yagnesh and 247VC in The Indian Dream – 3rd Edition, as part of The Investimonial section.

You can read the complete piece on IndianDream.club.