March 2025 | Athera's Odyssey: The Mobility Story
Four seasoned leaders shed light on the mobility space in India.
In this month's edition of Odyssey, we spoke to Pravesh Biyani of Chartr, Deepesh Agarwal of MoveInSync, and Venugopal Ganapathy of Axilor + Alok Chauhan of Micelio to discuss mobility in India.
What are the roadblocks? What are the tailwinds? What is our unfair advantage?
It's a journey worth taking.
Happy reading, and have a stellar month ahead!
Mobility Matters
In a country where millions commute daily, the state of public transportation often determines the quality of life for its citizens.
While private vehicles and ride-hailing services capture the spotlight, India's massive public transport system, carrying tens of millions daily, operates largely in the shadows, desperately needing technological intervention and optimization.
Enter Pravesh Biyani, an IIIT Delhi professor turned mobility entrepreneur who's working to transform how India moves.
His venture, Chartr, began as an academic project to open up Delhi's public transport data and evolved into a mission to make public transport more efficient and accessible.
This is his story.
The Entrepreneurial Academic
"My PhD was in machine learning and signal processing," Biyani explains, tracing his journey from academia to entrepreneurship.
After completing his postdoctoral research in the US, he returned to India in 2013 and launched his first startup, offering machine learning services to businesses.
Though the venture didn't scale as expected—people were skeptical about sharing data and unfamiliar with machine learning models at the time—it laid the groundwork for his future endeavors.
The seed for Chartr was planted during Biyani's daily commute from Ghaziabad to South Delhi.
"It would take like one and a half hours coming from my home to the office and then back in the evening," he recalls.
The experience made him wonder why more people weren't using public transport and what could be done to improve it.
By 2015, Biyani had redirected his research toward public transport optimization. Initially, he tried launching a private bus service, pasting posters around apartments to announce routes.
"I thought people would just jump on it," he laughs, "but obviously it failed. I burned all the money."
Birth of Chartr
While working at IIITD and pursuing a consulting assignment at Yatra, working on a B2B mobility product, Biyani returned to his vision of improving public transport.
He approached the Delhi government with ideas for enhancing the system.
"The first thing we did was to use GPS in the buses, take the data, clean it and show it around," he says.
By 2018-2019, we helped the govt with all 3500 Delhi cluster buses with GPS tracking and scaled it to nearly 7000 buses by year 2021, creating what Biyani describes as "the biggest open data project in the country, and maybe in the world in the sense that no city has more than 8,000 buses that have opened up this much data." The project is still ongoing and the data can be accessed online.
Chartr truly gained momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Delhi government requested a contactless ticketing system. Without any funding, Biyani and his team (initially at IIIT Delhi) built a mobile ticketing solution that quickly garnered a million downloads. "Because we had GPS data, we immediately knew which passenger was in which bus on which route," he explains.
"They just had to fill out a ticket and would get it in about 30 seconds."
The Optimization Challenge
What sets Chartr apart is Biyani's academic background in machine learning and optimization.
"Journey planning is a hardcore optimization problem," he notes. "There are maybe three or four entities in India who can do accurate multimodal journey planning because you have so many variables—auto, metro, bus—plus their reliability and availability."
When asked about the advantages his research background provides, Biyani points to specific technical challenges they've solved:
"I have GPS data, but how do I know which route the bus is on? This is a trajectory mapping problem, a standard ML problem."
These technical challenges become even more complex at scale. "If you have 10,000 or 100,000 users asking questions every day, you need to do a good job with processing. It's not just a software problem; it's an optimization problem."
Working with Government: The Hard Part
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of Biyani's journey has been navigating government partnerships. "When the customer is the government, it becomes very complex," he admits.
"First, it's difficult to convince them that you know better what's good for passengers. Second, even if they like what you're saying, procurement is a huge problem. Everything is tendered."
As a startup with limited revenue, Chartr often doesn't meet the eligibility criteria for government tenders. "We still don't participate in most tenders because we just don't clear the revenue threshold," Biyani says.
Instead, they've relied on pilot projects and special initiatives like the "Transport for All" challenge to establish government relationships.
The Mobility Gap in India
When asked about gaps in India's mobility landscape, Biyani doesn't hesitate: "The gap is in not solving for the bottom 80% of people."
He observes that most mobility startups focus on higher-priced services—taxis, intercity buses, and last-mile solutions charging ₹100-200 per ride—which serve only a small percentage of Indians.
Meanwhile, mass transit systems move millions daily. "Five million people move in DTC buses in Delhi every day. Five million in BMTC. Five million in BEST," Biyani points out.
The challenge, he explains, is that these commuters pay less per ride, making it difficult to build a ₹100 crore ARR business. "It also involves the government, which is another complication," he adds.
Biyani believes the gap will continue to widen as roads become increasingly clogged with single-occupancy vehicles. "At some point, there will be no other way but to think about public transport. We can't keep expanding infrastructure forever."
He doesn't shy away from critiquing venture capital's role in this dynamic: "VCs have unfortunately not taken on that problem and thought beyond their power law model of 100x or 0. Mobility needs people who want to solve the problem, not just maximize their returns. Its sadder coz there are many profitable businesses that can be made in Mobility."
The Data Challenge and ONDC Solution
Data sharing presents another significant hurdle in India's mobility ecosystem. While Delhi has led the way in opening transport data, other cities lag behind, sometimes due to monopolistic players protecting their market share.
Biyani sees the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) as a promising solution. "Thanks to ONDC, ticketing has opened up. We've built ONDC in Delhi. We're the biggest ONDC seller as far as buses are concerned," he says proudly. "We sell around 1.5 lakh tickets a day now."
The platform has four buyers, including Chartr itself, with more joining soon. "Open data and ONDC are the way to go," Biyani asserts. "It's happening in Delhi, and it's going to happen in Bangalore and Mumbai. In three-four years, like UPI, you'll have players innovating on UX and cross-selling other services along with it."
Commercializing Academic Research
For academics looking to commercialize their research, Biyani advises focusing on the end goal: "Keep in mind that we have to solve a particular problem and put it in a production-ready framework. Then find someone willing to pay for it."
He acknowledges that professors often struggle with the sales aspect of entrepreneurship. "I'm not a typical salesperson," he admits. "I've failed many times and now I can write a book on what not to do when doing sales as a professor. However, our background also enables faster learning”.
Biyani suggests working backward from customer needs rather than building something and then searching for buyers. However, he does note one advantage academics have: "The respect I get initially is important. The first meeting is not difficult for us. Professors actually have a better chance of selling than most folks with the same skills."
The Indian Mobility Market vs. Global Counterparts
Comparing the Indian mobility market to international counterparts, Biyani notes stark differences in how technological solutions are received. "It's very difficult in India to convince people that making things efficient using a SaaS solution is valuable," he observes. "When I tell them I can save you 10% on fuel, which is equivalent to ₹3,000 a day, that sell is much easier in the US than in India."
Indian operators, particularly in public transport, tend to focus on direct revenue-increasing solutions rather than efficiency improvements. "I've found that B2B SaaS in mobility is almost impossible in India," Biyani sighs. "They understand apps because everybody uses apps, but they don't understand SaaS."
Consumer Behavior Insights
Biyani's data has revealed surprising insights about Indian commuter behavior. "We believe Indian consumers are very price-sensitive, but I've learned they've actually become more convenience-centric," he explains.
The team has identified what they call the "2x rule" for converting taxi users to public transport: "If a guy is paying ₹300 for a taxi, you need to offer a multimodal solution below ₹150, or there's no way he's switching from taxi or his own car. You need to decrease the price by 2x while still making it convenient."
Regional differences also emerge from their data. Comparing Delhi and Pune, Biyani observes that "the average income of a Pune bus user and Metro user is way higher than in Delhi."
He also notes that Pune shows better adoption of public transport solutions, with their app usage continuing to grow while Delhi has plateaued.
Class perception plays a role too, particularly in Delhi. "In Delhi, I've seen people not wanting to use public transport because of class perceptions," he says. "Having your own car or being driven by taxi is a class thing in Delhi."
Metrics That Matter
When asked about Chartr's key metrics, Biyani's answer reflects his mission-driven approach. "Our main metrics are twofold," he explains.
"First, we want more people to use public transport. That's our North Star. We go to any city, and we don't talk about money first; we talk about how we can help more people use public transport."
The second metric is simple. Survival.
"We want to survive because we haven't convinced people that we're fundable since we've never claimed we'll be a billion-dollar entity tomorrow," Biyani says candidly. "On the business side, we make sure we have six to twelve months of runway. On the tech side, our daily focus is to improve how we serve passengers better."
The Road Ahead. Literally.
One of Chartr's most compelling findings came from analyzing the impact of Delhi's odd-even scheme on traffic.
"Bus speeds improved by 15-20% during odd-even, which means that by removing a percentage of cars from the street, we could elevate everybody's speed," Biyani explains. "You could spend the same amount of time in a bus as in a car if there were fewer cars on the road."
This insight underscores Biyani's broader vision: breaking the vicious cycle of car dependency. "More cars lead to more congestion, which makes buses less appealing, which leads to more cars," he explains. "If we can interrupt this cycle through policy or the right product, we can solve a huge mobility problem for the country."
As India's cities continue to grow and mobility challenges intensify, ventures like Chartr represent a critical bridge between academic research and practical solutions. By combining data analytics, optimization algorithms, and a deep commitment to public transport, Biyani is working to ensure that mobility becomes more efficient, accessible, and sustainable for all Indians.
Not just those who can afford premium services.
For a nation where transportation efficiency directly impacts productivity and quality of life, this mission couldn't be more essential.
This is a speed analysis of one of the most congested parts of cities (near South-extension in Delhi) during the Odd-Even scheme. Other places also see a similar pattern. One can see that public transit speeds increased considerably during the odd-even scheme.
Our few sampled works:
Raashid Altaf, Pravesh Biyani: No Transfers Required: Integrating Last Mile with Public Transit Using Opti-Mile. ITSC 2023: 3845-3850
Charul Paliwal, Uttkarsha Bhatt, Pravesh Biyani, Ketan Rajawat: Traffic Estimation and Prediction via Online Variational Bayesian Subspace Filtering. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. 23(5): 4674-4684 (2022)
Raashid Altaf, Kshitj Srivastava, Pravesh Biyani, The Road Less Congested: A Policy-Driven Approach to Alleviating Congestion Through Last-Mile and Public Transit Integration (to present at) CASPT 2025 and TransitData2025 in Kyoto.
Moving In Sync
Commute times are getting longer and mobility solutions have never been more vital.
At the intersection of this problem sits MoveInSync, part of Athera’s portfolio, that ferries approximately 7 lakh office employees daily across India's tech hubs.
The Data Behind India's Traffic Patterns
"Traffic is actually neither created by God nor by government. We create traffic. We are traffic," Deepesh Agarwal, co-founder and CEO, begins with a refreshing perspective.
"Everybody who drives a car thinks that the other people are ‘traffic’ and he or she is the only exception."
Drawing from MoveInSync's extensive dataset primarily covering tech sector and white-collar workers, Agarwal reveals some fascinating patterns in office attendance.
Wednesday emerges as the peak day for office attendance nationwide, with Tuesday and Thursday following closely behind. Mondays and Fridays see significantly lower office attendance – only about 75% compared to mid-week peaks.
"What's counterintuitive to me is that this has been happening for the last 24 months, and still people don't show up to the office on a Monday or Friday," Agarwal notes.
"Friday is the least congested day. But for whatever is said and done, people still show up on a Wednesday."
Interestingly, this hybrid work pattern isn't entirely new.
"In a pre-COVID scenario, people did not work five days from the office, even though officially on all the HR documents it was mentioned as such," Agarwal explains.
"Work from home was happening in a very subtle manner – a team leader and a team would have a discussion that someone could take some time off. It was mostly unstructured."
The pandemic formalized these arrangements.
"After COVID, it's just become very structured. Employees ask about it in the offer letter. Companies declare it in their policies. CEOs declare what their work-from-office days are."
Currently, the average stands at about three days per week in office across India, with some regional variation. Bangalore and Mumbai hover around 3.2 days, while the National Capital Region approaches 3.9 to 4 days, largely due to the prevalence of BPO/BPS industries with more stringent attendance requirements.
The Commute Time Crisis
One of the most concerning trends Agarwal shares is the steady increase in commute times. "From pre-pandemic, on average, an Indian would commute 51 minutes one way, which now has become 60 minutes. It has increased by 18%," he reveals.
"And I feel there is no respite. Every year, 2-3% gets added because the city keeps expanding," Agarwal continues. "At peak hours in various cities, traffic moves as slow as 6-8 km per hour – a speed at which you could comfortably walk rather than drive."
This deterioration comes despite infrastructure improvements, highlighting the fundamental issue: too many vehicles, particularly single-occupancy cars.
The Single-Occupancy Problem
While India's cities often get compared to densely populated global metropolises, Agarwal points out a crucial distinction:
"Mumbai, Bangalore – our congestion or population density isn't unique. London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York have similar or higher population density, and they don't have traffic jams like ours."
The culprit?
"The biggest reason for all these congestions is single-occupancy vehicles – all these cars on the road with just one passenger," Agarwal asserts. "Shared mobility is the only answer to this problem."
This solution can take many forms – from metros carrying 200 people to buses with 40 passengers, or even cars with all four seats filled. The key is maximizing occupancy per vehicle.
Agarwal also highlights a governance challenge:
"Most cities have different departments for different transportation modes. In Bangalore, BMTC owns the bus transportation, BMRCL operates the Metro, and BBMP manages the bus stops. Buses and bus stops aren't even owned by the same department!"
This fragmentation means nobody takes a holistic view of urban mobility.
"There's no single authority thinking about how 70 lakh commuters in a city with 1.4 crore people can move efficiently," Agarwal notes.
Women's Safety and Corporate Transportation
When asked about the priorities for corporate commuters, Agarwal's response is unequivocal: "For women commuters, safety becomes the topmost thing."
This priority translates directly into workplace diversity.
"Companies where women feel they get convenient and safe commute are able to hire more women. Retention is higher," Agarwal explains. "There's a very strong correlation between women's safe mobility and workplace diversity."
The pattern extends beyond the tech sector.
"We've started working with factories on city outskirts, and many are looking at having more than 50% women employees, some even going to 100% women employees," he shares. "The biggest deciding factor for them is how safe their commute is."
For corporate transportation planning, safety concerns dictate service design. During daytime, companies might use multi-modal setups where employees walk short distances to pickup points. "But during nighttime, necessarily all companies provide point-to-point service, from office to home or home to office," Agarwal notes. "That's also dictated by safety and security norms."
The Hybrid Work Revolution
Before the pandemic, corporate transportation resembled "a school bus system" with fixed schedules and little flexibility.
The hybrid model created unpredictability that actually showcases the value of MoveInSync's technology. "In a hybrid world, the fact that I can tell you that on Friday, 78% of people would come to work – knowing this trend helps us plan," Agarwal explains.
"If next week is Ugadi in Bangalore followed by Eid, I would know exactly, based on patterns from the last two-three years, how many employees will come on Monday versus Tuesday," he continues.
"The more variables in the system, the easier it is for a tech-enabled transport provider to make their case."
The Slow Road to Electrification
Despite the buzz around electric vehicles, adoption in corporate transportation remains surprisingly low. "In corporate transportation, electric penetration is as low as 2.4%," Agarwal reveals.
"If 100 cars are running on the road ferrying employees, only 2.5 are electric."
However, there are promising signs. "The number of electric trips on the MoveInSync platform has doubled in the last year," Agarwal notes. The limiting factor isn't just cost but vehicle availability. "Right now, there are only one or two car models available for corporate EV use – the Tata Tigor is the only four-seater car, and maybe Citroën has entered, but that's not widely used."
For companies, the decision to go electric remains primarily cost-driven. "Companies don't want to just do electric and shell out more money," Agarwal explains. "Cost and unit economics play a very major role for electrification."
Cultural Shift Needed
Beyond technological and infrastructural solutions, Agarwal emphasizes the need for a cultural shift. He draws a parallel to waste management success stories: "The city of Indore, which is a typical Indian city, has become clean. It has remained clean, and I've visited there. It was a mind-shift change which took two decades and required the government, people, everybody to work together."
He challenges the common excuse about last-mile connectivity: "Many places have decent weather where walking one kilometer to the metro is not rocket science. It's very easy to blame the government and say, 'If you give me this, then I will think about using public transportation.' But if you start using it, there's an effect – if you see a lot of people walking on the footpath, there's a high chance that the footpath will eventually get fixed."
Agarwal believes the car ownership mentality needs to change. "We see ownership of a car as a possession of ourselves. We attach pride to it," he observes. "Car ads and fancy things have created this idea that if you've arrived in life, you buy a car. Unfortunately, a car has become, instead of just a means of transport, a reflection of yourself."
Looking ahead, Agarwal sees a hybrid solution emerging for India's mobility challenges. He envisions companies like MoveInSync evolving from purely fleet operations to multimodal transportation facilitators.
"We will move towards telling companies that 10% of your employees can also be ferried by Metro," he explains. "A lot of it can be governed by financial incentives – if you don't bring your car to the office, which costs the company 5,000 rupees for parking, the company can pay for your Metro pass."
For aspiring mobility entrepreneurs, Agarwal offers encouragement: "The good news in our country is that mobility is right at the top of daily needs – like food, it will never go out of fashion."
"There are tons of problems to solve.
If you are honest and do a deep dive into only one problem – don't try to solve all the problems – you can be successful in India," he advises. "As GDP grows, cities will grow, becoming more populated and congested. What is Bangalore's problem today could be Mysore's problem in ten years. The market will grow at a very high CAGR, which is a good problem for an entrepreneur to solve."
The Individual's Role
Perhaps most importantly, Agarwal emphasizes that solutions must include individual responsibility.
"While infrastructure needs to be improved by the government and public transportation needs to be enhanced, citizens need to take ownership by doing their bit," he insists.
His suggestion? "I strongly urge people to think of one day when they're going to the office where they use low to no carbon emission transportation – either walk, cycle, or use public transportation. Don't sit in a car and go to the office."
As India's urban centers continue to expand and mobility challenges intensify, companies like MoveInSync are leveraging data to build more efficient, sustainable systems.
But true transformation, Agarwal reminds us, will require a collective shift in mindset – recognizing that we don't just experience traffic, we create it.
The Role of VC in Mobility
The race towards clean mobility can’t be won alone.
Venture capital is playing a pivotal role in nurturing the ecosystem of startups driving this transformation.
Among the key players shaping the landscape is the clean mobility-focused fund, Micelio Fund.
The Genesis of Micelio: Purpose-Built for Clean Mobility
Micelio represents a unique investment approach in India's venture capital landscape.
The Micelio fund came out of a partnership between Micelio Mobility, a clean mobility focused platform and Axilor, to accelerate clean mobility innovation.
"In 2019, we set up the Micelio fund in partnership with the Micelio Mobility platform to do something specific in the clean mobility space," explains Venugopal Ganapathy AKA VG.
"Micelio started out as a platform that will have all the different components required to turbocharge the clean mobility ecosystem."
What sets Micelio apart is its comprehensive approach. Beyond just providing capital through the Micelio Fund, the platform includes a studio and two operating entities designed to support the ecosystem holistically. "The idea was to create a platform that enables and accelerates the transition to clean mobility in India," says Alok Chauhan, who leads the Micelio portfolio.
A Thesis-Driven Investment Stack
In line with Axilor's overall investment philosophy, Micelio fund is also heavily thesis-driven
Rather than opportunistically backing random startups in the space, they've mapped the entire mobility ecosystem as a structured stack with distinct layers.
"If you just list down the different layers of the opportunities within clean mobility, at the highest level, you will possibly have enablers just below end users / consumers," VG explains.
"Below that you will have the OEMs across different form factors. Then below that you have various enabling technologies such as battery and cell technologies, components, software etc. And under these, you have some more foundational technologies."
This structured view translates into a disciplined investment framework. From their analysis, the team identified approximately 15-18 specific business model types across the stack that they want to back.
"We have just systematically gone about filling each of those boxes," VG notes. "We cannot have more than one such company to avoid any portfolio conflicts. So far, we have gotten to about 13 out of the 18."
This methodical approach reveals a clear investment strategy: Micelio Fund is building a portfolio that represents various critical components of the clean mobility ecosystem, creating a platform at the portfolio level itself.
Focusing on Capital Efficiency
A cornerstone of the fund’s approach is prioritizing capital efficiency, especially important in a sector that often requires significant investment.
"As a seed fund, we are very cognizant that we need to be able to underwrite Series A, at the very least, for our companies," VG explains.
"We don't want our companies to burn a lot upfront and then get to a point where they need more capital which we ourselves are not able to support."
This focus on capital efficiency has led Micelio to take a differentiated approach compared to many other mobility investors.
Rather than backing capital-intensive, highly competitive OEM plays, they've focused on B2B applications and alternative form factors.
"We identified promising spaces and went after other form factors. So we invested in the three-wheeler space. Then we did e-Plane, which is an eVTOL. Then recently we did a company called Moonrider, which is an electric tractor."
This strategy reflects a deliberate choice to avoid the more crowded and capital-intensive consumer-facing segments in favor of B2B applications where innovative technology can create defensible value with more efficient capital deployment.
The Investment Spectrum: From Financing to Foundational Tech
Micelio Fund's portfolio spans the full mobility stack, with investments strategically distributed across key layers:
At the ‘enablers’ layer, they've invested in financing, charging infra and distribution companies that reduce friction to adoption. "We have taken one bet each," VG notes, with one yet to be announced publicly.
In the OEMs category, they've avoided the capital-intensive and crowded spaces to focus on three-wheelers, electric tractors (Moonrider), and even electric aircraft (e-Plane).
In enabling technologies, they've made multiple investments including a company developing improved battery cell designs, another working on improving battery simulations and one in the battery recycling space
At the foundational technology levels, they've backed a company that produces single-walled carbon nanotubes, with applications in EV batteries and beyond, a green hydrogen electrolyzer company and are in advanced discussions with a semiconductor company.
The foundational and enabling technology investments cater to adjacent opportunities created by the transition to electric mobility, and at the same time create a natural hedge.
The Gaps in India's EV Ecosystem
When asked about areas requiring greater investment attention, VG highlights two critical gaps in the ecosystem.
At the top of the stack, financing remains a significant hurdle.
"The existing financial institutions are not necessarily geared either in terms of understanding of technology, or there is no technology that allows a predictable way to underwrite EV assets including a reliable estimation of the residual life of the batteries, which is an important criteria to measure depreciation for EVs" he explains. This creates friction in purchasing EVs and limits the development of a robust secondary market.
At the bottom of the stack, indigenization of battery cell production represents another major gap. "Much of what we do today is largely import dependent and we have no capacity whatsoever," VG notes, though he acknowledges recent announcements from industrial conglomerates to build domestic cell manufacturing facilities.
Both these areas—financing innovation and indigenous supply chain development—represent massive opportunities that could accelerate India's transition to electric mobility.
Evaluating Founders: Deep Domain Experience Required
Given the complex and nascent nature of the clean mobility sector, Micelio places significant emphasis on founders with relevant experience when evaluating potential investments.
"We want them to come in with strong and relevant transferable experience because most of what is being done, is being done for the first time," explains Alok.
"A new space, which is a very capex-heavy space, largely dependent on dealing with large, established incumbents, policy evolution and things alike which need a lot more maturity as well as experience and network for them to be successful."
Beyond domain expertise, Micelio Fund looks for founders who can build frugally, respond effectively to challenges, and evolve into a CEO mindset as they scale.
"Selecting the right founders becomes very important for us," Alok emphasizes.
The team has developed a robust evaluation process, with the Micelio platform and a network of advisors to help vet opportunities and multiple interactions to assess founder mindset.
This careful selection process has enabled Micelio Fund to build a portfolio of companies led by entrepreneurs who can navigate the complex intersection of technology, regulation, and business model innovation.
Government Support: A Critical Enabler
Contrary to popular perception of bureaucratic hurdles, Micelio's portfolio companies have found significant support from government entities at both central and state levels.
"Government has been very supportive as far as the sector is concerned," Alok notes. "With FAME I and FAME II and now the PM E-drive, there's basically a lot of impetus to customers to shift."
He highlights how policy has evolved from customer-led subsidies to production-linked incentives, creating "a very good balance between creating an indigenous manufacturing base." This shift recognizes the importance of protecting India's automotive manufacturing sector, which contributes approximately 40% of manufacturing GDP.
VG adds that they've seen positive levels of engagement from public sector entities.
"We have a battery recycling company that received one of the largest grants from a PSU, and they are quite willing to invest as well," he notes. "They are working very closely with ministries and government regulators to set the policies around the battery recycling space."
This collaborative approach extends to regulation development as well.
Alok cites e-Plane, which is "working very closely with DGCA to consult on India-specific regulations around eVTOLs." This level of engagement reflects a government approach of involving stakeholders, including startups, in creating frameworks for emerging technologies.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls
For entrepreneurs entering the space, VG and Alok highlight several pitfalls to avoid.
"It depends on which element of the stack you're playing in," VG notes. A financing platform has different challenges than a deep tech battery innovation.
For deep tech ventures with longer gestation periods, "it is just a question of validating the real distance between the claim made by the innovator and the evidence they are able to offer that what they’re claiming isn’t far from the reality," VG explains.
Alok adds more general startup pitfalls:
"Simple things like raising too much money or following an investor's vision rather than following their own. Not really having the customer's voice in the back of their mind while building something."
A particularly important consideration for deep tech founders is balancing proprietary technology with ecosystem compatibility.
"We're not big fans of closed-loop systems," Alok explains. "It is important for whatever your innovation might be, it needs to converge with the rest of the ecosystem."
This requires founders to carefully consider which elements truly need protection as intellectual property, while ensuring their innovations can integrate with existing systems.
"You need to figure out what is the right thing for you to protect and still create an offering or a business model which can work with the rest of the ecosystem," Alok advises.
The Road Ahead: An $80 Billion Opportunity
Both VG and Alok express tremendous optimism about the future of clean mobility in India. "I could not think of a better time and more excitement as to what is likely to come compared to what we have seen till now," says VG.
The scale of the opportunity is staggering.
"Getting to see an $80 billion supply chain opportunity getting built out in front of your eyes is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," VG adds.
For Alok, there's particular satisfaction in backing deep tech ventures that strengthen India's manufacturing capabilities.
"These areas definitely are the ones that have a very long-term impact," he notes, expressing hope that these spaces will attract more investor interest over time.
As India continues its journey toward clean mobility, Micelio Fund's thesis-driven approach provides a template for purposeful investing that balances financial returns with ecosystem development.
Their approach demonstrates that effective investing in transformative sectors requires more than opportunistic bets.
It demands a comprehensive understanding of the ecosystem, a clear thesis about how it will evolve, and the discipline to execute against that vision while remaining nimble enough to adapt to real-world developments.
As VG aptly summarizes:
"So long as we stay disciplined to our thesis and we are able to work alongside our entrepreneurs and help them achieve their vision, I think it's an interesting journey ahead."
Pathways - March
This month in Pathways, we explore a theme that feels particularly relevant in an increasingly complex world — how we build better models to think, decide, and act. Whether it’s making everyday trade-offs, designing large-scale systems, or navigating career choices, the ability to abstract complexity into usable mental models is an underrated — and increasingly essential — skill. We trace a pathway that starts with the elegance of algorithms, expands into systems thinking, and culminates with a case for “range” — why the ability to borrow from diverse models often matters more than depth alone.
Philosopher lecturing on the Orrery, masterpiece by Joseph Wright depicting a philosopher explaining a mechanical model of the solar system; testament to the spectacle of problem solving (and a favourite of yours truly)
Start with Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths. On the surface, this is a book about algorithms — but really, it’s about decision-making. The authors distill decades of computer science research into simple, practical models for everything from scheduling tasks to exploring new opportunities. Along the way, you’ll pick up surprisingly useful ideas — like why 37% is a magic number, or when sorting is worth the effort. A light yet thought-provoking read that introduces the idea of algorithmic thinking as a life skill — not just something for coders.
Next, zoom out with Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows. If algorithms offer local optimizations, systems thinking teaches us to see the big picture — the feedback loops, tipping points, and unintended consequences that make complex systems hard to predict (and harder to fix). Meadows, one of the most respected voices in the field, makes systems thinking both accessible and actionable. This is a book that changes how you see everything — from climate change and markets to organizational design and personal habits.
Finally, expand your toolkit with Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein. Epstein makes a compelling case for why — in a world obsessed with specialization (for valid reasons) — generalists often find crucial wins. Drawing from sports, science, and business, the book argues that complex, novel problems don’t yield to depth alone, but to the ability to pull from diverse models and experiences. Range closes this pathway perfectly — reminding us that better thinking isn’t just about the depth of one model, but about knowing which model to apply, and when.
From algorithms to systems to the power of range — this month’s pathway is an invitation to sharpen how we think. The tools may vary, but the goal is the same: navigating complexity with better models.
Happy reading!
If you enjoyed reading this edition of Athera’s Odyssey, do reach out to us at contact@atheravp.com, whether you’re a founder building in mobility or any other tech-first sector!