Manish has over 2 decades of experience in VC and PE having led over US$ 750 Million of investments in India and across the USA-India corridor. Manish has seen 2 complete alternates investment-exit cycles, and has a nuanced lens to the craft of private investing and fund management.

He is currently the Co-founder & Managing Partner of WaterBridge Ventures, an India based home-grown early-stage VC firm with over US$ 250 Million AUM.

His investments at WaterBridge include category leading start-ups like Atlan, Chalo, CityMall, Magicpin, PocketPills, Posha, SocialCops and Unacademy. At WaterBridge, he focuses on AI, Frontier Tech, and large-scale Tech disruption investments. He is on the Boards of all his active investee companies and enjoys the art of company building along with founders.

Earlier he has been in senior investment roles at Rho Ventures (North America), Actis (South Asia), and Providence Equity Partners (India & SE Asia). Earlier, Manish has held operating roles (tech, product marketing) in the telecom and tech sectors with Ciena (through acquisition of Cyras), Nortel and Infosys.

Manish is an active member of entrepreneurship and investing networks such as Indian Venture & Alternate Capital Association (IVCA), TiE (Delhi NCR, Bangalore), Stanford Angels, Indian Deep Tech Alliance (IDTA), and speaks regularly on VC industry and regulatory engagement forums.

As the Vice-Cochair of IVCA’s VC Council, he has helped with ecosystem building initiatives like ‘VC101’, ‘Bharat Vaapsi’, and ‘IPO and Exits summit’. He is passionate about both ‘India building for Bharat’ and ‘India building for the world’ opportunities; and in the holistic, sustainable growth of VC ecosystem in India.

Manish graduated with a B.Tech from IIT Delhi and an MBA from Stanford University (Graduate School of Business).