Podcast: Hard Truths by Vertex | Episode 9 - Truths About Empowering SEA's 71M MSMEs Through Financial Inclusion with Nikhilesh Goel, Validus

Elise TAN | 19 Apr 2023

Validus co-founder and Group CEO Nikhilesh Goel left behind a comfortable career in Private Equity and Investment Banking to join Vikas Nahata in building Validus. According to Nikhilesh, “it's been one hell of a ride.”

What prompted him to do this? How did he know it was the right time to build Validus? How has Validus changed the lives of MSME founders? And what are the Hard Truths Nikhilesh has learned along the way?

Tune in to HTBV9 to find out!

Our Guest

Nikhilesh Goel is the Group CEO and co-founder of Validus Capital. Prior to founding Validus, he worked in private equity and corporate finance in Southeast Asia for the previous 14 years. His experience includes debt and equity financing in a variety of industries, as well as portfolio management and value creation in SMEs. He also established Taipan Partners' M&A advisory practice, which focuses on consumer and technology sector transactions throughout Southeast Asia.

He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Nagpur University as well as an MBA in Finance from the University of Delhi's Faculty of Management Studies. He contributes to the fintech ecosystem by sharing insights on alternative lending, small business financing, and peer-to-peer platforms at fintech and SME conferences on a regular basis.

He was recently named one of the 'Top 10 Fintech Leaders in 2019 and 2020 - Singapore Fintech Association Awards', as well as the 'Innovation Leadership Achievement in Singapore Award 2021 - The Asian Banker'.

In This Episode

(01:45) Nikhilesh’ story

(03:42) The inception of Validus

(06:02) Moving from mass to premium positioning

(08:04) Localisation of their model

(10:35) Hards truths about expansion

(12:32) Pressing the accelerator

(15:55) Getting to profitability

(17:10) Making SMEs’ lives better

(21:46) Current scale

(22:56) Hard truths about financial digitization

(24:46) Validus is secretly an impact business

(27:13) A happy childhood

(28:34) Hard truths about being a founder

Links

Notes and Full Transcript for Episode 9.

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Your Host

Elise Tan is the Director of Communications and Community at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India. Prior to joining Vertex, she has had extensive experience in investor relations and partnership at global venture funds and accelerators with more than $100m in AUM. Elise also currently runs a Southeast Asia-based startup community of nearly 800 entrepreneurs called the Asia Startup network and actively supports their startup journey through panels, meet-ups, and mentoring programs.

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Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India is a pioneer in investing in tech start-ups in this region and has helped to build a number of unicorns. In this podcast, we seek to share and uncover the Hard Truth - raw, unfiltered insights and venture capital knowledge from across Southeast Asia and India. Tune in to learn from leading founders, innovators, venture capitalists, and industry experts in the region and to gain industry insights from those in the know.

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