Pranav Pai

Founding Partner & Chief Investment Officer, 3one4 Capital

Pranav Pai is the Founding Partner and Chief Investment Officer at 3one4 Capital - an early stage venture capital fund based in Bangalore, India. Pranav leads investments and portfolio construction at 3one4 Capital. As CIO at 3one4, he has made over 70 seed and venture capital investments across several investment categories in India and the US. He has been integral in leading 3one4’s investments in their category-leading companies that include Licious, BetterPlace, Open, YourStory, Faircent, DarwinBox, Pocket Aces, Begin, Loantap, Jupiter, and Tracxn. The fund has been consistently ranked as one of India's top VC firms. Pranav serves on the boards of several of the companies in the portfolio.

Pranav is also responsible for 3one4’s Investor Relations and Capital Development efforts. 3one4 Capital has total Assets Under Management close to INR 1500 Cr/USD 210 Mn and has raised capital from some of the top institutional pools of capital in India, USA, Japan, and Singapore. Pranav works closely with institutional and strategic investors to help develop the venture ecosystem in India and to increase global allocations to the asset class.

Through an independent dedicated LP strategy, Pranav also engages with an extended funding ecosystem of over 30 different investment vehicles across private equity over different sub asset-classes such as early and growth stage venture capital, public markets, real estate project financing, and venture debt in India and the US. His engagement with the ecosystem is driven by the objective of building feed-forward loops from venture to other alternative segments and develop the pipeline for listings in India. Pranav is deeply involved with the startup ecosystem in India. As CoPresident of the Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs network in the country, Pranav continues to help cultivate a cross-border cooperative system of innovation in the early stage between academia, corporations, market leaders, investors, subject-matter experts, and tech startup founders. Pranav serves as an Investment Committee Advisor of the Reliance Jio Gennext Accelerator in Mumbai. He is also the National Vice Chairman of the All India Management Association’s (AIMA) Young Leaders Council – a platform for young professionals from industry, the arts, non-profits, and government to collaborate on common agendas.

Previously, he was an early employee and Lead Product Manager at EdCast, an education technology startup in the San Francisco Bay Area. At EdCast, Pranav helped launch multiple products that continue to serve several Fortune 100 clients and raised capital from top tier venture capital and corporate investment firms like Softbank, GE Capital, and Menlo Ventures.

Pranav was awarded the “35 under 35” for 2017 by Entrepreneur Magazine and the “40 under 40” Alternative Investments Professionals of India for 2020 by the Association of International Wealth Management of India (AIWMI) and the Indian Association of Alternative Investment Funds (IAAIF).

Pranav graduated with a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and with a Bachelor's in Electronics and Communications Engineering from RV College, Bangalore.