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Rocketship.vc

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Researched and published by the startup.ph editorial team from public sources — not a self-submitted profile.

Rocketship.vc

VC Fund 📍 United States, North America

About Rocketship.vc

Rocketship.vc is a data-science-driven venture capital firm co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, who previously co-founded Junglee (acquired by Amazon) and Kosmix (acquired by Walmart, later becoming @WalmartLabs). Its leadership also includes Managing Partners Madhu Shalini Iyer, former Chief Data Officer of Gojek, and Sailesh Ramakrishnan, co-founder of LocBox. The firm describes itself as remote-first, with a team drawing on backgrounds in data mining research (having co-authored what it describes as the most-downloaded data mining textbook) and prior work on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission. (Note: this session could not independently confirm Rocketship.vc's exact founding year through a live, fetchable source — stated honestly rather than guessed.)

The firm has invested in more than 70 companies across at least 14 countries, spanning India (Apna, FamPay, Khatabook, Quizizz, NoBroker), Africa (Chipper Cash, Kippa), the Middle East (Sary, Qashio), Latin America (Trocafone), Indonesia (BukuWarung, Kitalulus), and the U.S. (early investments in Facebook and Lyft), with several exits including Paperspace, Locus, and Later.

Investment Thesis

Rocketship.vc applies a data-science and machine-learning-driven approach to sourcing and evaluating early-stage investments globally, deliberately looking beyond traditional Silicon Valley networks to identify strong founders in underserved but fast-growing markets across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. The firm invests across a broad range of sectors — fintech, healthtech, logistics, edtech, and AI-enabled software — unified more by its data-driven sourcing methodology than a single vertical thesis.

Portfolio Companies

Apna, FamPay, Chipper Cash, BukuWarung, Khatabook, NoBroker