How Kishore Ravichandran from Plug and Play Backs Deep Tech and the Next $100M Startups

Kishore Ravichandran is the investor at Plug and Play, the ultimate innovation platform. Over the past 15 years, PnP has brought together 35,000+ startups, 500+ world-leading corporations, and hundreds of venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies across 20+ industries

In this episode, Kishore Ravichandran, Investor at Plug and Play Tech Center shares how a university program in Singapore sparked his passion for startups and led to a career in venture capital. Kishore explains Plug and Play’s global model—investing in over 2,000 startups, supporting them with a 550+ strong corporate partner network, and operating across verticals from mobility to sustainability.  Kishore also discusses the future of space tech, nuclear innovation, and why lean AI-first teams are poised to build $100M businesses—and much more!

Timestamps

[01:00] – Kishore shares how he stumbled into the world of startups and venture capital via NUS and internships.

[02:30] – The impact of COVID on his original plans and how it rerouted his journey into consulting and startups.

[04:00] – Differences between the APAC startup ecosystem vs. Europe and US.

[05:40] – Plug and Play’s investment strategy and their emphasis on B2B startups.

[07:00] – How Plug and Play leverages its corporate network for startup validation and strategic value.

[08:30] – Kishore explains Plug and Play’s corporate innovation model and global network.

[10:00] – Reserve investing strategy: how they double down on winners using specific funds.

[11:20] – How Plug and Play aligns with startups to avoid conflict and support existing portfolio founders.

[12:30] – Mindset shift VCs need to make when investing in deep tech.

[14:00] – The difference between incremental B2B SaaS and revolutionary deep tech.

[15:30] – Kishore’s belief that the next VC wave will focus more on deep tech and frontier tech.

[16:30] – The “Three T’s” framework for evaluating early-stage startups: Team, Technology, Traction.

[18:00] – Why team/founder quality often outweighs the market in early-stage investing.

[19:30] – Role of traction vs. revenue in pre-seed and seed evaluations.

[21:00] – The role of private companies in space exploration and Kishore's views on Elon Musk's SpaceX.

[23:00] – Kishore on the cultural risk aversion in APAC and how it limits deep tech startup formation.

[25:00] – Advice to scientists and researchers in APAC: “Get out of the lab and build something.”

[26:30] – How founders should approach market sizing using both top-down and bottom-up methods.

[28:00] – The myth of early-stage TAM/SAM/SOM and the example of Uber and Grab evolving beyond initial markets.

[29:30] – Kishore on VC overexuberance in 2021 and why many VCs had to reassess their strategies.

[31:00] – Rise of AI-native companies and the shift to agentic AI solutions.

[32:30] – Key qualities of successful founders: conviction and “cockroach mentality.”

[34:00] – Kishore’s bullish sectors: space tech, small modular nuclear reactors, sustainability.

Kishore’s Links 

LDN– https://sg.linkedin.com/in/kishore1997

Website – https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/

My Links 

Podcast: https://lifeselfmastery.com/itunes

Newsletter: https://partner-grow.beehiiv.com/subscribe

YouTube:  youtube.com/lifeselfmastery

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rohitmal

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohit857/

Agency: https://bit.ly/41YuNnx