WaterBridge Ventures

Manish Kheterpal and Ravi Kheterpal share investment decision-making as Managing Partners. Manish leads deal sourcing and portfolio company support, drawing on his own startup founder experience, while Ravi oversees financial structuring and firm operations. Investment committee decisions are made collaboratively, with no external investment committee members disclosed.

WaterBridge Ventures operates as an institutional venture capital firm raising capital from limited partners, not a single family office. It pools external commitments into fund vehicles — it raised a second fund in 2022 and was targeting $150 million for its third fund as of 2023 — rather than managing capital generated by a single family's wealth.

WaterBridge Ventures deploys exclusively through direct investments into early-stage technology companies, primarily at Seed and Series A stages. It does not operate a fund-of-funds program or allocate limited partner capital into other venture funds. Its model is built on primary equity positions with selective follow-on capital into growth rounds for portfolio companies.

WaterBridge focuses on early-stage venture — Seed and Series A — with a reserve strategy that allows it to follow on in subsequent growth rounds for its strongest performers. The firm's early-stage posture reflects its thesis that hands-on operator involvement can most materially shape outcomes at the formation stage of a company's trajectory.

WaterBridge has not publicly published a list of excluded sectors. Its disclosed portfolio weightings suggest the firm stays away from heavy infrastructure, biotech, and pharmaceutical plays, concentrating instead on software and technology-enabled businesses across enterprise, consumer, fintech, and mobility. Absence from deep-tech hardware and traditional manufacturing rounds is observable by portfolio pattern rather than official policy.

Manish Kheterpal's track record as a founder who navigated his own venture-backed journey to exit — before becoming an investor — defines WaterBridge's engagement model. Portfolio founders get access to a partner who has managed cap tables, hiring, and board dynamics from the CEO seat, which distinguishes WaterBridge's value proposition from peers staffed primarily by career investors.

WaterBridge raises blind-pool venture capital funds with standard 10-year structures. Its second fund, closed in 2022, was larger than its debut 2016 fund, though the firm has not publicly disclosed exact hard-cap figures. The managing partners commit alongside limited partners, maintaining alignment on carry and returns.