"Nothing has changed!"
This was my thought as I stepped out of the meeting room in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We had been invited by an angel syndicate to present our startup, a clean beauty marketplace that we were building since last 2 years. And we had spent the last few thousand Dirhams that we had in our account for this trip.
It was a very reputed angel syndicate and we were a 2-year-old-cashflow-positive startup in Dubai. It was safe to assume that we were being seriously evaluated by the syndicate.
But after the pitch, when we were told “You don’t fit in our investment thesis. We are looking at core tech companies to invest in”, I was dumbfounded. After all, we had been speaking to multiple analysts and gatekeepers in the syndicate and we were shortlisted after multiple interactions. This was complete madness.
Nothing had changed in the startup fundraising circus in the last 10 years since I had jumped on the entrepreneurship wagon.
That was the day I had decided I would change the way founders raise initial capital
Hi. I am Varun Kapoor, a serial entrepreneur turned angel-investor and I have raised capital for my own ventures and for other founders for the last 10 years.
That chilly evening in Riyadh was when I decided I would build a new way for startups to raise early capital.
I recently exited the clean beauty marketplace and am now building Middle-East + India’s first Equity Crowdfunding Platform for startups.
We are called Pitchlabz and we will be regulated under DIFC.
Are we really championing good ideas, or are we just gambling?
As serial entrepreneur turned investor, and after working with scores of founders, I have been lucky to see all sides of the table. Early-stage funding is indeed broken.
In the last three years alone
- Over 1.36 trillion dollars have been poured into private and VC investment.
- Yet only a small fraction—114 billion dollars—has gone into early-stage startups.
The barriers are high.
Most investors struggle with limited access to opportunities, high minimum investments, and a lack of transparency.
Founders, on the other hand, face their own uphill battle—crafting pitches that scream hundred-times returns, fitting their vision into rigid molds, and struggling to capture ten minutes of distracted attention from investors.
It’s a system designed to work for a select few, while countless promising ideas never see the light of day.
The missing piece is a way for micro-angels to invest small amounts into the startups they believe in.
With
it becomes possible.
- No long drawn deals.
- No endless pitches.
- Just a direct connection between startups and the angels who believe in them.
Pitchlabz is designed to make investing as easy as browsing a marketplace.
Founders showcase their startups, Investors explore opportunities, contribute small amounts, and become part of the startup’s journey. The barriers to entry disappear, and suddenly, startup investing becomes an accessible, community-driven movement.
This isn’t just a theory.
Around the world, crowdfunding platforms have created extraordinary success stories. One such platform has been in operation for twelve years, generating annual revenues of twenty-two million dollars and delivering fifty-three times returns to its investors. Another has been running for fourteen years, valued today at one hundred and ninety-two million dollars, with investors seeing three hundred and ten times their initial investment. The model is proven.
Pitchlabz is bringing this success to India and the Middle East, where the opportunity is massive.
By the year 2030, total startup funding in India and MENA is projected to reach 40 billion dollars. Within that, equity crowdfunding alone is expected to account for one point 2 billion dollars.
That’s the opportunity ahead, and Pitchlabz is ready to seize it.
The plan is clear
To execute this vision, Pitchlabz is raising one million dollars in seed funding. This will provide the necessary runway for twelve to eighteen months, covering essential areas such as legal and compliance, technology and operations, marketing, salaries, and an operational buffer for unexpected costs.
Behind Pitchlabz is a team of experienced entrepreneurs and industry professionals. The founder, Varun Kapoor, is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully built and exited two companies—a digital agency and a clean beauty marketplace. He is joined by a dedicated team with expertise in product development, sales, content, research, and investor relations. The team has worked together for over six years and understands what it takes to build and scale a startup.
Supporting the team is a strong advisory board, including industry veterans such as
Sudhanshu Gupta, former Senior Vice President at Paytm
TP Singh, a senior director at Teledyne
With this foundation in place, Pitchlabz is not just an idea—it’s a movement with the right people driving it forward.
Pitchlabz is on a mission to make startup investing open, inclusive, and transparent. Investors get access to high-potential startups without the usual barriers. Startups gain direct funding from passionate communities. It’s time to redefine the way early-stage funding works.