Mredul Sarda’s journey from student satellite to deep tech investor to cybersecurity entrepreneur

In this episode, I’m joined by Mredul Sarda, an operator-investor in early-stage deep tech and now a cybersecurity entrepreneur.Mredul’s experience-packed journey began at IIT Bombay, where he earned a BTech in electrical engineering, and an MTech in deep learning. While at the institute, he was also a member of the team that designed and launched Pratham, widely thought of as India’s first student-led satellite.After a stint in strategy consulting, his tryst with Indian startups started not with deep tech but via a vital role at the fintech company Slice, where he played an important role in scaling the venture to unicorn valuation.Mredul, who was already an angel investor, co-founded Riceberg Ventures with Ankit Anand, Lino Gandola, and Shubham Raj. The firm launched its flagship $20 million Riceberg Ventures Premier Fund I in early 2024 to back global pre-seed deep tech ventures. Even as they expand Riceberg into Silicon Valley, Mredul and Shubham have also kicked off their own entrepreneurial venture in the area of AI-led cybersecurity, with their startup Causal Security.Causal Security offers an AI-based platform building autonomous “AI hackers” to surface and defend vulnerabilities in enterprise infrastructure. Join us as to get a glimpse into Mredul’s vision for India’s sovereign technical capabilities and his own evolution from operator to investor to investor-entrepreneur.Chapters:(03:21) Early engineering roots and the IIT Bombay student satellite project(06:05) Transitioning from strategy consulting to the hyper-growth ride at Slice(09:23) The inception of Riceberg Ventures and backing "obsessed" founders(14:08) Navigating deep tech sectors from biotech to nuclear energy,(16:40) Launching Causal Security to address global AI-led cyber threats(25:27) Automating security reviews with context graphs and AI harnesses(43:44) Scaling Riceberg Ventures into the United States market(44:57) Developing sovereign technical capabilities for the India AI stack