Zishaan Hayath

Founder, Powai Lake Ventures; Co-Founder & former CEO, Toppr; Venture Partner, Bharat Founders Fund and TDV Partners at powai-lake-ventures

Reviewed Updated May 1, 2026

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Location Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Check Size Angel cheques (first round, typically syndicated through Powai Lake Ventures)
Last Verified Investment EVEARA (Pre-Seed (via Powai Lake Ventures)) — Jan 20, 2025
Social @zishaanhayath LinkedIn
Stage Focus
pre-seed seed angel
Sector Focus
edtech consumer-internet fintech b2b-saas healthtech d2c food mobility

Background

Zishaan Hayath is a Mumbai-based entrepreneur and angel investor, best known as the co-founder and former CEO of K-12 edtech platform Toppr (founded 2013; acquired by Byju’s in 2021) and as the founder of Powai Lake Ventures, an IIT Bombay-anchored angel investing group named for the Mumbai lake adjacent to the IIT Bombay campus 123.

Hayath completed a B.Tech. + M.Tech. (dual degree) in Civil Engineering at IIT Bombay, graduating in 2005, where he received the Institute Organisational Citation and two Institute Colors; IIT Bombay later awarded him the Young Alumni Achiever Award in 2015 1. Before founding Toppr, he co-founded Chaupaati Bazaar in 2008 — a phone-commerce marketplace that let Indian mobile users order home appliances, electronics, children’s products and books by calling in — which was acquired by Future Group (then India’s largest retailer) in 2010; Hayath subsequently served as Vice President of Product at Future Group / Future Bazaar 145.

In April 2011, while still in his post-Chaupaati role, Hayath was part of the angel syndicate that wrote Ola Cabs (ANI Technologies)’s first cheque — roughly ₹1 crore (~$160,000) in total — alongside Anupam Mittal of People Group, Rehan Yar Khan, Ramachandran Ramjee, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal 67. Ola’s co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal is a fellow IIT Bombay alumnus and a junior of Hayath’s at the institute; Hayath has publicly stated this was his first startup investment and that he has not sold his stake in the decade-plus since 64.

Hayath co-founded Toppr.com in 2013 with Hemanth Goteti (also an IIT Bombay alumnus). Toppr scaled to become one of India’s largest after-school K-12 learning platforms, raising over $93M across equity and debt rounds — including a $46M Series D in July 2020 led by Foundation Holdings — backed by SAIF Partners (later Elevation Capital), Helion Venture Partners, Eight Roads Ventures, Kaizen Private Equity and Alteria Capital 894. In July 2021, Byju’s acquired Toppr; press in February 2021 had reported the deal at ~$150M (mix of stock and cash), while the entrackr post-close report describes the equity transaction as Byju’s allotting Series F preference shares worth ₹426 crore to seven existing Toppr shareholders in exchange for their holdings — sources differ on the headline value 10811. At the time of acquisition Toppr reported 35M registered users and 2M daily active users 8.

Alongside Toppr, Hayath has been one of India’s most active individual angel investors. He founded Powai Lake Ventures with a group of IIT Bombay friends — including Abhishek Jain, Shishir Kapoor, Vaibhav Puranik, Saurabh Saxena and Gagan Goyal — to systematically write first-round cheques into Indian startups; per Open Magazine and IIT Bombay’s alumni office, the group has backed roughly 20 startups across Consumer Internet, B2B SaaS, Solar, Wearables and QSR, of which 14 were founded by IIT Bombay alumni and which had collectively raised approximately half a billion dollars in follow-on funding by 2015 132. He is also listed as a Venture Partner at TDV Partners (described on TDV’s site as a “backer & venture partner”) and as a Venture Partner at Bharat Founders Fund 1213.

Stated Thesis

Hayath has framed his angel investing approach around backing founders he knows personally — disproportionately from his IIT Bombay network — and around the limits of the individual angel cheque. On the Ola syndicate, he told Quartz India: “Nobody can write the full angel cheque of Rs1.5-2 crore for one startup,” explaining that the rationale for the Ola angel group was “to come together as an army” since no single angel could individually meet the cash needs of a consumer-internet venture 6.

He has described his investment criterion in characteristically terse terms: “We back smart founders who want to build something massive in a large market,” and has described Powai Lake Ventures as “a small angel group that invests in the first round of early stage startups” 14. On decision speed, he told Open Magazine: “Super quick. There is no other way” 4.

On his Ola and Housing.com bets, Hayath told Inc42 (December 2014): “I was quite lucky to have spotted both the companies at an early stage. The founders of both Ola and Housing are my juniors from IIT Bombay and that surely helped” 15. On the founder-pattern he looks for he has, in startup keynotes and interviews, emphasised a familiar bundle — “a mix of these — good team, high quality work, persistence, right time right place, and customer focus” — and counselled focus on “a narrow problem” with “an excellent simple solutions” 14.

On education technology specifically — the sector in which he built Toppr — Hayath has stated: “Technology when applied to the education sector can do wonders” 14.

Inferred Thesis

This analysis combines Hayath’s personal angel activity, the Powai Lake Ventures group portfolio he leads, and his Venture Partner roles at TDV Partners and Bharat Founders Fund. Sample size is small and aggregator data conflicts: PitchBook and Tracxn list 2-3 personal angel investments under Hayath’s name (Housing in 2012; OctoLife noted on one Tracxn page; ForeignAdmits, ASQI, OneCare across other profiles), while CB Insights reports 18 total investments and 2 exits for Powai Lake Ventures (the group vehicle through which most of Hayath’s activity actually flows) 16172. Because individual angel disclosure in India is sparse, percentages computed on aggregator counts would be misleading; qualitative description is more honest here.

Stage: Almost exclusively first-cheque angel / pre-seed and seed. Powai Lake Ventures’ explicit positioning is “first round of early stage startups,” and the named portfolio (Ola 2011, Housing 2012, Chaayos, SquadRun, AdPushup, Vacationlabs, Holachef, Qyk, NexGear, BiteClub, Orobind, Tushky, Stitchwood, Eatlo, EVEARA 2025) is consistent with that mandate 2141518.

Sector mix (qualitative, based on named portfolio): heavy consumer internet (Ola, Housing, Holachef, BiteClub, Eatlo, Tushky, Qyk, Chaayos), a meaningful B2B SaaS slice (AdPushup, SquadRun, Shifu, TableHero), exposure to D2C / food (Chaayos, BiteClub, Eatlo) and early bets in adjacent themes including solar, wearables, QSR, music-distribution SaaS (EVEARA) and at least one climate-tech adjacent name (OctoLife, sustainable cooling, per Tracxn) 1321719. Notably absent from the public portfolio: deeptech, AI infra, hard-science biotech, and the recent Indian VC pivot toward defense and space.

Geographic focus: Overwhelmingly India, with a strong Mumbai / Bengaluru bias. The IIT Bombay network is the dominant origination channel — 14 of the original 20 Powai Lake Ventures bets were founded by IIT Bombay alumni per IIT Bombay’s own alumni office 1.

Notable exits: - Fynd (formerly Shopsense): acquired by Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings in August 2019 2 - Shifu (personal-assistant app): acquired by Paytm for ~$8M in January 2016 2 - Ola Cabs: Hayath has stated he has not sold his stake more than a decade after the 2011 first cheque, despite Ola’s “mounting losses” — the position remains unrealised as of 2026 64 - Housing.com: acquired by News Corp’s PropTiger in January 2017 (no public exit details for individual angels)

Failed/wound-down bets in the named portfolio: Bite Club (food delivery), Eatlo (food delivery, closed December 2015), Tushky (travel-tech), Doormint (laundry, scaled down) — concentrated in the 2014-2015 Indian consumer-internet vintage that broadly struggled 2.

Decision speed and check sizing: First-cheque-fast, syndicate-small. The Ola pattern is illustrative: roughly ₹1 Cr (~$160K) was the total syndicate cheque across six angels, implying typical individual angel exposure in the low-tens-of-thousands-of-dollars per name rather than the $250K-$1M cheques typical of US angels 6. Powai Lake Ventures’ explicit construction — pooling multiple IIT-alumni angels into one round — is a direct response to that ceiling.

Co-investor and network patterns: Tightly clustered around the IIT Bombay alumni angel network — Rehan Yar Khan and Anupam Mittal on Ola, and the other Powai Lake Ventures members (Saurabh Saxena, Vaibhav Puranik, Gagan Goyal, Abhishek Jain, Shishir Kapoor) on most subsequent deals 26. Later-stage co-investors on Toppr (and adjacent companies he has touched) include SAIF/Elevation Capital, Helion, Eight Roads, Kaizen and Foundation Holdings 89.

Activity tempo: Powai Lake Ventures publicly “slowed dealmaking” after 2015 when, per CB Insights, “rapid investment decisions led to poor due diligence outcomes,” and by 2016 the pace had significantly decreased — though investments continued sporadically (TableHero 2016, EVEARA Pre-Seed January 2025) 2. The most recent verified Powai Lake Ventures cheque is EVEARA in January 2025 2.

Gaps and patterns relative to stated thesis: Hayath claims to back “smart founders who want to build something massive in a large market” — the realised data (Ola, Housing, Toppr, Fynd, Shifu) suggests the screen is meaningfully tighter than that: he predominantly backs IIT Bombay founders he personally knows, in Indian consumer-internet or India-first SaaS. The IIT Bombay screen is implicit in the network design (Powai Lake) but rarely stated in his public framing.

Portfolio

This table aggregates Hayath’s personal angel investments, Powai Lake Ventures group cheques (he is the founder/lead), and companies where his role is well-documented. The table covers an estimated 60-70% of his named bets; aggregator data on Indian angels is notoriously sparse and PitchBook/Tracxn disagree on counts (CB Insights reports 18 Powai Lake investments with 2 exits) 21617.

Company Year Stage Source
Ola Cabs (ANI Technologies) 2011-04 First-cheque angel syndicate (~₹1 Cr total w/ Anupam Mittal, Rehan Yar Khan, Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal, R. Ramjee) 67
Housing.com 2012-09 Angel ($361K total round per Tracxn) 1615
Shopsense (Fynd) ~2013 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures; exited to Reliance Aug 2019 214
Chaayos ~2013 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures 143
SquadRun ~2014 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures 143
AdPushup ~2014 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures 143
Vacationlabs ~2014 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures 143
Claro ~2014 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures 14
Holachef ~2014 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures 143
GetSquareFeet ~2014 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures 143
Qyk ~2014 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures 143
NexGear ~2014 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures 143
BiteClub ~2014 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures 143
Orobind ~2014 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures 143
Tushky ~2014 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures (wound down) 214
Stitchwood ~2015 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures 14
Eatlo ~2015 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures (closed Dec 2015) 2
Shifu ~2015 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures; acquired by Paytm Jan 2016 (~$8M) 2
Doormint ~2015 Angel via Powai Lake Ventures (scaled down) 2
TableHero 2016 Seed ($1M) via Powai Lake Ventures 2
~unknown ForeignAdmits — Angel (per aggregator)
~unknown ASQI — Angel (per aggregator)
~unknown OneCare — Angel (per aggregator)
OctoLife 2025-12 Per Tracxn personal-angel record (sustainable cooling) 1619
EVEARA 2025-01-20 Pre-Seed via Powai Lake Ventures (music-distribution SaaS) 2

Hayath himself co-founded and led Toppr (2013-2021) rather than backing it as an angel; it is excluded from the angel portfolio table but is the most significant outcome of his career as an operator.

In Their Own Words

“Nobody can write the full angel cheque of Rs1.5-2 crore for one startup.” — Zishaan Hayath on the rationale for the Ola angel syndicate, Quartz India, July 2019 6

“I was quite lucky to have spotted both the companies at an early stage. The founders of both Ola and Housing are my juniors from IIT Bombay and that surely helped.” — Zishaan Hayath, Inc42 interview, December 22, 2014 15

“Powai Lake Ventures is a small angel group that invests in the first round of early stage startups.” — Zishaan Hayath, CrazyEngineers interview, October 26, 2024 14

“We back smart founders who want to build something massive in a large market.” — Zishaan Hayath, CrazyEngineers interview, October 26, 2024 14

“Technology when applied to the education sector can do wonders.” — Zishaan Hayath, CrazyEngineers interview, October 26, 2024 14

“Find what you love. And do it well.” — Zishaan Hayath, CrazyEngineers interview, October 26, 2024 14

“If you love your work, hours don’t make a difference. So the trick is to find something you love.” — Zishaan Hayath, CrazyEngineers interview, October 26, 2024 14

“Staying focussed on a narrow problem and offering an excellent simple solutions usually helps you win.” — Zishaan Hayath on startup execution, CrazyEngineers interview, October 26, 2024 14

“Super quick. There is no other way.” — Zishaan Hayath on his angel investment decision speed, Open Magazine, November 5, 2015 4

“The USP of Toppr is the way the platform has leveraged technology to complement the tutor based offline coaching of a student with a truly intuitive online platform.” — Zishaan Hayath on Toppr, Inc42 interview, December 22, 2014 15

What Founders Say

No independently sourced verbatim founder testimonials about Zishaan Hayath were located in this research pass that meet Seedlist’s standards (direct first-person quotes from portfolio founders about their actual working relationship with him, attributable to a contemporaneous primary source). Public reporting on Ola’s seed round documents that Hayath was one of six angels in the first-cheque syndicate and that his investment was driven by personal knowledge of Bhavish Aggarwal as an IIT Bombay junior 64. Dedicated future searches — including podcast appearances of Bhavish Aggarwal (Ola), Rahul Yadav (Housing.com), Nitin Saluja (Chaayos), and Harshvardhan Mandad (Tushky / Adda52 alumni) — would be required to substantiate this section with sourced verbatim founder quotes.

Connections

  • Co-Founder & former CEO, Toppr (2013-2021) — alongside co-founder Hemanth Goteti (IIT Bombay alumnus); Toppr acquired by Byju’s in July 2021 84
  • Founder, Powai Lake Ventures — Mumbai-based IIT Bombay-alumni angel group; co-members include Abhishek Jain, Shishir Kapoor, Vaibhav Puranik, Saurabh Saxena, Gagan Goyal 21
  • Venture Partner, TDV Partners (Mumbai-based seed VC founded by Ujwal Sutaria) — listed under “Our Backers & Venture Partners” as “Co-founder, Toppr” 12
  • Venture Partner, Bharat Founders Fund 13
  • Ola Cabs first-cheque angel syndicate (April 2011) — alongside Anupam Mittal (People Group / Shaadi.com), Rehan Yar Khan (later Orios Venture Partners), Kunal Bahl (Snapdeal), Rohit Bansal (Snapdeal), Ramachandran Ramjee 67
  • Co-Founder, Chaupaati Bazaar (2008-2010) — phone commerce marketplace; acquired by Future Group 2010; subsequently VP Product at Future Group / Future Bazaar 14
  • IIT Bombay alumnus (B.Tech. + M.Tech. Civil Engineering, 2005; Young Alumni Achiever Award 2015) — the dominant origination network for his angel activity; ~14 of Powai Lake Ventures’ first 20 bets were IIT Bombay-founded companies 1
  • Past employer: Opera Solutions (analytics, pre-Chaupaati); ITC Limited (prior to Opera Solutions) 4

Sources

  1. IIT Bombay Alumni & Corporate Relations, “Mr. Zishaan Hayath,” accessed May 2026. https://acr.iitbombay.org/awards/mr-zishaan-hayath/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. CB Insights, “Powai Lake Ventures — Portfolio Investments, Funds, Exits,” accessed May 2026. https://www.cbinsights.com/investor/powai-lake-ventures↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  3. Business Standard, “Zishaan Hayath: The start-up evangelist,” May 27, 2015. https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/zishaan-hayath-the-start-up-evangelist-115052701100_1.html↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  4. Open Magazine, “Zishaan Hayath, Founder & CEO, Toppr,” November 5, 2015. https://openthemagazine.com/features/business/zishaan-hayath-founder-ceo-toppr/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  5. Crunchbase, “Zishaan Hayath — Founder & CEO @ Toppr,” accessed May 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/zishaan-hayath↩

  6. Quartz India, “One of India’s biggest startups offers a valuable lesson in how to attract angel investors,” July 2019. https://qz.com/india/1656277/ola-angel-investors-zishaan-hayath-rehan-yar-khan-and-anupam-mittal-look-back↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  7. YourStory, “Car rental portal Olacabs.com receives first round of angel funding from Anupam Mittal & Rehan yar Khan,” April 2011. https://yourstory.com/2011/04/car-rental-portal-olacabs-com-receives-first-round-of-angel-funding-from-anupam-mittal-a-rehan-yar-khan↩↩↩

  8. Entrackr, “Exclusive: Byju’s set to acquire Toppr in a $150 Mn deal,” February 15, 2021. https://entrackr.com/2021/02/exclusive-byjus-set-to-acquire-toppr-in-a-150-mn-deal/↩↩↩↩↩

  9. Inc42, “BYJU’s Acquisition Of Toppr Could Turn Edtech Into Three-Horse Race,” February 16, 2021. https://inc42.com/buzz/byjus-acquisition-of-toppr-could-turn-edtech-into-three-horse-race/↩↩

  10. Entrackr, “Exclusive: Byju’s acquires Toppr and Great Learning,” July 24, 2021. https://entrackr.com/2021/07/exclusive-byjus-acquires-toppr-and-great-learning/↩

  11. Inc42, “IPO-Bound BYJU’s Spent More Than $2.4 Bn On Acquisitions In 2021,” accessed May 2026. https://inc42.com/buzz/ipo-bound-byjus-spent-more-than-2-4-bn-on-acquisitions-in-2021/↩

  12. TDV Partners, “Team / Our Backers & Venture Partners,” accessed May 2026. https://www.tdv.partners/team↩↩

  13. Bharat Founders Fund, “Venture Partners,” accessed May 2026. https://www.bharatfoundersfund.com/venture-partners↩↩

  14. CrazyEngineers, “‘Technology when applied to the education sector can do wonders’ — Zishaan Hayath, Co-Founder, Toppr.com,” October 26, 2024. https://www.crazyengineers.com/founders-circuit/zishaan-hayath-topprcom↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  15. Inc42, “Zishaan Hayath On Toppr, His Exit & His Investments in Ola, Housing & More,” December 22, 2014. https://inc42.com/startups/zishaan-hayath-toppr-exit-investments-ola-housing/↩↩↩↩↩

  16. Tracxn, “Zishaan Hayath — 2025 Portfolio,” accessed May 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/people/zishaan-hayath/__G2GAirosC6AI3jvw70UzjfCrRsNwBCIllm1H1Xr9bqk↩↩↩↩

  17. Tracxn, “Zishaan Hayath — 2025 Portfolio & Founded Companies (alt profile),” accessed May 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/people/zishaan-hayath/__rl7LGxGiapB8RuPePGPdVbcfD2bCr5mdNWUKz9gZqkE↩↩↩

  18. Tracxn, “List of Investments by Powai Lake Ventures,” accessed May 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/corporate-investments/investments-by-powai-lake-ventures/__iy2cV34uzo8eEfbDs4SzrY5qXGs_8SRHMiZ4TspAhAQ↩

  19. Tracxn, “OctoLife — Company Profile, Team, Funding & Competitors,” accessed May 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/octolife/__yFzEpWFdL3eo0CWImnvwblE8If6ZnLA2RlCVpKhRNfw↩↩