India’s deep-tech and energy-transition ecosystem is moving into a phase where building the right technology is only one part of the challenge. For early-stage companies working across electric mobility, energy infrastructure, batteries, smart metering, hydrogen and other engineering-led sectors, the journey from an idea to a scalable business often requires deep technical expertise, market understanding and access to the right industry networks.
This is the space where Mohammed Shoeb Ali, Founder & Managing Partner at Transition VC, has built his investment thesis. With a professional journey spanning engineering, corporate finance, investment banking and technology investing, Shoeb Ali has developed a sector-focused approach to backing early-stage companies working at the intersection of technology and energy transition.
In a recent conversation with Indian Startup Times, Shoeb Ali spoke about his journey from finance to venture capital, the thinking behind Transition VC’s energy-focused investment strategy, and what the firm looks for before backing a founder. He also discussed why technical capability and adaptability are critical for deep-tech founders, how investors can distinguish genuine innovation from hype, and the role venture capital can play beyond simply providing funding.
From Finance to Technology Investing
Shoeb Ali’s professional journey began with engineering and finance. After completing his mechanical engineering degree and MBA in Finance, he worked with Tata and its corporate finance division, where he was involved in growth strategy.
He later moved to EY’s investment banking division, working on mergers and acquisitions and helping large corporates develop growth strategies.
A subsequent stint with a US-based hedge fund exposed him to technology investing across public and private markets. The experience made him recognise an opportunity at the intersection of technology and investments.
Shoeb Ali said that very few people understood both technology and investment deeply, and he saw this intersection as an opportunity to explore investing in technology as the next phase of his career.
The opportunity came when the former CTO of Sun Microsystems was setting up an early-stage fund in India. Shoeb Ali joined the fund, helping build its investment thesis and evaluate early-stage opportunities in the country.
It was during this period that he met his future colleague Ryan. The two spent considerable time discussing emerging sectors and potential investment opportunities, eventually developing the idea of building their own venture capital fund.
Why Energy Transition Became the Focus
The decision to focus on energy came from identifying what Shoeb Ali and his team believed was a gap in India’s venture capital ecosystem.
At the time, energy was still an emerging investment category in India, particularly areas such as electric mobility and related technologies. Rather than investing across multiple sectors, the team decided to develop deep expertise in one domain.
“We thought, let’s focus on one sector, go deep, understand it so well that gather so great insights that will leverage us to take good investment bets compared to our competition,” Shoeb Ali explained during the interaction.
Before launching the fund, Shoeb Ali and Ryan also invested their own money in energy-focused startups while continuing their professional careers. Their early investments included Charge Zone, Exponent Energy and Billion Mobility.
The founders eventually left their jobs and spent several months travelling across Europe, the US, Southeast Asia and India. They spoke with startups, policymakers and capital allocators to understand the depth of opportunity in the energy-transition ecosystem.
That exercise strengthened their conviction to build a dedicated fund around the sector.
The first fund was initially planned at around ₹400 crore. However, according to Shoeb Ali, strong investor interest and the performance of the fund’s early investments led to the fund being oversubscribed.
The fund eventually closed at ₹723 crore and has invested in 21 startups, spanning areas including electric mobility, electric-mobility components, hydrogen, solar and wind technologies, smart meters, data-centre applications and drone components.
Transition VC positions itself as a deep-tech and engineering-focused fund investing in early-stage technologies within the energy-transition ecosystem.
The firm has since launched its second fund, with a corpus of ₹1,500 crore. Shoeb Ali said the fund plans to invest in around 25–30 technology startups.
The second fund will continue the firm’s focus on early-stage technology while also expanding its approach to international opportunities. Transition VC has already invested in four international startups across the US, Switzerland and Singapore and helped bring their technologies to India, including supporting manufacturing and customer expansion.
What Transition VC Looks for in Founders
For Shoeb Ali, deep-tech investing begins with technical capability.
Transition VC primarily looks at hard-tech and engineering startups in the energy domain and adjacent areas. As a result, the technical ability of a founding team to build, complete and scale a product becomes particularly important.
The firm prefers founders who have spent years working closely with products, research and development, engineering, product teams or business development.
Shoeb Ali describes these founders as “doers” people who have hands-on experience building products and solving technical problems before deciding to build a company.
But technical expertise alone is not enough.
The ability to build teams, attract talent, understand market dynamics and sell the company’s vision also matters.
For Shoeb Ali, founders need to understand not only what they are building, but also why they are building it and how they intend to take it to market.
He also emphasised that all capabilities do not necessarily have to exist within one founder.
A strong founding team can combine different strengths, with one founder bringing technical expertise while another contributes sales, business development or other capabilities.
Learning Ability Can Matter as Much as Existing Skills
One of the key characteristics Shoeb Ali looks for is a founder’s ability to learn and adapt.
A startup’s requirements change as it moves through different stages. A founder may initially spend years focused on technology and product development. Once the product is ready, the challenges may shift towards manufacturing, supply chains, scaling and sales.
That means founders need to understand their own strengths and weaknesses and recognise which capabilities the company will need at different stages.
“Does he understand what he lacks? And then, is he able to learn those new skills or bring in some good guys who can fill those skills?” Shoeb Ali said.
For Transition VC, self-awareness, adaptability and the ability to build new capabilities are therefore important parts of evaluating a founding team.
Why Sector Depth Matters in Identifying Real Innovation
With growing interest in areas such as AI and clean energy, identifying genuine technological innovation has become an important challenge for investors.
Transition VC approaches this through a highly sector-specific investment thesis.
Rather than investing across industries, the firm focuses on energy and technologies that either generate, consume or enable energy.
Within that broad domain, the team further divides the market into sub-sectors and identifies what it calls “white spaces” areas where it sees technological innovation combined with a potential market opportunity.
The firm has identified around 40–50 such white spaces within the energy domain, according to Shoeb Ali.
The investment process then involves actively looking for startups operating in those areas, rather than relying only on inbound opportunities.
For instance, while evaluating battery technology, the team studied around 17–18 startups before making an investment. Similarly, when looking at motors and controllers, the team evaluated multiple companies before selecting a company that combined both capabilities.
This sector-specific approach, Shoeb Ali said, allows the team to develop a deeper understanding of the underlying technology and distinguish between genuine innovation and claims that may not stand up to technical scrutiny.
A Portfolio Built Around Complex Engineering Problems
Transition VC’s portfolio spans several areas of energy and engineering technology.
Shoeb Ali highlighted companies working in battery technology, motors and controllers, heat pumps and smart metering as examples of businesses addressing complex technical problems.
He pointed to Promethean, which develops heat pump systems, as an example of a business dealing with significant engineering complexity. According to Shoeb Ali, the systems involve thousands of components that need to operate together.
The broader investment philosophy is centred around founder-technology fit and founder-market fit.
Rather than applying one standard definition of an ideal founder, Transition VC evaluates whether the founding team has the capabilities required for its particular technology, product and market.
As Shoeb Ali noted, the skill set required to build motors and controllers can be very different from what is required to develop smart-metering technology.
Beyond Capital: Helping Deep-Tech Startups Scale
For deep-tech companies, raising capital is only one part of the journey. Once a product moves beyond research and development, startups often face challenges around manufacturing, assembly, supply chains, customer acquisition and commercialisation.
Transition VC’s support extends into these areas.
Shoeb Ali said the fund works with industry advisors and investors who can help portfolio companies navigate manufacturing and scaling challenges.
The firm also uses its industry network to help startups find potential customers, pilots and initial commercial opportunities.
This becomes particularly important for deep-tech startups because moving from a technically functional product to a commercially scalable product can require a different set of capabilities.
Transition VC also takes an active role at the strategic level, including through board participation and discussions around market strategy, go-to-market plans and future product development.
However, Shoeb Ali clarified that the fund does not get involved in day-to-day operations. Its focus is on high-level strategy, manufacturing scale-up, initial go-to-market efforts and helping companies access relevant customers.
Talent Remains a Major Challenge for India’s Deep-Tech Ecosystem
While funding has historically been viewed as one of the biggest challenges for deep-tech startups, Shoeb Ali believes the situation is changing as more investors begin focusing on the sector.
For him, the larger challenge is the availability of talent.
India, despite its large population, still has a limited number of deep-tech startups, according to Shoeb Ali. More importantly, he believes there is a shortage of experienced, hands-on engineers and manufacturing professionals who can help startups move from product development to large-scale production.
Deep-tech companies often require specialised technical talent capable of solving complex engineering problems and later translating those solutions into scalable manufacturing processes.
The gap, therefore, is not simply about finding people with technical qualifications, but finding professionals with practical experience in building, completing and scaling complex products.
Shoeb Ali identified the availability of talent as one of the biggest roadblocks for India’s deep-tech ecosystem. While funding gaps remain in some areas, he expects greater investor participation as more deep-tech startups emerge.
As Transition VC moves ahead with its ₹1,500 crore second fund, its strategy remains centred on early-stage technologies within the energy-transition ecosystem, alongside opportunities to bring relevant international technologies to India and support their manufacturing and scale-up.
For Shoeb Ali, the opportunity in deep-tech lies not simply in backing the next technology trend, but in understanding the engineering behind it, the market it is addressing and the people capable of turning an idea into a scalable business. His approach places technical depth, founder capability and long-term execution at the centre of the investment process areas that could remain critical as India’s deep-tech ecosystem continues to develop.
By- Aakriti Jaiswal
