From crypto to fintech, consumer and AI: Ashish Singhal explains CoinSwitch Ventures’ BlackLane Capital pivot

CoinSwitch Ventures is stepping beyond its crypto and Web3 roots as it rebrands as BlackLane Capital, an independent global early-stage investment firm that plans to write cheques of up to $5 million across fintech, enterprise infrastructure, consumer applications, artificial intelligence and digital assets.

The investment platform aims to enable more than $100 million in startup funding over the next five years, building on a portfolio of more than 26 companies. The pivot comes as CoinSwitch turns profitable in FY26, with revenue more than doubling year-on-year and more than $300 million raised from investors.

In an interview, CoinSwitch co-founder Ashish Singhal explains why the firm is broadening its mandate, whether the move signals a retreat from Web3, and how BlackLane Capital plans to identify startups capable of scaling across markets.


Edited excerpts from a chat:

Why is CoinSwitch Ventures rebranding as BlackLane Capital now, and what strategic gap does the new identity seek to address?

When we started CoinSwitch Ventures, we were focused on backing founders building in Web3. Over the last three years, we have invested in more than 26 startups, and that experience has taught us a lot about what it takes to build a business, particularly in an emerging technology ecosystem.

One of the things we have come to believe is that good founders and good businesses are not confined to any one sector. The fundamentals of building a company remain remarkably similar: you need to solve a real problem, understand your customer, build a strong team and execute consistently. Our experience of building CoinSwitch has reinforced that belief.

As we worked with founders, we realised that we could bring the same experience and perspective to businesses beyond Web3. BlackLane Capital reflects that evolution. It gives us the flexibility to back founders across enterprise, consumer, fintech, infrastructure and digital assets, without being defined by a single technology category.

For me, this is less about changing our identity and more about expanding what we can do. We want to partner with ambitious founders, understand the problems they are solving and help them build businesses that can stand the test of time.

Does the rebranding signal a move away from Web3, or does BlackLane Capital see digital assets as one pillar within a broader technology-investing strategy?

We are not moving away from Web3. It is where we began our investing journey, and we continue to see opportunities in the space. Our experience there has also shaped how we evaluate emerging technologies, especially in markets where the potential is significant but the path to building a sustainable business is not always straightforward.

At the same time, technology does not evolve in neat categories. AI is changing how software is built, fintech is changing how financial services are delivered, and enterprise infrastructure is becoming increasingly important as businesses adopt new technologies. These developments create opportunities that go beyond any one sector.

Having built a technology business ourselves, I am interested in founders who can identify a meaningful problem and build a commercially viable solution around it. The underlying technology matters, but so do customer adoption, distribution and the economics of the business.

Digital assets will remain part of our investment strategy, alongside these other areas. BlackLane Capital allows us to follow the founders and opportunities we believe in, rather than limiting ourselves to a particular sector.

How will the fund split its focus across fintech, enterprise infrastructure, consumer applications and digital assets?

We have not set fixed allocations for each sector, and we would prefer to keep it that way. The quality of the opportunity should drive the decision.

In fintech, we see opportunities to make financial products more accessible and improve how they are delivered to customers. Enterprise infrastructure is interesting because every new technology wave creates a need for the systems that allow businesses to adopt it reliably and at scale. In consumer applications, the challenge is to build products that solve real problems and give people a compelling reason to keep using them. Digital assets remain an area where our experience gives us a useful starting point.

These sectors have different dynamics, and we will evaluate each on its own merits. The questions I would ask are straightforward: Is the problem important? Is the market large enough? Does the team have the ability to execute? Can the business develop a sustainable model as it grows?

We will deploy capital where we have conviction in the founders and the business they are building. We would rather preserve that flexibility than follow an allocation simply because we decided on it upfront.

What specific investment themes or business models currently look most attractive to you within these sectors?

One trend we find particularly interesting is that technology is changing the economics of building a company. When we started CoinSwitch, building and scaling a technology platform required significant investment in product, engineering, infrastructure and distribution. Today, AI is lowering some of those barriers. Small teams can build sophisticated products and reach customers in markets that would have been much harder to access earlier.

That creates an opportunity for Indian founders to think globally from the beginning, particularly in enterprise software, infrastructure and consumer technology. We are interested in businesses that can use these tools to solve meaningful problems, rather than simply adding AI to an existing product without a clear customer benefit.

We also see opportunities in established industries where the customer problem is well understood, but the experience remains inefficient. Financial services is one example, as technology can improve how products are designed, accessed and delivered. In enterprise technology, the opportunity includes building the infrastructure businesses will need as adoption accelerates.

Ultimately, we don't invest in a theme simply because it is attracting attention. At an early stage, the team matters enormously. Products evolve, markets change, and business models get refined. We look for founders who understand their customers, learn quickly and can make sound decisions as the business develops. A strong founding team can navigate a changing market; a fashionable idea alone cannot build a durable company.

With investments of up to $5 million, at what stage will BlackLane Capital typically enter a company, and how will it differentiate itself from seed funds and larger venture capital firms?

We expect to invest from seed to Series B, with cheque sizes of up to $5 million, depending on the company and its requirements. These are stages we find particularly interesting because the business is still taking shape. You are not just evaluating what a company has achieved so far; you are also forming a view on what the founders could build over time.

Having built CoinSwitch, I know that raising capital is only one part of the journey. Founders also need to make difficult product decisions, find customers, build teams, establish partnerships and navigate the inevitable setbacks that come with growing a business. The right support at the right time can make a meaningful difference.

That is where we believe our experience can help. Through the wider PeepalCo ecosystem, we can bring an operating perspective to discussions around product, strategy and partnerships, as well as connect founders with relevant industry relationships and investors as their funding needs evolve. Where it makes sense, we may also participate in subsequent funding rounds.

We believe that our role should not be defined simply by the size of our cheque or by comparing ourselves with other funds. We want to be useful to the founders we back. The nature of that support will vary from company to company, but the underlying objective is the same: to help them make better decisions and build stronger businesses.

The fund aims to enable more than $100 million in startup funding over the next five years. How much of that will come directly from the fund, and how much do you expect to mobilise from co-investors?

Our ambition is to enable more than $100 million in startup funding over the next five years. This reflects the broader role we want to play in helping promising companies access capital as they grow, through our own investments as well as relationships with other investors and strategic partners.

A startup's funding requirements change considerably over time. The capital needed to validate a product is very different from what is required to expand into new markets or build a much larger distribution network. As companies progress, access to investors who understand the business and its next stage of growth becomes increasingly important.

We want to support founders beyond the initial investment by helping them build those relationships and engage with the right investors when the time is right. Our experience of building a company has shown us that the quality of the network around a founder can matter as much as the initial capital.

We have not announced a specific split between direct investments by BlackLane Capital and funding mobilised from co-investors. The $100 million is our ambition for the funding we aim to enable through this broader approach, rather than a statement about the size of the fund itself. Our priority remains to deploy our capital thoughtfully and help founders access the resources they need to build and scale.

Which Indian startups or sectors have the strongest potential to scale globally, and what prevents more companies from making that transition?

We believe Indian founders have an opportunity to build globally relevant companies across AI, enterprise software, fintech, digital infrastructure and consumer technology. India has a strong engineering talent pool, a large digital economy and founders who have learned to build and operate products at scale. These are meaningful advantages.

AI makes this moment particularly interesting. A company no longer necessarily needs a large team or substantial infrastructure to develop a sophisticated product. This gives ambitious founders the opportunity to test ideas, build faster and reach international customers earlier than was possible in the past.

But building a product that can serve customers globally is different from building a global business. I have seen how much thought goes into distribution, customer trust, pricing, local market needs and execution when you are scaling a company. These considerations cannot be postponed until the business is ready to expand.

Founders need to understand who their customers are in each market, what those customers are willing to pay for and how the business will reach them. They also need to account for local regulations, competition, hiring and operational requirements.

My view is that global ambition should influence how a company is built from the beginning, even if it enters international markets later. The strongest businesses will be those that combine India's advantages in talent and execution with a deep understanding of the markets they want to serve. At BlackLane Capital, we want to back founders who are thinking along those lines.

How will BlackLane Capital manage the regulatory and risk complexities associated with digital assets while investing across a much broader mandate?

Our experience in Web3 has taught us not to look at a business only through the lens of its technology or growth potential. You also have to understand its business model, the risks it carries, the regulatory environment in which it operates and whether it can build a sustainable business over time.

Digital assets require particular care because the technology and market structures are evolving, and regulatory requirements can differ across jurisdictions. We will continue to evaluate these opportunities with a clear understanding of those considerations rather than treating growth potential as the only measure of attractiveness.

As we expand into other sectors, the specific risks will change, but the underlying discipline will not. In fintech, regulatory obligations and customer trust are central. In enterprise infrastructure, technology reliability, security and customer dependence matter. In consumer businesses, adoption, retention and unit economics need close attention.

Early-stage investing will always involve uncertainty. The objective is not to eliminate every risk, which is impossible, but to understand what we are taking on, assess whether the potential return justifies it and remain disciplined in how we deploy capital. We will draw on relevant expertise and industry relationships as part of that process.

A broader mandate does not mean a lower bar for investment. If anything, it makes it more important to understand the specific dynamics of every business we back.

Also update us about the kind of growth that CoinSwitch's crypto platform has seen in India in the last couple of years.

CoinSwitch has grown to more than 2 crore registered users in India. Building for this market has been an important part of our journey. Our focus has been on making crypto investing accessible while strengthening the product, security and operating capabilities needed to serve users at scale.

We have also made meaningful progress on the business side. In FY26, CoinSwitch recorded revenue of ₹324.19 crore, up 150% from ₹129.70 crore in FY25. Adjusted EBITDA increased to ₹86.38 crore from ₹1.65 crore in the previous financial year. For me, this is an important milestone because building a business in an emerging category requires not just customer growth, but also a clear focus on operating discipline and sustainable economics.

The Indian crypto market is still developing, and we believe there is a long-term opportunity to serve users as their understanding of the asset class evolves. That opportunity comes with a responsibility to build carefully, maintain user trust and operate with discipline.

We have always believed that building for the long term matters more than chasing growth at any cost. Our focus remains on improving the platform, strengthening the foundations of the business and serving India's crypto investors as the market matures.