India, June 9 -- In the early 2020s, Aparna Saxena was at a crossroads in her career. An alumnus of Binghamton University, New York, her journey in Silicon Valley began in 2017 at CircleUp, an investment and fintech operator catering to early stage consumer brands. Working as a startup investment analyst, she watched the rise of transformative brands like Pop & Bottle, Youth to the People and Halo Top, businesses that turned minimalism, functionality and storytelling into full-fledged consumer movements and solved user pain points with precision and purpose.

Two years later, she moved to Good Capital, a Delhi-based VC firm investing in early stage tech startups. "When it started funding consumer brands in 2021, the parallels were clear. ...