-- Rohati Capital, an early-stage global venture capital firm founded by former Amazon executives Nick Talwar and Jason MacRae, today announced its commitment to building a worldwide community of investors and entrepreneurs creating the second generation of AI businesses. Rohati will primarily invest in the United States, India, and select other important global markets. The word “Rohati” means to ascend or attain in Sanskrit and is a reflection of an underlying ethos to build, strive, and lift up.
From Marketplace Gap to Global Lending Pioneer
Nick Talwar and Jason MacRae partnered to build Amazon Lending, which launched in 2014, to meet the unmet capital needs of small businesses around the world on Amazon´s marketplace platform. The initiative emerged from an observation that many business owners on Amazon’s platform were constrained by a lack of credit. More than 50% of the sellers surveyed at the time reported being denied financing or never offered it at all, limiting their ability to expand.
Traditional lenders often showed bias against small businesses, new businesses, and online businesses, leaving these entrepreneurs underserved. To address this, the Amazon Lending team built an AI platform that analyzed millions of internal data elements such as seller ratings, reviews, customer service inquiries, item return rates, inventory management, sales velocity, and product margins to determine creditworthiness. This approach enabled thousands of small businesses in the United States, India, the UK, Japan, and elsewhere to access credit for the first time. This represented a marked improvement to the way traditional credit bureaus were assessing these businesses, and very often with extremely different conclusions.
Within just two years, Amazon Lending had scaled into a business generating more than one hundred million dollars in profit and with extremely low losses, serving tens of thousands of small businesses in the US, UK, Japan, India and select EU markets, many of whom had never previously had access to credit, across multiple markets. The program not only delivered significant profit but also introduced a new model of embedded finance, demonstrating how automated application of high volumes of data could overcome systemic bias in lending.
As former president and CEO of Amazon noted in his 2015 letter to shareholders:
“We also created the Amazon Lending program to help sellers grow. Since the program launched, we have provided aggregate funding of over $1.5 billion dollars to micro, small and medium businesses across the US, UK and Japan through short-term loans, with a total outstanding loan balance of about 400 million dollars. Stephen Aarstol, surfer and owner of Tower Paddle Boards, is one beneficiary. His business has become one of the fastest growing companies in San Diego, in part with a little help from Amazon Lending. Click-to-cash access to capital helps these small enterprises grow, benefits customers with greater selection, and benefits Amazon since our marketplace revenue grows along with the sellers’ sales. We hope to expand Amazon Lending and are now working on ways to partner with banks so they can use their expertise to take and manage the bulk of the credit risk.”
Applying Data and AI to Back the Next Generation
Rohati Capital brings that same entrepreneurial spirit to venture investing. Just as Amazon Lending applied data to remove blockers for small businesses, Rohati Capital invests in the next generation of entrepreneurs building with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The founding team has long worked with advanced data-driven techniques, previously employing neural networks and reinforcement learning, tools that would today be recognized as machine learning and AI. Rohati Capital now seeks out funds and founders with a similar mindset: those focused on customer problems, leveraging data with speed, creativity, and a dose of irreverence to challenge conventions and build transformative businesses.
Rohati Capital’s investment strategy emphasizes sectors where AI can deliver the most defensible long-term value, including financial technology, healthcare, electrification, and enterprise SaaS. By targeting industries with complex and regulated workflows, the firm seeks to back entrepreneurs whose solutions are both transformative and resilient.
Joining us on this mission are three operating partners who support Rohati portfolio funds: Charles Elkan, Max Bardon, and Kurt Zumwalt–all ex-Amazon leaders with deep expertise across AI, fintech, and capital markets.
Building a Worldwide Network of Venture Partnerships
Rohati Capital reaches these entrepreneurs by partnering with a trusted group of venture capital funds whose ethos aligns with its own: focusing on the customer, harnessing the power of data, and moving quickly. This partnership model allows Rohati Capital to engage with promising founders around the world while reinforcing the importance of speed and adaptability.
The firm is active globally, with a particular focus on the United States and India, markets where the founders have proven track records of scaling innovation, as well as in dynamic ecosystems such as Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, Turkey, Israel, and the UK. Through these partnerships, Rohati Capital not only gains access to emerging ventures but also contributes operator expertise, mentoring, and diligence support, strengthening its role as a collaborative partner to fund managers worldwide.
Rohati Capital also emphasizes a core philosophy that talent is global, not confined to a single market. Its commitment to both developed and emerging ecosystems reflects a belief that breakthrough ideas can originate anywhere and thrive when supported by the right networks and resources.
Positioned for Scalable Growth and Global Impact
Rohati Capital’s efforts mark the beginning of a broader initiative to connect investors, partners, and entrepreneurs who share a belief in supporting bold innovation worldwide. By combining global reach with a data-driven investment philosophy, the firm aims to expand its role as a trusted partner in scaling the next generation of businesses.
With its founders committing significant personal capital alongside outside investors, Rohati Capital underscores its confidence in the strategy and ensures strong alignment of interests as it scales.
Contact Info:
Name: Will
Email: Send Email
Organization: Rohati Capital
Website: https://rohati.capital
Release ID: 89170291
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