About Vikas Malpani
I’m Vikas Malpani, an entrepreneur, angel investor, and technology leader based in Bengaluru, India. Over nearly two decades I’ve founded three companies, invested in two unicorns, and been recognized as an MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35. Today I’m co-founder and CEO of Garvik AI, where we build enterprise AI systems, including ReBillion.ai for real estate.
The sewage pipe (2007)
The story starts with a broken sewage pipe in my Bangalore apartment building and a neighbor named Sumit Jain. We built a tool to help housing communities manage themselves. That tool became CommonFloor.
CommonFloor (2007–2016)
With Sumit and Lalit Mangal, I co-founded maxHeap Technologies, the company behind CommonFloor.com. We grew it into India’s leading property marketplace: millions of listings, 200+ cities, $69.6M raised from Tiger Global, Accel, and Google Capital. In 2016, Quikr acquired us in a $200M deal.
The lesson that stuck: markets reward obsession with a real problem, not pursuit of a hot market.
The empty exit
The exit was supposed to feel like winning. It felt like an ending, and endings carry grief. An identity built entirely on one company doesn’t survive the company. Starting over wasn’t a setback — it was the skill I’d accidentally been training all along. I wrote the whole story in Why I Left a $200M Exit to Start Over.
Leher (2018–2022)
With Atul Jaju, I built Leher, a live audio-video social network. Google for Startups Accelerator, real users, hard lessons. We exited in 2022. Failure taught me more about judgment than the $200M exit did, and I write about both with the same honesty.
AI-native (2023–)
In 2023, Atul and I co-founded Garvik AI. We build enterprise AI: company-wide knowledge search and AI copilots for banking, manufacturing, real estate, and edtech. Through ReBillion.ai, we’re rebuilding how real estate transactions work with AI. I run the company AI-native: small team, agents everywhere, judgment as the bottleneck.
Investing
I was the earliest angel investor in Unacademy ($586K seed round, December 2015 — now valued at $3.4B+) and hold Quikr equity through the CommonFloor merger. I invest founder-first at seed and pre-seed in India-scale problems and AI-native architectures. More in What I Look for in Founders.
Recognition
MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 (India). BusinessWorld Hottest Young Entrepreneur. Speaker at conferences across Asia — book a talk.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Vikas Malpani?
Vikas Malpani is an Indian entrepreneur and angel investor, co-founder of CommonFloor (acquired by Quikr for $200M), Leher, and Garvik AI, and one of the earliest investors in Unacademy.
What companies did Vikas Malpani found?
Three: maxHeap Technologies (the company behind CommonFloor.com, 2007–2016), Leher (2018–2022, exited), and Garvik AI (2023–present), which operates ReBillion.ai.
What does Vikas Malpani invest in?
Seed and pre-seed startups solving India-scale problems with AI-native architectures. Earliest angel in Unacademy; Quikr equity via the CommonFloor merger.
What is ReBillion.ai?
ReBillion.ai is Garvik AI’s product for the real estate industry: AI-native tools for transaction coordination and brokerage operations.
How can I work with Vikas Malpani?
Founder advisory and AI-native transformation via Work With Me, or book a talk for your event.
If my path is useful to yours
Read the essays — field notes from four reinventions, published as I learn. Building something? Work with me.