A decade in web3

Gradatim ferociter.

Those who know me, know these are words I live by. Ever since I saw them on Blue Origin and understood what it meant i.e. ?Step by step, ferociously…I tried my best to embody it in my life and my company.

Three Years in Web3, Seven Years as a Lawyer, and a Decade as a trader/Investor has been an exercise in perseverance.

I used to be a litigator in the Supreme Court of India. While I was passionate about the work, I always felt drawn to something more—to build something. Litigation, for all its intellectual rigor, felt like a profession stuck in the past, constantly addressing issues that had already transpired. I hated that idea. I wanted to innovate, to see the world changing, and maybe contribute to that change myself. So, I tried my hand at two businesses—first Sehjaar ?(an end to end solid waste management company handling collection of waste to energy generation through social and economic incentives) and then Corridor (India’s first network of lawyers-an early version of growth but just for lawyers)—during different stages of my career.

But everything had changed after my father passed away in 2015. I began looking for alternate ways to earn money, and that’s when I stumbled upon crypto. My friend Aman Khera introduced me to the Bitcoin white paper, asking me to read it. I didn’t understand much at first, but I was intrigued—not by the tech, but by greed. Like many others, I came for the price action in the bull market but stayed for the tech during the bear market. I started buying and selling, making small profits, and gradually moved those profits into a long-term holding portfolio as I realized the true value of this technology.

Below are what the prices of some of the leading cryptocurrencies looked like when I was really diving into trading and some of my profitable trades.

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After gaining some confidence in trading, I decided to reach out to my mother, asking her to double down on my bet on Bitcoin with some of the savings me and her had accumulated. It was a risky bet—one that eventually paid off.

Trading these positions helped me truly understand the technology, the finances, market factors, and economics—everything that already sparked my curiosity. I devoured white papers on the day they launched, hoping to get into promising projects early. It was both financially rewarding and punishing. As trading became more manageable, I developed a process and started speaking with more people in the industry through my legal consultations. That’s when I met my ex-cofounder, and everything changed.

From Idea to Reality

We brainstormed together, and in time, he offered me the role of Chief Legal and Strategy Officer with some ESOPs on the side. The task? A seemingly straightforward one: create a regulatory-compliant product and business built on blockchain. For those of you who know blockchain deeply, you can stop laughing now.

Here’s the thing: in India, if you want to build something that lasts, you have to align with regulators—not just on paper, but in the very DNA of the company. The whole “move fast, break things, ask for forgiveness” mindset? That doesn’t fly in fintech

With this vision of tokenizing assets, we raised $1.3M. At one point, we had offers of $4M at the peak of the low-interest-rate era. We wrote to 117 investors. Crypto markets had crashed by 50%. The government was banning crypto. Blockchain was the tech industry’s black sheep. But we raised the money from those who believed in us—even when no one wanted to touch a blockchain company building “regulatable” products. Finally Inflection Point Ventures LetsVenture Endurance Capital AngelList kube vc backed us.

It was just four of us. No CTO. No product team. Just passion. So, of course, I brought in my senior from college and former colleague from the Supreme Court, Abhishek Sankritik , to help with what felt like a Herculean task. And what began as nights filled with doubt became endless discussions around policy, product, and revenue. We built out our team—my first full-fledged team.

We were building at the heart of India’s digitization wave, but tokenization? It was a completely new frontier—one hidden under the cloud of cryptocurrencies that were rising and crashing in spectacular fashion. It wasn’t easy. In fact, it got downright brutal.

By August 2023, my co-founder and I parted ways due to differences in vision, culture, and governance. But Abhishek and I knew, deep down, we had to see this through. We believed in our product and our strategy, and we knew the market would catch up. It was a long shot, but we bet on ourselves.

I took over as CEO. Abhishek, who was General Counsel, stepped into the role of COO to handle product and operations. We overhauled everything—our systems, processes, even our culture. And from being pre-revenue, we generated our first $100,000. Twelve months later, we’re now inching towards seven-figure revenues. It hasn’t been smooth, but it has been worth every sleepless night.

Navigating Regulatory Challenges and Market Pivots

Over these three years, we've faced regulatory challenges that forced us to pivot multiple times. When we first set out to tokenize assets in India, there were no SOPs, no regulations, and no willing partners. We spent an entire year educating the market—not just as customers but as stakeholders of an ecosystem we were building from scratch.

At first, we wanted to tokenize gold. SEBI ’s Electronic Gold Receipt regulations were released, aimed at closing the loophole DigiGold was exploiting. But the industry wasn’t ready for tokenization due to the regulatory uncertainty. Next, we aimed to tokenize securities and AIF units. But SEBI mandated the dematerialization of these securities, pushing us to seek licenses and work with depositories. We shifted to real estate, and then SEBI introduced SME REIT regulations, forcing yet another pivot.

At every turn, regulations slowed us down. But they also made us stronger, pushing us to explore various asset classes deeply. We spoke with customers, engaged with industry stakeholders, and dove into the infrastructure driving private markets across equity, debt, real estate, and commodities. The gaps in the market were there—and we had the technology to fill them.

A Regulatory Breakthrough

In December 2023, we secured authorization to join the innovation sandbox at GIFT City , sanctioned by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). This allowed us to test tokenizing FME scheme units, explore the boundaries of blockchain-based products while automating fund managers’ operations. We also built a regulatory node solution that enables real-time enforcement by the regulator, paving the way for enhanced oversight and control.

Then, the industry tailwinds hit us like a freight train:

• MICA’s regulatory framework for crypto assets in Europe.
• Hamilton Lane and KKR tokenizing their funds.
• The SEC approving Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
• BlackRock launching a tokenized fund.

Suddenly, the market began catching up to the vision we had held all along.

The Road Ahead: A Story of Persistence and Belief

Today, we have over $370 million of assets in the pipeline to be deployed across Ethereum Polygon Labs Dhiway Solana Labs , Berachain amongst others. We've built real-world use cases. Over these three years, we’ve educated market participants, forged partnerships in private equity, commodities, real estate, and banking—partners who have become friends, mentors, and advisors.

We’ve built:

• Permissioned issuance of Indian equity and debt securities for public and private markets.
• A decentralized private market oracle with top-tier law firms, auditors, and compliance experts.
• A mine-to-market solution for gold provenance.
• A gold-backed bank utilizing CDPs (Collateralized Debt Positions) to generate private credit yield.
• An Automated Market Maker (AMM) for the gold markets, deployed as a white-labeled solution for a UAE-based client.

Launching Elysium

One of the proudest moments of this journey was launching Elysium , our accredited investor club, at the Buddh International Circuit. Imagine this: sports car enthusiasts (including myself) burning rubber at the track. We placed our stall right next to Ferrari and launched Elysium. The response was overwhelming. This wasn’t just about the assets we were bringing to market—it was about building trust, creating a seamless user experience, and enabling faster liquidity for our partners.

The Future of Rooba Finance

It hasn’t been easy. Balancing opportunities in India versus the UAE, Singapore, and the US was tough, but we chose to build in India. We’re connecting Indian private market assets to global liquidity while enabling foreign assets to flow into India. There were moments when regulatory arbitrage seemed tempting, but we stayed focused on the long-term vision: building trusted infrastructure, working with regulated partners, and offering safe assets to sophisticated investors.

By focusing on dynamic dematerialization, we’ve aligned with regulations and collaborated with visionaries like Nandan Nilekani, Pramod Verma, and Siddharth Shetty—builders of India’s digital public infrastructure. When Mr. Nilekani acknowledged Rooba Finance as a core contributor to the “Finternet,” it brought tears to my eyes. It felt like everything had come full circle.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

As we continue on our journey to build infrastructure for private market transactions I just wanted to reflect on the journey so far. Every pivot, every challenge, every late-night conversation has led us here. And honestly? I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Remember, sometimes it’s important to just stop and smell the roses you planted.

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