Active Research Engagements

Introduction

Next Horizon Capital is the only global independent student-led buy-side advisory and research organization headquartered in India.

Since founding, NHC has completed engagements for more than 20 organizations spanning institutional asset managers, high-growth consumer and fintech companies, and early-stage startups. All work is delivered on a pro bono basis. IP transfers fully to the client with no data, equity, or downstream asks.

This page provides an overview of the types of mandates NHC takes on and selected past engagements. For detailed information on a specific mandate type, visit the mandates page or reach us directly at office@nexthorizoncapital.in.

Engagements span buy-side research, growth strategy, market entry, and operational diligence: across sectors from fintech and quick-commerce to healthcare and EM macro.

Mandate Types

NHC accepts mandates across six core research disciplines. Each mandate is scoped in a one-week brief process before the research sprint begins, ensuring that the analytical frame and output format are aligned with what the client actually needs.

Selected Past Engagements

Kotak Alternate Asset Managers

NHC delivered a buy-side thematic research report for Kotak AAM on India as an emerging market read through the lens of global conflict. The mandate involved mapping geopolitical conflict transmission across global capital markets, analyzing macro implications for India (fiscal, monetary, trade, and currency), identifying sector-level opportunities across Indian public markets, and delivering equity recommendations grounded in the macro thesis with valuation context. The engagement lead at Kotak AAM noted that the depth of analysis on India's EM positioning, macro research, and equity strategy exceeded expectations across all dimensions.

Sunward Growth Advisory

NHC delivered a pre-seed investment memorandum for Sunward Growth Advisory on a vertically integrated fresh staples opportunity in quick commerce, published on the mandates page in redacted form under the project codename. The memo was built around five falsification gates, ordered so that an early failure is not offset by a later strength: whether the problem is real, whether the wedge is ownable, whether the unit economics hold, whether a moat exists, and whether the traction verifies. It returned a conditional verdict rather than a recommendation, setting out the specific tests the company would have to pass before the position could be sized on evidence instead of conviction.

Peato's Pavbhaji Café

NHC provided seed fundraising advisory for Peato's Pavbhaji Café, an early-stage food and beverage brand built on a modern QSR format. The engagement covered investor narrative and positioning, a bottom-up market sizing built from catchment and format assumptions rather than a top-down national figure, an investor memorandum, and the seed pitch deck taken out to investors. As with all founder-side work, the deliverables belong to the company and are not published.

Tata 1mg

NHC produced a competitive landscape and white-space mapping for Tata 1mg across the Indian healthtech sector, delivered as a growth playbook. The work covered category-level competitive dynamics, addressable white space in adjacent segments, and strategic positioning recommendations for the client's growth roadmap.

Swiggy

NHC conducted a unit economics and cohort diligence engagement for Swiggy across delivery and quick-commerce verticals, delivered as an investment memo format. The work covered contribution margin analysis, cohort retention benchmarking, and competitive positioning within the Indian food-delivery and instant-commerce landscape.

Additional engagements have been completed for Rapido, HealthKart, Cars24, MuscleBlaze, Shadowfax, and a range of early-stage startups across fintech, logistics, and consumer sectors. For a full overview of sectors covered, visit the mandates page.