What does Prima Partners do?

Prima Partners is the advisory practice of Prasanna Walimbe. It operates in three modes: AI & IT strategy advisory for CXOs, corporate AI enablement and delivery, and angel investment plus mentoring for early-stage founders in fintech, supply chain and applied AI.

Who is Prasanna Walimbe?

Prasanna Walimbe is a deep-tech operator with 20+ years of experience across AI evaluation and safety, AI/ML architecture, and financial research. He is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta and a Certified Independent Director advising boards on cross-border AI investments, operations and compliance.

Which sectors does Prima Partners focus on?

Fintech and BFSI, supply chain, manufacturing, and applied AI across enterprise use cases. Assurance work is mapped to the EU AI Act, ISO 42001 and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.

How do I engage Prima Partners?

Email pw@prima-partners.com to start a conversation. Engagements run globally on a remote-first basis from Dubai.

What is AI governance consulting and what frameworks do you use?

AI governance consulting maps an organisation's AI systems, decisions and controls to a recognised risk framework — typically the EU AI Act, ISO 42001 and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework — and closes the gaps. Prima Partners runs checklist-based evaluations, model-risk reviews and board-level assurance for financial services, supply chain and applied-AI use cases.

Do you serve boards as an Independent Director?

Yes. Prasanna Walimbe is a Certified Independent Director and advises boards on AI strategy, cross-border investment and operations, and compliance obligations across jurisdictions — with a specialisation in fintech, supply chain and applied AI.

Do you offer corporate AI training and enablement?

Yes. Corporate AI enablement includes executive workshops, leadership AI literacy, hands-on programmes for delivery teams, and practical playbooks — AI realism vs hype, ML deployment, GTM for AI products, and the founder's mindset inside corporates.

Do you mentor or invest in startups?

Prima Partners writes angel cheques and provides hands-on mentoring to pre-seed and seed founders in fintech, supply chain and applied AI. Support covers technical architecture, GTM, commercial modelling and board readiness.

Startup Mentoring & Angel Investment — Fintech, Supply Chain, Applied AI

Founder-first cheques and mentoring for pre-seed and seed teams. Built for the moments where technical architecture, commercial modelling and board narrative decide whether the next round happens.

Thesis

Bias toward technical rigour and commercial clarity. Sectors: fintech (payments, credit, inclusion), supply chain (visibility, financing, logistics AI) and applied AI in regulated environments. Geographies: India, MENA, and cross-border corridors.

How mentoring works

Monthly working sessions with the founding team. On-call for technical architecture and hire decisions. Warm intros into the operator, buyer and investor network. Board-readiness support for the Series A raise.

Anonymised portfolio pattern

Recent investments include an agentic-AI infrastructure company, a real-time simulation platform for defence and industrial AI, and a synthetic-data platform for regulated AI. Common thread: deep-tech founders shipping into demanding buyers.

Frequently asked

What's a typical cheque size?: Small angel cheques as a lead-in to a hands-on mentoring relationship. The mentoring is the substance; the cheque signals alignment.
Do you take board seats in portfolio companies?: Selectively, as an advisor. Statutory Independent Director appointments are handled separately.
How do I reach you?: A short note describing the company, stage and the specific help you need lands better than a generic deck. Email pw@prima-partners.com.

pw@prima-partners.com · LinkedIn