Mint Startup Diaries

In the latest dispatch of Mint Startup Diaries, Shrija Agrawal converses with Ashish Sharma of Innoven Capital, Anand Prasanna of Iron Pillar and Parag Dhol of Inventus Capital to understand what happens when the rubber hits the road. Tune in to the episode to know more.

In the latest dispatch of the "Mint- Startup Diaries", we talk about a subject which has become a hot talking point - 'the decentralization of finance (de-fi)' - driven by the public’s growing disillusionment with the centralised financial sector and its shortcomings. Increasingly. individuals are calling for control of their personal data, ownership, and money and decentralisation is being marked as a possible solution. Sample this, the highly anticipated market debut of Coinbase, which ended the day with worth $86 billion was a blockbuster IPO, sparking another rally in cryptocurrency prices worldwide. In this episode, we speak with Sumit Gupta, Co-founder & CEO- CoinDCX- a homegrown crypto exchange, Nitin Sharma, Partner at early-stage VC firm Antler and Sanjay Khan Nagra, Khaitan & Co. We unravel what the Coinbase IPO means for India, the deepening of de-fi in India, regulatory scrutiny, the future of cryptos, and so on.

In the latest dispatch of the "Mint- Startup Diaries", we talk about a subject which has become a hot talking point - 'the decentralization of finance (de-fi)' - driven by the public’s growing disillusionment with the centralised financial sector and its shortcomings. Increasingly. individuals are calling for control of their personal data, ownership, and money and decentralisation is being marked as a possible solution. Sample this, the highly anticipated market debut of Coinbase, which ended the day with worth $86 billion was a blockbuster IPO, sparking another rally in cryptocurrency prices worldwide. In this episode, we speak with Sumit Gupta, Co-founder & CEO- CoinDCX- a homegrown crypto exchange, Nitin Sharma, Partner at early-stage VC firm Antler and Sanjay Khan Nagra, Khaitan & Co. We unravel what the Coinbase IPO means for India, the deepening of de-fi in India, regulatory scrutiny, the future of cryptos, and so on.

While a lot of ground has been covered over the past 50 years by women in business, much more remains to be done. In the Start-up community, the challenge is stiffer. According to one report, only 17% of Indian startups have at least one female co-founder. The problem is complicated by limited role models for women and a smaller talent pool in tech/engineering fields. In this dispatch of the Mint Startup Diaries, we chat with Divya Gokulnath, Co-Founder and Director of edtech decacorn Byju’s, who, as she says, is “Founder First” and “Woman Later”.

In the latest dispatch of Mint Startup Diaries, we speak with Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India, and Radhika Sridharan - Partner - Bain & Company, who has recently co-authored a report "unlocking the future of commerce in India". According to the experts, e-commerce—powered by cheap data, supply-side innovations and digitally savvy customers—has become a $30 billion industry in India in fiscal year 2020. More than 100 million of India’s estimated 572 million Internet users purchase products online. And the next frontier is social, they posit. Listen to the full episode to know more.

In the latest dispatch of Mint Startup Diaries, we speak with Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India, and Radhika Sridharan - Partner - Bain & Company, who has recently co-authored a report "unlocking the future of commerce in India". According to the experts, e-commerce—powered by cheap data, supply-side innovations and digitally savvy customers—has become a $30 billion industry in India in fiscal year 2020. More than 100 million of India’s estimated 572 million Internet users purchase products online. And the next frontier is social, they posit. Listen to the full episode to know more.

The COVID-19 pandemic has utterly decimated a number of industries over the past several months, but the gaming industry continues to benefit as people continue to be stuck at home. The pandemic is contributing to the normalisation and adoption of e-gaming and gaming companies are increasingly seeing a surge in their user base. There are various favourable macro factors at play too:  young tech-savvy population (with 75% aged under 45), increased internet penetration, improved affordability of high-spec smartphones, and rising disposable income. According to experts, the digital gaming business model has also transitioned from a model dependent on download volumes and advertisements to something with diversified revenue streams built on consumer engagement and elevated experience levels. In the latest dispatch of startup diaries, we get to know how the pandemic is turbocharging the future of gaming in India.

The COVID-19 pandemic has utterly decimated a number of industries over the past several months, but the gaming industry continues to benefit as people continue to be stuck at home. The pandemic is contributing to the normalisation and adoption of e-gaming and gaming companies are increasingly seeing a surge in their user base. There are various favourable macro factors at play too:  young tech-savvy population (with 75% aged under 45), increased internet penetration, improved affordability of high-spec smartphones, and rising disposable income. According to experts, the digital gaming business model has also transitioned from a model dependent on download volumes and advertisements to something with diversified revenue streams built on consumer engagement and elevated experience levels. In the latest dispatch of startup diaries, we get to know how the pandemic is turbocharging the future of gaming in India.

The backbone of the Indian Economy, the Agricultural sector, a sector which has not necessarily got so much investors love in the past, seems to be catching up fast due to its unprecedented growth amid the COVID-19 crisis. Innovative Indian Agri-tech start-ups are joining the game and providing balance to the agricultural ecosystem by maximizing productivity, increasing supply chain efficiency and, and improving market linkage. Initiatives like ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’, digital access to farmers, overarching reforms, and government support has empowered the farmer by giving him access to information, inputs, and financial support. Estimates for June quarter reported a contraction of 23.9 per cent in national GDP, but agriculture was the only sector to have reported positive growth. In this dispatch of Mint startup diaries, we do a deep decode on opportunities, challenges and new frontiers emerging in the Agri space. Listen to this episode for more.

In the latest dispatch of Mint Startup Diaries, we speak with Dev Khare, Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners to decode the impact of Covid-19 on startups. According to Khare, it's almost been akin to ' a tale of two cities' where some startups have thrived, even accelerated, while others now face secular declines, . But overall, the net effect has been to accelerate the disruptive role of technology across industries.  

In the latest dispatch of Mint Startup Diaries, we speak with Dev Khare, Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners to decode the impact of Covid-19 on startups. According to Khare, it's almost been akin to ' a tale of two cities' where some startups have thrived, even accelerated, while others now face secular declines. But overall, the net effect has been to accelerate the disruptive role of technology across industries.

Education may be forever changed after the coronavirus. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom. Education has changed dramatically, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. In terms of positive, experts posit that it will see more tutoring, adaptive methods of learning but there are also negatives such as pandemic is exaggerating the socio-economic divide. There has been an equal amount of excitement from investors too. Just last week, homegrown interactive online tutoring platform Vedantu raised $100 million, as part of its Series D round, also doubling its valuation to $600 million.  Backed by Tiger Global, Accel, GGV Capital, and others, Vedantu’s core strength is conducting live tutoring. In this latest dispatch of Mint startup diaries, we speak with not only the co-founder Vamsi Krishna from Vedantu but also one with one of their early backers- Hans Tung, Managing Partner at GGV Capital. Tung ranks high in the 2020 Midas List; his unicorn stable includes Slack, Peloton, shopping app Wish, online marketplace StockX, fintech company Affirm, scooter company Lime, and a host of others from Airbnb to OfferUp. Tune in to the interview to know more.

Education may be forever changed after the coronavirus. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom. Education has changed dramatically, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. In terms of positive, experts posit that it will see more tutoring, adaptive methods of learning but there are also negatives such as pandemic is exaggerating the socio-economic divide. There has been an equal amount of excitement from investors too. Just last week, homegrown interactive online tutoring platform Vedantu raised $100 million, as part of its Series D round, also doubling its valuation to $600 million.  Backed by Tiger Global, Accel, GGV Capital, and others, Vedantu’s core strength is conducting live tutoring. In this latest dispatch of Mint startup diaries, we speak with not only the co-founder Vamsi Krishna from Vedantu but also one with one of their early backers- Hans Tung, Managing Partner at GGV Capital. Tung ranks high in the 2020 Midas List; his unicorn stable includes Slack, Peloton, shopping app Wish, online marketplace StockX, fintech company Affirm, scooter company Lime, and a host of others from Airbnb to OfferUp. Tune in to the interview to know more.

In this latest dispatch of Mint startup diaries, we speak with not only the co-founder Vamsi Krishna from Vedantu but also one with one of their early backers- Hans Tung, Managing Partner at GGV Capital. Tune in to the interview to know more about investing in online education.

In the largest sweep against the Chinese technology companies, India recently banned 59 Chinese apps, including the popular short video platform TikTok. The unprecedented ban is clearly one of the biggest stories in the startup ecosystem- one which will have a significant impact. Overall, the move is being seen as a positive one with Indian startups being net beneficiaries as it opens up huge opportunities. On the other hand, there is also increasing commentary on whether this marks the beginning of an Indian firewall and that competition should be built on fairgrounds. We decode such dynamics and deep-dive more with Dr Saurabh Shrivastava, Chairman Emeritus TiE Delhi- NCR and Blaise Fernandes, Director, Gateway House. Listen to the interview to know more.

In the largest sweep against the Chinese technology companies, India recently banned 59 Chinese apps, including the popular short video platform TikTok. The unprecedented ban is clearly one of the biggest stories in the startup ecosystem- one which will have a significant impact. Overall, the move is being seen as a positive one with Indian startups being net beneficiaries as it opens up huge opportunities. On the other hand, there is also increasing commentary on whether this marks the beginning of an Indian firewall and that competition should be built on fairgrounds. We decode such dynamics and deep-dive more with Dr. Saurabh Shrivastava, Chairman Emeritus TiE Delhi- NCR and Blaise Fernandes, Director, Gateway House. Listen to the interview to know more.

In the latest dispatch of Mint startup diaries, Vivekananda Hallekere, co-founder of scooter-rental startup Bounce opens up on starting up, doing a SWOT analysis compared to the same market in China, expansion plans and more. In January, this year, it announced that it has raised $105 million in a Series D funding round led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group and Accel.

In the latest dispatch of Mint Startup Diaries, we visit the offices of digital lending upstart Capital Float to understand more about their expansion plans and the roadmap ahead. In this podcast, listen to the founders open up about the "financialization of everything". 

Homegrown online real estate rental startup NoBroker attempts to improve the way how millions of Indians lease or buy an apartment — by not paying any brokerage. The company has raised more than $150 million in funding to date. @shrijaagrawal from Mint interviews the founders.

In the latest episode of Startup Diaries, co-founders of Flexiloans make a pitch for their online lending platform and also get to seek advice from an experienced venture capitalist. In a banter between the co-founders of the startup and Vikram Gupta, Managing partner of VC firm IVy Cap Ventures, nuggets of wisdom on building out a fintech company get revealed. In October 2016, the startup raised about $15 Mn (INR100 Cr) from Sanjay Nayar, CEO of KKR India; Vikram Sud, former Head of Operations and Technology at Citibank; Anil Jaggia, Chief Investment Officer at HDFC Bank; and Narayan Seshadri, former MD at KPMG’s advisory business. 

In the latest episode for Startup Diaries, Vishal Gondal, founder of Goqii Inc. talks about how he is building a super app for health and fitness. On the growth trajectory, Gondal shares that they want to get to 100 million users from the current 10 million users in the next 3-4 years. Listen to this podcast for an engaging watch as Gondal performs fitness stunts during the course of the interaction.

There is a lot of buzz about India’s e-commerce battle between Walmart,  which bought Flipkart for $17 billion, and Amazon. But over in the B2B space, Moglix — an e-commerce service for buying manufacturing products - now wants to revolutionize this and has huge expansion plans up on its anvil. The startup which last raised $23 million in funding counts Accel Partners, Jungle Ventures  and World Bank-affiliated IFC as its investors. It's other backers include Venture Highway, ex-Twitter VP Shailesh Rao,  InnoVen Capital and  Ratan Tata. Mint's startup Diaries gets into a conversation with Rahul Garg, Founder, Moglix.  Also, E-commerce major Flipkart’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kalyan Krishnamurthy has made a personal investment in B2B e-marketplace Moglix. His  first individual backing of a company in the B2B e-commerce space.

Alok Mittal, CEO and Co-founder of Indifi Technologies, shares how Indifi is trying to ‘verticalize small business lending,’ a market that is under-served in India despite having well-capitalised banks, by focussing on eco-system-based lending, in an exclusive conversation with Mint’s Associate Editor Shrija Agarwal. According to Mittal, focussing on right product design and under-writing, fintechs in lending space can avoid stress that has plagued credit market in recent times, and Indifi leverages supply chain information, alternate credit footprint and channel partners to achieve this objective. Alok Mittal shares his candid views on a host of issues, such as, India’s approach towards challenger bank concept being different from that of Europe, how innovations in public (Aadhar, payments etc..) and private space have been catalysts for fintechs, impact of slow-down in financial markets on traditional lending and market-place lending, his growth plans and product experimentation, among other things. 

In an exclusive conversation with Mint’s Associate Editor Shrija Agarwal, Ambareesh Murty, Co-founder and CEO of India’s leading online home furnishing retailer Pepper Fry, discusses his journey in creating a profitable brand in the highly competitive e-commerce space. Ambareesh believes that the road to profitability for an e-commerce niche such as Pepperfry is through creating ‘differentiation,’ ‘scalability,’ and ‘brand recall.’ And these three factors allow Pepper Fry to consistently make 20%+ contribution. Ambareesh shares his intension to take Pepper Fry ‘public’ and believes that ‘IPO’ is the true measure of success, at a time when many tech-entrepreneurs prefer to stay private for long. Ambareesh, further opens on a host of topics: his initial mistakes and course corrections in creating Pepperfry, frugal capital raising at a time when capital is abundant, advent of Ikea and its impact on his business, and some of the key challenges and learnings in the course of creating a successful brand.

Ritesh Agarwal, Founder of Oyo, in a candid conversation with Mint’s Associate Editor Shrija Agarwal, says that there is no plan for a capital float anytime soon. In the second part of the conversation, Ritesh asserts  how due credit of Oyo's success should go to its business model and not the quantum of capital raised. He also opens up on a variety of other topics; ranging, from Oyo’s expansion plans and profitability to culture and its leadership team.

According to Oyo's Ritesh Agarwal, getting Softbank on the cap table is meaningful not only in terms of capital but also the meaningful inputs he gets from its founder Masayoshi Son, the powerful tech investor in the world and his team. In the first part of this conversation with Mint's Associate Editor Shrija Agrawal,  Ritesh also opens up on the rationale behind consolidating his ownership in the company via the massive promoter buy back.

Yashish Dahiya, co-founder and CEO, of Policybazaar shares insights on building a unicorn, what it means to get Softbank on its cap table, expansion plans and more. According to Dahiya, opening up of FDI in the insurance space will help deepening the market further.  In this part of the conversation with Mint's Associate Editor Shrija Agrawal, Dahiya adds that getting a deep-pocketed investor like Softbank is like getting 'relentless capital' on board. He also talks about  the rationale behind energies focused in the direction of the health venture - Doc Prime and where does he go from there.