Podcasts about better capital

We chat with RV Ramanathan ("Ram"), co-founder of Hyperface - a cutting-edge Bengaluru based company pioneering contextual banking solutions.  With a particular focus on streamlining the credit card experience, Hyperface's "Credit-Cards-as-a-Service" platform simplifies end-to-end program management for credit cards, pay-later, and prepaid cards. Hyperface  offers a comprehensive suite of products designed to launch impeccable Credit Card programs within a matter of weeks. With a focus on simplifying complex technology, Hyperface has developed robust APIs, PWA, and SDKs, empowering businesses to effortlessly integrate instant card issuance, real-time rewards, and other innovative financial features. We speak extensively on the sectoral forces shaping credit cards and the payments industry at large, notably emergence of creative and innovative technology enabled use cases thanks to lack of traditional revenue pools due to stringent regulations and price caps. Hyperface has secured a substantial seed funding of  $10.9 million, led by 3one4 Capital, with participation from existing investors like Global Founders Capital, Better Capital, and new investors including Flipkart Ventures, Groww, and Rebalance Angel Community. Hope you enjoy this TRANSFIN. Podcast with Nikhil Arora and Sharath Toopran, where we converse with entrepreneurs and business operators running successful startups, profitable SMEs and family promoted firms on one end, and top investment professionals representing VC/PE/credit funds on the other. The objective is to bring out an "actionable" perspective converging the world of business and investing.   If you're a founder and if you'd like us to drill down your model, feel free to drop us a line at edit@transfin.in 

In today's episode we take a quick look at edtech funding, from a report published by Tracxn. But first, a few headlines.  Headlines Telecom operators in India want internet companies to compensate them for using their telecom networks, a recommendation they've made to the local regulatory body, echoing a viewpoint that is gaining some momentum in other parts of the world, TechCrunch reports. Pentathlon Ventures, an early-stage B2B SaaS-focused venture capital firm, has announced the launch of its second fund with a target corpus of Rs 450 Crore. The fund aims to invest in 25 B2B SaaS start-ups, the VC firm said in a press release. One thing today Now, after all the problems BYJU's has faced, it might not surprise you that India's edtech startups haven't done very well this year, by way of funding, even though they were among the top three most funded geographies in this space, worldwide, in the first seven months or so of 2023, according to Tracxn, a leading provider of private markets intelligence in India. India's ed-tech startups sector has experienced a declining trend in funding, similar to its global counterparts, according to Tracxn's latest Feed-Geo report on the ed-tech startups landscape in India. Most of the funding into Indian ed-tech startups in 2023 so far was secured in the second quarter of the calendar year. Companies raised funding worth $713 million in Q2 2023, accounting for 73.43 percent of the total funding raised this year. This is also an increase of 37 percent compared with the same period last year.  That said, total funding into the Indian ed-tech space plunged 48 percent to $971 million in 2023 between Jan. 1 and Aug. 7, the period for which Tracxn has compiled data for its report. edtech startups had raised $1.87 billion in the same period in 2022. The 2023 YTD funding is also 50 percent lower than the money the sector raised in the same period in 2021, according to Tracxn. The number of funding rounds in 2023 fell 77 percent and 82 percent compared with the same periods in 2022 and 2021 respectively. Late-stage investments worth $879 million have been recorded in 2023 so far, contributing to more than 90 percent of the total funding, which is also a drop of 23 percent compared with $1.14 billion raised in the same period in 2022 and a drop of 39 percent from $1.44 billion raised in the same period in 2021. Early-stage investments worth $75.7 million were recorded in 2023 YTD, an 88 percent drop from $618 million raised in the same period last year and an 82 percent drop compared with $414 million raised in the same period in 2021. Edtech startups raised $15.7 million through seed-stage rounds in 2023 between Jan. 1 and Aug. 7, a drop of 85 percent from $105 million raised in the same period in 2022 and an 83 percent drop from the same period in 2021. No new Unicorns have so far emerged in this sector this year, as against two in the same period last year. 2023 saw seven acquisitions, a 70 percent decline compared with 23 acquisitions in the same period in 2022 and 19 acquisitions in the same period in 2021. Among Indian cities, Bengaluru, far and away, takes the lead in terms of total funds raised till date, followed by Mumbai and Gurgaon. edtech startups in Bangalore have raised a total of over $8 billion as of Aug. 7, 2023, followed by Mumbai ($2.5 billion) and Gurgaon ($497 million). In the last two years, We Founder Circle, Peak XV Partners, formerly Sequoia India, and MMPL Trust, were the most active investors in this space. We Founder Circle, IPV, and LetsVenture were the top seed investors, while Peak XV Partners, Better Capital, and AngelList were the top early-stage investors. MMPL Trust, WestBridge Capital, and The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative were the top late-stage investors.

Saurabh Pandey, co-founder and CEO of EloElo. EloElo is an app that enables live-social experiences through games and entertainment. It is currently among the top 10 Apps on the Google Play Store in India with over 10M downloads. It accommodates 34,000 creators and offers a staggering 400 million minutes of live content. The company has raised $15M from Kalaari Capital, KB Investment, Lumikai, WaterBridge Ventures and Better Capital. Before Eloelo, he accumulated a decade of experience in various domains such as marketing, product and growth at Flipkart and P&G. Episode notes: Introduction (2:05) Rationale behind entrepreneurship: Saurabh's motivation for founding EloElo (2:59) Resilience and conviction: Saurabh's renewed pursuit of entrepreneurship following a prior setback (10:25) Early Validation of EloElo (18:03) Standing out in a competitive landscape: EloElo's approach to capturing attention in the content and entertainment industry (26:16) Building alongside ICPs (34:14) The significance of timing in the company's growth trajectory (41:12) Insights gained as a CEO: Key lessons learned by Saurabh (49:18) Saurabh's framework for decision making (59:42) Non-negotiable principles: Saurabh's core values and beliefs (1:10:26) Saurabh's reflections – advice to the younger self (1:16:55) . . . Social Links: EloElo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/eloeloapp Saurabh on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Saurabh65616912 Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Microsoft is in talks to invest $10 billion into OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, the AI app that has gone ultra-viral, Semafor reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the matter. OneWeb yesterday confirmed the successful deployment of 40 satellites launched by SpaceX, taking it to a total of 542 low-earth-orbit satellites and a step closer to offering “global” connectivity. Also in this briefing, Infosys Foundation is seeking submissions for its Aarohan Social Innovation Awards 2023. Notes: Microsoft is in talks to invest $10 billion into OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, the AI app that has gone ultra-viral, Semafor reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the matter. The funding, which would also include other venture firms, would value OpenAI at $29 billion, including the new investment, according to Semafor. OneWeb yesterday confirmed the successful deployment of 40 satellites launched by SpaceX from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This launch is OneWeb's 16th to date, with only two more launches remaining to complete its first-generation constellation for global connectivity in 2023, the company said in a press release. With 542 satellites now in orbit, OneWeb, backed by investors including India's Bharti Enterprises, has more than 80 percent of its first-generation constellation launched. ReNew Power, yesterday announced the installations of India's first-ever 3x platform Wind Turbine Generators in Gadag, Karnataka. The WTGs have what is called a “nameplate capacity” of 3.3-3.465 MW and are 128-140m in height. They offer significantly improved capacity over models installed in India to date, which typically have a nameplate capacity of 2-3 MW, the Nasdaq-listed company said in a press release. The new wind turbine generators will be a part of the country's first ‘Round The Clock' renewable energy project, combining wind, solar and a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). This project will produce enough energy to power more than 1 million households in India annually, according to the release. Toddle, a teaching and learning platform provider for schools worldwide, has raised $17 million in Series A led by Sequoia Capital India. The round also saw participation from Tenacity Ventures and Trifecta Capital along with existing investors Matrix Partners, Beenext, and Better Capital, according to a press release. Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic and CSR arm of Infosys, yesterday announced the launch of the third edition of its Aarohan Social Innovation Awards. The Foundation is inviting innovators and social entrepreneurs from across the country to participate in the awards. The awards are open to individuals, teams and NGOs developing unique technology-based solutions that have the potential to bring about a significant difference to the underprivileged across India, at scale. The Infosys Foundation will commit up to Rs. 50 lakh per winner, with a total award purse of Rs. 2 crore. The Aarohan Social Innovation Awards 2023 will accept submissions in the categories of education, healthcare and women empowerment. The awards opened for submission yesterday, and the last date for submissions is March 12, 2023.

Milap Jadeja is the Managing Partner of Openbook VC. He is a senior management and strategy professional with over 20 years of experience in building multiple businesses in sectors such as Pharmaceuticals, Agriculture and Non-ferrous castings. Milap brings with him a proven track record in investment leadership being An established angel investor with over 50+ angel investments in startups including unicorns and soonicorns. He has also led multiple fundraising efforts for startups as a syndicate head. A seasoned investor, he is an LP at multiple funds such as Better Capital, Cloud Capital and Prophetic Ventures. Episode notes: 1. Comparisons of two art forms: photography and investing (3:42)2. A look back at investments and founders (22:50)3. What has Milap learned about investing and specifically that in India? (30:16)4. Takeaways from working with founders (45:10)5. How has Milap evolved as a person? (58:25). . . Social Links: Openbook VC on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenbookVCPodcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

In this episode, Aditya Kulkarni (Co-founder & CEO, Stoa), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his past experience as an edtech entrepreneur, meeting his co-founder Raj and stumbling upon the idea of building Stoa, the value proposition of Stoa's alternative MBA program, building community as a moat, fundraising philosophy at Stoa, leveraging investors in the 0 to 1 phase, the importance of aligning incentives of internal teams with the broader vision of the company as you scale the business, and more. Stoa School is building India's alternative to a traditional MBA. The program helps students pick up skills in domains like Product, Marketing, Leadership, Finance, General Management and subsequently helps them find job opportunities within India's growing startup ecosystem. Since inception, the startup has enrolled 700+ students across several cohorts and has become a sought after program for early-stage professionals looking to level up their career trajectory. Stoa is backed by marquee operators and investors like Udemy and Maven co-founder Gagan Biyani, Better Capital founder Vaibhav Domkundwar, Teachable co-founder Ankur Nagpal, NotBoring Media founder Packy McCormick, Dunce Capital investor John Danner and Zivame co-founder Richa Kar. An IIM-B and BITS Pilani alum, Aditya is a decadal edtech entrepreneur who has built and sold two startups (Learning Outcomes - acquired by Liga EduTech and BabyOnBoard - acquired by RoundGlass) in the past. You can connect with Aditya here on Linkedin / Twitter. ---- Show notes – (01:59) Aditya's background & past experience as an ed-tech founder (09:05) Meeting his co-founder Raj and stumbling upon the idea of building Stoa (16:38) The value proposition of the Stoa program (21:58) Building community as a moat (27:54) Fundraising philosophy at Stoa (33:34) Leveraging investors in the 0 to 1 phase (37:09) Setting up the ‘students-educators-jobs' flywheel in action (41:14) Scaling up - Importance of aligning incentives of internal teams with the broader vision of the company (46:29) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Spotify or Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Vaibhav Domkundwar, Founder of Better Capital. Vaibhav is India's leading Solo General Partner, having founded Better Capital and leading it to become one of the most promising early stage venture funds in the country. Built on top of fundamentals such as early conviction, phenomenal speed in decision making and compounded network effects, Better has successfully invested in more than 250 companies to date, some of which include the incredible institutions such as Open Bank, Slice, M2P, Rupeek, Teachmint and many more! Through the next 90 minutes, we uncover how Vaibhav has established Better Capital in the ecosystem and paved the way for the next generation of Solo Capitalists in the country. We discuss his framework of investing, building conviction, process of identifying relevant markets with a forward looking lens, the importance of systems thinking in building scalable mechanisms and understand deeply how he thinks about portfolio construction, portfolio support at scale and building a brand by writing in public. This episode has Vaibhav share a plethora of compounded learnings in the most candid manner I have heard and I have cherished each part of the conversation. I am certain you will too, but before we get started, here is a quick word about our sponsor: Stride Ventures, which is one of India's leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 125th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Becoming India's #1 Solo GP! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

Adobe shares fell 17 percent yesterday, its biggest fall in 12 years, after it said it will buy design software rival Figma for $20 billion in cash and stock, CNBC reports. Investors are concerned that Adobe is paying too much, according to CNBC. DotPe, a payments service provider and commerce platform backed by Google, has raised about $54.5 million in a new funding round led by Temasek, Inc42 reports. Notes: Adobe shares fell 17 percent yesterday, its biggest fall in 12 years, after it said it will buy design software rival Figma for $20 billion in cash and stock, CNBC reports. Investors are concerned that Adobe is paying too much, according to CNBC. Figma, founded in 2012, creates cloud-based design software that allows teams to collaborate in real-time, directly competing with Adobe's XD program. “Adobe's greatness has been rooted in our ability to create new categories and deliver cutting-edge technologies through organic innovation and inorganic acquisitions,” said Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. “The combination of Adobe and Figma is transformational and will accelerate our vision for collaborative creativity.” A Microsoft Outlook bug sends users to 1930 if they try to look for dates beyond December 31, 2029, The Register reports, citing a cyber security expert who spotted the glitch first and wrote about it on LinkedIn. The application won't let users navigate to a date after December 31, 2029, using the date field [Ctrl + G] and abbreviating the year. If they key in the 01/01/30, Outlook takes them back to 1930, according to The Register, which has replicated it on a desktop-bound Office 365 Outlook app linked to an online account, the tech site reports. DotPe, a payments service provider and commerce platform backed by Google, has raised about $54.5 million in a new funding round led by Temasek, Inc42 reports. The round also saw participation from PayU, Japan's MUFG Bank, Naya Global Investments, and Info Edge Ventures. The Gurugram venture had previously raised $27.5 million in its Series A round, which was led by Google. DotPe was founded in 2020 by Anurag Gupta, Gyanesh Sharma and Shailaz Nag. It provides omnichannel access to single-point stores, expanding its target audience from being hyper-local to pan-India. It has various partnerships for deliveries, and also with payment vendors such as Google Pay, Paytm, and PhonePe, to support higher-order volumes. Ximkart, a cross-border raw material sourcing startup, has raised $2.4 million in seed funding led by Matrix Partners India, with participation from Multiply Ventures, Better Capital and Citius Ventures and various angel investors, the company said yesterday in a press release. Ximkart was founded in 2022 by Sharan Urubail and Ankush Mittal. The entrepreneurs aim to make importing raw materials easy by providing better discovery, quality, transparency, and accountability and eliminating multiple middlemen in the supply chain. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

Varun Mayya was in college when he along with his friends started up a t-shirt manufacturing business called SIZR. Later on, he went into building a recruitment platform, Jobspire. And they were one of the youngest teams to raise venture capital of Rs 1.7 crore even before they graduated, and scaled the company to serve 4 million requests in 2016. In 2017, they sold Jobspire to a New York-based company.Varun also authored a book named Pyjama Profit which is a guide for millennials to get started with an online freelance practice, while developing the skills needed to succeed.Along with running a youtube channel, Varun also co-founded Scenes, a community platform for creators to manage, moderate, and monetize their communities in one place. Scenes has raised funds from some notable investors including Kunal Shah, Gaurav Munjal, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Tanmay Bhat as well Tanglin Ventures, Better Capital, Whiteboard Capital, iSeed Ventures, and Blume Founders Fund.Tune in to this insightful episode with Varun to learn about building a brand, processes around content creation, and leveraging your youtube channel to scale your business. Notes – 03:10 – Intro04:05 – His journey before entrepreneurship06:49 – Getting introduced to oDesk (now Upwork) via his mother and earning his first $10009:10 – Starting a visual version of Naukri in fourth year of college11:09 – Writing an Amazon Bestseller Book – “Pyjama Profit: The Millennial's Guide to a Sustainable Freelance Career” 12:48 – Starting Avalon Scenes18:07 – Two rounds of funding for building a community space19:22 – Top clients and why do they use Scenes?22:11 – Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?24:09 – What excites him the most about Scenes? 26:40 – Solving a problem really well v/s Building a large business28:41 – What's their longterm goal with Scenes? 33:02 – Can Scenes eventually replace Discord? 34:36 – Why he continues to a creator with Scenes growing? 41:25 – Learnings on YouTube and Twitter around content creation46:15 – One of his best videos on YouTube52:44 – “I think we live in a trust-deficient economy and content is the only way to beat it.” Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payroll

Reserve Bank of India, the country's central bank has proposed allowing integration between India's Unified Payments Interface and credit cards, TechCrunch reports. “UPI facilitates transactions by linking savings or current accounts through users' debit cards. It is now proposed to allow linking of credit cards on the UPI platform,” Shaktikanta Das, the governor of Reserve Bank of India said at a briefing, according to TechCrunch. To begin with, the RuPay credit cards will be linked to UPI, he said. RuPay is India's homegrown card network, which is promoted by the National Payments Corporation of India, a special body of RBI that also oversees UPI payments. Infosys has won a contract from TK Elevator that expands the Indian IT services giant's engagement with the German maker of lifts, the company said in a press release yesterday. The seven-year contract involves providing AI-powered IT helpdesk services, digital workplace management, and network services, using automation solutions from Infosys Cobalt, the company's suite of cloud technologies, products and services. NASA is putting together an independent team of researchers to study sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, the updated term now used to refer to UFOs, the American space agency said in a blog post yesterday. NASA says it plans to study these sightings from a scientific perspective but also stressed that “there is no evidence UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin,” The Verge reports. The study team is to be led by astrophysicist David Spergel under NASA's Science Mission Directorate. It will attempt to identify what data is out there on UAPs and figure out how to best capture data on UAPs in the future. NASA noted that the limitations in sightings make it hard to come to logical conclusions about where UAPs come from. The study will be open and unclassified, according to Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for science at NASA, according to The Verge. SolarSquare, a Mumbai-based startup, has raised $4 million led by Google Capital, with participation from US investor Chris Sacca's Lowercarbon Capital, Singapore based Symphony Asia and Nithin Kamath's Rainmatter Foundation. The round also saw participation from Better Capital, Climate Angels and several angel investors. This investment mark's the $1 billion Lowercarbon Capital's first Indian investment, according to SolarSquare's press release. SolarSquare was founded in 2015 by Neeraj Jain and Nikhil Nahar, and Shreya Mishra joined them as co-founder. The company, originally started as a B2B solar venture, is rapidly expanding its B2C operations, and the fresh funds will help SolarSquare to go faster in that direction. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

In this episode, Mihir Gupta (Co-Founder & CEO, Teachmint), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Teachmint, surviving the 0 to 1 phase as first time founders, building a foundation to scale up rapidly and how to sustain momentum after scaling up, benefits & challenges of pursuing inorganic growth, finding a balance between core venture building & fundraising, aligning fundraising strategy with market dynamics, optimizing for 'conviction' & 'speed' of decision making when choosing your investors and more. Founded in 2020, Teachmint is an edtech-infrastructure startup that helps teachers and institutes create their own virtual classrooms and build direct relationships with students. The startup that is backed by marquee investors like Learn Capital, Rocketship.vc, Better Capital, Lightspeed India, Vulcan Capital among others, has scaled up rapidly in the past 2 years to become one the of the largest teaching platforms in the world. Prior to founding Teachmint, Mihir held leadership positions in startups like OYO and Open Financial. An IIT Bombay alum, Mihir spent the early years of his career as a consultant with McKinsey, working extensively in South East Asia and India. You can connect with him here on Linkedin or Twitter. ---- Show notes – (02:16) Mihir's background & path leading up to Teachmint; Bringing together the founding team (08:42) Surviving the 0 to 1 phase as first time founders (10:46) Building a foundation to scale up rapidly (14:19) What should founders focus on, to sustain momentum after scaling up? (17:09) Teachmint's approach to attracting & retaining quality talent (20:43) Benefits & challenges of pursuing inorganic growth (27:22) Finding a balance between core venture building & fundraising (29:51) Aligning fundraising frequency & strategy with market dynamics (33:29) Optimizing for conviction & speed of decision making when choosing your investors; How to gauge conviction when talking to investors? (37:26) How has being a founder influenced his personality over the years? (38:30) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

Mfine, a digital health platform provider, has launched a Heart Rate Monitoring Tool on its mobile app that uses the phone's camera flash. Infosys and Roland-Garros have renewed their partnership for another five years. Filo, Docsumo, and Pocketly raise funding. Plus, Tide, UK, has a plan to support 500,000 women entrepreneurs. Notes: Mfine, a digital health platform provider, has launched a Heart Rate Monitoring Tool on its mobile app, the Bangalore company said in a press release. The app uses the smartphone's camera flash to measure the ebb and flow of blood at the fingertips as the heart pumps blood. It is currently able to measure the heart rate at 90 percent medical accuracy, according to Mfine's press release. The company expects to launch glucose monitoring and blood pressure measurement via its app by the end of this year. Infosys, and Roland-Garros, have renewed their three-year partnership for another five years, the Bangalore based Indian IT services giant said in a press release. Roland-Garros and Infosys have brought new digital experiences for the entire tennis ecosystem, introducing solutions that use AI, cloud computing, and analytics. The contract renewal will see Infosys continue to develop broadcast and technology innovations, and launch a new social inclusion initiative at Roland-Garros 2022. Daimler Truck has announced the launch of its Daimler Truck Innovation Center India at Bangalore, the German truck maker said in a press release yesterday. The centre will serve as the backbone for all innovations and technology developments for Daimler Truck globally including Mercedes-Benz Trucks, Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Buses, Fuso, Bharat Benz, and EvoBus. Tide, a UK based business financial platform, with operations and an imminent launch in India, has announced a target of supporting 500,000 women-led businesses to start up, over the next five years, the company said in a press release. This move comes on the heels of Tide's ‘Women in Business' initiative in the UK and the company's plan to work as an incubator for women business owners in India. Through this initiative, Tide aims to help women-led SMEs start and grow their businesses. Filo, an instant live tutoring startup, has raised $23 million in Series A funding led by Anthos Capital, the company said in a press release. The round also saw participation from existing investor Better Capital along with GSV, Sapling Capital, and many individual investors. Filo will use the money for product development, expanding the team, tapping new categories, and expanding its tutor base across the country. Docsumo, a document management software provider in Singapore, has raised $3.5 million in seed capital, the company said in a press release. The round was led by Common Ocean with participation from Fifth Wall, Arbor Realty Trust, and existing investor Better Capital. Docsumo will use the money to expand its client base in the North American market and grow the team. Pocketly, an online lender to young adults, has raised $3 million in debt and equity funding as part of its Pre-Series A round. The round was led by Dholakia Ventures, with several angel investors joining in. The company is part of 100x.VC's first batch. It is now serving more than 100,000 borrowers and is currently disbursing more than Rs. 250 crore annually. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

Polygon raises $450 million in fresh funding Polygon, a blockchain startup, has raised about $450 million through a private sale of its native MATIC token in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital India, with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Galaxy Digital, Galaxy Interactive, Tiger Global, Republic Capital and prominent angel investors, the company said in a blogpost yesterday. SatSure raises $5 million from Baring PE SatSure, a startup working at the intersection of space-tech, Artificial Intelligence, and Software as a Service, has raised $5 million in Pre-Series A funding in a round led by Baring Private Equity India, joined by ADB Ventures. Other investors include Flowstate VC, Force Ventures, IndigoEdge Advisors, Toch.ai, Nishchay Goel and Saikiran Krishnamurthy. SatSure, which was founded in 2017 by Prateep Basu, Rashmit Singh Sukhmani, along with Abhishek Raju, will use the money to expand its footprint in Southeast Asia and accelerate its product development, which also includes launching its proprietary payloads to Low Earth Orbit. L&T and Microsoft team up to offer cloud services Larsen & Toubro and Microsoft India, yesterday announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a regulated-sector focused cloud service. In line with emerging regulations, L&T and Microsoft will co-engage with a defined set of large customers in regulated sectors to develop architectures and roadmaps to modernise their traditional data centres to potentially hybrid models and advance their digital transformation goals. FirstMeridian buys RLabs FirstMeridian Business Services has completed its acquisition of RLabs, an IT staffing and consulting firm with more than 1,200 technology professionals servicing customers in over 40 locations in India. This marks the sixth acquisition by the FirstMeridian Group since the founding of the Bangalore company in mid-2018. HaystackAnalytics releases universal infectious diseases test HaystackAnalytics, a Mumbai based health-tech startup, supported by the Department of Science & Technology, Govt of India, has developed a Universal Infectious Diseases test that deploys Next-Generation Sequencing technology to identify existing and emerging infections while providing information on drug resistance to support and identify correct treatment options for patients, the company said in a press release. Gold Setu raises $1.2 million Gold Setu, a mobile-first micro SaaS platform for jewellery retailers, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by Village Global, Better Capital, Titan Capital, iSeed and Anjali Bansal for Avaana Seed, the startup said in a press release. The company will use the money for its go-to-market initiatives and launch new products on its platform. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

As per the recent data by Tracxn, there are 1338 AgriTech startups in India. However, with 118.7 million farmers, who contribute to a mere 17-18% of Indian GDP, many problem statements are left to be solved at a larger scale.In March 2020, we interviewed Vaibhav Domkundwar from Better Capital, where he mentioned their then-recent investment in Bijak - their first interaction with the founders and their thesis behind the investment. In today's episode, we're interviewing Nukul Upadhye, Co-Founder at Bijak, where he talks about how and why he started Bijak. Bijak is a one-stop agriculture marketplace where sellers and buyers can find trustworthy, reliable, and transparent counterparties. Bijak processes transactions worth more than Rs 1.5 billion on a monthly basis. During the episode, Nukul also talks about their initial challenges, leveraging the pre-existing offline supply chain, and much more.Notes - 01:48 - Creating a B2B marketplace - Bijak05:55 - Alternate ideas while starting Bijak09:24 - How does Bijak differentiate itself from traditional offline marketplaces? 17:33 - Challenges during the initial journey31:42 - How has he personally evolved over the past two years?

Our guest today is entrepreneur-turned VC investor, Vaibhav Domkundwar, founder and CEO of Better Capital, an early-stage VC firm. At Better Capital, Vaibhav has had phenomenal success in identifying a large number of promising startups very early and backing them. Today, collectively, his portfolio companies are worth over $5 billion

CCI seeks feedback on Google's payments policies The Competition Commission of India will seek a detailed report from app developers explaining the impact of Google's payment policies on their balance sheet and also suggest an alternative payment mechanism if possible, Economic Times reports. Google is seeking to enforce its policy of limiting developers to solely use its billing system for in-app sales of digital goods, on which it charges up to 30 percent commission. It has, however, pushed the deadline for Indian app developers to integrate with Google Play's billing system to Oct. 31 from March 31, 2022, according to ET. India's Competition Commission is also looking into similar practices by Apple on its App Store. Last year, South Korea became the first country to ban these practices. TCS, Infosys to report Q3 results on Jan. 12 Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, India's top two software services companies, will announce their fiscal third-quarter earnings results on Jan. 12, for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2021, according to press releases by the companies. India's top IT companies are expecting the accelerated investments into digital technologies and cloud computing, following the Covid pandemic, to continue. Tata Consultancy will also consider a share buyback, when its board of directors meet on Jan. 12, according to the company. Avataar, Rupifi raise funding from Tiger Global Avataar, a computer vision tech provider, focused on the spatial visual discovery, has raised $45 million in series B funding led by Tiger Global. Existing investor Sequoia Capital India joined in. The money will help the startup develop its product further in the direction of a metaverse experience. Separately, Rupifi, which offers a buy-now-pay-later product to businesses, has raised $25 million in Series-A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Tiger Global. Existing Investors Quona Capital and Ankur Capital joined in, along with Better Capital. Rupifi was started in 2020 by Anubhav Jain, Ankit Singh and Jawaid Iqbal. With this latest round, Rupifi will expand its operations to build a complete B2B checkout product for marketplaces and omnichannel mobile-first B2B payments solutions for merchants, distributors and sellers. BMW says it's developing a digital ink to make colour-changing cars BMW is developing a digital ink technology that will allow owners to change the colour of their cars at the touch of a button, the German carmaker announced at this year's Consumer Electronics Show that ended on Saturday. BMW is calling the technology iX Flow. It features an E Ink, which offers the prospect of a future technology that uses digitalisation to adapt the exterior of a vehicle to different situations and individual preferences, environmental conditions and even functional requirements, the company said.

In this episode, Rajan Bajaj (Founder & CEO, Slice), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to entrepreneurship, the problem statement & need for a product like Slice today, pivots made since founding the company in 2016, how Slice differentiates itself - both on the product & distribution front, the fundraising challenges faced during early days of Slice and what according to him is the biggest value add from investors. Slice is a leading fintech startup that aims to build a smart, simple, and transparent financial platform to redesign the financial experience for millennials. Founded in 2016 by a then 22 year old Rajan, Slice went through multiple pivots before launching the physical cards business in 2019. The startup became the latest Indian unicorn after its recent $220mm fundraise led by Tiger Global & Insight Partners. Other existing investors in the startup include marquee VCs like Blume Ventures, Better Capital as well as angels like Kunal Shah, Sachin Bansal among others. An IIT Kharagpur alum, Rajan was part of the product team at Flipkart before founding Slice. You can connect with him here on Twitter or Linkedin. ---- Show notes – (01:41) Rajan's background & path leading up to entrepreneurship (03:10) Problem statement & need for a product like Slice today (06:02) Pivots made over the past 5 years - From Buy Now Pay Later to a virtual credit card to a physical credit card (10:13) How Slice differentiates itself on the product & distribution front? (17:52) Thoughts on competition & growth potential of the market itself; Go-forward vision for Slice (22:42) What should founders optimize for when fundraising for their startup? (26:00) Challenges faced by Slice in it's fundraising journey; Biggest value add from investors (32:53) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

Tata Consultancy Services, India's biggest software services company, kicked off the fiscal second quarter earnings season on Friday. It reported revenues of $6.33 billion for the three months ended September 30. Revenues grew 15.5 percent over the same period one year ago, in constant currency, the company said in a press release after the close of Mumbai trading on Friday. Profits rose 14 percent to $1.3 billion. And in our tech conversation, we speak with Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur Jahangir Mohammed, founder and CEO of Twin Health (2:30). Tata Consultancy Services, India's biggest software services company, kicked off fiscal second-quarter earnings season on Friday, reporting revenues of $6.33 billion for the three months ended September 30. Revenues grew 15.5 percent over the same period one year ago, in constant currency, the company said in a press release after the close of Mumbai trading on Friday. Profits rose 14 percent to $1.3 billion. During the quarter, the company won large orders from customers including Swiss Re, ZF, Transport for London, Cordis, Carrefour Belgium and MTN South Africa. The company ended the quarter with nearly 529,000 employees. Apple is appealing the September ruling in the lawsuit that was brought against it by Epic Games, in which a California judge ruled that the iPhone maker can't prevent developers from including payment systems outside the App Store, The Verge reports. That ruling was part of a verdict that Apple had called a ‘resounding victory' for itself. The ruling was set to become effective in December, but with the appeal, it will likely get pushed back, according to The Verge. Tiger Global, a New York-based hedge fund, venture capital and private equity company, is in advanced talks to lead a $100 million funding round at Slice, a Bangalore fintech startup, TechCrunch reports. Other investors could include Insight Partners, Ribbit Capital and Greenoaks, according to the report.Slice has previously raised around $30 million and was valued at under $200 million in a round earlier this year, according to TechCrunch. The company, which is looking to expand India's credit card market, counts Blume Ventures, Gunosy Capital and Better Capital among its investors. Ola Electric, the electric vehicle unit of ride-hailing company Ola, has raised $200 million in an investment that values the business at more than $5 billion, according to a Press Trust of India report that appeared in Economic Times. The new investment comes days after the company raised $200 million at a post-money valuation of $3 billion. The latest funding round saw the participation of existing investors and some US-based bluechip tech funds, according to ET. Jahangir Mohammed is your quintessential serial tech entrepreneur, with a finely honed knack for identifying problems that offered large market potential if they could be solved with the right technology-led solutions. Twenty-five years after he left India for the US, he sold his second company, Jasper Technologies, a Silicon Valley-based internet-of-things company, to Cisco for $1.4 billion. It was then, that his “life's work” started, he told me in a zoom call over the weekend. His latest venture is Twin Health, a medical services business that combines the latest in AI and medical sciences to treat and even reverse diseases like diabetes in many cases. As the name suggests, part of the solution is around developing a digital twin of each patient's metabolism.

Vaibhav Domkundwar is the CEO of Better Capital, an early-stage venture firm that builds & invests in category-defining businesses. Prior to his investor journey, Vaibhav was an entrepreneur, having founded and successfully exited a venture-backed startup Roamware (acq. by PE firm Audax). You may follow Vaibhav on Twitter here. In this episode we will cover:1. Learnings from investing in 2020 (1:45)2. Covid impact on decision making (6:36)3. What value does Better bring to the table? (9:36)4. How are founders buildings startups today vs twenty years ago? (15:31)5. What kind of exits do pre-seed stage investors look for realistically (19:53)6. Why did Vaibhav decide to be a solo GP in a fund as opposed to having partners? (23:34)7. Fundraising challenges as a solo GP (31:11)8. Retrospective insight: Building a foundation for Better Capital (36:06)9. What is the vision for Better Capital? (49:00)10. A little more about Vaibhav, beyond his investor persona (53:13)

Zostel vs Oyo: Zostel and Oyo have been engaged in a legal battle for more than 3 years. When Oyo refused to acquire Zostel back in 2016, Zostel believed that they had signed a binding agreement but Oyo considered it to be a non-binding agreement. Zostel believes Oyo owes them a 7% stake in the company for transferring their business as part of the deal. The tribunal has finally come to a decision that is still a little vague. The tribunal has said that Zostel is entitled to costs in the cause without putting any monetary value but it also said that ‘definitive agreements have yet to be executed'. CCI asks MakeMyTrip to relist Oyo rivals Treebo and FabHotels on its platform: Back in 2018, Oyo had signed a commercial agreement with MakeMyTrip and soon Oyo's rivals Treebo and FabHotels were delisted from MakeMyTrip. In 2019, FHRAI had filed a complaint against MakeMyTrip for stifling competition by not letting Treebo and FabHotels use MakeMyTrip's platform. While the probe is still underway, CCI has asked MakeMyTrip to relist both Treebo and FabHotels providing them interim relief. Paytm's new app turns smartphones into POS machines: Paytm has launched a Smart POS app that can turn any NFC-enabled android smartphone into a POS machine. In order to process payments using their Smart POS app, customers simply need to tap their credit/debit cards at the back of a merchants' smartphone. Acquisitions: Tata is reportedly in talks with an online search engine for local businesses Just Dial for an acquisition or a strategic alliance. Logistics technology startup FarEye has acquired another logistics technology startup PY Technologies to scale customer implementation and incubate new ideas. VerSe Innovation, the parent company of dailyhunt and Josh, has acquired photo-sharing platform Vebbler to boost the camera and social capabilities of its short video app Josh and build a comprehensive product platform for Indian language users. Turtlemint raises $46 million: Turtlemint has raised $46 million in series D from Jungle Ventures, GGV Capital, American Family Ventures, Mass Mutual Ventures, SIG, Sequoia Capital India, Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Dream Incubator and Trifecta Capital. NODWIN Gaming raises $22.5 million: NODWIN Gaming, a subsidiary of IPO-bound Nazara Technologies, has raised $22.5 million from PUBG Mobile developer Krafton. Ecom Express raises $20 million: Ecom Express has raised $20 million from the CDC Group. Quizizz raises $12.5 million: Quizizz has raised $12.5 million from Eight Roads Ventures, GSV Ventures, Rocketship.vc, Nexus Venture Partners and Prime Venture Partners. Riscovry raises $5 million: Riskcovry has raised $5 million from Omidyar Network India, Pentathalon Ventures, DMI Sparkle Fund, Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund, Varanium Capital and Better Capital. Follow Backstage with Millionaires to remain updated with our latest developments. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/backstagewithmillionaires/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/bwmillionaires/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backstagewithmillionaires/ Discord: https://discord.gg/XySGGhXKep

In this episode, Vaibhav Domkundwar, Founder & CEO @Better Capital, joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path to angel investing, learnings as a 2x entrepreneur, about Better Capital, evaluating founders at early-stage startups, bootstrapping vs fundraising, building leverage as a founder & how to build your brand as a first-time angel investor. Vaibhav is a UC Berkeley alum, a 2x entrepreneur & now a full-time investor. He founded 2 companies - Roamware which was acquired by PE firm Audax, and Better which was a self-financed startup studio that has now evolved into an early stage venture firm. Today, Better has a strong portfolio of 80+ companies which includes startups like Khatabook, OPEN Bank, Rupeek, TestBook, Yulu. You can connect with Vaibhav here on Linkedin/Twitter ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any of the major podcasting platforms like Spotify, Apple iTunes & Google Podcasts. We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes This will help others discover the podcast. For more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem, you can visit thevcpreneur.com & follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur. You can also follow our host Digjay on Linkedin& Twitter ---- Show notes – (01:26) Vaibhav's background; Portfolio strategy when investing in seed stage startups (10:46) Evaluating early-stage founders; Gut feel vs data driven decision making (15:17) How founders can simplify decision making for investors? (19:43) How founders can attract people that share the same passion & drive for their startup? (23:49) Bootstrapping vs Fundraising; Seeking support of investors as you scale up (29:20) Building leverage as a founder (30:37) Building a brand & adding value as an angel investor (36:47) Rapid fire & closing remarks

In this epiosde, we discuss whether cities or the smaller regions tend to get better capital growth over the long term. This is a contentious issue, with some claiming that cities get better capital growth ... and then other property commentators like Graeme Fowler refuting this claim. Over the last 28 years, each of the regions has had a relatively similar amount of capital growth ... BUT the major cities are more consistent in that growth. On the other hand, the regions have had more explosive capital growth over a shorter period of time. If you've got a topic you'd like us to do a podcast on, send us a text. Our number is 5522. It would be great to hear from you.

Vaibhav Domkundwar is the Founder & CEO at Better, an India-focused early stage venture firm with 70+ investments in category-defining companies like Rupeek, Open, Khatabook, Bijak, Airmeet, Fittr, Jupiter, Yulu and many others. Prior to Better, Vaibhav was the co-founder at Roamware, a leader in telecom analytics with 500+ carrier customers globally. Roamware was successfully acquired by private equity firm, Audax. Vaibhav is a UC Berkeley alum & a lifelong entrepreneur.

EP41: {Rajan Bajaj, Founder of Slice} On the episode I speak with Rajan Bajaj, the founder of Slice, an IIT grad who spent a few months in Flipkart before wanting start out on his own. He went on to start a business that morphed into what is today Slice - a credit line that caters to first time job seekers. Slice is targeting 5 million first time credit seekers every year who have little access to credit products designed specifically for them. We chat about how India's first payment card startup focussed on the millennials is doing and what young Indian's are spending on. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — → Don't forget to subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox! → Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Slice (formerly known as SlicePay) on announced in June 2020 that it has raised Rs 46 crore in a Pre-Series B round led by Japan-based investor Gunosy. The round also saw participation from US-based EMVC, Kunal Shah of CRED, Better Capital, and existing investor Das Capital. Read more Book recommendation from Rajan: The CEO Within - Matt Mochary - Full book available here for a free read Stay Safe and do spread the word! - V(@varunvummidi) Timelines: 01:10 - Introduction & impact of moratorium 05:24 - Where young people are spending 06:31 - Starting up right after graduating 10:01 - Going through the diff avatars 11:45 - Sharing economy 14:04 - Trends in spends 17:50 - What is Slice? 21:15 - Business model of Slice 27:40 - KYC & Collections 28:44 - Going through pivots, 35:14 - Diversifying 40:54 - Getting support & advice 41:59 - Using Twitter properly 43:45 - Book Recommendation

In the fifth episode of ‘Can I ask you a personal question?', Will and Dan speak to Jon Moulton, the private equity entrepreneur behind Better Capital. In this interview, Jon dishes out some marriage advice to Will and Dan, and also explains how he deals with the stresses of business. Back in 2014, one of Jon's companies, City Link, collapsed shortly before Christmas, leading to thousands of job losses. Jon became a hate figure in the tabloid press - one newspaper even mocked him up with devil horns. Here, he explains how he dealt with the negative attention. A chartered accountant, Jon also talks to Dan about their shared profession and unhappiness in the sector. If you enjoy this podcast, please have a listen to our previous episodes, and also give us a review or rating – every little helps. You can also follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/CIAYAPQ) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/can-i-ask-you-a-personal-question/). "Can I ask you a personal question? (with Will and Dan)" is presented by Will Turvill and Dan Hully, and is produced by Luke Garratt. Will is a British journalist based in Canada, and Dan is co-founder and CEO of Quantico, a provider of in-house finance teams to rapidly scaling businesses. Luke is a journalist and news producer for the Associated Press, also based in London.

What does a financial engineer do? A mechanical engineer may design a machine, one that does a task or overcomes an obstacle, but what problems does modern finance solve? Can the clever manipulation of debt, equity or derivatives, really make human beings better off? Some think finance is a bit of a racket, designed to extract money from the enterprise of others; others think modern finance is a miracle that can create value from nothing. Evan Davis and guests try to get to the bottom of this argument on this week's The Bottom Line. Guests: John Kay - Economist and writer Jessica James - Head of the FX Quantative Solutions Group, Commerzbank Jon Moulton - Founder, Better Capital.

The view from the top of business. Presented by Evan Davis, The Bottom Line cuts through confusion, statistics and spin to present a clearer view of the business world, through discussion with people running leading and emerging companies. Evan's guests delve into the concept of quality in business - how to get it high, and why it might end up low. They also compare notes on their respective weaknesses. Who do they turn to for help should they need it? In the studio are Jon Moulton, founder and chairman of private equity firm Better Capital; entrepreneur and investor Deborah Meaden; David Haines, chief executive of German sanitary fittings manufacturer Grohe. Producer: Ben Crighton Editor: Innes Bowen.