Podcasts about lenskart

To get your dose of daily business news, tune into Mint Top of the Morning on Mint Podcasts available on all audio streaming platforms. https://open.spotify.com/show/7x8Nv1RlOKyMV5IftIJwP1?si=bf5ecbaedd8f4ddc 1. RBI Pushes Banks to Adopt ‘.bank.in' Domain for Safer Digital Banking In a major cybersecurity move, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked all banks to migrate to the new ‘.bank.in' domain by October 31, 2025. The initiative aims to curb rising digital payment frauds and phishing attacks, enhancing user trust in digital banking. The migration will be managed by IDRBT, under the supervision of NIXI and the Ministry of Electronics and IT. Banks are urged to begin the transition immediately, with IDRBT guiding the technical process. 2. IMF Cuts India's Growth Forecast Amid Global Trade Slowdown The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed India's FY26 growth forecast to 6.2% from 6.5%, citing global trade tensions and policy uncertainty. IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said businesses are pausing investments due to the volatile environment. Despite the downgrade, India remains the fastest-growing major economy, with FY27 growth pegged at 6.3%. However, the global outlook is dim: trade growth for 2025 is seen at just 1.7%, and advanced economies like the US and Europe are expected to slow sharply. 3. Trident Launches ₹2,000 Cr Fund for Growth-Stage Startups Trident Growth Partners, backed by Ranjan Pai's Claypond Capital, has launched a ₹2,000 crore fund to support Series B and C startups across sectors like consumer, fintech, healthcare, and tech. The fund will invest ₹150–170 crore in 10–12 companies with scalable models. Trident's backers include startup founders from Lenskart, Policybazaar, KreditBee, and Livspace. With a strong exit record from 14 unicorns and 8 IPOs, Trident has already made its first bet in SaaS firm Spotdraft and is lining up more deals, aiming to bridge India's mid-market funding gap. 4. Mutual Fund Fees Rise Despite Market Slump Investors in direct equity mutual funds are facing a double whammy — market downturns and higher expense ratios (TERs). A Mint analysis found that 62% of direct equity schemes increased TERs from Sept 2024 to March 2025, even as many saw asset growth. While Sebi caps TERs based on fund size, there's no rule on timing of hikes, creating room for asset managers to raise fees strategically. In contrast, regular plans — which include distributor commissions — mostly kept or cut their TERs. Sebi's earlier proposal to shift TER slabs to the AMC level is currently on hold. 5. HCLTech Leads in Growth, Warns of Weak FY26 HCL Technologies outpaced peers like TCS, Infosys, and Wipro with 4.3% revenue growth in FY25, reaching $13.84 billion. But it projects just 2–5% growth for FY26, its slowest outlook since 2020, amid macro uncertainty and tariff headwinds. CEO C. Vijayakumar cited weak discretionary spending and client delays. Net profit rose 7.65% to $2.04 billion, with margins expanding due to strong performance in its software products arm. Still, HCLTech cut over 4,000 jobs, signaling a cautious approach to hiring, unlike its peers. The company says FY26 hiring will be “quarterly and cautious,” as AI and soft demand reshape the IT workforce.

In a little over a decade, Lenskart has gone from being just India's biggest online eyewear retailer to becoming one of Asia's biggest omnichannel eyewear giants. Needless to say, business has been booming. And the company is now inching towards its next big step – an IPO. But in the midst of all its success, it appears Lenskart may have rubbed some people the wrong way. The catch is that these are the very people who helped it get to this point in the first place –  the franchise owners that operate hundreds of its stores across the country. You see, for the last few years, many of them have had observed a similar, pretty disturbing pattern. They'll set up their stores with Lenskart's blessings. And then things start getting weird.Tune in. Check out our new podcast Make India Competitive Again —SpotifyApple The Ken is hosting a subscriber event! Join Two by Two hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan and three distinguished guests as they discuss broken career ladders, shortening career spans, and collapsing organisational structures. Buy tickets here. 

In today's episode, we cover X Corp's legal battle in India, the AI-driven future of Global Capability Centres, and fresh funding rounds for fintech startup Scapia, storytelling platform Pratilipi, and South Indian snack brand Sweet Karam Coffee. Plus, Lenskart's Peyush Bansal shares his insights on “omni-customer” retail. Tune in for the latest in tech and startups!

Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Thursday, February 13, 2025. This is Nelson John, let's get started. Amid India-China geopolitical tensions, China's Fosun Pharmaceutical is in discussions with three global private equity firms to sell its majority stake in the Hyderabad-based Gland Pharma. Fosun currently owns about 51% of Gland Pharma, after initially acquiring a 74% stake for $1.2 billion. They have hired investment banks Morgan Stanley and UBS to assist with the sale. Global private equity firms Blackstone, Brookfield, and Warburg Pincus are interested in buying this stake, valuing the company at nearly $3 billion. Gland Pharma, founded in 1978, specializes in making generic injectable medicines and serves nearly 90 countries, focusing on India and the U.S. markets. In the December quarter, the company reported revenues of ₹1,384 crore and a profit after tax of ₹204.7 crore.The potential sale is expected to trigger an open offer to Gland Pharma's shareholders, with the buyers aiming to own between 60-65% of the company after the transaction. In a major step toward strengthening digital payment security, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed additional factor authentication (AFA) for international card-not-present (CNP) transactions. This means Indian consumers will have an extra layer of security when making payments to foreign merchants—just like they already do for domestic transactions.Now you may wonder what prompted this move by the RBI?It's primarily due to Rising Fraud Cases in international transactions involving unauthorized charges on foreign websites with minimal authentication. Now adding AFA will ensure stronger security standards that safeguard Indian cardholders against such risks.   US-based industrial and aerospace giant Honeywell and Greenko founders-led AM Green signed an agreement on Wednesday to collaborate on manufacturing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in India from biofuels, including ethanol, methanol, and green hydrogen. Under this agreement, Honeywell's cutting-edge technology will be leveraged to produce SAF from renewable sources, aligning with global efforts to transition toward greener energy solutions. AM Green, a company backed by the founders of renewable energy giant Greenko, will focus on production and scaling operations in India, catering to both domestic and international markets.The companies will assess the feasibility of making SAF in India to reduce the country's oil import dependence, helping shipping companies adopt the low-emission fuel, and aiding aviation companies to meet International Civil Aviation Organisation guidelines for low-carbon fuel replacements. The global aviation industry is under increasing pressure to cut carbon emissions, and SAF has emerged as a key solution. This partnership strengthens India's role in the green energy revolution, supporting global decarbonization goals while reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Over two dozen Indian startups are expected to go public in the coming months, including big names like Groww, Lenskart, and Zepto, which could see billion-dollar IPOs. Smaller companies like Ather Energy, BoAt, Bluestone, Infra.market, PhysicsWallah, PayU, and Pine Labs are also gearing up for their stock market debuts. This is a jump from last year when only 13 startups, including Swiggy, Ola Electric, and FirstCry, went public. However, market conditions are getting tougher. Investment bankers say startups might need to adjust their IPO sizes and valuations due to recent global economic shifts. The US stock market has been hit hard after President Donald Trump announced new tariffs, leading to uncertainty in global equity markets. India's Nifty 50 index is down 12.5% from its peak last September, with foreign investors selling off shares. Amid tough market conditions and lock-in expiries those looking to invest in upcoming IPOs could also be staring at losses in the short term      At the Maha Kumbh Mela, India's largest spiritual gathering, several startups are seizing the opportunity to engage with the vast influx of pilgrims. Zomato-owned Blinkit has set up a temporary store offering ritual-related items and other essentials. Swiggy's Instamart has established a stall near the Triveni Sangam to serve attendees. PhonePe, in collaboration with ICICI Lombard General Insurance, is providing affordable travel insurance plans tailored for Kumbh visitors. Chai Point has deployed around 175 personnel and 18-20 mini stations, utilizing brewing bots capable of producing 15 liters of tea every 12 minutes, resulting in daily sales of approximately 160,000 cups reports Peiyamvada C. Now these initiatives not only cater to the immediate needs of pilgrims but also serve as strategic moves for brand visibility and customer acquisition. By adjusting pricing and packaging, these startups aim to connect with a broader audience beyond their typical urban clientele, gathering valuable insights for future expansions.

Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Tuesday, October 15, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started. Thanks to gains in shares of select banking and IT heavyweights, including HDFC Bank and Infosys, Indian stock market benchmarks- the Sensex and the Nifty 50- resumed their upward march on Monday. The Sensex rose 0.73 per cent, while the Nifty 50 settled 10.66 per cent, higher. Vinay Dube, previously at the helm during tumultuous times at Jet Airways and Go First, now leads Akasa Air, facing similar challenges with its fleet of Boeing 737 Max aircraft. Akasa Air, aiming to carve a niche in India's aviation market, heavily relies on this model, notorious for its operational issues, despite its economic purchase price. The airline, commanding a modest 4.5% market share, seeks to establish itself against the dominating duo of IndiGo and Air India, which together control over 90% of the market. Akasa's strategy involves mirroring successful practices from industry leaders like IndiGo, which thrived on a sale and leaseback model that Dube intends to replicate. Nehal Chaliawala and Mihir Mishra write on Vinay Dube's plans to take on the Indigo-Air India duopoly in India's aviation market. Class actions are gaining momentum in India, with recent cases against Ola Electric and Jindal Poly Films showcasing their rising prominence. A class action allows people with similar grievances to file a single lawsuit, making it a powerful tool for addressing collective issues. The rise in class actions is largely due to growing awareness among consumers and shareholders, facilitated by technology and easy access to information. More people are now using these legal options to hold companies accountable. The digital age has also amplified opportunities for collective grievances, especially with the collection of vast amounts of personal data. Mint's Krishna Yadav explains the rise of class actions in India.  Becoming a cricketer in India can lead to vast riches. For Suryakumar Yadav, the money doesn't stop rolling in. Gaurav Laghate writes about how leading India to a recent T20 series win against Bangladesh has bettered Yadav's financial prospects. Yadav's endorsement fee has jumped by a whopping 350 per cent, with deals worth 2 crore rupees each. Among companies shelling out this money for him are ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Reebok, and Lenskart. Sky, as he is fondly called, is now rubbing shoulders with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the other scions of cricket endorsement deals. In September, India witnessed a sharp rise in inflation to a nine-month high of 5.49 per cent, surpassing the expected 5.1 per cent. This increase was largely driven by a significant hike in vegetable prices, which surged due to a dissipating base effect and unfavorable weather conditions. This unexpected jump underscores the Reserve Bank of India's cautious stance on not cutting the repo rate. With this spike, the inflation rate for the July-September quarter settled at 4.2 per cent, slightly above RBI's projection of 4.1 per cent, suggesting that rate cuts might be postponed to 2025. Payal Bhattacharya reports on how September's inflation surge proves RBI was right to delay a rate cut. Rocket science is generally hard, which is why any achievements made in this vast and expensive field should be celebrated. Elon Musk's SpaceX has innovated space travel by using mechanical 'chopsticks' to catch one of its rocket boosters mid air so it can be reused for other rockets. Leslie D'monte writes that this would reduce the costs and turnaround time of future rocket launches. Moreover, this achievement could boost Musk's financial and strategic positions by lowering launch costs and speeding up operations.  Primer: How Musk catches rockets with ‘chopsticks'Suryakumar Yadav: India's Mr 360 is changing the game for brand endorsementsMint Explainer: Why Class Action Suits in India Are on the RiseHow Akasa Air's Vinay Dube is taking on the IndiGo-Air India duopolyIn charts: September inflation proves why RBI was right to delay a rate cut

 Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Monday, July 29, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started:Some massive consolidation happened in the cements segment yesterday: UltraTech Cement is buying a 32.72% stake for nearly 4,000 crore rupees, and making an offer for 26% more, taking the deal to nearly 9,000 crore rupees. Anirudh Laskar reports that if things go as planned, UltraTech will own over 81% of India Cements. Meanwhile, Adani-owned Ambuja Cement is also increasing its production capacity to compete. The Reserve Bank of India reported that bad loans in banks are expected to decrease to 2.5 percent by FY25 under normal stress conditions. Shayan Ghosh writes that the report highlighted improvements in the banking sector's health, with a record low bad loan ratio of 2.8 percent last year. Public banks lead in bad loan ratio, but the overall situation is improving due to fewer new bad loans and increased write-offs. Personal loans are a concern, and the RBI is closely monitoring the situation.The 2024-25 budget introduces tax changes to benefit those involved in international transactions. It lowers the long-term capital gains tax for investing in foreign stocks and eases the process for remitting money overseas, among other provisions. Jash Kriplani writes that these changes aim to simplify tax calculations and make international investments more attractive for Indian investors.Softbank Investment Advisors, a Japanese tech-focused investment firm, is expecting significant returns from its investments in the Indian market as several of its portfolio companies prepare to go public this year. Sneha Shah and Ranjani Raghavan write that Ola Electric Mobility, Firstcry, and Unicommerce are among the companies planning to go public. Softbank's India portfolio has nearly peaked to 14 billion dollars, and the firm has made over 5.5 billion dollars in exits from its India portfolio. Softbank is anticipating a wave of tech IPOs in India, and its other potential IPO investments include Flipkart, OfBusiness, Lenskart, and Oyo.Artificial intelligence was tech's next big thing. Billions of dollars have been poured into it by every investor and big tech company. But where are the results? We were told that AI would change everything — but it's shown little utility so far. Research suggests that additional investments of 1 trillion dollars need to be made to make further advances in AI. Shelley Singh looks into the industry, and speaks to industry veterans who give their 2 cents on the future of everything AI.We'd love to hear your feedback on this podcast. Let us know by writing to us at feedback@livemint.com. You may send us feedback, tips or anything that you feel we should be covering from your vantage point in the world of business and finance.That's all for today. Thank you for listening.We're eagerly looking forward to our next Top of the Morning episode, which will be packed with fresh business news. Until then, have a great day!Show notes:Ultratech to buy out India Cements as Birla sharpens battle against Adani GroupRBI projects further moderation in bank NPA to 2.5%How the budget has eased the rules for international transactionsSoftbank eyes windfall as key portfolio companies line up IPOsIt's swallowed billions of dollars, but has AI lived up to the hype?

By 2050, 50% of the world population is going to become myopic. Myopia is becoming increasingly prevalent globally, especially in urban areas and among younger populations.Japin Charan, the Head of dept optometry, Lenksart - Optometry talks to us about:-How are screens like TV, computer, and video games hurting your child's eye-What is Myopia and why is it an epidemic?-What symptoms should you look out for?-How will early diagnosis help? Best practices for screening children for myopia, and at what age?-Role of the outdoors in reducing Myopia?And more Watch the entire video to know Lenskart's role in treating Myopia, and how you can help your children.Talking about myopia is essential for raising awareness, promoting prevention and early intervention, and improving the overall management of this common vision condition. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kidsstoppress/message

Today we're going to talk about an item that about half of the world's population might need to wear by 2050.  You might have the answer already – that is glasses. According to a 2017 article by the World Economic Forum, half of the global population could be shortsighted by the middle of the century, an increase of over a third on 2017 figures.  And that presents business opportunities for our guest Lenskart, which operates over 1,500 omnichannel eyewear stores across 175 cities in India, Singapore and Dubai. Just to give you a sense of where things are at for the firm, Lenskart is delivering 10 million spectacles a year to people in India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East as of 2021, with the aim to deliver a billion pairs of spectacles over the next 10 years.  Given the goal, it is no wonder that the firm is expanding rapidly of late. It acquired a majority stake in Japanese eyewear brand Owndays in June 2022.  That's in a deal that is said to value Owndays at a whopping US$400 million. But what is the strategic value brought about by Owndays though? On the organic expansion front, the Softbank-backed retailer said in December that it intends to open 300 to 400 stores in Southeast Asia over the next two years.  But where will Lenskart be focusing on as a start and what role will the Singapore market play in the bigger scheme of things? How does Lenskart intend to fund its growing ambitions? On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway's finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Peyush Bansal, Co-founder, CEO, Lenskart.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dive into the intricate world of private equity with Nishant Sharma and Sunish Sharma, the dynamic duo behind Kedaara Capital, India's premier homegrown private equity fund. In this enlightening episode, we explore not only the nuances of private equity but also unravel the secrets behind Kedaara's successful investments in renowned brands like Manyavar, Lenskart, and Vishal Megamart.From focusing on people and culture in organizations to insights into effective leadership and team management, the founders share invaluable experiences and lessons learned along their journey.Join us as we navigate through the Indian business landscape, discussing what makes a product thrive in the Indian market and gaining profound insights into the future of the country for the next decades. Get ready for an engaging conversation that goes beyond finance, touching on the essence of building successful enterprises and contributing to India's economic growth. Don't miss this exclusive peek into the world of private equity and the visionary minds shaping it. Subscribe and stay tuned for an episode that promises to be both educational and inspiring!Introduction: 00:00 - 2:05 Why building a cohesive culture is important: 2:06 - 10:56 Fatherhood as an inflection point in Nishant and Sunish's careers: 10:57 - 17:55 The Initial journey, How and Why Kedaara was formed: 17:56 - 39:39 Kedaara's first deal: 39:40 - 47:09 The essential philosophy of doing business: 47:10 - 52:10 Working with investors: 52:11 - 1:06:25 Working as a team, investing in people's success & wisdom of building great partnerships: 1:06:26 - 1:21:50 What makes a founder stand out & how Kedaara evaluates founders: 1:21:51 - 1:37:25 Nishant, Sunish & Shantanu discuss leadership, organization & the myriad challenges of running a company: 1:37:26 - 2:01:10 Building for a new, Digital India, “Democratizing Aristocracy” & creating great products: 2:01:11 - 2:20:22 Why Nishant & Sunish are bullish on India: 2:20:23 - 2:25:32 Conclusion: 2:25:33 - 2:27:35

Anant Ahuja is a multi-faceted professional who is constantly making a mark in various creative and entrepreneurial domains. His role as the Managing Partner at The Irregulars Alliance involves ensuring tangible growth in the business, while making creative decisions to always evolve and get better. As a Cultural Producer he has contributed to theindependent art and design scene through the organization of India's first Anti Art-Fair, The Irregulars Art Fair, publishing The Irregular Times, India's first art and design newspaper, and other such cultural experiences For his work in the field of cultural production, he was inducted into the Forbes Under 30, Asia List in 2020.The Irregulars Studio boasts of an enviable client list and portfolio: from working as cultural consultants on the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, to producing animations for Budweiser and Lenskart, Designing identities for Spotify official playlists to illustrate stickers for Meta and Snapchat He's done it all!!!

Growth and product are a completely different beast when you sell physical products and not software. Despite those challenges, our next guest Ramneek Khurana has grown Lenskart to help India's vision problem. Ramneek went to Georgia Tech and expected to go to a major consulting firm, but he took some advice that led him into physical products as he started his career at Michelin Tires. Since Michelin was the top tire brand, Ramneek made very marginal improvements and eventually got bored and wanted to solve a bigger problem. That led him to co-found Lenskart, an optical eyewear chain that produces over 300,000 glasses a month. They saw the large gap in the Indian market for a convenient, stylish eyeglass brand that also helped tackle the millions of Indians who weren't able to get glasses. Unlike almost every other eyeglass manufacturer, Lenskart focused on mobile and digital from the very beginning, making it easier for customers and allowed them to scale quickly. Some of their best growth campaigns came out of COVID. They received tons of videos from customers to showcase they could still help people get eyeglasses even during lockdown and turned it into a massively successful TV campaign. Hear stories like this, how they won the award for Best Mobile Innovation at Branch's 2020 Mobile Growth Awards, how Ramneek manages his time as the company grows and changes, and more on this episode of How I Grew This.

In this podcast, Peyush Bansal, founder and CEO of Lenskart, India's largest eyewear company talks to Karthik B. Reddy, co-founder and managing partner of Blume Ventures,  the importance of hiring the right people in building long-lasting businesses, the pathological obsession of founders to solve a particular problem, which is essential in India's small market, and balancing short-term objectives with long-term goals.  Bansal built Bagskart, Watchkart, Jewelkart, before focusing his energies on Lenskart, and the disturbing statistic where said that 75% of people in India who need specs are not them helped “focus his vision.” And as a reward for his clarity of purpose, IDG Ventures was soon on board.  Bansal was also inspired by Uniqlo's growth in the West, where it managed to create differentiation in the same category of products. He gives the example of shoes: People no longer just want sports shoes. There's one for walking, one for fast-paced running, and one for slow running. This trend is expected to continue in the future, with eyewear products being offered to cater to every single need of a consumer.  Bansal also emphasizes the need for long-term thinking and sustainability in the business. They discuss the success of Maruti and the importance of considering the long-term impact of their decisions. Peyush also shares his thoughts on wealth and the influence of Indian entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala, who has significantly impacted his outlook on life and career.  For more on the importance of hiring right, check out Naveen Tewari of Inmobi's episode on X-Unicorns.  https://open.spotify.com/episode/2b0PgICcwg2DQI49zqpWay https://blume.vc/podcasts/blume-podcast/naveen-tewari-on-the-quest-for-a-purposeful-life-the-beauty-of-creating-versus-competing-and-building-a-culture-of-compounding-trust All episodes: https://open.spotify.com/show/227rW4Ee4ob6wRT8U7pJ8s https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/blume-podcast/id1651800944 https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnRlbnQuY29tL2QvcGxheWxpc3QvNGJiMzM3MDQtNjE1Yi00MDU0LWFhZTktYWNlNTAwZmQ0MTk3L2IxZjk3NGJiLWUxMWMtNDZlYy1hNzFkLWIwMTgwMDlkZjk1Ny8xMTViMzZlYi0yNzY0LTRiZTEtYThmYy1iMDE4MDA5ZGY5ODEvcG9kY2FzdC5yc3M

Robinhood buys X1, EDX new crypto exchange, OpenAI app store?, Tiktok e-commerce in UK, Twitter in video/payments | Pre-IPO Stock Market Update - Jun 23, 202300:30 | Robinhood buys X1- Robinhood has acquired X1, an emerging credit card startup, for $95m- Robinhood is set to introduce a range of credit card offerings for its 30m+ user base01:09 | EDX new crypto exchange- Fidelity, Schwab, and Citadel are backing the newly launched cryptocurrency exchange, EDX- SEC lawsuit vs Coinbase/Binance has cleared the path for incumbents to come into crypto in a proper way03:01 | OpenAI app store?- OpenAI is considering an AI software app store- An OpenAI app store could become a key hub for AI advancements and further strengthen OpenAI's position as a major player in the field04:34 | Tiktok e-commerce in UK- TikTok has begun selling products on its platform in the UK- Move demonstrates TikTok's ambition to compete with established e-commerce giants and alter the way consumers discover and purchase products05:55 | Twitter in video/payments- Twitter is focusing on video and payments as part of its strategic growth plan- Video content generates 10x more engagement vs text tweets- Twitter aims to tap into the growing trend of social commerce07:02 | Big capital raises- Lenskart | $600m Series I, $4.1b valuation- Synthesia | $90m Series C, $1.0b valuation- CubicPV | $33m Series C, $483m valuation- Truework | $24m Series C2, $480m valuation- Tomorrow.io | $87m Series E, $437m valuation09:12 | Pre-IPO +0.79% for week, S&P 500 +2.58% - YTD pre-IPO stocks still trail the S&P by about 30%.- Year to date. Databricks +8.07%, Deel +2.77%. Stripe, Epic Games, Discord all -30%. Flexport, Chime, Brex all -30% or more.- This week. Databricks +12.39%. Brex -2.91%.Invest in pre-IPO stocks - www.agdillon.com

ChrysCapital has invested $100 million in Lenskart, the two said Thursday, pushing the Asian eyewear startup's raise to $850 million in the past year. The Indian venture firm is buying shares worth $100 million into the Bengaluru-headquartered startup through both primary and secondary transactions, the two said. The new investment follows Abu Dhabi Investment AuthoritY.

In this episode, Varun & Suchita begin with talking about Google introducing AI across all it's apps, Lenskart raising funds from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, PornHub's parent company MindGeek getting acquired by Ethical Capital Partners, LinkedIn building a Podcast academy, Samsung and Xiaomi's smartphone market competition, SVB filing bankruptcy papers, PhonePe attracting Walmart's investment, and the upcoming documentary about Honey Singh.  They talk about how FMCG giants have been expanding their online presence and benefitting retailers and well as consumers, Ryan Reynolds selling off his share along with the company-Mint Mobile to T Mobile, and Mark Zuckerberg's letter to employees titled Meta's year of Efficiency and the upcoming vision of the company.  Suchita recommends a newsletter edition: What Taylor Swift can Teach us about BusinessVarun recommends a Podcast episode: The Last of Us Podcast Varun & Suchita also answer a few listener questions on the show. Do share yours on the below-mentioned handles. You can follow Varun Duggirala on Twitter & Instagram You can follow Suchita Salwan on Twitter & Instagram  Check out video episodes on the Think Fast YouTube Channel. Find the show across audio streaming apps:Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | JioSaavn | Gaana | Amazon Music Do follow IVM Podcasts on social media.We are @ivmpodcasts on Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram. You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the new and improved IVM Podcasts App on Android or iOS.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lenskart has signed a definitive agreement to raise $500 million from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, they said Wednesday, at the height of the market slump as the Indian eyewear retailer bulks up its offerings and scales to international markets.

In this episode, Anjali Bansal, Founding Partner @Avaana Capital, joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to Avaana Capital, investing in process & product innovation, key headwinds & tailwinds in the current climate tech cycle, innovative sustainability startups from Avaana's portfolio, the role of the board at early stages of a startup, importance of having a diverse board, how can founders draw maximum value from their board, and what to overindex on to build longevity in one's career. Avaana is an early/growth stage fund that invests in technology and innovation-led start-ups catalysing climate solutions and sustainability. Some of its marquee portfolio startups include the likes of Terra.do, Farmart, Eeki Foods, Animall and Praman among others. Anjali has also invested in and mentored various successful start-ups including Delhivery, UrbanClap, Nykaa and Lenskart. Previously, Anjali has been the Non-Executive Chairperson of Dena Bank, appointed by the Govt. of India to steer the resolution of the stressed bank. Prior to that, Anjali was a Global Partner and Managing Director with TPG Growth PE. She also serves as an independent director on several leading boards including Tata Power, Bata, Kotak AMC, and Piramal Enterprises. Anjali is also a member of the Advisory Council for the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and serves on the CII National Committee on Corporate Governance. You can connect with her here on Linkedin ---- Show notes – (02:17) Anjali's background & path leading up to Avaana Capital (06:37) Identifying the scale-up potential of startups (10:28) Investing in process & product innovation (14:30) Climate tech – Key headwinds & tailwinds in the current climate tech cycle (18:43) Cutting through the noise and staying focused when investing in a hot market/theme (21:37) Full-stack support that Avaana brings to startups (23:40) Innovative climate tech startups that are part of Avaana's portfolio (26:02) Role of the board at early stages of a startup and how does that evolve as the startup matures in it's lifecycle (30:08) Importance of having a diverse board and how to draw maximum value from your board (33:35) Reflecting on a multi-decadal career - What to overindex on to build longevity in one's career? (35:25) Advice for first time GPs (38:04) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platform 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

theyre bright, theyre sharp and theyve founded & run a few of indias most successful businesses and brands. vineeta singh cofounder ceo at sugar cosmetics tells me her brand story & what is it that appeals to her when someone makes a pitch. peyush bansal cofounder ceo lenskart.com indulges me in an earnest discussion on brick & mortar vs online. aman gupta cofounder & cmo has the most interesting tale about naming his headphone brand boAt & he shares it on this podcast. theyre the sharks on season 2 of shark tank on sony liv & sony entertainment television. listen on & enjoy! “The HrishiKay Sessions” are produced & presented by Hrishikesh Kannan popularly known as Hrishi K Thanks for listening. Should you want to experience more ….for starters hit “subscribe” / “follow” and check out more episodes & be notified when further sessions go up! If ur looking for Hrishi across media & social networking then here goes: Twitter : https://www.twitter.com/hrishikay Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/hrishikay Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/hrishikay Youtube : https://youtube.com/c/hrishikeshkannan Soundcloud : https://www.soundcloud.com/hrishikay LinkedIn : http://linkedin.com/in/hrishikay

Anupam Mittal (Founder and CEO of Shaadi.com – People Group), Vineeta Singh (Co-Founder and CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics), Peyush Bansal (Founder & CEO of Lenskart.com), Amit Jain CEO and Co-founder – (CarDekho Group, InsuranceDekho.com) speak with Anupama Chopra on Film Companion before the release of Shark Tank India Season 2. They speak about the weirdest places they've been pitched ideas at, the biggest turnoff from aspiring entrepreneurs, their relationship with money, & expectations from Season 2 of Shark Tank India.

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has released a draft bill, titled ‘The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022' for public feedback. The last date to provide feedback, via the ministry's website, is Dec. 17. This brings India a step closer to formulating rules that will govern the individual rights of the ‘digital citizen' and the need to process data for lawful purposes. And deep tech startups in the country need much more money at various levels to thrive, Debjani Ghosh, president of Nasscom, India's main tech lobby, said last week. Notes: India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has released a draft Bill, titled ‘The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022' for public feedback, the ministry said in a statement last week. The purpose of the draft Bill is to provide for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognizes both the right of individuals to protect their data and the need to process personal data for lawful purposes, according to the statement. The feedback on the draft bill in a chapter-wise manner can be submitted at https://innovateindia.mygov.in/digital-data-protection/ by December 17, 2022. India's Central Depository Services Limited, or CDSL, the country's leading central securities depository, said its systems have been compromised by malware, TechCrunch reported on Friday. The securities depository said in a filing with India's National Stock Exchange that it detected malware affecting “a few of its internal machines.” “As a matter of abundant caution, the company immediately isolated the machines and disconnected itself from other constituents of the capital market,” the filing said. CDSL said it continues to investigate the breach and that it has so far “no reason to believe that any confidential information or the investor data has been compromised” due to the incident, according to TechCrunch. Mohit Gupta, a top executive at Zomato, who was elevated to the status of co-founder in 2020, has quit, Economic Times reports. Mohit held various positions at Zomato including being the chief executive of its food delivery unit and head of its new initiatives, according to ET. That makes for the third top-level exit in the Mumbai-listed loss-making food delivery services provider, according to ET. Rahul Ganjoo, head of new initiatives, resigned earlier this week while Siddharth Jhawar quit the company as vice president and head of intercity legends service earlier this month. Lenskart, the online retailer of eyewear, has raised $39.6 million in Series I funding from Chiratae, DSP Mutual Fund and Axis Growth, according to data sourced from private markets intelligence provider Tracxn. This takes Lenskart's total funding to $1.05 billion and post-money valuation to $4.26 billion, according to Tracxn data. India's deep tech startups need higher levels of seed and early-stage funding to grow faster, but currently, only 11 per cent of technology-related funds reach this ecosystem, Debjani Ghosh, president of Nasscom, said on Friday, Press Trust of India reports. Speaking at a workshop on ‘Startups and Entrepreneurship: Vision India@2047,' Ghosh called for encouraging 10,000 deep tech startups in India by 2030. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

In this episode of Figuring Out Podcast, we have Shark Peyush Bansal, Founder and CEO of Lenskart and we have discussed:-How can you enter a perfectly competitive market and build something where nobody can beat you?-How to build a monopoly in a competitive market?-How to find out your niche?-How to build a brand which can set you apart from competitors?-Journey of Lenskart, how does lenskart build another organisation inside their own company?-Lessons on building a startup from 0 to  taking it to 2 billion dollarPeyush Bansal is an Indian entrepreneur and co-founder of the eyewear retail chain Lenskart. He founded the company in 2010 along with Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi. Before Lenskart, Bansal worked in the United States at tech giant Microsoft. In 2007, he decided to quit his job and return to India. He built Lenskart from scratch, and today, it is one the biggest eyewear stores in India. In 2020, Lenskart entered the unicorn club and had a valuation of over $1 billion. Recently, in 2022, Peyush Bansal became part of Shark Tank India. At just 36 years old, he has become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world and a judge at the Shark Tank Show.In this episode we have discussed about startups, entrepreneurship and his journey of Shark tank. Watch this episode till the end to know complete details.Peyush Bansal'sSocial Media Handles ⤵︎Instagram @peyushbansalhttps://www.instagram.com/peyushbansal/Twitter @peyushbansalhttps://twitter.com/peyushbansalLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peyushbansal/•   •   •

Check out Ditto Insurance and book a call with their team for free by clicking on the link - https://bit.ly/3QiQi9L 00:00 Introduction 00:12 Ola Drivers Go to Court against Company 03:45 Startup Spotlight 05:14 Bird's Eye Segment 07:01 OYO Acquires Danish Vacation Home Company 07:21 Mswipe receives RBI's nod for payment aggregator license 07:53 Sponsored Segment 11:01 Side Note This week in Indian Startup News, Ola Drivers allege Fraud by company, OYO Acquires Danish Vacation Home Company To Expand in Europe, Mswipe receives RBI's nod for payment aggregator license. In Startup Spotlight, we have EdTech unicorn upGrad, who have recently raised $210 Million and are planning to hire 3000 more employees over next few months. In Funding news we have, upGrad, Clevertap, Jodo, Lenskart and 8 other Indian startups raise more than $1 Million. Ola Drivers Go to Court against Company: Ride hailing giant Ola is under big legal trouble as hundreds of it's former drivers have alleged that the company has committed fraud, and they are now going to Allahabad high court against the company. So the whole issue started when Ola started leasing out cars to the drivers under it's subsidiary company Ola Fleet Technologies and it gave 4 years times to drivers to make payment in the form of daily rentals. Due to COVID, when it couldn't happen, Ola started taking back cars from these drivers and so now these drivers are taking legal route. (https://inc42.com/features/how-indias-cabbies-are-fighting-legally-against-mobility-giant-ola/) Startup Spotlight - upGrad: upGrad has recently announced closing of a funding round of $210 Million and they had earlier announced that they will be hiring 3000 employees in the next three months. One reason, where upGrad seems to make itself stand apart from other edtech players, is instead of focusing on TAM (total addressable market), which a lot of major edtech players focus on, upGrad focuses on profitability. (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/funding/edtech-unicorn-upgrad-raises-210-million-from-marquee-investors/articleshow/93413012.cms) Funding this week: This week saw at least 12 Indian startups raising more than $397 Million. Edtech Sector - upGrad raised $210 Million SaaS startups - CleverTap raised $105 Mn Fintech startups - Jodo raised $15 Million OYO Acquires Danish Vacation Home Company To Expand in Europe: Hospitality giant OYO has announced acquisition of Danish vacation home company ‘Bornholmske Feriehuse'. This acquisition will allow OYO to expand it's footprint in Europe. This company, Bornholmske Feriehuse, manages around 737 vacation homes in Denmark and now all of these properties will be listed on OYO's platform. (https://inc42.com/buzz/oyo-acquires-danish-vacation-home-company-bornholmske-feriehuse-to-expand-footprint-in-europe/) Mswipe receives RBI's nod for payment aggregator licence: After Razorpay, Pine Labs and Innoviti, now payment startup Mswipe has received a payment aggregator license from RBI. Currently Mswipe is a mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) network provider for merchants and its target market is mainly MSMEs of India. Currently, it helps them to accept card payments from smartphones and feature phones and now with payment aggregator license, they will be working on building an in-house online payment gateway, which will be able to offer full-stack payment solutions to offline and online merchants. (https://www.business-standard.com/article/finance/mswipe-technologies-gets-rbi-approval-for-payment-aggregator-s-licence-122080901096_1.html)

It's a happy time for Think Fast as co-host Suchita Salwan's co-founded company LBB has been acquired by Nykaa. She gives us a little sneak peek into the process, followed by Varun joining in to talk about other stories including Uber's loss from Zomato and a probable withdrawal, Koo & Sadhguru's social spends, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's Akasa Air, Balenciaga's announced launch in India, Masaba's cosmetics and wellness brand 'LoveChild', and a recent survey by O Womaniya! survey that pointed out the abysmally low number of women in Cinema. The episode's top stories include Lenskart's partnership with Japanese OwnDay and how the company has been progressing over the years capturing the eyewear market, Creator Cloning and why it's getting more popular, a look into 'Work From Home' in 2022, TikTok venturing into music and what it means for its counterparts and other audio apps, and the latest controversy of WazirX's ownership with reference to Binance. Suchita recommends a show: 'The Bear' (on Hulu) Varun recommends 'Darlings'; and the book 'Surrounded by Idiots'.Varun & Suchita also answer a few listener questions on the show. Do share yours on the below-mentioned handles.You can follow Varun Duggirala on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/varunduggi and on Instagram at https://instagram.com/varunduggiYou can follow Suchita Salwan on Twitter at https://twitter.com/suchitasalwan and on Instagram at https://instagram.com/suchitasalwanCheck out video episodes on the Think Fast YouTube Channel.Find the show across audio streaming apps:Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | JioSaavn | Gaana | Amazon MusicDo follow IVM Podcasts on social media.We are @IVMPodcasts on Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram.You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the new and improved IVM Podcasts App on Android or iOS.

In der Mittagsfolge sprechen wir heute mit David Löwe, Co-Founder von Everdrop, über eine erfolgreich abgeschlossene Finanzierungsrunde in Gesamthöhe von 80 Millionen Euro. Everdrop stellt Haushaltsprodukte und Naturkosmetik-zertifizierte Pflegeprodukte für einen nachhaltigen Lifestyle her und verzichtet dabei vollkommen auf Einwegplastik und nicht notwendige chemische Substanzen. Durch die Produkte konnten nach Unternehmensangaben rund 7 Millionen Einweg-Plastikflaschen und mehr als 1000 Tonnen unnötige Chemie eingespart werden. Zudem habe das Startup die CO2-Emissionen beim Transport um bis zu 95% reduzieren können. Die Produkte sind im DACH-Raum, Italien und Frankreich verfügbar und können direkt online, als Abo-Modell oder bei Retailpartnern erworben werden. Zu diesen Partnern gehören u.a. DM, Rossmann, Budnikowsky, Edeka, Tchibo und Alnatura. Everdrop wurde im Jahr 2019 von Christian Becker, Daniel Schmitt-Haverkamp und David Löwe in München gegründet und beschäftigt ca. 45 Mitarbeitende. In einer Series-B-Finanzierungsrunde hat das junge Unternehmen für mehr Nachhaltigkeit nun 80 Millionen Euro eingesammelt. Der belgische Growth Investor Sofina, der Impact Fund der B Corp-zertifizierten Schweizer Bankengruppe Lombard Odier und der Venture Lending-Partner TriplePoint Capital aus dem Silicon Valley haben die Runde angeführt. Sofina ist eine mehr als 120 Jahre bestehende Investmentgesellschaft, die an der Euronext Brüssel notiert ist und ein Vermögen von ca. 11 Milliarden Euro verwaltet. Zum Portfolio von Sofina gehört u.a. Gorillas, Typeform, Ankorstore, Moody, Lemonilo, DeHaat, SellerX, Tessian, Oviva, Petkit, Twin, Reetoo, Dott, Vinted, K12, Forma, Lenskart, Graphcore, Medgenome, ThoughtSpot, Act, PineLabs, Spartoo und Labster. Die Bestandsinvestoren Felix Capital, der u.a. HungryPanda, Allplants, Deliveroo, Re:cap, YFood und Spotify (Exit) im Portfolio hat, HV Capital, der u.a. in Penta, Flixbus, Ottonova, Zalando, Delivery Hero und Hello Fresh investiert hat, und Vorwerk Ventures, der u.a. in Nilo.health, Plantura, Boon, Zapp, Sharpist und Mädchen Flohmarkt investierte, haben sich ebenfalls der Serie B angeschlossen. Mit dem frischen Kapital möchte Everdrop die nachhaltigen Alltagsprodukte in mehr internationale Märkte einbringen und die Produktvielfalt erweitern. One more thing wird präsentiert von OMR Reviews – Finde die richtige Software für Dein Business. Wenn auch Du Dein Lieblingstool bewerten willst, schreibe eine Review auf OMR Reviews unter https://moin.omr.com/insider. Dafür erhältst du einen 15€ Amazon Gutschein.

In der Mittagsfolge sprechen wir heute mit David Löwe, Co-Founder von Everdrop, über eine erfolgreich abgeschlossene Finanzierungsrunde in Gesamthöhe von 80 Millionen Euro. Everdrop stellt Haushaltsprodukte und Naturkosmetik-zertifizierte Pflegeprodukte für einen nachhaltigen Lifestyle her und verzichtet dabei vollkommen auf Einwegplastik und nicht notwendige chemische Substanzen. Durch die Produkte konnten nach Unternehmensangaben rund 7 Millionen Einweg-Plastikflaschen und mehr als 1000 Tonnen unnötige Chemie eingespart werden. Zudem habe das Startup die CO2-Emissionen beim Transport um bis zu 95% reduzieren können. Die Produkte sind im DACH-Raum, Italien und Frankreich verfügbar und können direkt online, als Abo-Modell oder bei Retailpartnern erworben werden. Zu diesen Partnern gehören u.a. DM, Rossmann, Budnikowsky, Edeka, Tchibo und Alnatura. Everdrop wurde im Jahr 2019 von Christian Becker, Daniel Schmitt-Haverkamp und David Löwe in München gegründet und beschäftigt ca. 45 Mitarbeitende. In einer Series-B-Finanzierungsrunde hat das junge Unternehmen für mehr Nachhaltigkeit nun 80 Millionen Euro eingesammelt. Der belgische Growth Investor Sofina, der Impact Fund der B Corp-zertifizierten Schweizer Bankengruppe Lombard Odier und der Venture Lending-Partner TriplePoint Capital aus dem Silicon Valley haben die Runde angeführt. Sofina ist eine mehr als 120 Jahre bestehende Investmentgesellschaft, die an der Euronext Brüssel notiert ist und ein Vermögen von ca. 11 Milliarden Euro verwaltet. Zum Portfolio von Sofina gehört u.a. Gorillas, Typeform, Ankorstore, Moody, Lemonilo, DeHaat, SellerX, Tessian, Oviva, Petkit, Twin, Reetoo, Dott, Vinted, K12, Forma, Lenskart, Graphcore, Medgenome, ThoughtSpot, Act, PineLabs, Spartoo und Labster. Die Bestandsinvestoren Felix Capital, der u.a. HungryPanda, Allplants, Deliveroo, Re:cap, YFood und Spotify (Exit) im Portfolio hat, HV Capital, der u.a. in Penta, Flixbus, Ottonova, Zalando, Delivery Hero und Hello Fresh investiert hat, und Vorwerk Ventures, der u.a. in Nilo.health, Plantura, Boon, Zapp, Sharpist und Mädchen Flohmarkt investierte, haben sich ebenfalls der Serie B angeschlossen. Mit dem frischen Kapital möchte Everdrop die nachhaltigen Alltagsprodukte in mehr internationale Märkte einbringen und die Produktvielfalt erweitern.

In der Mittagsfolge begrüßen wir heute Matti Niebelschütz, Co-Founder und MD von CoachHub, und sprechen mit ihm über die erfolgreiche Series-C-Finanzierungsrunde in Gesamthöhe von 200 Millionen US-Dollar. CoachHub ist eine Talententwicklungsplattform, auf der Coaching-Programme für die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter aller Karrierelevel erstellt werden können. Der globale Coach-Pool umfasst mehr als 3.500 zertifizierte Business-Coaches in 90 Ländern, die Coachings in über 60 Sprachen anbieten und mehr als 500 Kundinnen und Kunden betreuen. Die Programme basieren auf der Forschung und Entwicklung des Coaching Labs, das von Prof. Jonathan Passmore geleitet wird und 30 Verhaltenswissenschaftlerinnen und -wissenschaftler beschäftigt. Im September 2021 übernahm Das Coaching Startup den französischen Digital-Coaching-Pionier MoovOne und im Februar 2022 die Coaching-Sparte von Klaiton in Österreich. CoachHub wurde im Jahr 2018 von den Brüdern Matti und Yannis Niebelschütz in Berlin gegründet. In einer Series-C-Finanzierungsrunde hat CoachHub nun 200 Millionen US-Dollar eingesammelt. Dabei haben Sofina und Softbank Vision Fund 2 die Runde angeführt. Sofina ist eine familiengeführte Investmentgesellschaft, die an der Euronext Brüssel notiert ist und ein Vermögen von ca. 11 Milliarden Euro verwaltet. Zum Portfolio von Sofina gehört u.a. Gorillas, Typeform, Ankorstore, Moody, Lemonilo, DeHaat, SellerX, Tessian, Oviva, Petkit, Twin, Reetoo, Dott, Vinted, K12, Forma, Lenskart, Graphcore, Medgenome, ThoughtSpot, Act, PineLabs, Spartoo und Labster. Softbank ist ein japanischer Tech-Konzern, der mit seinem zweiten Vision Fund über 108 Milliarden US-Dollar in Startups investiert. Neben den 38 Milliarden US-Dollar, die Softbank diesem Fonds selbst beisteuert, beteiligten sich auch Unternehmen wie Microsoft oder Apple an dem Kapital. Mit den Vision Fonds wurde u.a. in Unternehmen wie Uber, eToro, Nvidia, ByteDance, Cruise, Fanatics, Flipkart, Rappi, Swiggy, WeWork, Katerra, Mapbox, Opendoor, DoorDash und Slack investiert. Des Weiteren beteiligten sich auch die bestehenden Investoren Molten Ventures, Speedinvest, HV Capital, Signals Venture Capital und Silicon Valley Bank/ SVB Capital. Mit dem frischen Kapital möchte CoachHub sein Produkt weiterentwickeln und den Vertrieb ausbauen, um die globale Expansion zu beschleunigen.

The founder of Lenskart.com gets candid with host Arijit Barman. He speaks about his vision on building a unicorn, manufacturing,future tech,parenthood, mentoring young entrepreneurs he found on Shark Tank and being eternally "discontent."

In this video, we take a look at India's journey to 100 unicorns, from it's first ever startup unicorn in 2011, in the form of inMobi, to neobanking startup Open becoming 100th unicorn in 2022. The term 'unicorn' was created by American VC and entrepreneur Aileen Lee in 2013, she took all of the U.S.-based software companies that were started in or before 2003 and had achieved a valuation of $1 billion through public or private market investors, and put them in a club: the Unicorn Club. In India's case, it's unicorn journey started in 2011, when InMobi, a company that was founded in 2007, became a unicorn. Following this, Flipkart became a unicorn in 2012, Mu Sigma in 2014 and then Ola in 2014. Snapdeal also became a unicorn in 2014, but they have since exited from this club due to their valuation falling below $1 Billion. Companies like Quikr, Hike and Shopclues also fall in this category. Then we have companies who have been since acquired and also bags the question that should they be counted as unicorn today? Flipkart is an example here, which was acquired by Walmart. Then you have startups like Billdesk, which was bought by PayU, PhonePe getting acquired by Flipkart and BigBasket, which became a unicorn in 2019 and were acquired by Tata Digital in 2021. All this while, India's unicorn growth was pretty slow but steady till 2017, when Jio launched its 4G services, and this brought a mobile internet revolution in the country. From 1 unicorn in 2017, India saw 10 unicorns in 2018: B2C unicorns included Swiggy, OYO, BYJU'S, Policybazaar, Paytm Mall, and Phonepe, and B2B unicorns included Rivigo, Freshworks, Billdesk, and Udaan, which was the fastest company to become a unicorn at the time - it took them just 26 months. Then, in 2019, things slowed down a bit, with just 7 unicorns that year: in the B2C category were Ola Electric, Lenskart, Dream11, Delhivery, and BigBasket, and in the B2B category were Incertis and Druva. In 2020, COVID increased people's reliance upon the internet, and host of Indian e-commerce startups like Firstcry, Cars24, and Nykaa became unicorns. Facilitating these online payments resulted in fintech companies like Razorpay and Pine Labs also achieving unicorn status. B2C startups like Verse Innovation (Dailyhunt), ed-tech startup Unacademy, fintech startup Zerodha, and SaaS startup like Zenoti and Postman also became unicorn in the same year. 2020, was followed by an even bigger year in terms of unicorns in 2021, when 44 Indian companies became unicorns. This year saw 11 E-commerce startups (Spinny, OfBusiness, Moglix, Mensa, Meesho, Mamaearth, Licious, Infra.Market, Good Glam Group, GlobalBees, Droom), 11 Fintech startups (Zeta, Slice, Mobikwik, Groww, Digit, CRED, Coinswitch Kuber, CoinDCX, Chargebee, BharatPe and Acko) becoming unicorns. Then we have 5 enterprisetech and SaaS startups (Mindtickle, MapmyIndia, Gupshup, BrowserStack, Apna), 4 health startups (Cure.fit, Innovaccer, Pharmeasy, Pristyn Care), 4 consumer service startups (Blinkit, CarDekho, Rebel Foods, Urban Company), and 3 edtech startups (Eruditus, Vedantu and Upgrad) also becoming unicorns. Other 2021 unicorn categories include Media and Entertainment startups MPL and sharechat, Logistics startup Blackbuck, Traveltech startup Easemytrip , Real Estate startup Nobroker, and Manufacturing startup Zetwork. Talking about where where these startups coming from, they were all from tier 1 cities. Bangalore is leading this list with 39 unicorns, NCR region with 32 unicorns, mumbai with 16, Pune with 6, Chennai with 5 and Hyderabad with 2. Now we are halfway in 2022 and we have already produced and now it seems that by 2025, India will have upwards of 250 unicorns. So that will be exciting to watch and we will continue to track all of this in our upcoming episodes.

This week in Indian Startup News, Ola Electric Announces Autonomous Car, RBI rejects MobiKwik's payment aggregator license, CarDekho Sets Up Fintech Platform Rupyy, Swiggy Launches accelerator programme for Delivery partners, FirstCry plans $1 billion IPO. In funding and acquisition news, Veranda Learning acquires test-prep firm T.I.M.E, Slice to raise $55 Mn, Lenskart raises $25 Mn and more. Ola Electric Announces Autonomous Car: Ola Electric has announced its plans to launch an Autonomous Electric car by end of 2023 or early 2024 and they are aiming to price it around Rs 10 Lakh. Company is already testing it for past six months now and we will see them give more details in coming time. RBI rejects MobiKwik's payment aggregator license: RBI has rejected Mobikwik's licence for its payment aggregator service 'ZaakPay'. Mobikwik is gearing for an IPO and it is considered a big setback before company goes public. Many people have considered Mobikwik's support to Cryptocurrency exchanges as one of the reasons behind RBI's decision. CarDekho Sets Up Fintech Platform Rupyy: Automobile marketplace unicorn CarDekho has launched a fintech platform Rupyy which will be one stop platform for all its customers for their financing needs. With Rupyy, Cardekho is aiming to cut down loan process from days to minutes and is aiming towards capturing 35-40% market share of used-car finance segment. Swiggy Launches accelerator programme for Delivery partners: Swiggy has launched an accelerator programme for its delivery partners which will upskill them and help them get managerial roles like Fleet Managers. The delivery partners applying for this will require to have eligibility criteria like a College Degree, employment with Swiggy for few years, decent communication skills and knowledge of computer. FirstCry plans $1 billion IPO: Omnichannel Baby E-commerce company Firstcry has started its process of IPO by onboarding Kotak Mahindra Capital and Morgan Stanley to its board. Company was earlier planning a $600-$700 Million IPO but is now aiming for $ 1 Billion IPO, looking at positive market response. Veranda Learning acquires test-prep firm T.I.M.E: Ed-tech firm Veranda Learning Solution, which got listed on the stock market earlier this month, has acquired test prep firm T.I.M.E for Rs 287 crore. This acquisition will help Veranda to expand its national footprint and also through this acquisition will aid diversification to the pre-school and the language training space. Slice to raise $55 Mn At $1.8 Bn Valuation: Bengaluru-based fintech unicorn slice is in talks to close $55 Mn, in the first phase of its bigger Series C round, at a valuation of $1.8 - $ 2 Billion. Tiger Global and Insight Partners will be leading this round. Lenskart raises $25 Mn: Multi-channel eyewear brand Lenskart is looking to raise $25 Million in its bigger Series 'I' round, at a valuation of $4.32 Billion. They will use these funds for expansions are looking to open 400 more outlets by FY23.

This week in Indian startup news, Unacademy lays off 1,000 employees in 2 months, Ola's founder Bhavish Aggarwal steps away from day-to-day operations, After Zomato, Ola now enters 10-minute food delivery, Meesho lays off 150 employees, Rebel Foods acquires majority stake in Smoor. In funding news, Lenskart raises $100 million, Medikabazaar raises $65 million, PhableCare raises $25 million, Newton School raises $25 million. Unacademy fires over 1,000 employees: Indian edtech startup Unacademy has reportedly laid-off around 600 of their employees, less than a month after they fired 300 employees in march, this includes both on-roll and contractual staff. This is mainly to cut costs as they plan on turning profitable by the end of this calendar year (2022). Bhavish Aggarwal steps away from day-to-day operations: Ola's co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has decided to hand the reins of day to day operations to Ola group's CFO G R Arun Kumar - who has been with Ola as the group's CFO since last May. This decision could have been taken as Ola is gearing up for an IPO and would preferably want to have someone like G R Arun Kumar who is a veteran and has worked for over 16 years at Vedanta Resources and General Electric in building strong businesses to bring in control and discipline in terms of their financials while Bhavish can continue to build and innovate at Ola Electric. After Zomato, Ola enters 10-minute food delivery: Ola has confirmed that they have been piloting 10-minute food delivery for a while now. Ola will be using Mukunda Foods - that makes robotic equipments which can reduce the food preparation time by 20-50%. The kind of food items that will be on the menu for include items like khichdi, pizza and rolls. Meesho lays off 150 employees: Social commerce unicorn Meesho has also laid-off 150 employees as it restructures and rebrands their grocery business Farmiso to Meesho Superstore. According to company spokesperson, this move is aimed at bringing in efficiencies and the company will help those impacted secure new opportunities outside the company. Rebel Foods acquires majority stake in Smoor: Cloud kitchen startup Rebel Foods has acquired a majority stake in luxury chocolate brand Smoor - in a bid to build their portfolio of brands. Smoor has grown at a rate of over 40% CAGR over the last five years and this partnership with Rebel Food will help them grow their brand and expanding their omnichannel distribution strategy through their offline kiosks, cafes and lounges in tier 1 cities and also leveraging their own digital platform and Rebel Foods' digital platform to grow their online sales. Lenskart raises $100 million: Eyewear brand Lenskart has raised $100 million in a round led by Alpha Wave Incubation taking their valuation to $4.3 billion. The startup is planning to invest a portion of their funding into their own Thrasio-style business by acquiring and scaling brands in the eyewear segment. Medikabazaar raises $65 million: B2B healthcare marketplace Medikabazaar has raised $65 million in a round led by Lighthouse India Fund, which takes their valuation to $700 million. They will use funds to strengthen their technology platform, deepen their supply ecosystem, expand distribution network and expand global operations. PhableCare raises $25 million: Healthtech startup PhableCare has raised $25 million in a round led by Kalaari Capital to invest in strategic acquisitions, accelerate market expansion, strengthen technology, build their brand and add new revenue streams. Newton School raises $25 million: Edtech startup Newton School has raised $25 million in a round led by Steadview Capital. Newton School offers multiple programs for students and working professionals to develop their skills.

India's brewers are anticipating a cool summer. Beer demand is expected to exceed that of 2019 this summer, according to estimates. And thanks to social media influencers, Africa's alcohol business is also rebounding. For the second story, Farheen focuses on Lenskart's most recent funding round. The company is set to raise between $200 and $250 million. Tune in to learn more about this!

83 % of young adults in Singapore have myopia.There are dozens of brands competing to cater to this wide audience.More the suppliers, the higher the competition.Here is a story of how Zoff Singapore won against so many #eyewear brands like OWNDAYS Singapore, Lenskart, etc.Listen to the podcast to discover the magic of #contentmarketing!P.S. It's NOT a paid partnership!

Anjali Bansal is the Founder of Avaana Capital which invests in and provides scaling up support to innovation-led startups for catalyzing impact at scale while delivering commercial returns.Anjali has invested in and mentored various successful start-ups including Delhivery, UrbanClap, Darwinbox, Nykaa, and Lenskart. She is closely associated with NITI Aayog's Women Entrepreneurship Platform, digital solutions, and mentor to the Atal Innovation Mission.Anjali is former Non-Executive Chairperson of Dena Bank, appointed by the Government of India to steer the resolution of the stressed Bank, eventually leading to merger with Bank of Baroda. She was earlier a global Partner and Managing Director with TPG Growth PE responsible for India, SE Asia, Africa and the Middle East. She started her career as a strategy consultant with McKinsey and Co. in New York.She serves as an independent non-executive director on several leading boards including Tata Power, Bata, Kotak AMC, and Piramal Enterprises. She has previously chaired the India board of Women's World Banking, a leading global livelihood-promoting institution and on the Managing Committee of the Indian Venture Capital Association.She has been elected as President designate, Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and serves on the CII National Committee on Corporate Governance. Anjali previously co-founded and chaired the FICCI Center for Corporate Governance program for Women on Corporate Boards. She is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization and charter member of TiE.In this episode, we will cover:1. Looking back at India's most recent boom cycle i.e. 2020-present (2:50)2. Skeptical about this period or a believer of the potential? (7:50)3. Evolution of Anjali's career (11:55)4. The role of empathy and insecurity in professional life (16:56)5. What is Anjali's purpose behind investing (23:21)6. Why venture and how do you measure the impact of your own in venture beyond capital returns (28:57)7. The India opportunity (37:54)8. How does Avaana think about the evolving venture landscape and where to place their bets (42:25)9. Anjali's journey as an LP (47:01)10. Advice for fund managers (53:18)11. Advice for founders (56:18)

Last to last week on IVM Likes, Antariksh recommended the show Shark Tank India, and we don't know about you, but we took that recommendation and completely fell into the trap. A REALLY REALLY GOOD TRAP. This week Antariksh and Zalak discuss Shark Tank India with fellow IVM staffers Pragati and Jalasmi. P.S. - If you start watching the show after this episode, you owe us a beer. Mead is also accepted here. Or healthy snacks/ice-cream. Or canned cocktails. And you can't say you can't connect with us and that you're out. Okay. We're done. Bye. See you next week 300

Lenskart, a leading omni-channel eyewear retailer with a strong presence in Singapore, recently unveiled its plans to expand its network of physical stores across Southeast Asia by next year. Anantha Nayak, Chief Business Officer, South East Asia, Lenskart shares more about their expansion plans in the eyewear industry and how technology has helped the company grow in the region. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“The entrepreneur needs to be the biggest salesman of purpose of the organization”. -Peyush Bansal, Founder & CEO of Lenskart.We spoke to Peyush to get his thoughts on leadership, building a culture of performance and persistence in a fast scaling organization, and his advice to budding entrepreneurs.The Pay It Forward series by Kalaari Capital, focuses on conversations with founders and CEOs who have built businesses that have transformed the landscape of the Indian start-up ecosystem. For more updates on our sessions, follow Kalaari on Clubhouse: bit.ly/KalaariClub If you have any suggestions, please reach out to us at podcast@kalaari.com. We would love to hear from you.For more podcasts, visit our website- https://www.kalaari.com/resources

A candid chat with Mr Sudhir Syal, Chief Business Officer, Lenskart Middle East sharing his thoughts on future of retail with the audience of simplifying retail podcast. To learn more about the future of retail trends in 2022, read my article here as well https://www.retailritesh.com/2021/12/retail-trends/

With so many Indian startups achieving unicorn status in 2021, the situation begs an answer to the question:  # Is this growth sustainable or are we in a bubble?# What does this mean for foreign and Indian investors? #What does this mean for the next decade of VC and Startups? To understand this better, in today's episode, we've brought Anjali Bansal, founder of Avaana Capital, that invests in innovation-led start-ups creating sustainability and impact at scale while delivering outsized returns. Previously, Anjali has been Global Partner and MD with TPG Growth PE and a strategy consultant with McKinsey and Co. in New York. She's also the former non-executive Chairperson of Dena Bank, where she successfully led the resolution of the stressed bank.She has invested in and regularly mentors various successful start-ups including Delhivery, Nykaa, Alpha Vector, Lenskart, Urban Company, Darwinbox, Coverfox and FarMart.She is closely associated with NITI Aayog's Women Entrepreneurship Platform and Digital Solutions and is on the Expert Advisory Committee for the Start Up India Seed Fund Scheme. She has been appointed as President, Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and serves as an independent director on several leading boards including Tata Power, Kotak AMC, and Piramal Enterprises.During the episode, Anjali talks about the volatility in the Indian startup ecosystem, the opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors; she also shares learnings from her portfolio and much more.Notes - 00:40 - Intro and background02:55 - Working at ISRO and early career04:59 - Ideology behind Avaana Capital08:22 - Is the Indian startup ecosystem in a bubble?17:21 - Common patterns and learnings from the winners20:50 - Mistake: Investing in the idea and not the team22:44 - Ability to move quickly as a fund34:49 - Learnings from early-career at Mckinsey36:29 - Potential in Indian startups41:01 - What all she prefers to read on a daily basis

In today's video, we take a look at the top 10 Indian D2C startup brands. #10 Vahdam India: Founded by Bala Sarda in 2015, Vahdam India is a premium tea brand coming out of India – offering more than 100 signature tea blends. They started selling their tea in the US and Europe – that's where the majority of their revenues come from. In FY20, Vahdam India sold teas worth $10 million to 2 million customers across 100 countries. #9 Bewakoof: Founded by Prabhkiran Singh and Siddharth Munot in 2012, Bewakoof is a D2C fashion brand that sells T-Shirts and other fashion accessories like pants, backpacks and mobile covers with quirky messages and designs through their online platform. To date, they have sold their products to more than 6 million customers. #8 Mamaearth: Founded by Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh in 2016, Mamaearth is a D2C babycare brand that sells toxin-free babycare products. Today, they have expanded their toxin-free product portfolio to enter the adult personal care market as well. In FY21, Mamaearth's revenue grew 5X to reach ₹500 crore. #7 Licious: Founded by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta in 2015, Licious is a D2C fresh meat brand that controls their entire supply chain to deliver fresh meat to their customers. From just 1,300 orders in their first month, Licious has now scaled to 1 million orders every month. In FY20, they raked in ₹180 crore and their revenue for FY21 has already crossed ₹600 crore in the first six months. #6 Wakefit: Founded by Ankit Garg and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Wakefit is a D2C mattress brand that made its name by selling premium mattresses at affordable prices. Despite the pandemic, their revenues have grown 2X from ₹199 crore in FY20 to ₹410 crore in FY21 – while also staying profitable. #5 HealthKart: Founded by Sameer Maheshwari and Prashant Tandon in 2011, HealthKart is online health and fitness supplements brand that sells health and nutrition supplement products under their own brands like MuscleBlaze, TrueBasics, Incredio, HealthViva and Nouriza. In FY20, HealthKart earned ₹353.2 crore in revenue and they also have adopted an omnichannel approach by opening up 93 physical stores across 37 cities. #4 Rebel Foods: Founded Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee in 2011, Rebel Foods started as a small restaurant business named Faasos. The duo turned their restaurant business into cloud kitchen business after realising more than 75% of their orders were coming online. Today, they have 10 brands under the Rebel Foods brands with more than 320 cloud kitchens across the country. #3 Boat Lifestyle: Founded by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta in 2016, Boat is a D2C consumer electronic brand that sells everything from charging cables to Bluetooth speakers to earphones to home studios. Today, Boat sells more than 15,000 units every day. In FY20, Boat raked in ₹701 crore in revenue – making a profit of ₹49 crore. #2 Lenskart: Founded by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi in 2010, Lenskart is a D2C eyewear brand that sells more than 8 million eyewear to their customers through their online platform and more than 750 physical stores across the country. #1 Nykaa: Founded by Falguni Nayyar in 2012, IPO-bound omnichannel beauty and cosmetics retailer Nykaa sells their own private label brands like Nykaa Naturals, Nykaa Cosmetics, Kay Beauty, Nykd by Nykaa, 20 Dresses and Pipa Bella through their online platform. Nykaa is one of those rare profitable unicorns – which managed to generate a revenue of ₹2,441 crore while pocketing ₹62 crore in profits.

Lenskart is a household name in India, but they almost never even started to sell to Indian consumers. In this episode we cover the journey of one of the truly iconic and visionary (pun intended) brands to come out of India. Amit shares with us many of key moments on Lenskart's product, growth and how they created one of the most differentiated experiences for consumers - doing D2C even before it became a popular trend.

In today's video, we take a look at the top 10 Indian startups that went international. #10 FreshToHome: Founded by Mathew Joseph and Shan Kadavil in 2015, FreshToHome is an online platform that delivers fresh meat. They are now delivering more than 1.5 million orders every month across 28 Indian cities. In 2019, they even expanded internationally to UAE and now plan to make their way to Saudi Arabia as well. #9 Cult.Fit: Founded by Ankit Nagori and Mukesh Bansal in 2016, Cult.Fit had managed to open more than 200 fitness centers across India by 2019. In 2020, after the pandemic swept the world, Cult.Fit was forced to shut down some of their centers but that gave them the opportunity to go international by offering online classes to their users in the US. #8 Moglix: Founded by Rahul Garg in 2015, Moglix is a B2B e-commerce platform that enables businesses to buy equipment and supplies like industrial power tools, chemicals and metals. Apart from operating in India, they also export their products to over 54 countries. #7 Cars24: Founded by Gajendra Jangid, and Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal and Vikram Chopra in 2015, Cars24 is a used car marketplace that lets you sell your car through their online auction platform to one of their 10,000 channel partners. Today, they are selling more than 15,000 cars every month. In 2021, they expanded their reach to countries like Australia and the UAE. #6 Urban Company: Founded by Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Raghav Chandra and Varun Khaitan in 2014, Urban Company is essentially the Uber or Ola for home service professionals. Today, Urban Company has more than 35,000 professionals offering services to 5 million customers across 35 cities in India. They started their international expansion in 2018 to reach UAE, Abu Dhabi, Australia, Singapore. #5 Lenskart: Founded by Amit Chaudhary, Peyush Bansal and Sumeet Kapahi in 2010, Lenskart is an omnichannel eyewear retailer that has expanded their offline presence to more than 750 stores across India. They first went international by opening their first store in Singapore in 2019 and today they have more than 25 stores in the country and are among the top three players. #4 Ola Cabs: Founded by Ankit Bhati and Bhavish Aggarwal in 2010, Ola Cabs is one of India's leading cab aggregators with more than 1.5 million driver-partners completing over 1 billion rides every year. The startup went global in 2018 by launching in Australia and New Zealand and the UK in 2019. #3 Oyo: Founded by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013, Oyo became the world's fastest-growing hotel chain after it managed to get over 43,000 hotels under its brand across 80 countries in just six years. The hospitality startup had to shut down operations in multiple countries and had to fire hundreds of employees during the pandemic to make their business sustainable. #2 Paytm: Founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010, Paytm is gearing up for India's largest-ever IPO. While Paytm is a well-known digital payments startup in India, they also have operations across countries like Canada, Japan and Bangladesh. They have raised $4.4 billion from the likes of SoftBank, Alibaba and SAIF Partners for their international ambitions. #1 Byju's: Founded by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath in 2011, Byju's is the world's most valuable edtech startup. The edtech giant has been acquiring startups at an astronomical pace and not all of that acquisition was restricted to India. They acquired Osmo, Epic and WhiteHat Jr to build Byju's Future School to launch in countries like the US, Australia, the UK, Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico.

This week in Indian startup news, Ola's electric scooter becomes the most pre-booked scooter in the world, PolicyBazaar IPO, New drone rules 2021, Blackstone acquires Simplilearn for $250 million, Byju's acquires Epic for $500 million and Youtube acquires video commerce startup SimSim. In funding news, Swiggy raises $1.25 billion, Lenskart raises $220 million, GlobalBees raises $150 million, Spinny raises $108 million, Delhivery raises $100 million, Healthify raises $75 million and BlackBuck raises $67 million to become a unicorn. Ola's electric scooter becomes the most pre-booked scooter in the world: Ola is close to launching its electric scooter and they have drummed up a lot of interest to make the launch as successful as possible. Ola has already started taking pre-booking orders from its customers and these orders touched 100,000 within the first 24 hours – making their electric scooter the most pre-booked scooter in the world. Ola's electric scooter is expected to be called Ola Series S and could have two variants named Ola S1 and Ola S1 Pro – their price is expected to fall between Rs 80,000-Rs 1,00,00. PolicyBazaar IPO: PolicyBazaar's board has already approved the IPO and the startup is expected to go public any time before the end of this year. They are planning to raise $873 million through the IPO at a valuation of up to $5 billion. New drone rules 2021: The government has announced new draft drone rules 2021, three months after they announced the draft ‘Unmanned Aircraft System Rules 2021'. Under the new rules, the government has made it considerably easier for people to own and operate drones by bringing down the number of forms required from 25 to just 6, removing the need for approvals like unique authorisation number, unique prototype identification number, certificate of conformance, certificate of maintenance, import clearance, and operator permit. Blackstone acquires Simplilearn for $250 million: Blackstone has acquired online certification platform Simplilearn for $250 million – making it the second big Indian startup acquisition this year after PlaySimple Games. Byju's acquires Epic for $500 million: Byju's has acquired a digital reading platform for kids Epic in a deal worth $500 million as they eye aggressive US expansion. Youtube acquires video commerce startup SimSim: YouTube has acquired SimSim as it plans to leverage the power of growing vernacular users to drive e-commerce through their platform. Swiggy raises $1.25 billion: Online food delivery unicorn Swiggy raises $1.25 million from Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Prosus Ventures. Lenskart raises $220 million: Omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart has raised $220 million from Temasek and Falcon Edge Capital to expand into Southeast Asia and the Middle East. GlobalBees raises $150 million: Thrasio-style GlobalBees has raised $150 million led by FirstCry to buy DTC brands with an annual revenue runrate between $1-$20 million. Spinny raises $108 million: Online used car retailer Spinny has raised $108 million from Tiger Global Management to expand its presence from 8 to 20 cities by the end of this year. Delhivery raises $100 million: E-commerce logistics unicorn has raised $100 million from FedEx Express ahead of its IPO plans. Healthify raises $75 million: Health and fitness startup HealthifyMe has raised $75 million from LeapFrog and Khosla Ventures to expand across the Southeast Asian market. BlackBuck raises $67 million to become a unicorn: Online trucking platform BlackBuck has raised $67 million from Tribe Capital, IFC Emerging Asia Fund and VEF to become India's latest unicorn.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here and myself here.It was a big damn morning, so we had to cut some stuff. Here's what we got into:Stocks and cryptos are off this morning, as inflation and COVID-19 concerns rise.Zoom is buying Five9. The deal is not super expensive, nor is it cheap. But given the huge percentage of Zoom's market cap that it represents, it's a serious wager from the video conferencing startup.Carlyle is buying LiveU for around $400 million. TechCrunch broke this news. The deal shows that private equity interest in startups that aren't unicorns.Robinhood dropped a new SEC filing this morning! That means we have a price range and valuation target to play with. More from TechCrunch on the matter shortly.From India: A huge round for Lenskart, and a big Series A for GlobalBees.And we covered this round from Nigeria. A smaller transaction, but one that could prove to be quite neat, we reckon.Ok! Chat Wednesday! 

Lenskart has raised $220 million in an investment led by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek and Falcon Edge Capital, taking its total to $315 million. Peyush Bansal-led Lenskart is now valued at $2.5 billion and will use most of the fresh funds to expand into Southeast Asia and West Asia. In the tech conversation today, Sumit Sarawgi, MD and senior partner at BCG, talks about efforts worldwide to promote 'responsible AI'

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here and myself here.It was a big damn morning, so we had to cut some stuff. Here's what we got into:Stocks and cryptos are off this morning, as inflation and COVID-19 concerns rise.Zoom is buying Five9. The deal is not super expensive, nor is it cheap. But given the huge percentage of Zoom's market cap that it represents, it's a serious wager from the video conferencing startup.Carlyle is buying LiveU for around $400 million. TechCrunch broke this news. The deal shows that private equity interest in startups that aren't unicorns.Robinhood dropped a new SEC filing this morning! That means we have a price range and valuation target to play with. More from TechCrunch on the matter shortly.From India: A huge round for Lenskart, and a big Series A for GlobalBees.And we covered this round from Nigeria. A smaller transaction, but one that could prove to be quite neat, we reckon.Ok! Chat Wednesday! 

Mohammad Mutaher Zerger. A corporate who's who and renown business Consultant in India, having worked with world's top companies, at Elite positions, like McDonald's, Microsoft, Mumbai Airport, Zomato, LensKart, Yateem Group of GCC to name a few. | Presented By: BQE Software |

This week in Indian Startup News, Online pharmacy startup PharmEasy acquires 25-year-old Thyrocare, Update on Ola's electric scooter and Futurefactory, PolicyBazaar IPO and expansion into offline insurance space, Shuttl to shut down, and Lenskart's expansion and their new startup fund. In funding news, PharmEasy raises $300 million, Acko in talks to raise $200 million, Fourth Partner Energy raises $125 million, Grofers raises $120 million and Classplus raises $65 million. Online pharmacy startup PharmEasy acquires 25-year-old Thyrocare: India's only pharmacy unicorn PharmEasy's parent company API Holdings has signed a deal to acquire 66.1% stake in a 25-year-old diagnostics company Thyrocare for a whopping $613 million. This deal is huge for the Indian startup ecosystem, considering this is the first time ever that an Indian unicorn startup has acquired a publicly listed company. Update on Ola's electric scooter and Futurefactory: Ola's electric scooter manufacturing facility called Futurefactory is nearing the completion of its first phase – which means they will be able to start rolling out 2 million of Ola's electric scooters soon every year soon. While not much is known about Ola's electric scooters yet, they are expected to offer a range of 150 km. PolicyBazaar IPO and expansion into offline insurance space: PolicyBazaar's parent company Etech Aces Marketing and Consulting is planning to file for IPO as soon as this month and the company could go public by the end of this year. They are expected to raise $400-500 million at a $4-5 billion valuation. The insurtech startup has also forayed into offline insurance space by setting up 15 stores and they plan on increasing the number to 100 in the coming months. This move is critical for their business because despite being the leader in India's online insurance space, more than 90% of the insurances are still sold offline. Shuttl to shut down? App-based on-demand bus service for daily office commuters Shuttl was doing over 100,000 rides every day before the pandemic. However, with the offices shut down and employees largely working from homes, their business has been at a standstill for the last year. Shuttl has already let go of most of their employees and they are now planning to sell whatever is left of the company to a larger player. Lenskart's expansion and their new startup fund: Omnichannel eyewear unicorn Lenskart which already has more than 750 stores is now planning to add 300 more stores to strengthen their offline presence. The startup has also set up a ‘Vision Fund' – which will be used to invest in smaller startups in the eyewear tech space. PharmEasy raises $300 million: Online pharmacy unicorn startup PharmEasy has raised $300 million from their existing investors to help them fund the acquisition of Thyrocare. Acko in talks to raise $200 million: Online insurance startup Acko is in talks with the likes of General Atlantic, Warburg Pincus, Multiples Alternate Asset Management and TPG to raise $200 million. If the deal comes through, Acko will end up being a unicorn. Fourth Partner Energy raises $125 million: Solar energy startup Fourth Partner Energy has raised $125 million in fresh capital from Norway's state-owned Norfund and TPG. Grofers raises $120 million: Grofers has raised $120 million from food delivery giant Zomato and Tiger Global Management. Zomato is seeking CCI's permission to acquire a 9.3% stake in the startup. Classplus raises $65 million: Edtech startup Classplus has raised $65 million from Tiger Global Management to help offline tutors set up their online business.

#10 Wakefit: Founded by Chaitanya Ramalingegowda and Ankit Garg in 2015, Wakefit started selling mattresses online and were already making a profit within six months of operations. Today, this D2C mattress startup is selling 1,500 mattresses to their 500,000 customers every day – raking in a revenue of $26.5 million and making a profit of $1.3 million in FY20. #9 Lenskart: Founded by Peyush Bansal in 2010, Lenskart offers an omnichannel platform for selling eyewear and lenses through their online platform and offline stores. The company has been investing heavily in setting up new physical stores – taking the number of offline stores to over 750. This is why the startup took a decade to reach profitability. In FY20, Lenskart made a revenue of $130 million with a profit of $2.4 million. #8 Cashfree: Cashfree is a digital payments gateway platform that offers more than 100 payment methods to over 50,000 businesses around the world with a team of just 130 employees. Their ability to stay lean has not only enabled them to scale but also remain profitable from the get-go. Their profit increased 14X from just $190,000 in FY18 to $2.6 million in FY20. #7 BrowserStack: India's most valuable SaaS startup BrowserStack enables developers to test their apps remotely using their cross-browser testing platform that has more than 2,000 devices and is being used by over 50,000 businesses across the world. The company has been profitable since day one. In FY20, BrowserStack raked in a profit of $3.8 million. #6 Aye Finance: SME lending startup Aye Finance has been profitable for the last three consecutive years and has disbursed loans worth more than $538 million to more than 200,000 small businesses. Aye Finance's profits have increased to $5.3 million in FY20. #5 Lendingkart: Founded in 2014, Lendingkart has disbursed loans worth $741 million to more than 100,000 small businesses. This fintech startup first achieved profitability in FY19 and their profits stand at $5.6 million in FY20. #4 OfBusiness: B2B e-commerce and lending startup OfBusiness uses purchase financing – providing businesses with a loan that they can use to purchase raw materials from their e-commerce platform. Once their profits from the interest started coming in, OfBusiness started making money and they are now on their way to becoming a unicorn. Their profits jumped 73X from just $150,000 in FY18 to a healthy $80 million in FY20. #3 CarTrade: Founded in 2009, CarTrade is the only profitable online used car marketplace. This decade-old startup has already filed for an IPO and is expected to hit the stock markets soon. The company significantly decreased its losses from $20 million in FY16 to just $2 million in FY17. They first turned profitable in FY18 and they did this through internal restructuring, key acquisitions and cost-cutting measures. Today (FY20), they are making a healthy profit of $11.5 million. #2 Boat Lifestyle: Indian consumer technology startup Boat started in 2016 by selling charging cables and were able to hit profitability within the first year. Next, they launched more products like earphones, headphones and smartwatches with quality and affordability in mind to target value-minded Indian consumers. This strategy only accelerated their growth. Boat's profit's increased by 30X from just $225,000 to $6.6 million in FY20. #1 Zerodha: India's largest stockbroking platform Zerodha has managed to change the entire stock trading industry single-handedly and they did it without even raising any external funding or marketing their product. Today, Zerodha charges just Rs 20 (or 0.03% as commission – whichever is lower) from their customer for every intraday trade. Thanks to that, Zerodha earned a solid $135 million in profits in FY21.

This week in Indian Startup News, Lenskart to establish the world's largest automated eyewear manufacturing facility, PhonePe vs BharatPe – a fight for ‘Pe', Zomato's fleet to become 100% electric by 2030, Koo goes to Nigeria after Twitter gets banned, Paytm IPO confirmed, Tata Digital acquires 1mg, BoAt in talks to acquire Tagg Digital, Masai School acquires Design Shift Academy and BharatPe acquires Payback India. In funding news, Flipkart is in talks to raise $3 billion, Swiggy to raise up to $500 million from Softbank, CarDekho in talks to raise $150 million, Whatfix raises $90 million, Zenoti raises $80 million and Refyne raises $16 million. Lenskart to establish the world's largest automated eyewear manufacturing facility: Lenskart has announced that it is building India's first and the world's largest automated eyewear manufacturing facility that will be able to serve 100 million eye sights every year. PhonePe vs BharatPe – a fight for ‘Pe': Back in 2019, PhonePe had filed a lawsuit against BharatPe for infringing on their copyright ‘Pe' and using their goodwill to gain customers. They had also filed for an injunction plea to stop BharatPe from using their trademarked ‘Pe'. While their injunction plea was quashed by the Delhi High Court, PhonePe is now preparing to go to trial. Zomato's fleet to become 100% electric by 2030: IPO-bound food delivery startup Zomato has announced that it has joined a climate initiative called EV100. They are now committed to transition their entire fleet to electric by 2030. Koo goes to Nigeria after Twitter gets banned: After Twitter was banned in Nigeria for deleting their president's tweet, Koo decided to launch in the country. The Indian microblogging platform is now working to add local languages to open the platform to local language users in Nigeria. Paytm IPO confirmed: India's most valuable startup Paytm is all set for its IPO after it was approved by the board. Paytm will be raising $3 billion in the IPO – making it the country's biggest IPO ever. Tata Digital acquires 1mg: Tata Digital has confirmed the acquisition of online pharmacy startup 1mg – as they look to strengthen their digital ecosystem. BoAt in talks to acquire Tagg Digital: Consumer electronics startup BoAt is reportedly in talks to acquire Tagg Digital to strengthen their position in the wearables segment. Masai School acquires Design Shift Academy: Edtech startup Masai School, which offers online courses on web and android development, has acquired Design Shift Academy – which offers courses on UI/UX design. BharatPe acquires Payback India: Digital payments and lending startup BharatPe has acquired Payback India (which offers a multi-brand loyalty program for its merchant partners) Flipkart in talks to raise $3 billion: Walmart-owned ecommerce giant Flipkart is in talks with a host of invests including SodftBank to raise $3 billion at a massive $40 billion valuation. Swiggy to raise up to $500 million from Softbank: SoftBank is seeking the CCI approval to invest up to $500 million in online food delivery unicorn Swiggy – to help build their war chest ahead of Zomato's IPO. CarDekho in talks to raise $150 million: CarDekho, an online marketplace for used cars, is in talks to raise up to $150 million at a billion-dollar valuation. Whatfix raises $90 million: Whatfix has raised $90 million from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a $600 million valuation to make it easier for companies to onboard new users and employees. Zenoti raises $80 million: Zenoti, a SaaS platform for managing spas and salons, has raised $80 million from TPG. Tata Digital to invest up to $75 million in CureFit: Tata Digital has signed an agreement to invest up to $75 million in health and fitness startup CureFit. India's first earned salary access platform Refyne has raised $16 million from DST Global and RTP Global.

This week in Indian Startup News, Ola launches EV category in London, Simple Energy to launch their Ather 450X killer - Mark 2, PUBG starts pre-registrations, Made in India cryptocurrency Polygon makes it among the global top 20, Emeritus acquires iD Tech and PhonePe looking to acquire Indus OS. In funding news, Pine Labs raises $285 million, Moglix raises $120 million, Lenskart raises $95 million, GOAT Brand Labs in talks to raise $20 million, Agnikul Cosmos raises $11 million and another space tech startup Skyroot Aerospace raises $11 million. Ola launches EV category in London: Ola has launched the EV category for their customers in London – allowing them to book electric vehicles exclusively. The company claims to have onboarded 700 drivers already and they are hoping to get more drivers soon as they are not going to charge any commission from their drivers for the first three months. Simple Energy to launch their Ather 450X killer - Mark 2: Simple Energy is launching its electric scooter Mark 2 on 15th August (Independence Day). With a range of 240 km and a top speed of 100 km/hr, Mark 2 is priced at Rs 1.1 lakh – making it a perfect competitor to Ather 450X. PUBG starts pre-registrations: After months of wait and trying to launch PUBG India, the game is finally back as Battlegrounds Mobile India. While the official launch date is yet to be announced, the game has started pre-registrations. Made in India cryptocurrency Polygon makes it among the global top 20: Polygon (formerly known as Matic Network) has a market capitalization of $13 billion – making it the 15th largest cryptocurrency in the world. Its market cap has grown 10X since February. Emeritus acquires iD Tech: Edtech startup Emeritus has acquired iD Tech for $200 million as it looks to enter K12 learning and eyes the US market – pitting them against Byju's Future School. PhonePe looking to acquire Indus OS: PhonePe is in advanced talks to acquire Indus OS for $60 million as it looks to strengthen its mini-app store ‘Switch' and eyes its own super app. Pine Labs raises $285 million: Digital commerce and payments platform Pine Labs has raised $285 million from the likes of Marshall Wace, Baron Capital Group, Duro Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures & Ward Ferry Management at a valuation of $3 billion. Moglix raises $120 million: B2B ecommerce startup Moglix has raised $120 million led by Falcon Edge Capital and Harvard Management Company – making it India's 12th unicorn this year. Lenskart raises $95 million: Omnichannel eyewear brand Lenskart has raised $95 million from KKR as it plans to expand abroad and strengthen its VR technology. GOAT Brand Labs in talks to raise $20 million: GOAT Brand Labs is expected to raise $20 million from Tiger Global, Mayfield Fund and Flipkart's venture fund. Agnikul Cosmos raises $11 million: Space tech startup Agnikul Cosmos has raised $11 million led by Mayfield India as it gears up to become India's first private company to launch satellites in space next year. Skyroot Aerospace raises $11 million: Space tech startup Skyroot Aerospace has raised $11 million led by Greenko Group founders Anil Kumar Chalamalasetty and Mahesh Kolli for the development of their Vikram rocket.

This week in Indian Startup News, Ola to set up the world's largest two-wheeler EV charging network, Tvasta builds India's first 3D printed house, Zomato files for IPO, Indian startups fight against COVID19, CCI approves BigBasket-Tata deal, Lenskart acquihires DailyJoy and Instamojo acquihires Showman. In funding news, OneWeb raises $550 million, Urban Company raises $190 million, upGrad raises $120 million, Stanza Living raises over $100 million, ElasticRun raises $75 million, Bizongo raises $51 million and LEAD School raises $30 million. Ola to set up world's largest two-wheeler EV charging network: Ola is setting up the world's largest two-wheeler EV charging network – Hypercharger Network. Their Hypercharger Network will consist of 100,000 charging points across 400 cities – expected to be completed in the next five years at an estimated cost of $2 billion. You will only be able to charge Ola's electric scooters at their hypercharger network and they will be able to charge the electric scooters up to 50% in just 18minutes – giving a range of 75 km. Tvasta builds India's first 3D printed house: Tvasta, a startup by three IIT Madras alumni, has built India's first 3D printed house. This is a 1 BHK house with a built-up area of 600 square feet. It demonstrates the ability of 3D printing in bringing down the time of building houses from 4-5 months to just 5 days but also reducing the cost by 20-30%. Zomato files for IPO: Indian food delivery startup Zomato has filed for the IPO – on track to becoming the first Indian unicorn to go for IPO. Through the IPO, Zomato will be raising $1.1 billion - $1 billion in fresh offering and $100 million coming from Info Edge selling their shares. Indian startups fight against COVID19: A bunch of Indian startups are working to fight the second wave of COVID19 – Delhivery is flying chargers to bring Oxygen concentrators into India, dating app TrulyMadly is using their matchmaking algorithm to match plasma donors with patients, NoBroker is organizing doorstep vaccination drives and MapmyIndia is installing free GPS devices in vehicles that are suppling essential medical equipment. CCI approves BigBasket-Tata deal: CCI has approved the acquisition of BigBasket by Tata Digital – as Tata looks to build their own Super App. Lenskart acquihires DailyJoy: Lenskart has acquihired Hyderabad-based grocery delivery startup DailyJoy to strengthen their Hyderabad tech centre. Instamojo acquihires Showman: Instamojo has acquihired vernacular content startup Showman to strengthen its tech and product capabilities. OneWeb raises $550 million: Satellite internet company OneWeb has raised $550 million from Eutelsat Communications after launching 36 more satellites into space. The company now has 182 out of 648 satellites in space for their constellation. Urban Company raises $190 million: On-demand home services provider Urban Company has raised $190 million at a $2 billion valuation – making it India's 11th unicorn this year. upGrad raises $120 million: Edtech startup upGrad has raised $120 million from Singapore's Temasek in their first external funding round. Stanza Living raises over $100 million: Student housing startup Stanza Living has raised more than $100 million in a round led by Falcon Edge. ElasticRun raises $75 million: ElstaicRun has raised $75 million in a round led by Avataar Ventures and Prosus Ventures to help neighbourhood stores in securing working capital and inventory. Bizongo raises $51 million: B2B platform for packaging products Bizongo has raised $51 million in their Series C round to expand into the Southeast Asian markets. LEAD School raises $30 million: Edtech startup LEAD School has raised $30 million in a round led by GSV Ventures and WestBridge Capital.

Sahil (@sahil071) & Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out with the folks from Dine With Data, Vedika & Armaan, to discuss some great new ideas that we wouldn't have thought up on our own.Dine with Data is an amazing daily WhatsApp newsletter that introduces you to a new startup everyday so that you're always aware of the latest business trends. Join Dine with Data WhatsApp newsletter here.While you're at it, join The Indian Dream WhatsApp newsletter as well!(00:00) - Introduction(00:33) - Swiggy + Tinder(08:07) - Personal Stylists(20:19) - "Vibe Curation" - Service business to make your cafe more instagrammable(27:15) - Micro Private Equity(37:45) - Memes as a ServiceThe Business Ideas we discussedSwiggy + Tinder  - Ordering on food delivery apps these days is a chore - the Paradox of Choice makes it so difficult to choose a restaurant or an item, especially when you're in a group setting. The idea is to make Tinder like tiles where people can just swipe right or left on pictures of food that they find attractive or unattractive. If you're not able to get API access from Swiggy or Zomato - you can create a UI layer getting data from other sources and then linking the backend to Dunzo. Tinder + Swiggy - Swiggy has so much data on our eating habits - why not make a dating service which uses this data on eating habits to make predictions on possible matches?AI Personal Stylists - Today, only the rich and famous can afford personal stylists - why can't we democratise this service? You can build an AI powered recommendation engine which looks at your closet of clothes and makes recommendations on clothes matches that you would've otherwise never thought of. This plays into the same long tail game that Netflix uses to always keep content fresh. You could also build this as a B2B service which integrates with existing ecommerce store and makes it easier for them to recommend clothing to existing customers based on past buying trends. A Lenskart like model which scans your body would be able to show you how different clothes would fit your body and give you exact size recommendations as well. "Vibe Curation" - Whether we like it or, the Instagrammability of café's & restaurants determines their success these days. You can build a service which helps make the physical spaces and the individual dishes more instagrammable to drive the social virality of the space. It could even be a monthly subscription where the decor is changed each month. Micro Private Equity - A new movement led by companies like Thras.io & Tiny Capital where you build a portfolio of small internet business - SaaS products, Amazon FBA, DTC brands - in a particular niche and use economies of scale on marketing knowledge, etc. to help scale up your portfolio. Memes as a Service - Inspired by a listener building Marque Berry (the website is incomplete). He has built a Meme Influencer marketing business where he'll help you make your product 'viral' on various instgram meme pages. A great marketing tool for D2C brands & anyone who's looking to reach Gen Z audiences. Send me a mail if you want to talk to him.

Peyush Bansal, Founder and CEO of Lenskart talks about his learnings and experiences from building one of India's top optical solution business.

Karan Mohla is Executive Director and Head of Consumer Media & Technology sector at Chiratae Ventures where he heads the sector focus and strategy on Consumer Media & Technology investments. He has been investing in Indian companies since 2009 and has over 15 years of experience in the technology industry across India and the US.Prior to Chiratae Ventures, Karan worked with QVT Finance LP, a US based hedge fund and was a founding member of their Asia-Pacific practice. He earlier worked in the technology banking group at Jefferies & Company (formerly Broadview International) in Silicon Valley, where he advised several technology companies in Internet, Mobile and Enterprise Software on capital raising, M&A as well as strategic partnerships.About Chiratae Ventures: Chiratae Ventures, formerly known as IDG Ventures was founded in 2006 by Sudhir Sethi and T.C. Meenakshisundaram, and has so far backed 76 companies including Flipkart, Myntra, FirstCry, XpressBees, Newgen, Lenskart, Manthan, NestAway, PolicyBazaar, and Yatra, among others. The firm rebranded itself in 2018 to signify its focus on staying agile and sharp, like a ‘Chiratae', or leopard, in the ever changing startup ecosystem.You can follow Karan on Twitter (@KaranMohla) and while you're at it you can also follow our host, Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash)…In this episode, we cover:1. Covid-19 Impact on Investments and Venture Capital2. Karan's Background and Journey in VC3. Evolution of Venture as an Asset Class in India4. Exit Scenarios for VCs in India5. Evolution of Business Models in India6. Shift from Ad-based Model to Subscription-based Model7. Rise of Digital Media Marketplaces in India8. Purchasing Trends in Consumer Markets – Media, e-Commerce, Finance9. Learnings from within Chiratae Ventures' Portfolio10. Where is the Next Big Innovation in Consumer Market going to come from?

Lenskart, an omni-channel retailer in India that sells eyewear products, said on Friday that it has raised $275 million in a new financing round from SoftBank Vision Fund as it looks to expand its business in the nation. As part of the new financing round, Series G, some of the nine-year-old startup's existing investors are selling their stake, said Peyush Bansal, founder and chief executive Lenskart.