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In this special end-of-the-year episode of, we sit down with Neha Singh, co-founder of Tracxn, to discuss the major funding trends that shaped the fintech landscape in 2024 and what lies ahead for 2025. Tracxn, one of the leading data intelligence platforms for private market research, tracks over 3.3 million entities across industries globally. With such a vast pool of data, Neha provides invaluable insights into the current state of fintech funding and the future of this rapidly evolving industry. In conversation we discussed:
Join seasoned start-up investor Neha Singh, co-founder of Tracxn, as she explores the current landscape of start-up investing. In this video, Neha discusses emerging opportunities in the start-up ecosystem, the challenges faced by early-stage companies, and how investors can spot promising ideas to partner with from the very beginning. With over a decade of experience, she provides valuable tips on navigating this rapidly evolving space. The start-up world is on the verge of a major boom, and innovation is poised to drive tremendous growth. Tune in to hear Neha's expert perspective on what the future holds for start-ups and investors alike!
This episode was first released on November 14, 2024, for The Ken's Premium subscribers. We've unlocked it for our Basic and Free subscribers for a limited time. Listen to it on your favourite podcast streaming platforms now.For the last 24 months, the default way in which startups were exposed to venture capital and its effects has been, in many ways, paused. There's a slowdown. Venture capital funding for the first nine months of this year is down 7% over a similar period last year per Tracxn.There have been news stories about layoffs, company shutdowns, and downrounds at various companies from a time when unicorns were being born every three months or so.Capital is abundant. A lot of dry it remains uninvested everywhere, but it's just not getting invested at the same rate.Building a company and scaling a company is getting cheaper because of AI and LLMs, which can generate code, which can generate images or just about anything that you want.And the biggest change—there's a focus on being profitable.If you've been a regular listener of Two by Two, you'd know that VCs have always managed to sneak into most, if not all, discussions on the podcast. Maybe not in the way they'd like to be represented in general, but they have been part of the conversation in some way, shape, or form.So when hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan sat down for this week's episode, they got two founders-turned-VCs to join in and say their piece on the role VCs play in the world of startups. And what they need to be doing right. Manav Garg is the founder of Eka Software and co-founder of the operator-led Together Fund (Manav has previously appeared as a guest on the First Principles podcast as well), while Rajiv Srivatsa is the co-founder of Urban Ladder, and now a founding partner at Antler India.Welcome to episode 17 of Two by Two.This episode of Two by Two was produced by Hari Krishna. Rajiv CN, our resident sound engineer, mixed and mastered this episode.New episodes are released every Thursday. So follow the show wherever you get your podcasts, and tell us what you think of the show.You can write to us at twobytwo@the-ken.com with your thoughts and suggestions.
For the last 24 months, the default way in which startups were exposed to venture capital and its effects has been, in many ways, paused. There's a slowdown. Venture capital funding for the first nine months of this year is down 7% over a similar period last year per Tracxn.There have been news stories about layoffs, company shutdowns, and downrounds at various companies from a time when unicorns were being born every three months or so.Capital is abundant. A lot of dry it remains uninvested everywhere, but it's just not getting invested at the same rate.Building a company and scaling a company is getting cheaper because of AI and LLMs, which can generate code, which can generate images or just about anything anything that you want.And the biggest change—there's a focus on being profitable.If you've been a regular listener of Two by Two, you'd know that VCs have always managed to sneak into most, if not all, discussions on the podcast. Maybe not in the way they'd like to be represented in general, but they have been part of the conversation in some way, shape, or form.So when hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan sat down for this week's episode, they got two founders-turned-VCs to join in and say their piece on the role VCs play in the world of startups. And what they need to be doing right. Manav Garg is the founder of Eka Software and co-founder of the operator-led Together Fund (Manav has previously appeared as a guest on the First Principles podcast as well), while Rajiv Srivatsa is the co-founder of Urban Ladder, and now a founding partner at Antler India.Welcome to episode 17 of Two by Two.This is a shorter 'highlights only' episode of an hour-and-a-half-long podcast. If you want to listen and get early access to the full episode, consider becoming a Premium subscriber to The Ken, which in addition to Two by Two, will also give you access to our long-form stories, Premiums newsletters and visual stories. Or if you just want to listen to Two by Two for now, for iOS users, we have enabled Premium subscription on Apple Podcasts.You can sign up for The Two by Two newsletter here—it's free!This episode of Two by Two was produced by Hari Krishna. Rajiv CN, our resident sound engineer, mixed and mastered this episode.New episodes are released every Thursday. So follow the show wherever you get your podcasts, and tell us what you think of the show.You can write to us at twobytwo@the-ken.com with your thoughts and suggestions.
Conheça mais sobre a NEXTFIT: https://bit.ly/nextfit-jj https://www.nextfit.com.br/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No episódio #182 do Jota Jota Podcast, teremos a participação especial de Douglas, CEO da Next Fit, uma plataforma inovadora de gestão para academias. Desde a sua fundação em 2019, Next Fit tem se destacado no mercado ao oferecer uma série de soluções tecnológicas que simplificam a administração de academias, estúdios de pilates, yoga e centros de treinamento de artes marciais. O foco é otimizar o tempo dos gestores, melhorar o atendimento e a experiência dos alunos através de um sistema que centraliza informações e automatiza processos (Craft.co) (Tracxn). Descubra como essa tecnologia pode transformar o seu negócio e elevar o nível de serviço oferecido aos seus clientes.
Indian voters have denied a majority to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP. However, as Modi is set to remain in power for a historic third term, leading the coalition NDA, three well-known VC investors unpack what this means for India's tech and startup ecosystem. Ninad Karpe, founding partner at 100X.VC, in Mumbai, Abhishek Goyal, co-founder of Tracxn and angel investor, in Bengaluru, and Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner at Speciale Invest, argue that India's economic fundamentals still make it a top destination for global investments.
Google's large investment in Flipkart comes as a pleasant surprise even to seasoned investors in India's digital economy – at a time when late-stage funding is yet to return, and the funding winter continues even as the monsoons will be a welcome relief from record heat waves across the subcontinent. Abhishek Goyal, co-founder of Tracxn, and an early investor in Flipkart, reckons the deal could be a straightforward bid to win a large account for Google's cloud business. But as the funding turns the spotlight on India's e-commerce, there are several noteworthy developments in the sector, he says.
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, April 30, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started:Indian stock markets kicked off the week on a high note, with benchmark indices surging over 1% driven by strong gains in large-cap banks including ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd, and SBI. The market rally on Monday propelled the Nifty Bank index to a record high. By the close of trading, the Nifty itself had climbed a solid 223 points, ending the day at 22,643, while the Sensex posted a gain of 1.28 per cent, reaching 74,671. The big banks weren't just showing off; they were closing the valuation gap with smaller banks, which have been priced pretty high lately. Take HDFC Bank, for example. Its price to book ratio is currently at 2.55, quite a bit lower than its five-year average of 3.45, making it look like a bargain compared to some of the smaller banks. Mint's markets correspondent Ram Sahgal reports on a stellar start to the week for Indian banks.India is gearing up to boost its thermal power capacity big time! The plan? To set up six massive thermal power generation hubs, boasting a combined capacity of 30 gigawatts. With an eye-watering estimated cost of around 2.5 trillion rupees, this is no small feat. The government's move comes as part of an effort to meet the country's soaring energy demands. These hubs are strategically planned near coal mines to slash coal transport costs, a smart move that also taps into existing resources. It's like setting up shop right next to the supplier—efficient, right? Coal India Ltd and other public sector giants are set to team up with power companies, pooling their resources and expertise to get these projects off the ground. Mint's energy correspondent Rituraj Baruah reports on the government's move to set up more coal-fired power plants even as it aspires to lean more on sustainable energy sources.Unicorns, or startups valued over a billion dollars, are finding it tough to attract investors. Nowadays, investors are leaning towards smaller startups valued under a billion dollars. This year, there's been a notable difference in investment activity. Data from Tracxn shows 318 deals in smaller companies, but only a few in the billion-dollar club. Investors are particularly wary of companies valued over 2 billion dollars. Mint's senior assistant editor Sneha Shah spoke to several analysts, including Pankaj Naik of Avendus Capital, who notes that investors are scrutinising the potential for substantial returns, especially for companies valued over $2 billion. The dilemma for companies with larger valuations is proving their ability to triple in value within 5-6 years.In the previous fiscal year, promoters of prominent Indian companies including Adani Power, Tata Consultancy Services, and Tata Motors significantly reduced their share pledges by more than 56,000 crore rupees - that is close to 6.8 billion dollars. Data from an analysis of Nifty 500 companies, which account for 91 per cent of the total market value of all listed firms on NSE, shows a 35% reduction in the aggregate value of pledged shares, reports Mint's Mayur Bhalerao. Of the Nifty 500 companies, promoters in 27 increased their pledges by more than 26,000 crore rupees, a 20 per cent rise. Notably, 383 companies had no pledged shares, and 38 saw no change in their holdings. In the ever-evolving landscape of India's startup ecosystem, Udaan, the online trade platform for businesses, secured a hefty 340 million dollars in its Series E funding round in December, despite a substantial 44 per cent cut in its valuation from a high of 3.1 billion dollars in 2021. This funding round, one of the largest in India last year, reflects a strategic pivot as Udaan grappled with shrinking revenues and fierce competition in the B2B market. Despite the challenges, including a 43 per cent drop in revenue in 2022-23 and ballooning losses, the funding underscores the potential investors see in Udaan's recalibrated business model. Founded in 2016 by ex-Flipkart executives, Udaan initially aimed to revolutionise the traditional B2B sector by connecting producers directly with retailers via an expansive digital platform. Over the years, Udaan has expanded across multiple categories, experimenting with various business models, including a foray into B2C that was later shelved. Mint's startups correspondent Samiksha Goel takes a deep dive into the inside story of Udaan's pivot before its IPO.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.Show notes:Top banks power market surge as valuations temptAmid govt's renewables push, coal-fired power plants hold their ownStartup investors are hunting outside unicorn zonePromoters trim nearly $7 billion in share pledges riding buoyant equity marketsGetting Udaan IPO-ready: The inside story of a pivot
While there are alarming reports of some large edtech businesses suffering in India, however, it is not all doom and gloom. Some start-ups focused on learning have managed to not only scale up but also do it profitability, note Ujjwal Singh, Founding CEO, Infinity Learn by Sri Chaitanya and Prakriti Jaiswal, Partner, JSA Advocates & Solicitors. In 2023, the sector cumulatively raised $311.5 million across 75 rounds, which was significantly lower than the $2.4 billion raised in 2022 across 238 rounds and the whopping $4.1 billion in 2021 across 364 rounds, according to data from market intelligence platform Tracxn. This year has seen six funding rounds so far, totting up $10.8 million. Listen to the podcast now. (Host: Jyoti Banthia, Edits: Anjana PV)
US space agency NASA's Administrator Bill Nelson is in India today to meet top government and ISRO officials, as both countries look to deepen their space exploration and scientific research partnership. The visit by Nelson, a former US senator, “fulfills a commitment through the US and India initiative on critical and emerging technology spearheaded by President Joe Biden,” Nasa said in a press release on Nov. 24. Nelson was appointed as the 14th Nasa administrator in May 2021. During this visit to India, he is expected visit several locations, including the Bengaluru-based facilities where the NISAR spacecraft, a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), is undergoing testing and integration for launch in 2024. NISAR is short for NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar. It is the first satellite mission between NASA and ISRO. It is an Earth-observing instrument, the first in the Earth System Observatory, which was announced by NASA last year. The observatory will be put in space via five satellite missions, including Nisar, which is set for launch next year. The observatory will measure Earth's changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses providing information about biomass, natural hazards, sea level rise, and groundwater, key information to guide efforts related to climate change, hazard mitigation, agriculture, and so on. Senator Nelson is also expected to meet students to discuss STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and how they can participate in the Artemis program, Nasa's initiative to return humans to the Moon and make it a launchpad for missions to Mars. The Nasa chief is also expected to travel to UAE during this trip to participate in the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Over the last few years, India has opened up its space efforts to private industry and startups and established the institutional infrastructure and policies to foster this ecosystem. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) is tasked with expanding the commercialization of India's space tech capabilities. In April, the government also released India's space policy, to promote a comprehensive approach to the space economy opportunity ahead. The government's estimate projects India's space market to be worth $40 billion in 2030. This could go as high as $100 billion, the consultancy Arthur D. Little says, if investments and efforts in certain focus areas are stepped up. Meanwhile, OneWeb India, the local subsidiary of low-earth orbit operator Eutelsat OneWeb, said last week, it had become the first company to receive India's go ahead to launch its commercial satellite broadband services. Bharti Airtel owns about 21 percent of UK-based OneWeb, which was recently merged with Europe's Eutelsat. Other multinational companies including billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX, which operates the Starlink satellite broadband business, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's project Kuiper, which are all putting large low earth orbit satellite constellations in space are also expected to offer to their services in India. And JioSpaceFiber, part of the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, is also in the race to offer its own satellite based internet services in the country soon. On the startups front, Indian space tech startups have gone from raising only $35 million in funding between 2010 and 2019, to $28 million in 2020 to $96 million in 2021 and $112 million in 2022, according to Tracxn, a private markets intelligence provider. This year the sector has attracted $62 million in funding as of August, according to Tracxn. Indian space startups are developing a range of technologies and products, including hyperspectral imaging, 3D-printed rocket engines, satellite propulsion systems and sustainable less toxic rocket fuels.
In today's episode we take a quick look at edtech funding, from a report published by Tracxn. But first, a few headlines. Headlines Telecom operators in India want internet companies to compensate them for using their telecom networks, a recommendation they've made to the local regulatory body, echoing a viewpoint that is gaining some momentum in other parts of the world, TechCrunch reports. Pentathlon Ventures, an early-stage B2B SaaS-focused venture capital firm, has announced the launch of its second fund with a target corpus of Rs 450 Crore. The fund aims to invest in 25 B2B SaaS start-ups, the VC firm said in a press release. One thing today Now, after all the problems BYJU's has faced, it might not surprise you that India's edtech startups haven't done very well this year, by way of funding, even though they were among the top three most funded geographies in this space, worldwide, in the first seven months or so of 2023, according to Tracxn, a leading provider of private markets intelligence in India. India's ed-tech startups sector has experienced a declining trend in funding, similar to its global counterparts, according to Tracxn's latest Feed-Geo report on the ed-tech startups landscape in India. Most of the funding into Indian ed-tech startups in 2023 so far was secured in the second quarter of the calendar year. Companies raised funding worth $713 million in Q2 2023, accounting for 73.43 percent of the total funding raised this year. This is also an increase of 37 percent compared with the same period last year. That said, total funding into the Indian ed-tech space plunged 48 percent to $971 million in 2023 between Jan. 1 and Aug. 7, the period for which Tracxn has compiled data for its report. edtech startups had raised $1.87 billion in the same period in 2022. The 2023 YTD funding is also 50 percent lower than the money the sector raised in the same period in 2021, according to Tracxn. The number of funding rounds in 2023 fell 77 percent and 82 percent compared with the same periods in 2022 and 2021 respectively. Late-stage investments worth $879 million have been recorded in 2023 so far, contributing to more than 90 percent of the total funding, which is also a drop of 23 percent compared with $1.14 billion raised in the same period in 2022 and a drop of 39 percent from $1.44 billion raised in the same period in 2021. Early-stage investments worth $75.7 million were recorded in 2023 YTD, an 88 percent drop from $618 million raised in the same period last year and an 82 percent drop compared with $414 million raised in the same period in 2021. Edtech startups raised $15.7 million through seed-stage rounds in 2023 between Jan. 1 and Aug. 7, a drop of 85 percent from $105 million raised in the same period in 2022 and an 83 percent drop from the same period in 2021. No new Unicorns have so far emerged in this sector this year, as against two in the same period last year. 2023 saw seven acquisitions, a 70 percent decline compared with 23 acquisitions in the same period in 2022 and 19 acquisitions in the same period in 2021. Among Indian cities, Bengaluru, far and away, takes the lead in terms of total funds raised till date, followed by Mumbai and Gurgaon. edtech startups in Bangalore have raised a total of over $8 billion as of Aug. 7, 2023, followed by Mumbai ($2.5 billion) and Gurgaon ($497 million). In the last two years, We Founder Circle, Peak XV Partners, formerly Sequoia India, and MMPL Trust, were the most active investors in this space. We Founder Circle, IPV, and LetsVenture were the top seed investors, while Peak XV Partners, Better Capital, and AngelList were the top early-stage investors. MMPL Trust, WestBridge Capital, and The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative were the top late-stage investors.
The start-up world, which has witnessed a meltdown of sorts, may soon stage a recovery, says Neha Singh, the Co-founder and CEO of Tracxn, a global platform that tracks start-ups and private companies. Read the full story here --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-line/message
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has been hit with a record-breaking fine of 1.2 billion Euro ($1.3 billion) by European Union regulators for violating EU privacy laws. Meanwhile, the company's WhatsApp unit announced that messages on its platform will soon be editable for up to 15 minutes after they are sent. The feature is rolling out worldwide. Also in this brief, TCS announced a generative AI bespoke service as part of its partnership with Google Cloud; And Mumbai startup Chalo raises $45 million in fresh funding led by Avataar Ventures. Notes: WhatsApp yesterday announced that you can now edit your messages for up to 15 minutes after sending them. Whether it is correcting a simple misspelling or adding more context to a message, users only need to long-press on a sent message and choose ‘Edit' from the menu that pops up, the company said in a press release. Edited messages will display ‘edited' next to them, so those you're messaging are aware of the change, but without showing edit history. As with the regular messages, media and calls, the edited ones are also protected by end-to-end encryption, according to WhatsApp. This feature has started rolling out to users globally and will be available to everyone in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has been hit with a record-breaking fine of €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) by European Union regulators for violating EU privacy laws, CNN reports. The fine follows an inquiry by the Irish Data Protection Commission and highlights the uncertainty surrounding the legal transfer of EU users' data to servers outside the EU. The European Data Protection Board stated that Meta's processing and storage of personal data in the US violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This fine is the largest ever imposed under the GDPR, surpassing the previous record set against Amazon in 2021. Meta has been ordered to cease processing the personal data of European users in the US within six months. The company plans to appeal the ruling. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) yesterday announced an expanded partnership with Google Cloud and the launch of its new service, TCS Generative AI. This collaboration aims to provide bespoke business solutions that leverage Google Cloud's generative AI services to accelerate clients' growth and transformation, the company said in a press release. Chalo, a startup in Mumbai, has raised $45 million in a Series D funding round and secured an additional $12 million in debt as it seeks to enhance its mobility offerings and expand into more international markets, TechCrunch reports. The funding round was led by Avataar Ventures, with participation from existing investors Lightrock India, WaterBridge Ventures, and former Google executive Amit Singhal. The debt financing came from Trifecta and Stride Ventures. The latest investment brings the company's total funding to $88.6 million according to private markets insights provider Tracxn. The company is currently operating in over 50 cities in India, tracking more than 15,000 buses, and has plans to expand its fleet of e-vehicles and enter additional international markets.
India yesterday notified changes to its information technology rules that now require all intermediaries – such as social media platform providers and internet services providers – to rely on a government-backed fact check unit concerning any content related to “government business,” according to an official statement. Also in this brief, Q1 of calendar 2023 saw startup funding continue to fall, according to data from Tracxn. Notes: India yesterday notified changes to its information technology rules that now require all intermediaries – such as social media platform providers and internet services providers – to rely on a government-backed fact check unit for any content related to “government business,” according to an official statement. The new rules called the IT Amendment Rules, 2023, first proposed in January, now “make it obligatory on the intermediaries to not publish, share or host fake, false or misleading information in respect of any business of the Central Government,” the statement reads. Such information “will be identified by the notified Fact Check Unit of the Central Government,” according to the statement. The statement also says that “the existing IT rules already required the intermediaries to make reasonable efforts to not host, publish or share any information which is patently false and untrue or misleading in nature.” These changes have drawn criticism from human rights campaigners such as the New Delhi-based Internet Freedom Foundation. The new rules “directly and negatively impact online freedom of speech and the right to receive information,” the foundation said in a post on its website. The amendments notified yesterday also included tougher rules on online gaming, especially in regulating online betting. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for IT said in the government statement: “Online gaming is certainly a huge opportunity for India and Young Indians. We see the Indian online gaming ecosystem expand and grow into a multi-billion-dollar industry and be an important catalyst to India's One trillion-dollar Digital economy goal by 2025-26, with very clear restrictions on online wagering and betting.” In startup funding news, startups in India raised a total of $1.2 billion in funding in March compared with $598 million in February, according to data from the private markets intelligence provider Tracxn. There were 12 startup acquisitions last month, including Knowledge Lens and Sportido. March saw 87 funding rounds compared with 67 in February. The top funding rounds in March were Lenskart's Series-J round, in which it raised $500 million, PhonePe's Series D, $200 million investment and Mintifi's Series D round in which the supply chain fintech provider raised $110 million, according to Tracxn. There were 58 Seed rounds, 19 Series A rounds, two Series B rounds, and eight Series C+ rounds. FinTech, Retail, and Enterprise Applications were the top-performing sectors in Q1 2023. There were no new unicorns created in Q1 of 2023, compared with 14 in Q1 of 2022. Q1 of 2023 also saw three companies - Robu Labs, Mars Capital, and Homesfy announce their plans to go public.
The Desi VC: Indian Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startups | VC
Abhishek Goyal is the Co-founder, Vice Chairman, and Executive Director of Tracxn, a leading research firm that provides market intelligence data on private companies. Since its founding in 2012, Tracxn has secured funding from top investors like 3one4 Capital, Elevation Capital, Prime Venture Partners, and angel investors including Sachin and Binny Bansal, and has grown to become a highly profitable business. After much success, Tracxn debuted on the NSE in October 2022, becoming one of the few venture-backed startups to go public. Abhishek's strategic leadership and unwavering commitment to excellence have been vital in the growth and success of the company. Before Tracxn, Abhishek gained experience working with esteemed organizations such as Amazon Development Centre (India) Private Limited, Yahoo Software Development India Private Limited, and Accel. He also served as a consultant with 3i Infotech Limited and Erasmic Consulting Private Limited. Abhishek has been recognised as part of the '40 under 40' list by Fortune India in both 2018 and 2019, highlighting his success as a young entrepreneur. He holds a bachelor's degree in technology with a specialization in computer science and engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Episode Notes: 1. What was it like before and after Tracxn's IPO? (3:38) 2. Why did Tracxn's founders choose to go public instead of selling the company? (6:10) 3. How has Abhishek's leadership role changed since the IPO? (7:30) 4. How did Tracxn's investors learn about the IPO process, and what was their reaction? (15:53) 5. What's the best analogy for a company going public? (20:20) 6. Why did Abhishek choose to become an entrepreneur? (22:30) 7. What was Tracxn's first milestone? (26:00) 8. Would Abhishek do things differently if he had to build Tracxn again? (30:30) 9. What were some of the toughest days as a founder? (33:33) 10. What is Abhishek's superpower as an angel investor? (38:18) 11. What's the biggest lesson Abhishek has learned over his career? (44:23) 12. Abhishek tips on leadership and management (47:15) 13. What advice would Abhishek give his younger self? (57:00) . . . Social Links: Tracxn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tracxn Abhishek Goyal on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AbhishekTracxn Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash
As per Tracxn, there are 1100+ SaaS startups in Chennai as of Feb 2023. Chennai has rightfully gained the title of the SAAS capital of India, thanks to the expansion of companies such as Zoho and Freshworks. Although these two firms have recently surpassed the $500 million revenue milestone, making them the most prominent success stories in the realm of Indian-based SAAS companies, there are other companies contributing to Chennai's reputation in the market. Chargebee, CloudCherry, HappyFox, and FourKites are among the businesses that are creating a unique space in the industry.In this episode, we have with us Srikrishnan Ganesan Founder, Rocketlane. Srikrishnan's SaaS journey began with Konotor, which got acquired by FreshWorks and later became Freshchat. He has experienced scaling from 0 to 100 and is now building Rocketlane, a customer onboarding platform that reduces time to value and eliminates hit-or-miss experiences.During the episode, he talks about his inspiration behind building Rocketlane, Planning and doing GTM early on being a SaaS founder, setting up a base in Chennai, and much more.Notes - 00:00 - Highlights of the conversation01:32 - Intro to Srikrishnan Ganesan, Rocketlane and Chennai's SaaS ecosystem02:36 - Why do SaaS founders prefer Chennai?06:09 - Advantages of building prior-product building experience09:50 - Choosing the domain for Rocketlane13:12 - Rocketlane's Pre-Launch setup18:53 - What works in customer conversation's Pre-Launch?22:44 - Why do SaaS founders ignore GTM?24:35 - Raising their 1st round26:32 - Choosing to become a Category creator29:08 - Investing in Brand-building upfront30:39 - Funding announcement with a Rap video34:15 - Learnings from his journey37:54 - Their strategy for Demand-Gen40:29 - His thoughts on Generative-AI45:47 - Slowness demand for Rocketlane or similar companies serving SMBsAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payroll
The year 2022 saw women-led startups in India increase their share of venture capital investments and do better than the overall startup ecosystem in the country, even as the so-called funding winter descended on the sector amid worsening global macroeconomic conditions. Marquee investors such as Sequoia Capital and Accel as well as accelerators and incubators such as CIIE backed more women entrepreneurs, according to data from Tracxn, a Mumbai-listed private markets intelligence provider. Also in this brief, Spotify hit half a billion active users, the Swedish company said at its Stream On event. Notes: Apple is backing a music startup launched by one of its former executives, Reuters reports. The company, called Gamma, is the brainchild of former Apple Music Global Creative Director Larry Jackson and veteran music executive Ike Youssef. It positions itself as an alternative to traditional record labels, according to Reuters. Gamma says it will support content creation including music, video and podcasts, and provide audio and video distribution through Vydia, a company it acquired in December 2022. Meanwhile, Spotify Technology said on Wednesday it crossed 500 million monthly active listeners, Reuters reports. The Swedish company will roll out new features like smart shuffle and previews of podcasts and music playlists on its audio streaming platform and announce a new user interface at its annual Stream On event. Slice, an Indian fintech unicorn, acquired a 5 percent stake in North East Small Finance, a Guwahati-headquartered small finance bank, in September, for $3.42 million, TechCrunch reports, citing a regulatory filing. Slice, privately valued at $1.55 billion, counts Tiger Global, Insight Partners, Blume Ventures and Axis Bank among its investors. Staying on the topic of startups, and looking specifically at women-led ventures, meaning startups with at least one woman among the founders, data from Tracxn shows that almost one in five of all funded startups in India is now a woman-led startup. Funded startups in India with woman founders and co-founders accounted for 18 percent of all funded ventures in 2022. Overall, women-led startups accounted for 8.3 percent of all startups in India, according to Tracxn, a Mumbai-listed private markets intelligence provider. The number of active investors investing in women-led startups has seen a steady increase since 2010, with a sharp year-on-year jump of 42 percent in 2021 – which was also a year in which funding went a bit crazy, overall. However, a significant data point seems to be that funding for women-led startups declined by only 11 percent in 2022 versus 2021, compared with a 37 percent drop for the overall startup ecosystem in the same period, according to Tracxn. And, the share of funding garnered by women-led startups, as a percentage of overall total funding, increased to 16 percent in 2022 from 11 percent in 2021. If one looks at a funding-stage-by-funding-stage breakdown as well, women-led startups have outperformed the overall Indian startup ecosystem in 2022, according to Tracxn. Out of the approximately 2,200 women-led startups in India that have received funding, 36 percent have progressed to the Series A stage, and 24 percent have gone on to the Series D stage or beyond.
Shell's board of directors are being personally sued over their alleged failure to properly manage risks associated with the climate crisis, Euronews reports. The lawsuit, brought by Environmental law charity ClientEarth says the British oil giant's 11 directors have breached their legal duties under the UK's Companies Act by failing to bring their climate strategy in line with the Paris Agreement. Also in this brief, a US lawmaker wants children to be 16 before they can access social media, and how some strange words are breaking ChatGPT. Notes: Tata Consultancy Services has won a new mega order from its long-standing customer Phoenix Group, UK's largest long-term savings and retirements provider, India's biggest IT services company said in a press release earlier this week. The 600-million-pound order (or about $726 million) involves the digital transformation of Phoenix Group's ReAssure business using a platform based on TCS's BaNCS, the company's core banking software platform. A US lawmaker wants to introduce legislation to protect children online and reduce the influence of big tech companies on children, NBC reports. Josh Hawley, a senator in the US Congress wants to establish laws including setting the age threshold to be on social media at 16. Senator Hawley's agenda will include mandating social media companies verify the age of their users, providing parents with a right to demand that tech companies delete their kids' data and commissioning a wide-ranging congressional mental-health study on the impact social media has on children. ChatGPT, the AI chatbot from OpenAI that can turn out poems and essays, fix code and clear MBA exams, is flummoxed by a cluster of keywords, two researchers have discovered, but they don't know why, yet, Vice reports. These keywords — or “tokens,” which serve as ChatGPT's base vocabulary — include Reddit usernames and at least one participant of a Twitch-based Pokémon game. When ChatGPT was asked about “SolidGoldMagikarp,” it was repeated back as “distribute.” The issue affected earlier versions of the GPT model as well. When an earlier model was asked to repeat “StreamerBot,” for example, it said, “You're a jerk.” Fossil-fuel giant Shell's board of directors are being personally sued over their alleged failure to properly manage risks associated with the climate crisis, Euronews reports. The lawsuit says the British oil giant's 11 directors have breached their legal duties under the UK's Companies Act by failing to bring their climate strategy in line with the Paris Agreement. Environmental law charity ClientEarth, which filed the lawsuit, says it is the first case in the world that looks to hold corporate directors personally responsible for failing to prepare for the energy transition. And in some SaaS startup news, Hatica, an engineering analytics software provider, has raised $3.7 million in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia's Surge programme, with participation from existing investor Kae Capital and several angel investors. Hatica, based in San Francisco and Bengaluru, was started in 2019 by former Uber engineers Naomi Chopra and Haritabh Singh. Today, it has 20,000 users, according to a press release from the company. The latest funding brings Hatica's total funding to $6.55 million, according to Tracxn, a private-markets intelligence provider.
The naval version of India's light combat aircraft made a successful landing on the INS Vikrant, India's indigenous aircraft carrier, the ministry of defence said in a press release yesterday. Separately, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, yesterday, opened India's largest helicopter factory at Tumakuru, near Bengaluru. The facility, established by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, will initially make light utility helicopters. Also in this brief, India is cracking down on gambling apps and unauthorised loan apps. Notes: The Indian Navy carried out a successful landing and takeoff of the naval version of India's light combat aircraft on the INS Vikrant, India's indigenous aircraft carrier, the Ministry of Defence said in a press release yesterday. The navy also successfully tested the landing and takeoff of the Russian-made MIG-29K on the aircraft carrier, which marks the integration of the fighter aircraft with India's first indigenous carrier. The carrier was commissioned in September last year. India is also developing a twin-engine deck-based fighter based on the LCA, which is a single-engine aircraft, The Hindu reported yesterday. That aircraft is projected to be ready by 2031, according to the report. Separately, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, yesterday, opened India's largest helicopter factory at Tumakuru, near Bengaluru. The manufacturing facility, established by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, will initially produce light utility helicopters, according to a government statement. The helicopter is an indigenously designed and developed three-ton class, single-engine multipurpose utility aircraft. Initially, this factory will produce around 30 helicopters a year which can be enhanced to 60 and then 90 per year in a phased manner, according to the release. Fintech startups Kissht and PayU's LazyPay are among the apps that India's IT Ministry blocked yesterday, in an ongoing crackdown on the misuse of consumer data, TechCrunch reported. Over the last two years, India has blocked hundreds of apps and sites for their links to China, as border tensions escalated with the powerful neighbour and concerns over cybersecurity ratcheted up. In the case of the loan apps, concerns have mounted that several operators of such apps have been predatory in their practices. India now has clear rules on how fintech app providers are to operate, including telling consumers upfront what the total cost of their loans will be. In the latest crackdown, India is in the process of blocking 232 apps, some with links to China, that offer betting and loan services, according to TechCrunch. Nearly 140 of these apps are in the betting and gambling category, whereas over 90 provide unauthorised loan services. India's electric vehicle sector is now the third largest in the world, by the number of companies and startups, behind the US and China, according to a report on the sector from Tracxn, a private-markets intelligence provider. In terms of funding, the Indian EV space is the fourth biggest after the US, China and Sweden, according to the report, which was released yesterday. India reached the milestone of 1 million EVs sold in 2022, with electric 2-wheelers being the biggest segment. In 2022, The EV space recorded its highest-ever total funding in a decade. Total funding into EV startups in India jumped 117 percent to $1.66 billion in 2022, compared with $766 million in 2021.
Tata Consultancy Services, India's biggest IT services company, said its quarterly revenue has crossed the $7 billion mark, with sales for its fiscal third quarter, the October-December period, coming in at $7.075 billion. A near-term slowdown in demand is apparent in the staff addition numbers. TCS saw a net reduction in its workforce, for the first time since the Covid pandemic began to fan out across the world. For the rest of the current fiscal year, TCS doesn't expect to add many more people. Infosys, HCL Tech and Wipro will report their Q3 earnings this week. Notes: Tata Consultancy Services, India's biggest IT services company, said its quarterly revenue has crossed the $7 billion mark, with sales for its fiscal third quarter, the October-December period, coming in at $7.075 billion. That represents a 13.5 percent increase from the year-earlier period in constant-currency terms, which eliminates exchange-rate variations, according to a press release. The company saw “strong growth in a seasonally weak quarter, driven by cloud services, market share gains through vendor consolidation, and continued momentum in North America and the UK,” CEO Rajesh Gopinathan said in the press release. “Looking ahead, and beyond current uncertainties, our longer-term growth outlook remains robust,” he added. TCS doesn't provide a formal projection, but its staff additions and churn are among the numbers that are keenly watched, as proxies for both near-term demand and the state of the industry. TCS saw a net reduction of close to 2,200 employees in its staff strength at the end of the December quarter, bringing the total to about 614,000. The last time TCS saw a reduction in its workforce was around the time the world was beginning to be swept by the Covid pandemic. The company saw its staff numbers reduce by about 4,800 employees during the April-June period of the year 2020. And while attrition, or staff churn, remains high at more than 21 percent on a leading-12-months basis, compared with about 15 percent a year earlier, the trend has stabilised and is on a downward trajectory Milind Lakkad, TCS's chief human resources officer told reporters in a conference yesterday in Mumbai. Overall, a slowdown is apparent, amid fears of a recession in the world's richest economies. TCS added about 21,800 employees in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year. In comparison, the company added more than 103,500 staff in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2022, as demand soared for IT following the Covid pandemic. For the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2023, Lakkad does not expect to add much more staff. Cropin, an agritech venture in Bengaluru that offers an industry cloud for agriculture, has raised Rs. 113 crore ($14 million) as part of its Series-C funding from new investors Google and JSR Corporation. This brings its total funding to $65.4 million, according to private markets intelligence provider Tracxn. Virohan, a healthcare edtech startup near Delhi, has raised $7 million in funding led by Blume Ventures with participation from Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund, Rebright Partners, Lesing Artha Limited and others. This brings its total funding to $11 million. Virohan, through its online and offline courses, trains students in allied healthcare programs for technicians in the healthcare industry, the company said in a press release.
Apple may not be releasing a new iPhone SE in 2024, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who bases his predictions on sources in the supply chain, The Verge reported on Jan. 7. The Infosys Prize for 2022 was announced on Jan. 7, by Infosys Science Foundation. The Prize carries a pure gold medal, a citation, and a cash purse of $100,000 each in categories including science, engineering and humanities. Also in this brief, the US Federal Trade Commission is seeking to eliminate non-compete clauses, which it termed as exploitative. Notes: Google has gone to the Supreme Court after its appeal at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal was rejected over an order from the Competition Commission of India that fined the internet search giant for its market practices in the android ecosystem. The Competition Commission, in October, fined Google $161 million for exploiting its dominant position in the market for Android, which runs 97 percent of smartphones in India, Economic Times reported on Jan. 7. Apple may not be releasing a new iPhone SE in 2024, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who bases his predictions on sources in the supply chain, The Verge reported on Jan. 7. On Friday, last week, Kuo wrote in a blog post that Apple had cancelled production and shipment plans for the phone. The US Federal Trade Commission on Thursday, last week, moved to kill the practice of imposing non-compete agreements by businesses in the country. If the proposal becomes law, it could shift the balance of power from companies to workers, NPR notes in a report on Jan. 5. It could also set a powerful example for countries around the world. The FTC has proposed a new rule that would prohibit employers from imposing noncompete agreements on their workers, a practice it called exploitative and widespread, affecting some 30 million American workers. ChrysCapital, an India-focused private equity company, has acquired Xoriant, a software engineering and digital IT services provider to some of the biggest corporations in the world. The PE firm didn't provide financial details. KreditBee, a fintech company offering an instant personal loan platform, has raised $100 million from private equity company Advent international. This brings the four-year-old Bengaluru venture's total funding to $384 million, according to private markets intelligence provider Tracxn. The Infosys Prize for 2022 was announced on Jan. 7, by the Infosys Science Foundation. The Prize carries a pure gold medal, a citation, and a cash purse of $100,000 each in categories including science, engineering and humanities. In Engineering and Computer Science, the prize went to Suman Chakraborty, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. In Humanities, the prize went to Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Vice Chancellor of the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. In Life Sciences, the prize went to Vidita Vaidya, Professor and Chairperson, Department of Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. In Mathematical Sciences, the prize went to Mahesh Kakde, Professor of Mathematics at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. In Physical Sciences, the prize went to Nissim Kanekar, Professor, National Centre for Radio Astronomy, Pune. In Social Sciences, the prize went to Rohini Pande, Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Director, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
Google, last week, followed Apple, in releasing its version of what's called a passkey, which if widely adopted could take us closer to a passwordless future. Air India is close to placing historic orders for as many as 500 jetliners worth tens of billions of dollars from both Airbus and Boeing, Reuters reported yesterday, citing industry sources. Also in this episode, opposition to Blackrock's ESG investments in the US is spotlighting the travails of climate finance. Notes: Google, last week, joined Apple, in releasing its version of what's called a passkey, which if widely adopted could take us closer to a passwordless future. Passkeys are built on industry standards, can work across different operating systems and browser ecosystems, and can be used with both websites and apps. You can use passkeys to sign into sites and apps that support them, Google said in a blog post last week. Signing in with a passkey will require you to authenticate yourself in the same way that you unlock a device. With the latest version of Chrome, Google supports passkeys on Windows 11, macOS, and Android. Air India is close to placing landmark orders for as many as 500 jetliners worth tens of billions of dollars from both Airbus and Boeing, Reuters reported yesterday, citing industry sources. The orders include as many as 400 narrow-body jets and 100 or more wide-bodies, including dozens of Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s and 777s, according to Reuters, and finishing touches are being put on the mammoth deal in coming days. The recent COP27 talks showed that the fight against climate change boils down to money and that the rich countries didn't want to keep their promises. Now, opposition in the US to ESG investments by Blackrock, the world's biggest money manager, and other investment firms, will likely cause another setback to climate finance. Larry Fink, the CEO of the $8-trillion asset manager, is in the crosshairs of those opposed to the ESG investments, some of which have declined more than the S&P 500 index, Bloomberg reports. The battle over sustainable investing comes as the 10 largest ESG funds by assets have posted double-digit losses this year, Bloomberg notes, some even more than the S&P 500's 17.5 percent decline. BlackRock's $20 billion iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA exchange-traded fund is down about 19 percent and Vanguard Group's $5.8 billion ESG US Stock ETF has dropped 22 percent. Meanwhile, stocks of US oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron have soared 69.8 percent and 44.2 percent respectively. Some investors, including US states and pension funds, plan to withdraw their money from Blackrock's management, and some politicians and officials have also called for Fink's removal from his position, according to Bloomberg. Cropin, an agritech venture in Bengaluru, is raising a new round of funding and has garnered $14 million or Rs 113.4 crore from Google, Singapore-based Impact Assets, and existing investors, Entrackr reported on Dec. 9, citing the company's filings with the government's Registrar of Companies. Fintrackr estimates the company has been valued at around Rs 740 crore or $91.3 million after the latest investment. That compares with $67.5 million in April, according to private markets insights provider Tracxn. Cropin has raised $50.5 million in funding so far. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds
Apple may bring some of its iPad production to India from China if talks with the Indian government are successful, CNBC reported yesterday, citing two sources close to the government. Microsoft has hiked prices in India by up to 11 percent to match prevailing dollar-based pricing in Asia, the company said in a post. And nutritional supplements seller HealthKart has raised more money in a funding round led by Singapore's Temasek, TechCrunch reports. Notes: Apple may bring some of its iPad production to India from China if talks with the Indian government are successful, CNBC reported yesterday, citing two sources close to the government. The tech giant is said to be holding ongoing discussions with officials. No concrete plans have been made, but if the effort is successful, it will expand Apple's footprint in the country. Apple announced earlier this year it had begun assembling its flagship iPhone 14 in India, where it was already producing its older models. Microsoft has announced a price hike for its software in India. Due to currency fluctuations, Microsoft India is announcing Indian rupee pricelist changes to harmonize its prices for commercial on-premises software and online services between India and the Asian region, effective February 1, 2023, the company said in a post on its website. Starting Feb. 1, 2023, Indian rupee prices for commercial on-premises software will increase by 4.5 percent, online services will increase by 9 percent, and Windows GGWA (get genuine windows agreement) will increase by 11 percent to match prevailing prices in US dollar terms in Asia, the company said. The new prices will show up starting Feb. 1, 2023, if you're looking to buy a Microsoft 365 subscription, for example. This announcement does not cover Microsoft's hardware products, according to the company. Salesforce is seeing some top-level exits. Yesterday, the company announced the departure of Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield, who joined Salesforce last year as part of its biggest acquisition. The company's co-CEO Bret Taylor, who orchestrated the Slack deal, is also leaving, a year after getting promoted to share the top job with founder Marc Benioff, CNBC reports. In the three trading days since Taylor announced his departure, alongside Salesforce's third-quarter earnings report, the company's stock has had two of its three worst days of the year, losing 8.3 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively, CNBC notes. Salesforce has now lost 47 percent of its value for the year, compared with the Nasdaq's 28 percent drop, and is trading at its lowest since March 2020, the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to CNBC. HealthKart, a nutrition supplements provider, has raised $135 million in series H funding, to expand overseas and for acquisitions, TechCrunch reports. The funding was concluded last month and took the 11-year-old Gurugram company's total funding to $224 million, according to private markets intelligence provider Tracxn, and investors include Temasek, A91 Partners and Kae Capital. The investment valued the company at $350 million, according to TechCrunch. HealthKart is currently on track to generate about $122 million in annual revenue, according to TechCrunch. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds
India's Department of Telecommunications has told the country's top telcos to stop setting up 5G networks close to airports, over concerns that they could interfere with airplane instruments, Press Trust of India reports. India's EV scooter sales continue to grow as established players raise their game. And in agri tech, DeHaat, one of the biggest startups in the sector, has raised series E funding from Temasek, Sofina and existing investors. Notes Apple has rolled out an incremental update to its iPhone software, fixing some security issues and improving crash detection in iPhone 14 and 14 Pro models. The update also improves compatibility with network providers, according to Apple. Germany's federal and state data protection authorities have raised concerns about the compatibility of Microsoft 365 with data protection laws in Germany and the wider European Union, The Register reports. According to the German watchdog's report, which was written after two years of negotiations with Microsoft, the body says that the product “remains in breach” of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Hundreds of CNN employees were notified of layoffs yesterday as part of CEO Chris Licht's efforts to cut costs, CNBC reports. CNN had about 4,400 employees. The layoffs affected hundreds of staffers but amounted to a “single-digit percentage” of staff, according to CNBC, which cited a person familiar with the matter. That would mean no more than about 400 staffers were let go. The layoffs are part of a broader effort at Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN, to cut costs heading into 2023, according to CNBC. India's Department of Telecommunications has told the country's top telcos to stop setting up 5G networks close to airports, over concerns that they could interfere with airplane instruments, according to Times of India which cites a Press Trust of India report. The telecom department has said that there should be no 5G wireless 2,100 metres (2.1 km) from both ends of the runway and 910 metres from the centre line of the runway of Indian Airports. Specifically, 5G gears that operate in the frequency range of 3300-3670 MHz have been barred from near the airports, according to the report. While startups led India's EV foray, to begin with, established two-wheeler makers are raising their game. TVS Motors, with 7,735 registrations of electric scooters in November, and Bajaj Auto with more than 2,800 scooters, now account for 15 percent of registrations for the month, Business Standard reports, citing data from Vahan, the website of the ministry of road transport and highways. Hero MotoCorp is expected to ramp up its efforts, with its Vida range of electric scooters, according to Business Standard. DeHaat, one of India's biggest agritech startups, has raised $60 million in series E funding, from investors including Temasek and Sofina, and existing investors RTP Global, Prosus and Lightrock, according to private markets intelligence provider Tracxn. This brings the company's total funding to $265 million, according to Tracxn. This investment privately valued DeHaat at between $700 million and $800 million, TechCrunch reported yesterday, citing a person aware of the terms. In November 2021, the company was valued at $520 million, according to Tracxn. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds
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 2021, 125 Indian companies raised over $18 Bn through initial public offerings (IPO) in public markets.Out of $18 Bn, over $7.3 Bn was raised by 11 Indian Tech Startups from Nazara to MapmyIndia.In today's episode, we talk with Abhishek Goyal & Neha Singh, Co-founders, Tracxn, which recently went IPO.But unlike the other major tech startups which went IPO in recent years, at Tracxn, they decided to go IPO at a probably early stage, considering their ARR of $10 Mn.During the episode, they share there view point on why they chose to do it on an initial ARR rather than going IPO, once they've grown big enough and more.Notes - 00:37 - Intro to Tracxn01:27 - Feeling of going IPO02:27 - Preparing for an IPO 05:06 - Splitting the roles within team to be prepared from Day 105:41 - Documents which they had to submit to SEBI or any other regulator for the DRHP06:46 - Trendsetter by going public at $10 Mn ARR08:44 - Convincing VCs for going IPO-early11:33 - Mentors from whom they took advice for going public12:59 - Is it possible to time the market for IPO? 14:58 - Raising an Anchor allocation Pre-IPO16:17 - Most stressful part of going IPO: Market Uncertainty18:34 - Rollercoaster set of emotions they went through22:24 - Moments of giving up during the whole process24:16 - How to prepare mentally before entering the IPO-process?24:33 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?26:01 - IPO-Checklist and learnings31:26 - What does it requires for tech companies to go public?35:03 - Playbook where companies can go public and build in long-term35:54 - Founder aspiration beyond becoming UnicornAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payroll
In this episode, find out about Adani Group's commitment to completing the open offer for NDTV, also find out Vodafone Idea's plan to raise debt funds via convertible debentures Business Term of the Day: Exchange rate
The global company Bloomberg mines market data to help businesses make prudent decisions. In a similar vein, Tracxn helps private market investors in their decision-making by providing curated profiles of startups and companies. Tune in to hear the story of two analysts building one of the world's largest data intelligence platforms!Know about:- The private market landscape Scaling up insider understanding of a sector The revenue journey Go-to-market strategy
Join us as we talk to Abhishek Goyal and Neha Singh, the Co-Founders of Tracxn about their story. Neha Singh pursued her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in technology from IIT Bombay. Later, in 2014, she completed her MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. She also served as an Associate with the BCG Group and an Investment Analyst with Sequoia Capital. Abhishek Goyal completed his Bachelors of Technology in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur. In the IIT JEE Exam, he received an All India Rank of 60. Later, he served as a software engineer for organisations including Amazon, Yahoo, Andale, and Resume Pro. About Tracxn: Tracxn is one of the world's largest platforms for tracking 1.4 million entities through 1,800 feeds categorised across industries, sectors, sub-sectors, geographies, affiliations, and networks globally. It is powered by a unique blend of technical prowess and human analysts that filters through billions of data points to create one of the most useful data intelligence platforms. Tracxn has over 850 customer accounts worldwide, spread over 50 nations, and is backed by investors like Accel Partners and Sequoia. The Tracxn platform is also utilized by several governments, accelerators, incubators, and universities to track innovative businesses and industries. Tracxn has been featured in the Forbes Top 100 Global Analytics Startup List (2015), and Fortune 40 Under 40 (2018). For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
As per the recent data by Tracxn, there are 1338 AgriTech startups in India. However, with 118.7 million farmers, who contribute to a mere 17-18% of Indian GDP, many problem statements are left to be solved at a larger scale.In March 2020, we interviewed Vaibhav Domkundwar from Better Capital, where he mentioned their then-recent investment in Bijak - their first interaction with the founders and their thesis behind the investment. In today's episode, we're interviewing Nukul Upadhye, Co-Founder at Bijak, where he talks about how and why he started Bijak. Bijak is a one-stop agriculture marketplace where sellers and buyers can find trustworthy, reliable, and transparent counterparties. Bijak processes transactions worth more than Rs 1.5 billion on a monthly basis. During the episode, Nukul also talks about their initial challenges, leveraging the pre-existing offline supply chain, and much more.Notes - 01:48 - Creating a B2B marketplace - Bijak05:55 - Alternate ideas while starting Bijak09:24 - How does Bijak differentiate itself from traditional offline marketplaces? 17:33 - Challenges during the initial journey31:42 - How has he personally evolved over the past two years?
Amit Ranjan is best known as the co-founder of Slideshare, the world's largest community for sharing professional content including presentations, infographics, documents, and videos. In 2012, Slideshare was acquired by LinkedIn and as of 2020, it has been acquired by Scribd. Amit is also an Angel Investor and Advisor to several early stage startups in India, Singapore and the United States such as Open, Tracxn and Khatabook, among many others. Amit is currently the Architect of two projects under the Digital India Mission at the National eGov Division, Ministry of Information Technology. These are: Digital Locker: A national ecosystem for paperless governance by digitizing citizen records & enabling digital usage of these records. Open Forge: An open source initiative aimed at building a national source code sharing platform for collaborative development of egov applications. In this episode, Amit speaks to Swami and Vignesh about crossing the startup-government chasm, what it takes to build a digital nation project at scale and why technology alone isn't enough to build a great product company.
Ahead of the winter session of Parliament, source-based media reports are again speculating that the pending Bill to regulate cryptocurrencies will come up in this session. But unlike the reports in February this year, which were suggesting a complete ban on cryptocurrencies, a complete ban appears unlikely this time around. The reason, sources say, is that crypto in India has become too big for a ban. Too many people, around 20 million according to WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty, have dipped their hands in virtual currencies. And India is being seen as the fastest-growing crypto market in the world. The sector has spawned two unicorns already this year, CoinDCX and CoinSwitch Kuber. We are also seeing crypto exchanges beating digital stockbrokers in terms of the user base. MORE INTEREST THAN STOCKS? The user base of top platforms WazirX: 8.5 million CoinSwitch Kuber: 11 million Both higher than… Zerodha: 7 million WazirX has 8.5 million users. CoinSwitch Kuber has 11 million. Both have more users than India's largest stockbroker, Zerodha, which has 7 million users. It's amazing how much things have changed in a year. In March last year, the Supreme Court had quashed the RBI circular that barred banks from providing services to cryptocurrency exchanges. One year later, Crypto companies are the toast of the town. Switch on the TV and you see ads hailing Bitcoin as a great investment instrument. Top Bollywood actors, from Ranveer Singh to Ayushmann Khurrana, are seen promoting CoinSwitch Kuber and CoinDCX respectively. Bollywood actors are launching their non-fungible tokens or NFTs, which are bought and sold using cryptocurrencies. According to industry estimates, Indians have invested around Rs 6 lakh crore cumulatively in crypto assets. Young investors in tier 2 and 3 cities, who don't understand much about the stock market, have taken a fancy to virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano and Solana. For CoinSwitch Kuber, which recently became a unicorn, the average age of over 11 million users is 25 years. And 55% of its users are based in large cities like Delhi and Mumbai. For CoinDCX, the other crypto unicorn, 75% of its investors are aged between 20 and 34 years. The number has swelled too much for crypto to continue being unregulated. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) don't appear too keen to regulate cryptocurrency. So, the government seems to have worked out an alternative in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT). According to reports, the Centre may task the International Financial Services Centres Authority or IFSCA, based in Gandhinagar's GIFT City with overseeing cryptocurrency trading. Remember, this is in line with what crypto exchanges have themselves proposed to the Finance Ministry in the past. The government is also considering levying GST on all transactions, including cryptos and NFTs, that happen over a blockchain. There are several other factors that have contributed to the industry becoming mainstream. Among Indian tech companies, crypto startups are hiring big. More than 50,000 professionals are working in the Indian crypto industry, and the sector is likely to create 30% more jobs in the coming months, according to a Nasscom and WazirX report. Further, the total risk funding in Indian crypto and blockchain startups has touched over $587 million this year, compared with just $37 million in the previous year, according to industry tracker Tracxn. However, despite this positive momentum for the Indian crypto industry, sceptics continue to advocate for a ban. Recently, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, during his annual Vijaydashami or Dussehra speech, mentioned obscene images on OTT platforms, drugs, and Bitcoin in the same breath, calling for urgent regulation for all three. On Bitcoin, he said it has t
Neha Singh, Co-Founder & CEO Tracxn chats with Amit Somani, Managing Partner Prime Venture Partners.Listen to the podcast to learn about:00:45 - What Does Tracxn Do and The Explosive Growth of Private Markets05:15 - How to Leverage Tracxn as an Investor & an Entrepreneur07:47 - What it Takes Build a Data Business.13:30 - Building Moats in a Data Business19:45 - Tracxn's Go To Market Process22:13 - The ‘Zero' to IPO journey 29:06 - Most Valuable Lessons Learned as a FounderYou can read the complete transcript hereEnjoyed this episode with Neha on how to build a Global Data business? Next, learn the secrets of unlocking growth at a tech startup by harnessing the power of positioning. We are in conversation with serial entrepreneur and author, April Dunford, who talks about her own experience of discovering the power of positioning, how to position a product in a market category, positioning yourself against a Giant, standing out in a crowded market, positioning trends and more. Listen to the episode hereEnjoyed the podcast? Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts and subscribe wherever you are listening to this.Follow Prime Venture Partners:Twitter: https://twitter.com/Primevp_inLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/primevp/ This podcast is for you. Do let us know what you like about the podcast, what you don't like, the guests you'd like to have on the podcast and the topics you'd like us to cover in future episodes. Please share your feedback here: https://primevp.in/podcastfeedback
Abhishek Goyal is the co-founder of Tracxn, a startup enabling faster and easier deployment of Venture Capital to startups through their platform. He has also been an investor in several startups like flipkart, delhivery and the like. In this episode he spoke about going from Idea to product to company, the nuaces of building a data and research platform, balancing human intervention and tech innovation and more with Roshan Cariappa. Key Highlight: (00:00) Introduction (01:25) What is driving the current fundraising frenzy (05:55) Are we at peak FOMO? (09:22) Abhishek's investment thesis (12:56) Difficult problems that startups CAN solve (14:08) Founders of 2008 vs Founders of 2021 (15:57) Abhishek's thoughts on SaaS (17:55) Abhishek's thoughts on Fintech (19:58) Abhishek's thoughts on Edtech (22:26) Building Tracxn - going from Idea to product to company (24:45) Nuances of building a data & research platform (26:57) Balancing Human Intervention & Tech Innovation (28:39) How are teams structured at Tracxn (32:48) SaaS pricing Strategies (35:08) Nuances of Selling to VCs (37:07) The skill of Sourcing and Organizing proprietary data (38:33) High level challenges Abhishek is solving at Tracxn (39:39) Why should startups partner with tracxn? (41:17) What's coming up next at Tracxn (42:16) Books and Podcasts Abhishek recommends ------------------------------------- Connect with Abhishek: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishekgoyal/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AbhishekTracxn ------------------------------------- Connect with Us: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup ------------------------------------- If you liked this episode, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message
The VCpreneur: Startups | Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Fundraising
In this episode, Abhihshek Goyal, Co-founder @Tracxn & Serial Angel Investor, joins our host Digjay, to talk about his exciting journey as an entrepreneur, VC & an angel investor, learnings from his previous startups & scaling his latest venture – Tracxn, how being a VC & an angel investor influences his operating style as an entrepreneur, Abhishek's investment in Flipkart, his approach to angel investing & fundraising advice for founders. Abhishek started his career with Yahoo & Amazon and also founded two startups before joining Accel Partners. After working for 3 years at Accel, Abhishek plunged back into entrepreneurship, and launched two more startups — UrbanTouch (which was later acquired by online fashion flash sales retailer FashionAndYou), and his current venture Tracxn, an online startup discovery platform for VC funds. Tracxn is backed by angels like Ratan Tata, Nandan Nilekani, Sachin Bansal, Girish Mathrubootham & VCs like Sequoia, Accel & Prime VP. Besides being a serial entrepreneur & ex-VC, Abhishek is also a serial angel investor who has invested in 100+ startups through personal & institutional capital. You can connect with him here on Linkedin / Twitter ---- Show notes – 1. (01:51) Abhishek's journey as an entrepreneur, VC & an angel investor 2. (04:02) Tracxn - Genesis & problem statement; Starting up in US & then scaling the team in India 3. (08:37) Learnings from the previous startups that helped build a strong foundation at Tracxn 4. (09:53) How being a VC & an angel investor influences his operating style as an entrepreneur? 5. (13:13) Investing in Flipkart – The funding backstory 6. (18:23) Approach to angel investing; What motivates Abhishek to back early stage startups? 7. (26:41) Founder perspective – Pitfalls to avoid when raising funds from angels & value-add expectations 8. (30:33) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any of the major podcasting platforms like Spotify & Apple iTunes. We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This will help others discover the podcast. 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 on Linkedin & Twitter
Abhishek Goyal has worked at Yahoo and Amazon, joined Accel Partners and led Flipkart's first investment round in 2009. He then became an entrepreneur and started Tracxn in 2013, one of the largest private-market data and deal services platform, globally. Today, Tracxn is used by governments, corporates and VCs across the globe to track innovative companies and access data. In this episode, co-hosted by Vaibhav and Gaurav, Abhishek talks about his journey from corporate to VC and then to entrepreneurship. He talks about the famous Flipkart-Accel deal that made history in the country, about Tracxn and about the SaaS play in India.
From investing all his savings in Sahil Barua's Delhivery in 2011 to becoming an angel investor in 130 Indian startups, the story of Abhishek Goyal, Co-founder, Tracxn is worth listening for everyone in the ecosystem. Being an Ex-Yahoo & Amazon employee, Abhishek stepped into the startup investing ecosystem with Accel Partners in 2008.Traxcn aims to become the largest platform tracking Innovative Startups, Private Companies & Emerging Sectors globally. They track millions of companies, to enable Investors & global corporates to track sectors of their interest effortlessly.During the podcast, Abhishek talks about how to identify founders who'll make category-creating startups, important signals to predict a brand's success, starting as an Angel investor in the ecosystem.Notes - 03:06 - Background with Yahoo & Amazon, joining Accel Partners09:58 - The story behind Accel's investment in Flipkart16:33 - Identifying patterns and traits in successful founders18:09 - Unlearning your existing beliefs as an investor22:01 - Explaining Unicorn startups and the general notion of ownership amongst investors29:47 - Importance of customer signals at an early stage31:28 - “Capital doesn't follow fundamentals, fundamentals follow the capital.”36:10 - “10 years later we as Indians won't be celebrating Unicorns.”37:44 - Sectors he's bullish for this decade: SaaS, EdTech, and Banking among others46:42 - Preventing forced exits being an Angel investor49:36 - Advice to first-time investors in Startups55:01 - Reading and keeping himself updated with Startup news
耳朵學英文 incorporate, 單字群組 BBC, NY Times, Match (詞組搭配) 每月開班! 請私訊林威老師 lineID: linwayet 各位同學好,我是林威老師, 英文教學已達27年 講解BBC 720篇文章(3年), 經濟學人2100篇文章 (8年) 花了三年的時間整理的終極片語, 豐富的例句中英對照 本書前面有53個重要的字根, 以及字首字尾整理 本書本的最後還整理了 兩個動詞make和take的慣用語的比較 只要購買字根200回影片講解 (雲端分享),贈送本書, 歡迎點選demo影片 ! ….. 我有個商品要賣『林威老師親編終極片語+影片講解200個字根』,售價$6,000!快到我的店鋪看看吧!https://shopee.tw/product/18811006/6072162816?smtt=0.18812342-1609723528.4 #蝦皮購物 incorporate 包含;將…包括在內 Suggestions from the survey have been incorporated into the final design. 調查中取得的建議已被納入最終的設計之中。 This aircraft incorporates several new safety features. 這種飛機具有幾個新的安全功能。 Business schools are beginning to incorporate teaching on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. 商學院開始將有關比特幣和加密貨幣的教學納入其中。 The new cars will incorporate a number of major improvements. 新車將進行許多重大改進。 Today's nonconformists and mavericks, though well grounded in jazz's history and repertoire, also incorporate elements of hip-hop, rock or classical music into their works. 當今的不循規蹈矩者和特立獨行者雖然紮根於爵士樂的歷史和曲目,但在他們的作品中也融入了嘻哈,搖滾或古典音樂的元素。 Nokia 6630 promises to be the world's smallest third-generation (3G) handset to incorporate a high-quality digital camera. It will also incorporate an MP3 music player and broadband internet access while weighing only 127g. 諾基亞6630有望內建高品質數位相機, 世界上最小的3G手機。它還將合併一個MP3音樂播放器和聯網功能,而重量僅為127克。 The cost, complexity and chaos of India's vc world is prompting many startups to try to incorporate elsewhere while they remain small. An analysis by Tracxn shows that of 73 saas firms that have received at least $20m each in funding, 50 have headquarters outside India. Many flee to Singapore, where expatriate managers can catch a six-hour flight to Delhi or Mumbai, which plenty do on a weekly basis. America is luring them with its vast market, better protection of intellectual property, lower taxes and a deep network of analysts, vc firms, lawyers and bankers. 印度風險投資世界的成本,複雜性和混亂正促使許多初創企業在規模較小的情況下嘗試將其整合到其他地方。 Tracxn的分析顯示,在73家saas公司中,每家至少獲得2000萬美元的資金,其中50家公司的總部設在印度以外。許多人前往新加坡,外籍管理人員可以乘飛機六個小時飛往德里或孟買,每週都有大量航班。美國以其廣闊的市場,更好的知識產權保護,更低的稅收以及廣泛的分析師,風險投資公司,律師和銀行家網絡吸引著印度新創公司。
In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Abhishek Goyal, Co-Founder of Tracxn. Tracxn, more popularly known as the Bloomberg for Private Markets, is a revolutionary vertical SaaS product making it easier for venture capital institutions, fortune 500 companies and other private equity firms to understand & deal with customised data in a comprehensive manner! Abhishek is an extremely thoughtful, kind and knowledgeable founder, who is almost always ready to help & support those making an attempt at shaping history! An early part of the Ecosystem, Abhishek worked with Accel in India as a venture capital investor for 3 years from 2008 to late 2010, before treading on his own entrepreneurial pathway with UrbanTouch. During these formative days, he tread the first journey as a Founder, witnessed the boom of the likes of Flipkart and observed the pain of the lack of automation as an Investor. Tracxn is now one of the leading players in their market, with a humongous presence across the entire globe, and backed some of the leading angel and institutional investors of the world. Strong fundamentals, great leadership, airtight processes, data-driven decisions and streamlined communication has led Tracxn to do incredibly well! Additionally, Abhishek also happens to be an extremely active angel investor and mentor to multiple founders, extending his hand of support almost always for the progress of the Ecosystem. Through this Episode we discuss the following: 1. (04:10) : What about the Indian Startup Ecosystem gets Abhishek going? 2. (09:33) : The GTM & Founding Journey of Tracxn 3. (11:55) : The advantages & disadvantages of Category Creating Products in SaaS 4. (16:02) : The secret to efficiency at Scale 5. (20:44) : Abhishek's Angel Investing Journey 6. (24:22) : The importance of Angel Investors for Founders 7. (27:11) : Understanding the importance of Board Constructs 8. (28:41) : Developing conviction & investing in a Company 9. (32:11) : Why trends are not too significant 10. (34:11) : Abhishek's Founder Persona - What is he chasing? 11. (36:40) : Prioritisation framework 12. (38:18) : Realising the Importance of "Help" 13.(41:25) : Abhishek's frameworks & tools to make decisions 14. (44:09) : The learnings in terms of Do Not's 15. (46:31) : The ONE trait which makes Founders stand out 16. (47:18) : Summary Here is the 39th Episode of the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Shaping History! Thank you all for tuning into this Episode! Abhishek shares some great value on LinkedIn, do check him out and follow him for great insights & value! We're available on Instagram & Twitter. Feel free to drop in your feedback! Do not forget to Subscribe to our WhatsApp Newsletter. I, Jivraj, am reachable on LinkedIn & Twitter! "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.
In this Episode, I speak with Neha Singh, Co-Founder of Tracxn. Tracxn is one of the largest platforms in the world to track Private Markets. It covers more than 300 tech sectors , 800+ themes, and has thousands of Large Corporations as Clients including the likes of Google, a16z and others! Tracxn has scale to more than 600 employees through the last 6+ years, and Neha tells us a lot of hiring and culture secrets through the Episode. Backed by the likes of marquee investors - Sequoia & Accel, 3one4, Prime & Elevation (Previously SAIF) and star angels like - Mr. Ratan Tata, Mr. Nandan Nilekani, Mr. Mohandas Pai, the Bansal Brothers, and others. Neha also talks about the importance of strategic partners, going beyond the 1st degree network, and aiming high! Neha is an IIT Bombay Alumnus, who has worked in BCG & Sequoia in the past. She's also completed her MBA from Stanford GSB, which is where they conceived the Tracxn first as well. A stellar personality who is very focused and dedicated, I learnt a lot from Neha. Hope you appreciate the insights around B2B Models, Product role-outs, Hiring & Culture, International Expansion and much more. Tune in to find out! Time Stamps (Coming Soon) We're available on Instagram & Twitter. Feel free to drop in your feedback! Subscribe to our WhatsApp Newsletter! I, Jivraj, am reachable on LinkedIn & Twitter!
"Being nice is a superpower in startup investing. There is a reason early individual investors in startup world are called angels and we all need to do everything to grow into that title". Hear how Abhishek Goyal, cofounder of Tracxn is working towards accelerating innovation globally through Tracxn and through angel investing and how he is most bullish about tomorrow than ever before. Abhishek is graduate from IIT Kanpur, worked with Yahoo and Amazon before joining Accel and then starting Tracxn. In various avatars (Accel, Tracxn Labs & personally), he has invested in 100+ startups over last 13 years which included names like Flipkart, Delhivery, Rupeek, Gameskraft, Airmeet, and Lafz.
In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Kshitij Shah, Principal at 3one4 Capital where he explains Startup Funding. 3one4 Capital manages over ₹1550 Crores, and has made some notable Investments across the last couple of years, including Luscious, YourStory, Yulu, Pocket Aces, Tracxn, etc. You can find more information about them here - https://www.3one4capital.com/ Kshitij is a Principal at 3one4, playing a pivotal role in driving the Investment thesis, the portfolio balance, and helping portfolio companies excel. Kshitij brings with him 10+ years of experience from the Valley. Kshitij with his Technical Prowess and Practical experience strikes the perfect balance between theory and practice, giving us a great flavour of both! Kshitij answers some extremely pertinent questions. He tells us Why we should raise capital, how we should utilise it, the typical process in fundraising and breaks down myths about the VC Industry. If you're starting out and looking to fundraise, this Episode will clarify all of your doubts! Tune in, as Kshitij explains to us what Startup Funding entails! This is also the10th Episode where I introduce the series From the VC Lens, where after every couple of episodes we get the VC Perspective on the Podcast! Stay tuned for more! We're available on Instagram & Twitter. Feel free to drop in your feedback! Subscribe to our WhatsApp Newsletter! I, Jivraj, am reachable on LinkedIn & Twitter!
The VCpreneur: Startups | Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Fundraising
In today's episode, Pranav Pai, Founding Partner @3one4 Capital joins our host Digjay, to share about his journey leading into venture capital, how 3one4 Capital differentiates itself from other VC funds, challenges of founding and managing a venture capital fund, the key metrics used at 3one4 Capital to measure it's performance as a VC fund and preparing their portfolio companies for a crisis. Pranav is a Founding Partner at 3one4 Capital - an early-stage venture capital fund based in Bangalore, India. The fund manages a corpus of ~INR 800 Cr (+$110MM) with a portfolio of 50+ early-stage investments across various technology, product, and platform companies in India and US. Pranav has been awarded the “35 under 35” Entrepreneurs of India for 2017 and the “40 under 40” Alternative Investments Professionals of India for 2020. Some of his investments include Licious, Betterplace, Open, Jupiter, ToneTag, DarwinBox, Faircent, Bugworks, Pocket Aces, YourStory, and Tracxn. Pranav is a Stanford Alum, and is the co-president of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs India. You can connect with him here on Linkedin / Twitter If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any of the major podcasting platforms like Spotify, Apple iTunes and Google Podcasts. Please leave us a review on Apple iTunes and help others discover this podcast. 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 Show notes – 1. Pranav's background and path to Venture Capital (VC) 2. How is 3one4 Capital different from traditional VC funds? 3. Attracting the best startups; Startup evaluation process at 3one4 Capital 4. Learnings from his time at Stanford and working in the Bay Area 5. Challenges of launching a Venture Capital fund 6. How does 3one4 Capital assess its own performance as a VC fund? What are the qualitative aspects that they focus on? 7. How to prepare yourself and your portfolio companies for a crisis; Surviving the pandemic 8. Rapid fire questions and closing remarks
The Desi VC: Indian Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startups | VC
Pranav Pai is the Founding Partner at 3one4 Capital, an early-stage VC firm based in Bangalore focused on investing in select market categories such as D2C, Media & Content, Fintech, Enterprise Automation and Deep Tech. Some of their portfolio companies include YourStory, Tracxn, DarwinBox, FairCent, MagicCrate among many others.Pranav is deeply involved with the startup ecosystem in India and he leads 3one4 Capital's partnerships and co-investments in the San Francisco Bay-Area as well. Through the fund, he has invested in over 50 companies in India and the US, and works closely with a funding ecosystem of over 20 different investment vehicles.Previously, he was the Sr. Product Manager at EdCast, an ed-tech startup in the Bay Area. He graduated with a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2013. Pranav serves on the board of several startups and also volunteers on the advisory boards and steering committees of non-profits that work in areas he is passionate about.You can follow Pranav (@pai_dpiper) and 3one4 Capital (@3one4capital) on Twitter. While you're at it you may also follow our host, Akash Bhat - @bhatvakash and visit us at thedesivc.com to know us better.…Glossary of terms you will encounter in this episode:1. NBFC – Non-Banking Financial Companies.2. Follow-on Funding: Follow-on funding is a subsequent investment made by an investor who has made a previous investment in a startup.3. Pro-rata: Pro-rata clause in an investment agreement which gives an investor a right (but not the obligation) to participate in one or more future financing rounds to maintain their percentage stake in the company.4. Anti-portfolio: Anti-portfolio are some of the great investments where you had the opportunity to participate but missed for one reason or many.5. Thematic Investing: Thematic investing is a form of investment which aims to identify macro-level trends, and the underlying investments that stand to benefit from the materialisation of those trends.…In this episode, you'll learn about:1. The motivation behind getting started in VC2. Why 3one4 Capital invests 50-80% into their own fund3. Pranav's take on investment trends, thesis development and parachute VCs4. How 3one4 Capital looks at collaborating with other VCs and why India is becoming a deeper venture market today5. How Pranav and his team identify great startups and the metrics they look for6. Geographies in India that are most exciting at the moment from an investment lens7. His anti-portfolio or in other words, the companies he ended up passing on…you do not want to miss this part!!8. One thing that changed the way the world looks at India and Indian startups9. How B2B startups are changing the game for the Indian ecosystem10. His tips for fund-raising