Podcasts about zetwerk

By 2047, India aims to become a $30 trillion economy as it celebrates 100 years of independence. Despite recent GDP slowing to 5.4% and inflation concerns, the India Progress Report 2024, co-authored by The Economic Times and Crisil projects stable growth, with the economy expected to hit $7 trillion by 2031. Driving this are infrastructure investments, manufacturing growth, and renewable energy expansion. While challenges like geopolitical risks and trade uncertainties persist, hopes arr pinned on private investments being unleashed and policy reforms. In this episode which is part of ET India Ascends, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to Dharmakirti Joshi, Chief Economist at Crisil, Josh Foulger president of consumer electronics business at Zetwerk, and Anmol Jaggi Co-Founder of Gensol Group, about how India can navigate risks and utilise opportunities to achieve its ambitious goals.Credits: Narendra Modi ET Podcasts now has a new show. 7@7 is your quick, sharp sub 5 minute daily roundup of financial news from India and the world. Tune in to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, Jio Saavn, Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts from! Check out other interesting episodes from the host like: Should we re-examine India’s ‘Growth Story’?, The 2024 Gold Rush, What Will Bitcoin 100k Mean For Indian investors?, Need For Speed To Fill The Skills ______, and more! You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: Twitter and Linkedin Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on ET Play, The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode 5 of PitchCraft, we put the spotlight on Zetwerk, a $2.8 Billion unicorn in the B2B e-commerce segment. We look at Zetwerk's pitch deck with its co-founder & CEO Amrit Acharya and one if its early investors, Prayank Swaroop from Accel. Watch how Zetwerk went from an idea to deck to finally a billion dollar unicorn. #Partnered.

Prayank Swaroop is a Partner at Accel, and joined the firm in 2011. He focuses on cybersecurity, developer tools, marketplaces, and SaaS investments. Some of the investments led by him are - Aavenir, Bizongo, Maverix, OnsiteGo, Securden, Slintel, Skeps, and Zetwerk. Prior to Accel, he worked at Adobe and Standard Chartered Bank in India and Singapore. He held positions across engineering, product marketing, pre-sales, and product management. He has an integrated master's degree in Mathematics and Computing from IIT Delhi and an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. . . . Episode Notes: What made Prayank take a bet on venture as a career path (3:38) Naivety in venture capital (7:10) Where is venture as of October 2023, post the global slow down (9:50)  Sectors that have shown massive potential in spite of it being a dull year in terms of venture activity (18:18) Insights gained by Prayank over the course of his ten years of investment experience (22:15) How to evaluate people as an investor (27:38) How would Prayank rebuild his career as an investor if given a chance to restart (38:37) Advice to founders (48:15) . . . Social Links: Follow Prayank on Twitter Follow ⁠Prayank on LinkedIn⁠ Follow ⁠The Desi VC on LinkedIn⁠ Follow ⁠Akash Bhat on Twitter⁠ Follow ⁠Akash Bhat on LinkedIn

Sasha Mirchandani is Managing Director and Founder of Kae Capital and Co-founder of Mumbai Angels. Kae Capital is a pioneer of early-stage investing in India, focused on tech startups, and has been investing in India for 10+ years. Founded in 2012, and based out of Mumbai and Bengaluru, Kae is a sector-agnostic fund that invests in pre-seed to pre-series A stages. Kae has a portfolio enterprise valuation of $8.52 billion, having invested in over 79 startups, with a portfolio mix of B2B and B2C startups. Some of the marquee names are Tata 1mg (health tech), @Zetwerk (manufacturing tech), Porter (logistics tech), 1K (B2B retail tech), and Wysa (health tech).Previously, Sasha was at BlueRun Ventures as Managing Director for the India operations. Before joining BlueRun Ventures he was CEO and Founder of Imercius Technologies. Earlier he was at Mirc Electronics (Onida) where he was Head of Corporate Affairs and new business. His investments include Inmobi, Healthkart,1Mg, Myntra, Porter and Fractal Analytics. Sasha sits on the Boards of Zee Entertainment, Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited, Nazara Technologies Limited, Healthkart and Mumbai Angels Venture Mentors among others. Previously he was on the Boards of Fractal Analytics, Myntra and Ador Welding.Sasha completed his Business Administration from Strayer University and MMDP program at IIM, Ahmedabad. He is a Charter Member at TiE Mumbai and was inducted into their 2019 Hall of Fame as an Outstanding Angel Investor. He is also the Past President of the Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) Mumbai.We will hear from him on:- The early-stage investing landscape in India and how it has evolved- The key factors that investors look for in a startup before making an investment- How to build a successful startup in today's competitive market- Common mistakes that startups make and how to avoid them- The future of early-stage investing and the opportunities it presents- His thoughts on Bangladesh's Startup Ecosystem

Join us as we talk to Amrit Acharya, the Co-founder and CEO of Zetwerk about their story. Meet Amrit Acharya, one of the co-founders of Zetwerk, an India-based online manufacturing platform that connects businesses with manufacturers. Amrit, along with co-founders Vishal Chaudhary, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, and Rahul Sharma, started Zetwerk in 2018, and it has since become a leading player in the Indian manufacturing industry. Amrit holds an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and completed his MBA from the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business in 2016. With a wealth of experience working with companies like McKinsey & Company, Monsanto Growth Ventures, ITC Limited, Avaya, and Robert Bosch, Amrit is dedicated to digitizing the manufacturing sector and making it more efficient, accessible, and transparent for businesses of all sizes. About Zetwerk: Zetwerk is a B2B manufacturing platform that connects businesses with suppliers to streamline the manufacturing process. The platform provides tools for businesses to manage their orders, track production progress, and collaborate with suppliers. It also allows suppliers to easily manage their orders, inventory, and production schedules The goal of Zetwerk is to make manufacturing more efficient and cost-effective for both businesses and suppliers by providing a seamless and transparent platform for communication and collaboration Today Zetwerk manufactures over 9M parts for 1,800 active customers delivering Indian made customer products to over 20 countries

Know what is harder than pivoting when the going gets tough? Pivoting when the going is good. On the surface, most metrics were scaling efficiently for Urban Company (previously UrbanClap) at the end of 2015. The tech company mainly generated leads for at-home service providers. But founders Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan, Raghav Chandra recognized that improving the experience of suppliers and customers would require deeper involvement. They needed to build a full stack marketplace with trained professionals. Eight years later, the company is valued at $2.8 billion. After proving their chops by taking the beauty industry online, Urban Company went on to digitally connect customers with a range of professional services including cleaning, repairs, electrical works, plumbing, and carpentry. When they first looked into the space, at-home services in India had been full of holes. The founders, all three from IIT Kanpur, knew that the problem had the potential to keep them busy for a lifetime. So they joined hands in 2014 to bring in organization and digitization. *** Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3UnptTO *** 0:00 - Introduction 1:20 - Origin story 4:10 - Early days 9:33 - Product-market fit 14:25 - Picking the right service 16:30 - Testbed 17:40 - Zero-to-one phase 21:15 - Scaling the company 24:30 - Key strategic decisions 27:40 - Value to service partners 32:40 - Disintermediation 34:10 - Creating value on both sides 36:30 - Navigating COVID 39:50 - Leadership and culture 43:20 - The future

At their core, marketplaces are in the business of efficiency. Deeply optimized supply was the need of the hour in the world of construction, where access to materials was fragmented and unreliable. Souvik Sengupta of Infra.Market and Prashanth Prakash of Accel talk about transforming the manner in which real estate companies buy for their projects. *** Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3UnptTO

What does it take to build a timeless marketplace? Time. Long-lasting marketplaces have little to do with restless hustling, and a lot to do with clear research and balancing gut calls with data calls. You can trust that bit of wisdom because it comes from Mukesh Bansal who knows the ups and downs of entrepreneurship in India more intimately than most. As founder of Myntra, head of commerce and advertising at Flipkart, and now as founder-CEO at Cult.fit, the relentless entrepreneur has sold fashion, fitness, and almost everything in between. Mukesh was one of the first startup folk to have brought the Bay Area ethos to the Bengaluru ecosystem. Over the last 15 years, he has steered companies through teething problems, pivoting and scaling missions, as well as acquisitions. In this part of a series of conversations sponsored by Accel, Mukesh shares his favourite entrepreneurial hits and misses. Joining him is Subrata Mitra of Accel who has been among Mukesh's earliest backers. He shares wisdom not just for the benefit of founders but also for venture capitalists as they go from backing two to four to 20 companies. Over the course of chatting with Pankaj Mishra, the duo sum up their journey so far in many quotable quotes. *** Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3DqT87o

Cutting out the intermediary helps many industries. Not so in manufacturing. It needed a middle layer. Suppliers routinely failed to deliver on time, and customers failed to pay on time. To improve trust and speed, Amrit Acharya and Srinath Ramakkrushnan introduced Zetwerk as a B2B marketplace for manufacturing in 2018. Zetwerk began as a hub for steel fabrication. Within six months, its business went from a topline of ₹1 crore a month to ₹10 crore a month. Since then, the company has expanded into more than 10 categories and is valued at $2.7 billion today. The company has transformed the space with high-quality products, increased transparency, and fewer and shorter delays. The backbone of its operation is technology. It uses dashboards to track each order at various stages in real time so that suppliers can stay on schedule and customers can get regular updates. Manufacturing appealed to Amrit because he had dabbled in it fresh out of college. In several ways, it prepared him for starting up – because ‘building' things from scratch is common to both worlds. In this part of a series of conversations sponsored by Accel, Zetwerk CEO Amrit Acharya participated along with Prayank Swaroop of Accel Partners, who has backed the company right from the early days. They discuss the brass tacks of setting up a B2B marketplace with Pankaj Mishra. * Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3DqT87o

Give someone a fish, you feed them for a day. Give someone reliable access to seafood in a supply-deprived industry, you go on to create a successful B2B marketplace for fish. Take it from Utham Gowda, the founder of Captain Fresh, an investment banker-turned-fisherman, so to speak. Three years after its birth in 2019, the company has raised $126.5 million in funding at a $500 million valuation. In an industry where the average level of spoilage is 20-30%, Captain Fresh manages to minimize waste in seafood shipments to 2-5%. It was in 2015, while scouting for viable sectors as an investment banker, that Gowda embarked on an aquatic adventure. He was helping a seafood player become IPO-ready. Some years of diving deep into fisheries revealed a fragmented, underserved industry begging for scientific solutions. There was a clear entrepreneurial opportunity, but few had even touched the space. Quite frankly, the waters were muddy. There was a combination of problems: High perishability, seasonality, varying tastes by region and so on. Gowda rose to that challenge with a combination of his own: Research, resources, and people. As an investment banker, he knows the importance of due diligence. As a single founder, he knows the importance of finding the right talent. And as someone who started up a little before COVID-19 hit, he knows the importance of planning and stress-testing. In this part of a series produced by Accel Partners, Gowda was joined by Barath Shankar Subramanian of Accel, a vegetarian who strongly backs the fish-fuelled business. In July 2021, after many Zoom calls between Subramanian's and Gowda's teams, Captain Fresh raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Accel. They talk to Pankaj Mishra, co-founder of digital media publication FactorDaily, about their journey. * Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3DqT87o

It's essential to keep things as simple as possible initially, with a total focus on understanding the consumer problem statement. Because when it comes to subscriptions, users drop off a lot — they are commitment-phobic. In the next stage, startups must know how to decentralise well. A founder cannot go on micromanaging a hundred things. Many startups fail because while they thought they solved a problem, they had no idea about its sustainability in terms of how it would scale economically. And as far as possible, until you hit product market fit, keep things as lean as possible. If you start hiring too many people for specific roles, it gets difficult to roll things back when they go wrong. Eventually, it all boils down to two questions: Who are you building for? Do they consumers like your product? In this conversation, Nandan Reddy and Phani Kishan from Swiggy and Accel's Anand Daniel share lessons learned while building and scaling their startup in a crowded market.*** Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys.Learn more: https://bit.ly/3DqT87o

India never had a strong manufacturing base. But that's changing today, thanks to the improved infrastructure. Zetwerk is a managed marketplace for contract manufacturing. The company partners with industrial and consumer businesses to create their goods through a global network of small manufacturers. Tune in to know about the evolution of manufacturing and Amrit's journey of building what he describes as a company running thousands of factories through software!Know about:- Idea of Zetwerk Pivoting to a managed marketplace Future roadmap Upcoming trends in the manufacturing sector

India's manufacturing sector, which contributes 18% of the country's GDP, is on the cusp of change. This highly labor intensive sector, which is plagued with logistical and technical issues, is undergoing a transformation as workers upskill and companies start to digitize their processes to improve efficiency. In 2018, Amrit Acharya, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Vishal Chaudhary, and Rahul Sharma launched Zetwerk, a B2B manufacturing network that offers companies manufacturing solutions across a wide variety of products. On this episode of Moonshot, we speak with Amrit Acharya, Co-Founder and CEO of Zetwerk and Shailesh Lakhani, Managing Director at Sequoia India, about how the startup is taking a bold bet to bring a centuries-old industry into the digital age.Show Notes: Fall in love with unsolved problems (5:40)“We built exactly what you wanted.”: The challenges of selling software in India (9:40)The answer to how you pivot your startup lies in user behavior (11:15)Taking on a centuries-old industry (16:28)Finding opportunity in adversity (20:24)Taking a software approach to building hardware (among other things) (23:39)Running an international business without an overseas footprint (27:30)“Done is better than perfect.” (29:30)Showcasing India's manufacturing potential (33:28)Paying it forward with Zetwerk Build (34:34)

Amrit Acharya, Co-Founder & CEO Zetwerk chats with Amit Somani, Managing Partner Prime Venture Partners.Listen to the podcast to learn about 02:00 - Falling in Love with Manufacturing12:00 - Finding Founder Market Fit18:00 - How to Choose the Right Idea31:30 - Making India Attractive to International Manufacturers40:00 - Don't Be In a Hurry to be a Large CompanyClick here to read the full transcriptFound Amrit's journey building Zetwerk inspiring?  Next, listen to Vidit Aatrey, Co-Founder & CEO Meesho talk about the early days of Meesho, team building, hiring and retaining talent at startups, importance of trust and accessibility in e-commerce and a lot more.Enjoyed 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

In der Mittagsfolge begrüßen wir heute Christian Eggert, Head of Product von Personio (ehemalig CEO und Co-Founder von Back), und sprechen mit ihm über eine erfolgreiche Aufstockung der Finanzierungsrunde von 200 auf 470 Millionen US-Dollar sowie über die Übernahme des Employee Experience Startups Back. Personio entwickelt eine HR-Plattform für Unternehmen zwischen 10 und 2.000 Mitarbeitenden. Dabei verfolgt der Software-Anbieter einen holistischen Ansatz und bietet eine All-in-One Lösung von Recruiting über Personalverwaltung bis hin zur Lohnabrechnung an. Das Startup wurde im Jahr 2015 von Ignaz Forstmeier, Hanno Renner, Roman Schumacher und Arseniy Vershinin in München gegründet. Mittlerweile hat die ganzheitliche HR-Plattform noch weitere Sitze in Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, London, Dublin und Amsterdam. Mit der People Workflow Automation wird ein Kundenstamm aus über 6.000 Unternehmen betreut. Das Münchner Startup hat die Übernahme des Berliner Startups Back angekündigt. Das junge Unternehmen bietet eine Employee Experience Lösung an, die wichtige Personalprozesse automatisiert. Mithilfe eines interaktiven Ticketsystems sowie von Wissensmanagement und Workflow-Automatisierung hilft die Software von Back Personalabteilungen bei der Bearbeitung von Mitarbeiteranfragen über alltägliche Kommunikationskanäle wie Slack oder Microsoft Teams und versendet automatisierte Antworten auf häufig gestellte Fragen. Diese Lösung lässt sich mit dem Ansatz der People Workflow Automation von Personio verbinden, um HR-Teams zu ermöglichen, abteilungs- und toolübergreifend zu arbeiten. Back wurde im Jahr 2018 von Christian Eggert und James Lafa gegründet. Nachdem Personio im Oktober 2021 eine Series-E-Finanzierungsrunde in Höhe von 200 Millionen US-Dollar abgeschlossen hatte, haben sie nun eine Aufstockung der Serie E auf 470 Millionen US-Dollar bekanntgegeben. Die zuletzt im Oktober 2021 ermittelte Unternehmensbewertung steigt damit im selben Zug von 6,3 Milliarden US-Dollar auf 8,5 Milliarden US-Dollar. Die erneute Finanzierungsrunde wurde von dem Bestandsinvestor Greenoaks angeführt. Der US-amerikanische Early-Stage Investor hat u.a. Canva, Discord, Deliveroo, Klaviyo, Zetwerk, Wiz, Vercel, TripActions, Toast, Tipalti, Sea, Scale.ai, Robinhood, Rippling, QuintoAndar, Papaya Global, Motive,Kavak, Flipkart, Databricks, Coupang, Cockroach Labs, Checkout.com, Brex, Airwallex, Airtable und Stripe im Portfolio. Das frische Kapital soll für die team- und applikationsübergreifende Automatisierung von Personalprozessen eingesetzt werden.

Broadcom is in talks to pay around $60 billion for VMware as the semiconductor giant looks to expand into cloud software for enterprises, Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. This would be one of the biggest takeover deals of the year. The two technology companies are aiming to announce a cash-and-stock deal worth about $140 a share on Thursday, assuming the talks don't fall apart, according to the Journal. A final price hasn't yet been decided. Klarna, the Swedish buy now, pay later company, backed by investors including SoftBank Group, is laying off 10 percent of its workforce, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told staff via a pre-recorded video call Monday, Protocol reports. “When we set our business plans for 2022 in the autumn of last year, it was a very different world than the one we are in today,” Siemiatkowski said in the announcement, which is also available as a blog post on the company's website. "The war in Ukraine, a shift in consumer sentiment, a steep increase in inflation, a highly volatile stock market and a likely recession,” are among the reasons for the layoff, according to the post. The company currently has about 7,000 employees, and a 10 percent cutback puts the number of affected workers at about 700, according to The Verge. The company is also looking for funding, at a valuation of around $30 billion, compared with its previous private valuation of $46 billion, Wall Street Journal reported last week. Infosys has been selected by Backcountry, an online retailer of outdoor gear and apparel, to deliver improved and secure digital experiences to customers, India's second-biggest IT services company said in a press release yesterday. 1K Kirana, a startup that provides technology to grocery stores, has raised $25 million in its Series B round, led by Alpha Wave Ventures, Economic Times reports. Info Edge Ventures, Kae Capital, and entrepreneurs including the founders of Zetwerk and GoMechanic have also invested in the funding round. Founded in late 2018 by Kumar Sangeetesh, Sachin Sharma and Abhishek Halder, 1K Kirana provides a technology platform for grocery stores in India's smaller cities and towns, according to ET. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

This week in Indian startup news, Zomato to launch 10-minute food delivery, Ola Electric to bring 5-minute EV charging to India, After Infra.Market, Income Tax Department raids Zetwerk and Reliance Retail acquires 89% stake in Clovia. In funding news, OfBusiness' lending arm Oxyzo raises $200 million, Plum raises $35 million and Leverage Edu raises $22 million. Zomato to launch 10-minute food delivery: Last year, it was grocery delivery that was disrupted by the 10-minute delivery startups and now Zomato has announced their plans to launch Zomato Instant to deliver your food in just 10 minutes at your doorsteps. They are planning to pilot Zomato Instant in Gurugram with four ‘finishing stations' - starting next month. Ola Electric to bring 5-minute EV charging to India: have partnered with an Israeli startup named StoreDot to bring their revolutionary 5 minute extreme fast charging technology to India. With this partnership, Ola will be getting exclusive rights to manufacture batteries integrating StoreDot's 5-minute charging technology. This means we can see Ola bringing 5-minute charging to their flagship electric scooters Ola S1 and Ola S1 Pro. After Infra.Market, Income Tax Department raids Zetwerk: Last week, we talked about how the IT (Income Tax) department was raiding the offices of Infra.Market - a B2B construction materials marketplace and now it's being reported that the startup had an undisclosed income of ₹224 crore. Now, a B2B marketplace for manufacturing items Zetwerk is also allegedly being investigated for tax evasion. The Income Tax department is conducting raids at their offices as well as their founder's homes. Reliance Retail acquires 89% stake in Clovia: Reliance Retail has acquired 89% stake in D2C women's innerwear brand Clovia in a deal worth ₹950 crore. This isn't the first time Reliance is acquiring a women's innerwear startup, in fact, this is their third such acquisition in three years - other two being Zivame (in 2020) and Amante (in 2021) and now Clovia. OfBusiness' lending arm Oxyzo raises $200 million: OfBusiness' lending arm Oxyzo has raised $200 million in a round led by Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global – making them India's 13th unicorn of 2022. Plum raises $35 million: D2C beauty brand Plum has raised $35 million in a round led by A91 Partners to help strengthen their omnichannel strategy by scaling their exclusive outlets to 12-15 in the next 2-3 months, add more products in categories beyond skincare, and expand their geographical reach. Leverage Edu raises $22 million: Edtech startup Leverage Edu which offers a one-stop platform for students to help them study abroad has raised $22 million to expand their presence in existing markets like Australia, India and Nigeria and to plan an initial launch in new markets like the US.

The first week of the new year wasn't great with the third wave of Covid just falling upon us like a Tsunami but when it came to Business, it was a tornado of fundings, and Varun & Suchita list out a few of the most significant ones. Further, they discuss Apple's 3Tn Market Cap, Bezos' CharaghDin uncle look for NYE, Blackberry being laid to rest. In the short segment, they cover the evolution of the Indian Alco-Bev, and Fashion segments, and finally deep dive into GoodGlamm's next step and India's Thrasio models. All this and much more served fresh!You can follow Varun Duggirala on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/varunduggi and on Instagram at https://instagram.com/varunduggiFollow Suchita Salwan on Twitter at https://twitter.com/suchitasalwan and on Instagram at https://instagram.com/suchitasalwanListen to this show and other awesome shows on the new and improved IVM Podcasts App on Android or iOS.

This week in Indian startup news, Capillary Technologies files for IPO, Ola Electric disappoints customers, and MamaEarth acquires Momspresso. In funding news, MamaEarth raises $37.5 million to become a unicorn, GlobalBees raises $111.5 million to become a unicorn, Zetwerk raises $210 million, and Jupiter raises $86 million. Capillary Technologies files for IPO: SaaS-based customer engagement startup Capillary Technologies has filed for an IPO and they plan to raise Rs 850 crore. Out of the Rs 850 crore, Rs 650 crore will come from existing investors selling their stake – which means the primary aim of the IPO is to provide their investors with an exit. Ola Electric Disappoints Customers: Now that Ola has finally started shipping their electric scooters after multiple delays, they are now facing new problems. This time the customers are disappointed with their Ola S1 and S1 pro as they complain about receiving defective products with scratches and dents. While some even complain of receiving scooters that do not hold up to the promise of the range offered by the startup. On the other hand, the startup is now busy setting up their EV chargers as they plan to set up 4,000 chargers by the end of 2022. MamaEarth acquires Momspresso: Honasa Consumer, the parent company of D2C baby care brand MamaEarth, has acquired women-focused parenting platform Momspresso and its affiliate micro-influencer marketing platform Momspresso MyMoney. This acquisition is a part of MamaEarth's strategy of leveraging content to grow their D2C brands. MamaEarth raises $37.5 million to become a unicorn: D2C baby and mother care brand MamaEarth has raised $37.5 million in a round led by Sequoia – making them India's 42nd unicorn of 2021. GlobalBees raises $111.5 million to become a unicorn: Thrasio-style D2C house of brands GlobalBees has raised $111.5 million in a round led by Premji Invest at a $1.07 billion valuation – making them India's second fasted unicorn and 43rd unicorn of 2021. Zetwerk raises $210 million: B2B marketplace for manufacturing services Zetwerk has raised $210 million in a round led by Greenoaks Capital doubling their valuation from $1.33 billion to $2.68 billion in just four months. Jupiter raises $86 million: Neobanking startup Jupiter has raised $86 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management, QED and Sequoia Capital at a $711 million valuation to develop and add more banking products for their customers - they plan on introducing a lending feature by April and a wider range of investment products later in the year.

About a week ago, an Indian startup founder quipped on Twitter that the definition of a ‘Unicorn' as used in the venture capital industry should now change to $1 billion of funding raised. The term currently refers to a startup that reaches a valuation of $1 billion. He was commenting on the flurry of unicorns that have been created globally. The term was originally coined by US venture capitalist Aileen Lee in 2013 when there were just 39 startups globally that fit the definition, which has not changed since then.  Achieving the milestone was once considered elusive. But India's example shows the term unicorn no longer holds the same weight as before. In a blockbuster year for startup funding, India saw creation of 42 unicorns, a three times jump from 11 new unicorns in 2020 and nine in the previous year. Starting with Digit Insurance on January 15 to Pristyn Care on December 8, the unicorns came from a range of sectors. The 42 companies are collectively valued at more than $90 billion. The year also saw the fastest and the slowest unicorns. Mensa Brands, which acquires Direct-to-Consumer fashion, home and personal care labels, became a unicorn in just six months. While in March, Chennai-based NBFC Five Star Business Finance achieved the status after 37 years in existence. Fintech was arguably the biggest contributor to the unicorn universe this year. CRED, Groww, Zeta, BharatPe, Mobikwik, Upstox, Slice were the seven fintech additions. While edtech industry leader Byju's became a decacorn this year with $18 billion valuation, three of its rivals joined the unicorn club this year -- Eruditus, upGrad and Vedantu. Indian edtech startups have gained greater investor confidence after China mandated all online education companies to register as non-profits.   Despite regulatory uncertainty, India also saw two crypto unicorns in CoinDCX and CoinSwitch Kuber. The B2B commerce space too saw a fundraising frenzy with Infra. Market, Moglix, ofBusiness and Zetwerk turning unicorns. The funding activity this year was led by Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, SoftBank Group and Accel. As it rained unicorns, it has also been the year of startup IPOs. The listing of Zomato, Nykaa, PolicyBazaar and Paytm were a big boost to the startup ecosystem as it showed that India can give an exit path to investors. China's crackdown on tech companies has helped India bolster its attractiveness as an emerging market alternative. Early-stage venture capital fund 3one4 Capital predicts that India will be home to more than 150 unicorns by 2025. The unprecedented funding boom is expected to spill over to the next year as well, helped by India's rapid adoption of technology and innovative offerings from startups. With another nine days left in the year, it is likely that we may see a few more surprise announcements. Watch video

In this episode, you will learn:Prayank's journey from IIT Delhi to becoming a VCHow did Prayank discover venture capital as a complete beginner? How did his missed opportunity with Flipkart lead him to Accel?What are some unique customer acquisition and retention strategies that Accel's portfolio companies employ?Why does Prayank give precedence to NPS while evaluating product-market fit?What is the Accel Atoms Program? How does it aim to aid founders?What are the 5 Why(s) that Prayank asks before choosing any startup?Do founders really get to pick and choose between different VCs?What is the B2B thesis of Accel?What is the one quality shared by all smart founders?What are Accel's plans for Southeast Asia?Prayank's take on the evolution of the Indian startup ecosystem, the pros and cons of arriving a little late to the party.AboutPrayank is a Partner at Accel, and joined the firm in 2011. He focuses on cybersecurity, developer tools, marketplaces, and SaaS investments. Some of the investments led by him are - Aavenir, Bizongo, Maverix, OnsiteGo, Securden, Slintel, Skeps, and Zetwerk. Prior to Accel, he worked at Adobe and Standard Chartered Bank in India and Singapore. He held positions across engineering, product marketing, pre-sales, and product management. Prayank is from Ghaziabad. He has an integrated master's degree in Mathematics and Computing from IIT Delhi and an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. 

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Amrit Acharya, Co-Founder & CEO of Zetwerk. Zetwerk is phenomenally disrupting the manufacturing industry across the globe as we know it. It is a B2B marketplace focused on make-to-order custom manufacturing and is one of India's leading startups, redefining benchmarks of speed, growth, profitability and value creation. Founded less than 4 years ago, Zetwerk found a very unique whitespace with custom manufacturing and doubled down in an unprecedented manner. It is a profitable unicorn with a last reported valuation of more than 1.5Bn Dollars, generating incredible value for each of its stakeholders periodically reporting great fundamental numbers & multiple buy-backs for the team. Through this conversation, we decode how this rocketship unfolded and how they continue to innovate. Here is what we discuss - 1. (2:41) : Amrit's journey to becoming a founder // Being deliberate about choices! 2. (06:14) : Identifying white-spaces in Entrepreneurship ~ the Journey to starting Zetwerk! 3. (11:11) : Practising ~ "Listening to the Consumer" 4. (14:17) : Stakeholder Management for a diverse target group with Zetwerk! 5. (17:43) : Achieving Operational Excellence with Zetwerk 6. (22:33) : Building & Managing a sustainable Growth Engine 7. (27:05) : Attracting Talent for a rather unsexy business 8. (30:25) : Taking Indian Manufacturing to the World

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Ishpreet Singh Gandhi, Founder & Managing Partner of Stride Ventures. Stride Ventures is a leading Indian venture capital firm that provides alternative financing options for startups beyond equity financing! The audacious goal for Stride is to become the Startup Bank of India and in less than 3 years of its inception it has amazed us all with the phenomenal progress it has made. Stride has raised 2 successive funds in this duration and has a portfolio of greater than 30 companies including legendary companies such as Sugar Cosmetics, Zetwerk, Infra.market, Pocket Aces and more! Through the Episode we discuss the following: 1. (02:16) : What does Category Creation in Venture Capital mean? 2. (06:29) : Role of Evangelism in Venture Debt! 3. (10:57) : How to simplify technical financial concepts for the Ecosystem? 4. (14:28) : What does PMF look like for companies from this side of the table? 5. (16:45) : How does Stride build Conviction into Companies when funding them? 6. (20:29) : Common Patterns across Companies invested in! 7. (24:18) : How important is the requirement for Good Governance from the start? 8. (27:58) : What does Stakeholder Management mean for a Venture Debt Fund? 9. (32:00) : The mission & vision of Stride ~ Building the Startup Bank of India! 10. (35:10) : Building Distribution and Expanding the Product Suite for Stride Ventures 11. (37:57) : Gathering the best talent + Inculcating Culture at Stride 12. (41:52) : How has Ishpreet evolved over the last 3 years of building Stride? 13. (45:16) : How does Ishpreet prioritise and make decisions? 14. (47:10) : Tackling the adverse situations as a First Time Fund Manager 15. (49:46) : Figuring out the motivation behind the constant Short Term Execution & Long Term Vision! 16. (52:07) : Conclusion Hope you liked the 70th Episode of the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Building the Startup Bank of India! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 I am Jivraj, the host and if you have anything you would like to share with me, feel free to reach out via: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jivrajsinghsachar/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jivraj_sachar Or, you can directly reach out to me via WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/Indian_Silicon_Valley_Podcast You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

India is becoming the world's fastest-growing startup ecosystem with over 60+ Unicorn Startups, out of which 25+ have gained their Unicorn status in 2021 itself. One of the youngest amongst them is headed by the guest of our today's episode, Amrit Acharya, Co-founder & CEO, Zetwerk. Zetwerk started in 2018, with the idea to help manufacturing managers with managing several suppliers with ease using a dashboard, as previously the role had been very “manual and prone to errors”. The product was great, but when they reached out to potential customers, they didn't get a very optimistic response. Instead these customers wanted a marketplace solution where they could discover and connect with new suppliers. And that's what led to Zetwerk's pivot within 6 months of starting up.Currently Zetwerk helps its customers reduce costs, optimize suppliers and execute production faster. Some stats relating to its current scale - # 15+ Countries - North American, Indo-Pacific & Middle Eastern regions# 25+ Industries - Oil & Gas, Aerospace, Automotive, Construction, Mining & more# 100+ Retained happy customers# 1000+ projectsDuring the episode, Amrit talks in-depth about the nitty-gritty of the manufacturing sector, what are some of the key focus points for customers and much more.Notes - 01:29 - Revenue and scale at Zetwerk04:26 - Solving for market access & capital expenditures for small manufactures05:31 - Zetwerk's revenue model10:15 - Time v/s Quality in manufacturing18:30 - Nature of retained customers20:47 - Order size from $1000 to $30 Mn24:32 - Creating a catalogue for the uncatalogued market36:15 - Approach as an entrepreneur during fundraising

This week in Indian Startup News, CRED and BharatPe foray into P2P lending, Ola and Ola Electric IPO Plan 2022, Police gets three weeks to probe Ashok Saxena's Paytm claims, NSE prohibits stock trading platforms from selling digital gold, CarTrade IPO – stock lists at a discount and Delhivery acquires Spoton Logistics. In funding news, Zetwerk raises $150 million to become a unicorn, Khatabook raises $100 million and Curefoods raises $13 million. CRED and BharatPe foray into P2P lending: CRED has launched their P2P lending service called CRED Mint that will allow their users to lend to other users at an interest rate of up to 9% per annum in partnership with LiquiLoans. On the other hand, BharatPe has launched their P2P lending product 12% Club – which is aimed at allowing individual users to lend directly to their merchant partners at an interest rate of up to 12% per annum. Ola's electric car and IPO plans: Indian cab aggregator Ola has announced that they will IPO in 2022 and Bhavish Aggarwal also announced his plans to launch Ola's electric car in 2023. CarTrade IPO – stock lists at a discount: After a successful IPO, CarTrade's stock was listed on both NSE and BSE at a 1% discount and has continued to fall since. NSE prohibits stock trading platforms from selling digital gold: NSE has directed stockbroking platforms from buying and selling digital gold as it violates SEBI's rules. This decision will affect stockbroking platforms like Upstox, Paytm Money and Groww - they have until 10th September to comply with NSE's notice. Police gets three weeks to probe Ashok Saxena's Paytm claims: When the police failed to file Ashok Kumar Saxena's complaint against Paytm, he went to Delhi's district court and the court has now given the Police three weeks to probe his claims and file a report. Delhivery acquires Spoton Logistics: Logistics unicorn Delhivery has acquired Spoton Logistics to help them strengthen their logistics delivery network and get in new customers ahead of Delhivery's IPO which is expected next year. Zetwerk raises $150 million to become a unicorn: B2B manufacturing marketplace Zetwerk has raised $150 million led by D1 Capital Partners at a $1.33 billion valuation – making them India's latest unicorn. Khatabook raises $100 million: Digital bookkeeping platform Khatabook has raised $100 million at a $600 million valuation from Tribe Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures to help small businesses to digitize their business operations. Curefoods raises $13 million: Cloud kitchen startup Curefoods has raised $13 million led by Iron Pillar to expand the presence of their cloud kitchens to more cities across the country.

Amrit is the co-founder and CEO of Zetwerk, a B2B marketplace focused on make-to-order custom manufacturing. In this episode Amrit spoke about transforming Indian manufacturing industry as the next go to destination for the world, simplifying complex sales cycles, increasing customers' life time value and more in his interview with Roshan Cariappa. Key highlights: (00:00) Introduction (01:06) Amrit's journey thus far (03:12) Controlling last mile delivery (05:41) Advice on building in the Manufacturing space (08:49) Zetwerk's value proposition to large enterprises (12:34) Simplifying complex sales cycles (15:01) Increasing LTV of customers (17:18) Managing supply & demand (19:01) Aligning different offerings to a single mission (20:29) Scaling an offline business (23:01) Funding the right experiments (25:25) Hiring and Enabling people (27:42) Amrit's mindset shift for Zetwerk to succeed (30:25) India as the next manufacturing destination of the world (33:11) Being part of the Indian startup ecosystem (35:26) Amrit's Books/Podcasts recommendations ------------------------------------- Connect with Amrit: Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/amrit-acharya/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/acharyaamrit?s=20 ------------------------------------- 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

An Indian startup that operates a business-to-business marketplace for manufacturing items is the latest to attain the coveted unicorn status in the South Asian market. Bangalore-based Zetwerk said on Monday it has raised $150 million in a Series E financing round led by New York based D1 Capital Partners.

This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here. I also tweet.Today's show was good fun to put together. Here's what we got to:Global stocks are up to kick off the week. It's a great way to start Monday, frankly.Thinking broadly, the latest regulatory news from China regarding ByteDance is not super bullish for the nation's tech industry. And what the Indian government is doing to its own technology industry is not encouraging. But all of that and tension between the two countries, is not stopping deals. You can't stop deals!Facebook bowed to pressure, and released a content report that it had previously shelved.Zetwerk raised a $150 million Series E. The Indian startup scene is trucking right along, perhaps acting a bit as-if its government wasn't increasingly authoritarian.Shelf.io raised a $52.5 million Series B in what we're somewhat considering a classic Tiger-led deal.And the SPAC boom is not over yet, with yet another Virgin space company headed for the public markets.Woo! And that's the start to the week. Hugs from here, and we'll chat you on Wednesday!

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here. I also tweet.Today's show was good fun to put together. Here's what we got to:Global stocks are up to kick off the week. It's a great way to start Monday, frankly.Thinking broadly, the latest regulatory news from China regarding ByteDance is not super bullish for the nation's tech industry. And what the Indian government is doing to its own technology industry is not encouraging. But all of that and tension between the two countries, is not stopping deals. You can't stop deals!Facebook bowed to pressure, and released a content report that it had previously shelved.Zetwerk raised a $150 million Series E. The Indian startup scene is trucking right along, perhaps acting a bit as-if its government wasn't increasingly authoritarian.Shelf.io raised a $52.5 million Series B in what we're somewhat considering a classic Tiger-led deal.And the SPAC boom is not over yet, with yet another Virgin space company headed for the public markets.Woo! And that's the start to the week. Hugs from here, and we'll chat you on Wednesday!

Welcome to #38 episode of The Startup Operator Roundup. Special guest Digjay Patel joins Roshan Cariappa and Gunjan Saha to discuss - 1. Fundraises by Ultrahuman, Rapido, Smallcase, Zupee 3. India's most valuable SaaS - Postman 4. Mint - Cred's latest lending product 5. MSME credit by Facebok 6. New Unicorn - Zetwerk 7. Behind the scenes of Food Delivery Business Hit the like button if enjoyed this roundup, and do not forget to share among your operator friends! Listen to our interviews and conversations with investors, operators, and founders on your favourite podcast platforms. #startups #unicorns #technology #roundup #podcast #news --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message

This week in Indian Startup News, Bellatrix Aerospace becomes the first Indian private company to develop and test a hall effect thruster, Zetwerk forays into aerospace and defense, Paytm could launch India's biggest IPO ever, RBI orders all mobile wallets to become interoperable, Pharmeasy acquires Medlife, upGrad acquires Impartus, Tata in talks to acquire CureFit, PolicyBazaaar fined $33,000 for sending misleading SMS, WhatsApp is suing the Indian government over privacy rights violation and Twitter vs Indian government. In funding news, Oyo is looking to raise $600 million in debt, Zeta raises $250 million to become a unicorn, FarEye raises $100 million, Locus in talks to raise $60 million, InVideo in talks to raise $40 million and Koo raises $30 million. Bellatrix Aerospace becomes the first Indian private company to develop and test a hall effect thruster: Bellatrix Aerospace, the startup that wants to build a space taxi for satellites, has successfully tested India's first privately developed hall effect thruster – which is an electric propulsion system for microsatellites weighting 50-500 kg. Zetwerk forays into aerospace and defense: Online B2B marketplace for manufacturing products Zetwerk has set up a facility to start manufacturing aerospace and defense products. Paytm could launch India's biggest IPO ever: Paytm is planning to launch India's biggest IPO ever this November – could raise $3 billion at a valuation of up to $30 billion. RBI orders all mobile wallets to become interoperable: RBI has ordered all mobile wallet operators like PhonePe, Paytm and Google Pay to make their mobile wallets interoperable by 1st April 2022. You will be able to transfer money across mobile wallets using UPI. Pharmeasy acquires Medlife: Pharmeasy has acquired Medlife and discontinued Medlife – onboarding all their customers on its own platform making it India's largest healthcare delivery platform. upGrad acquires Impartus: Edtech startup upGrad has acquired video-based learning solutions provider Impartus and they will be rebranding it as upGrad Campus. Tata in talks to acquire CureFit: Tata is looking to acquire health and fitness startup CureFit as it plans its Super App. PolicyBazaaar fined $33,000 for sending misleading SMS: PolicyBazaar was fined $33,000 for sending misleading SMS to its customers regarding the increase in insurance premium prices. WhatsApp is suing the Indian government over privacy rights violation: WhatsApp is suing the Indian government over the new IT rules which asks them to identify the ‘first originator of information' – which is seen as a violation of privacy rights by the tech giant. Twitter vs Indian government: After Twitter labelled a tweet from a BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra as ‘manipulated media', Delhi Police was sent to Twitter's offices in Delhi and Gurgaon to hand them the notice of the inquiry. Oyo is looking to raise $600 million in debt: Oyo looks to be in trouble as the hospitality giant is looking to get a loan worth $600 million for investors. Zeta raises $250 million to become a unicorn: Banking tech startup Zeta has raised $250 million led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 – making it India's latest unicorn. FarEye raises $100 million: FarEye has raised $100 million in a round led by TCV and Dragoneer Investment Group. Locus in talks to raise $60 million: Locus is in talks to raise $60 million from Singapore government's GIC. InVideo in talks to raise $40 million: Online video editing platform InVideo is in talks to raise $40 million. Koo raises $30 million: Indian version of Twitter for regional language users Koo has raised $30 million led by Tiger Global Management as the Indian government's relationship with American social media giants like WhatsApp and Twitter turns sour.

Here is everything interesting happening in and around the startup world for the day along with an interesting discussion with Amrit Acharya, CEO & Co-founder, Zetwerk Manufacturing on this episode of #DailyDispatch by YourStory Read more at: https://yourstory.com/video/daily-dispatch-yourstory-wednesday-24th-march Facebook: www.facebook.com/yourstorycom Instagram: www.instagram.com/yourstory_com Twitter: www.twitter.com/YourStoryCo YouTube: www.youtube.com/yourstorytv Write to us: podcast@yourstory.com Hosted by Priya Sheth on March 24, 2021. Presented by Julius Sharma!

To learn more about the nuances of early-stage startup investing, we have with us today Prayank Swaroop, a Partner at Accel, who invests in B2B, Consumer Brands, and Fintech. He has invested in multiple startups solving problems specifically for Indian Businesses across sectors. He focuses on cybersecurity, developer tools, marketplaces, and SaaS investments. Some of the investments led by him are - Aavenir, Bizongo, Maverix, OnsiteGo, Securden, Sintel, Skeps, and Zetwerk. Prior to Accel, he worked at Adobe and Standard Chartered Bank in India and Singapore. He held positions across engineering, product marketing, pre-sales, and product management. In this episode, we talk about - - How has early-stage investing changed? (02:35) - Entrepreneurship as a career choice (05:45) - Attracting top entrepreneurs (09:10) - Mentoring entrepreneurs (12:12) - Institutionalising knowledge (15:56) - Identifying the right partners (19:23) - Overcoming challenges (27:53) - Tackling small market sizes (32:43) - Prayank's investment thesis (43:15) - SaaS wave in India (48:44) - SaaS Valuations (52:12) ----------------------- Found this episode informative? Let us know by hitting the like button & subscribing to our podcast. You can also Tweet or DM us on - LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator Twitter - https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message

Thanks for listening to another episode of The Indian Dream.Join our WhatsApp group here: https://bit.ly/2LgDN2nWe're looking for social media interns! You can email us at theindiandream20@gmail.comAs always, Business Munchies is an exploration of business ideas and how they can be leveraged in order to build new businesses or scale up existing businesses. This week, we had an interesting line up of strange ideas, we hope you like them!Timestamps:(0:24)    - Update on the Seasonal Fruit D2C Idea(2:10)    - Trend of Urban people moving to build High Tech Farms(5:08)    - Modernising Direct Selling Agents (DSA's) for Bank(16:02) - Modernising Real Estate Agents(24:45) -Branding(34:26) -Zetwerk for JewelleryBusiness Ideas Discussed on this Episode:Update on the Seasonal Fruit D2C Idea: Sahil got an update from his friend who built this kind of business in the past. His friend said that, "Indian avocados are seasonal, I had not come up with products to sell in this offseason. There were chances of low quality produce. Last mile delivery was not as established as it is today." These problems can be easily overcome with today's infrastructure and somebody can build this business. The customer base will remain the same across different fruits and seasons.Trend of Urban people moving to build High Tech Farms: Seaweed farming was discussed in the Union Budget and we dug deeper into it and found the largest Indian farmer and processor. We found the 3rd largest Indian farmer of Mushrooms as well. High tech farming of new age crops like Mushroom & Seaweeds are increasing across the country in addition to the latest techniques such as hydroponics. We'll explore all these ideas in detail in future trends episodes.Modernising Direct Selling Agents (DSA's) for Banks: Siddharth has previous work experience in B2B lending and during this time he saw how far behind the technological curve Banks and NBFC's really are. DSA's, who sell unsecured loans for banks, are a market of more than 1000 crores across India, get commissions of about 3-3.5% on the loan size but operate their entire business on paper without any digitisation. There is space for a newcomer to digitise the customer relationships (think policy bazaar but for B2B lending) and streamline the loan disbursement process to make it much simpler.Modernising Real Estate Agents: We were inspired by this tweet which said that "Real Estate Agent has to be, on average, the laziest group of professionals. I guess that's why the few that are highly-competent hustlers clean up." This Tweet was referring to American Real Estate agents but we feel like it applies to Indian agents as well. This is a huge market and it is ripe for disruption in the way it operates, right from CRM softwares for Real Estate Agents (all of them use whatsapp right now) to a new way to sell houses online.Branding: Branding is more important than ever in today's world because it is so simple to build businesses these days. However, there is still a big demand supply gap between good branding/digital marketing agencies and what is actually needed in the market. We discuss the various branding related businesses that you can build including an automated product photography software which allows you to upload a green screen photo of your product and then automatically puts that product in more appealing settings and backgrounds. Zetwerk for Jewellery: Inspired by a Tweet by Siddharth 

The AJVC team gets together to discuss Zetwerk and their incredible journey taking India's manufacturers global. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece Can Zetwerk be the Unicorn Helping Manufacturers Get Work? More info on: ajuniorvc.com

In this episode, Sasha Mirchandani, Founder & Managing Partner @Kae Capital & Co-founder @Mumbai Angels, joins our host Digjay, to talk about his learnings from investing in startups over the last 2 decades – from being an angel investor in early 2000s to starting his own VC fund in 2012, how Kae Capital leverages it's LPs to add value to their portfolio startups, building a legacy VC fund, Sasha's list of anti-portfolio startups (Oyo, Ola, Meesho, Unacademy) & key learnings from these missed opportunities. Sasha founded Kae Capital in 2012 which is a Mumbai based sector agnostic VC fund that usually invests in seed stage startups. Some of its investments include 1mg, Nua, Porter, Zetwerk among others. Previously, Sasha was a Managing Director at Blue Run Ventures India, CEO and Founder of Imercius Technologies and Head of Corporate Affairs/New Businesses at Mirc Electronics (Onida). Sasha founded Mumbai Angels in 2006 which is among the top angel investment networks in India that connects startups with investors & professionals willing to invest in them. Sasha is among the first batch of angel investors in the country, is known for making early investments in companies like Fractal, InMobi & Myntra and was recently inducted in TiE Mumbai's Hall of Fame as an Outstanding Angel Investor. 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 to 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 on Linkedin & Twitter ---- Show notes – 1. (01:34) Sasha's background; Starting Mumbai Angels in 2006 2. (03:54) Initial learnings as an angel investor 3. (07:09) Difference in investment approach between a VC and an angel investor 4. (09:04) About Kae Capital – Thesis, Fund size and portfolio composition 5. (10:36) What should VCs consider when choosing their LPs? Leveraging LPs to support portfolio startups 6. (14:39) Exit criteria for VCs; Why VCs need to put more thought on mitigating risks post investment and timing their exits? 7. (17:23) Learnings from his anti-portfolio and avoiding biases when evaluating startups 8. (19:49) Improvement in founder quality over the past 2 decades 9. (22:54) Rapid fire and closing remarks

Amrit Acharya is the cofounder and CEO of Zetwerk which is an online marketplace that connects buyers and suppliers for manufacturing jobs. The company has raised over $60 million from top tier investors such as Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital India, InnoVen Capital, and Kae Capital to name a few. 

Scott Johnson returns to discuss four VC deals from July 2020. The companies we discuss in this episode are Bond Financial Technologies, Cityblock Health, Zetwerk, and Cover.