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IVY Growth Associates’ “21BY72 Startup Summit” a resounding success

VCCircleVCCircle · 1y ago
IVY Growth Associates’ “21BY72 Startup Summit” a resounding success
Medial

The "21BY72 Startup Summit" organised by IVY Growth Associates was a major success, attracting over 20,000 participants including startup founders, investors, and industry leaders. The event provided networking opportunities and insights into technology, business, and entrepreneurship trends. Notable speakers included Anupam Mittal, founder of shaadi.com, and Bollywood actress Radhika Madan. The summit, aiming to strengthen the startup ecosystem, featured a live pitching event where startups presented their ideas to investors and advisors. IVY Growth Associates has invested in various sectors and is focused on expanding its global corridor connecting angel investors and startups. The summit positioned Surat as a promising startup hub in India.

LP Summit Dubai 2024: Digitalization to lead UAE’s investment strategy, say panellists

VCCircleVCCircle · 9m ago
LP Summit Dubai 2024: Digitalization to lead UAE’s investment strategy, say panellists
Medial

- UAE is shifting its investment strategy towards manufacturing and technology, moving away from its traditional oil sector. - The country aims to unlock its potential in fast-growing technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and recognizes the importance of these technologies in driving economic growth. - The VCCircle LP Summit 2024 in Dubai featured panellists discussing the digitalization and investment strategies of the UAE. - Ayas Al Gul, Group Finance Director at United Technology Holding, and Marwan Jassim Al Sarkal, Managing Partner at Chapter 3 LLC, were among the speakers at the summit. - The summit highlighted the UAE's commitment to embracing innovative technologies and diversifying its economy to stay ahead in the global market.

Evify brings last-mile delivery to non-metro cities with EV logistics

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Evify brings last-mile delivery to non-metro cities with EV logistics
Medial

India’s electric vehicle market is set to be worth nearly $114 billion in 2029 with a CAGR of 66.5%, according to a report by Fortune Business Insights. The exponential growth in the EV space comes on the back of the government focus on sustainable mobility, increased VC capital infusion in the industry, and consumers’ wide embrace. Surat-based Evify is one of the relatively new startups that is looking to stand out with its strategy to focus on logistics in non-metro cities. Founded in 2021, Evify has essentially set up a facility where riders can come to their hub, pick up an EV to start deliveries, and return the vehicle at the end of the day. The company takes care of the maintenance of the vehicles. The startup currently operates in Surat and Ahmedabad, and has facilitated 11 lakh deliveries in the last one year. We spoke to the company co-founder and CEO Devrishi Arora to learn more about Evify, the idea behind the logistics EV startup, business model, and more. Here are the edited excerpts. What do you think are the key challenges in the emobility space? Since we come from a non-metro city, where the EV eco system is still at the nascent stage, there is no infrastructure available for the smooth functioning of the vehicles. There’s a scarcity of charging stations, inconveniencing EV users. Secondly, delivery riders lack awareness of EV benefits and savings. Thirdly, high initial EV costs, compounded by elevated RTO charges in states like Gujarat, and a scarcity of repair stations inflate expenses. Fourthly, concerns about EV range and charging infrastructure persist, particularly in Tier II cities with longer distances. Fifthly, limited availability of EVs and components, coupled with inadequate after-sales service, hampers adoption. Lastly, overcoming perceptions of EVs as less reliable requires client confidence, which we foster through pilot projects. How are you using technology to solve these challenges? We have also installed all the vehicles with telematics devices which helps us to geofence the vehicles, remote immobilization, study the rider driving pattern as well as idle time pattern of the riders. This has helped us to have control on our fleet as well as the riders. We have also been creating a full stack tech platform which will help us to study the rider analytics, battery analytics, BMS , IOT data, clients data, vendor data, ancillary industry data, repairs and maintenance, charging stations, etc under one single platform. How has your startup performed since inception? We started in September 2021 with just 30 vehicles and one client in Surat ie. Big Basket. Today, we have close to 500 vehicles servicing six major clients Zomato, Swiggy, Big Basket, Bluedart, Ecom Express, Flipkart in Surat and Ahmedabad. We are also launching our operations in Vadodara soon in the coming months. We have so far raised $1.3 million from GVFl and Piper Serica as the VC investors. The target is to have a fleet of 10,000 vehicles in the coming 2 years spread across 10 cities of Bharat. What are your short-term and long term goals? Our goals for the upcoming year involve expanding our presence in the four major cities of Gujarat and achieving a fleet size of 5,000 vehicles by the end of the next financial year. Additionally, we aim to establish the necessary EV ecosystem in these cities through collaborations with other EV players, fostering synergies, and raising awareness about this segment in Tier II cities. Looking ahead, our broader vision is to evolve into a green logistics service provider. This encompasses implementing green warehousing practices and facilitating first-mile, mid-mile, and last-mile deliveries using electric vehicles. Furthermore, we intend to partner with drop delivery services to offer comprehensive mid-mile delivery solutions to our clients.

MyGate elevates co-founder Abhishek Kumar as CEO

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
MyGate elevates co-founder Abhishek Kumar as CEO
Medial

Community management app MyGate has announced senior management changes as it elevated co-founder Abhishek Kumar, who was previously the chief operating officer, to the position of chief executive. Meanwhile, co-founder Vijay Arisetty, who previously served as the chief executive, has now taken the role of chairman of the board. According to the company, Arisetty will guide the team on the firm’s strategic direction and continue to mentor the leadership team. Co-founder and chief technology officer Shreyans Daga will now have an expanded role overseeing product, technology, and new business initiatives. Founded in 2016 by Kumar, Arisetty and Daga, the company had raised Rs 100 crore ($13 million) in a funding round co-led by Urban Company and Acko in 2022. Entrackr exclusively reported the development. Last month, the firm announced employees stock buyback program for more than 50 employees. The buyback came on the back of improved financial results for the Bengaluru-based company in the last and current fiscal year. Additionally, Rohit Jindal, who has been with the company since 2017, has been elevated to the role of chief business officer. MyGate recently claimed that its revenue crossed Rs 100 crore in FY23, a 35% increase from the previous fiscal. The company’s investors include Tencent, Tiger Global, and Xto10X, among others.

Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [5 - 10 Feb]

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [5 - 10 Feb]
Medial

Funding infusion in the startup ecosystem surged 2.4x this week compared to the previous seven days. Of 39 startups which scooped up $240 million cumulatively this week, 29 deals belonged to the early stage startups. Remaining eight deals went to growth stage startups. Two startups did not disclose the amount it raised. Last week, 13 early and growth stage startups collectively raised around $84.5 million, including two undisclosed deals. [Growth-stage deals] This week, eight growth startups raised nearly $140 million funding. Electric vehicle manufacturer River spearheaded the lot with $40 million fundraise followed by real estate consultancy firm Anarock and clean energy firm Lohum which raised $24 million and $23 million B funding, respectively. E-commerce roll-up firm GlobalBees and electric vehicle financing platform Mufin Green Finance also raised notable funding to make it to the top five deals. Agritech startup BigHaat, vernacular news aggregator DailyHunt’s parent Verse Innovation and D2C apparel brand Bombay Shirt Company also raised capital this week. [Early-stage deals] Among the early-stage startups, 29 startups secured funding worth $100 million. Smart home automation firm Keus is on top of the list with a $12 million fundraise followed by two-wheeler electric vehicle finance platform OTO, biotechnology startup Pandorum, creator-focused commerce startup Wishlink and office space provider DevX. The list further includes SaaS startup Attentive, EV firm Vidyut, cleantech company Metafin, healthtech entity Khyaal and home appliance firm Upliance.ai. During the week, the manufacturer of reusable rockets that bring both the stages of the rocket back into earth, EtherealX and digital infrastructure innovations startup PlanckDOT also raised capital but did not disclose the funding amount. For more information, visit TheKredible. [City and segment-wise deals] In terms of city-wise number of funding deals, Bengaluru-based startups again led the list with 12 deals. This was followed by Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, and Chennai. Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Vadodara, Navi Mumbai and Thane are next on the list. The complete breakdown of the city and segment can be found at TheKredible. [Series wise deals] This week, equivalent to 17 startups raised funding in their seed round followed by Series A (11) and Series B (4) deals. The list also counts debt, pre-Series A, Series C and pre-Series C funding deals. [Week-on-week funding trend] On a weekly basis, startup funding soared 184% to $240 million as compared to $84.5 million in the previous week. The average funding in the last eight weeks stands around $251 million with 24 deals per week. [Departures] The week also saw a few notable departures. Ather Energy’s CFO Deepak Jain is departing the company, with Sohil Parekh taking over his role. Swiggy’s independent director Mallika Srinivasan has resigned after a year, and Freshworks’ CRO Pradeep Rathinam is stepping down after almost four years, to be succeeded by Abe Smith as the new global field operations leader. Shinjini Kumar and Manju Agarwal have reportedly quit Paytm’s payments bank board. [Fund launches] Cactus Venture Partners (CVP) closed its first fund at over Rs 630 crore, while GrowthCap Ventures, led by former BharatPe executive Pratekk Agarwaal, has reached the first close of its debut fund at Rs 20 crore. Additionally, Orient Growth Ventures has closed its second fund for India and Southeast Asia (SEA) at $90 million. [Layoffs/Shutdown] This week, Licious and Blissclub laid off a part of their workforce, affecting 3% and 18% of employees respectively. Meanwhile, Muvin shut down operations due to RBI regulations on UPI co-branding. [Merger & Acquisition] The week also witnessed six M&A deals including the acquisition of Spartan Poker by OneVerse, Kuvera by CRED, LotusPay by Juspay, and Qdigi Services by Onesitego. Healthtech firm Thyrocare and logistics firm Deliver.sg also joined the list with the acquisitions of Think Health Diagnostics and BusyBee, respectively. Visit TheKredible to see series wise deals and amount breakup, complete details of fund launches, departures and more insights. [New launches] ▪️ Cleartrip launches Out of Office to foray into the corporate travel space ▪️ Meesho launches logistics marketplace Valmo ▪️ Flipkart introduces 3-hour fresh flower delivery service [Financial results this week] ▪️ Leverage Edu revenue spikes 3.2X to Rs 69 Cr in FY23 ▪️ Infra.Market posts Rs 11,846 Cr gross revenue in FY23; remains profitable ▪️ FabHotels reports Rs 219 Cr revenue and Rs 5 Cr loss in FY23 ▪️ Chingari crosses Rs 100 Cr revenue in FY23; losses decline 70% ▪️ Hike’s revenue soars 8X to Rs 150 Cr in FY23; losses up 24% ▪️ Zomato posts Rs 3,288 Cr revenue and Rs 138 Cr profit in Q3 FY24 [News flash this week] ▪️ Vanguard marks down Ola’s valuation to $1.88 Bn ▪️ Zoho, Juspay, Decentro get RBI nod for payment aggregator biz ▪️ Orios Venture gets 45X returns in a partial exit from Country Delight [Entrackr’s analysis] Evident from the numbers, weekly funding has made a strong comeback with investments worth nearly $240 million. The back-to-back startup focused fund announcements also hint at the optimism in the Indian startup ecosystem. Continuous layoffs and business closures, however, give a hard reality check to the sector, which is trying to recover from the so-called funding winter. US-based asset management company Vanguard has marked down Ola’s valuation, pegging it at less than $2 billion. This marks the third consecutive devaluation of Ola by Vanguard since February 2023. Meanwhile, several prominent players have secured payment aggregator licenses from the central bank. This includes SaaS unicorn Zoho and fintech firms Juspay and Decentro. Additionally, early-stage venture capital firm Orios Venture Partners took a partial exit from dairy startup Country Delight with a 45X return on the firm’s initial investment. In a positive development, publicly traded companies such as Zomato, MamaEarth, and Nykaa have persistently remained in green, indicating their steady progress towards evolving into sustainable enterprises.

Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [04-09 Mar]

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [04-09 Mar]
Medial

This week, equivalent to 27 Indian startups raised funding amounting to nearly $307.8 million. These deals include seven growth-stage deals and 17 early-stage deals. The early-stage deals also include three startups that kept their transaction details undisclosed. Last week, about 32 early and growth-stage startups collectively raised over $384 million, including five undisclosed deals. [Growth-stage deals] Among the growth-stage deals, seven startups raised $141 million in funding this week. D2C skincare and nutrition brand The Ayurveda Experience spearheaded with a $27 million Series C funding round. ID verification platform IDfy also shared the top spot with its Series E funding worth $27 million. D2C Craft beer brand Bira 91, B2B construction equipment supplier Zetwerk and education software company Educational Initiatives (Ei) also made it to the top five with their respective fundraises. Further, edtech startup PlanetSpark and electric vehicle financing platform Mufin Green also raked in funding this week. For more information, visit TheKredible. [Early-stage deals] As many as 17 early-stage startups scooped funding worth $166.8 million during the week. Surprisingly, an early stage startup mPokket led the overall funding chart with its $60 million debt this week. Generative AI startup Ema followed the list with social media startup Hunch, rural commerce startup Rozana, and D2C skincare brand Foxtale. The list further includes business tools provider Exly (formerly MyScoot), Sales enablement platform Louisa AI, and D2C coffee chain abCoffee among others. The list of early-stage startups also includes three startups which kept the amount undisclosed. The startups are Azimuth AI, Swizzle, and Onramp Money. [City and segment-wise deals] In terms of the city-wise number of funding deals, Delhi-NCR-based startups led with 10 deals followed by Bengaluru with 9 deals, collectively amounting to 65% of the total fundraise during the week. This was followed by Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Surat, Lucknow, and Hyderabad. The complete breakdown of the city and segment can be found at TheKredible. [Series-wise deals] This week, nine startups raised funding in their seed round followed by five Series A deals. While three startups raised funding in pre-Series A, this was followed by debt, Series E, and Series B funding with 2 deals each. [Week-on-week funding trend] On a weekly basis, startup funding shrank 20% to $307.8 million as compared to $384.16 million in the previous week. The average funding in the last eight weeks stands at around $216 million with 26 deals per week. [Fund launches] The week witnessed four startup-focused fund launches. GetVantage has launched the Rise-Up Fund, dedicating Rs 100 crore to supporting women entrepreneurs’ businesses with capital, aiming to deploy the funds within the next 12 months. Colossa Ventures, a SEBI-registered venture capital management company, announced the first close of its Colossa WomenFirst Fund at Rs 100 crore. Additionally, climate tech venture studio NOW has officially launched in India with a dedicated $2 million fund to invest in early-stage Indian deeptech startups, aiming to support and nurture innovation in the deeptech space. An early-stage venture capital firm Navam Capital, focused on backing startups in frontier technology sectors, has also made the first close of its maiden investment vehicle. [ESOP Buyback] Community management app MyGate announced employees stock buyback program for more than 50 employees. The buyback came on the back of improved financial results for the Bengaluru-based company in the past couple of years. MyGate announced the buyback plan of 20% of vested shares for employees who have completed four years at the firm. Visit TheKredible to see series-wise deals and amount breakup, complete details of fund launches, and more insights. [New launches] ▪️ Flipkart launches UPI services to counter third-party apps ▪️ Cashfree unveils a new payment solution for software platforms ▪️ Gupshup rolled out Conversation Cloud to facilitate AI-backed B2C conversations ▪️ OYO to launch self-operated premium hotels under the ‘Palette’ brand ▪️ ZestMoney’s ex-CEO Lizzie Chapman to launch new venture, SwiffyLabs [Financial results this week] ▪️ Ergos gross revenue crosses Rs 200 Cr in FY23; losses stagnant ▪️ Yubi posts Rs 328 Cr revenue and Rs 482 Cr loss in FY23 ▪️ Trell revenue plummeted 94% to Rs 5 Cr in FY23; losses stood at Rs 59 Cr ▪️ BigHaat’s gross revenue nears Rs 700 Cr in FY23 ▪️ Healthians posts Rs 224 Cr revenue and Rs 184 Cr loss in FY23 [News flash this week] ▪️ Infibeam Avenues receives RBI’s final nod for Payment Aggregator license ▪️ Flipkart to take on Zepto, Blinkit with quick commerce foray ▪️ Google agrees to temporarily restore delisted apps ▪️ Karnataka withdraws the electric bike taxi scheme citing its misuse ▪️ Tech Fini partners with NPCI to offer credit line on UPI ▪️ NITI Aayog to roll out the initiative to create DPI for policymaking and governance ▪️ Antfin offloaded a 2% stake in Zomato via bulk deals worth Rs 2,827 Cr ▪️ BlackBuck to raise $300 million, gearing up for IPO ▪️ Meesho to raise funds from Peak XV, Tiger Global via a secondary transaction [Entrackr’s analysis] The weekly funding slipped nearly 20% to $307.8 million as compared to $384.16 million the previous week. Fortunately, there was no news of major layoffs, shutdowns, or departures in the startup ecosystem. Additionally, four firms launched startup-focused funds to support Indian entrepreneurs. Google announced that it would temporarily restore applications removed from the Play Store due to policy compliance issues last week. This decision followed intervention by the Indian government after IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw criticized the delisting of select Indian apps. He later disclosed that he had engaged with Google representatives and app developers to address the issue. NITI Aayog is set to launch NITI for States, a digital cross-sectoral knowledge platform, to create a digital public infrastructure for policymaking and governance. The platform, accessible on various devices including mobile phones, aims to support the digital transformation of governance by providing practical knowledge and insights to improve decision-making for government officials, district collectors, and block-level officials across states and UTs. In another development, e-commerce giant Flipkart is gearing up to enter the quick commerce sector, with infrastructure ramp-up already underway. Meanwhile, Flipkart-backed logistics startup BlackBuck is preparing for an IPO in the next fiscal year, aiming to raise up to $300 million. Additionally, investors like Peak XV Partners and Tiger Global are reportedly eyeing a stake in e-commerce unicorn Meesho through a secondary transaction. Some angel and early investors of Meesho may offload shares worth around $200 million, with the deal expected to value between $3.5 billion and $3.9 billion based on final terms.

Indian startups raise $900 Mn in February: Report

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Indian startups raise $900 Mn in February: Report
Medial

Funding inflow improved in February on the back of a couple of large rounds of growth-stage firms. Some early-stage startups also received decent traction. At the same time, the Indian startup world continued to battle with ongoing challenges like layoffs and departures of key executives. Indian startups mopped up nearly $900 million across 121 deals in February, as per data compiled by TheKredible. This included 25 growth-stage deals worth $585 million and 83 early-stage deals amounting to $313.5 million. There were 13 undisclosed rounds. [Month-on-Month and Year-on-Year trend] February registered a modest jump in funding from $732.7 million in January. Even on a year-on-year basis, February 2024 surpassed the February 2023 funding mark of $845 million. Unlike January, February saw three-digit funding as Shadowfax raised $100 million in a new round. The M-o-M and Y-o-Y trends can be seen below. [Top growth stage deals] Flipkart-backed logistics company Shadowfax topped the charts with $100 million in a Series E funding round led by TPG NewQuest. While the company did not disclose its valuation, it is estimated to have reached closer to entering the unicorn club. SaaS firm Capillary Technologies saw $95 million in funding via a secondary round. Other funding rounds in the growth stage were below $50 million which included EV startup River, e-commerce company Kushal’s, and seafood company Captain Fresh. Rentomojo and Zeno Health also raised $25 million each. [Top early-stage deals] Blockchain startup Avail, spiritual tech startup AstroTalk, and metal supply chain company Metalbook led the chart with $27 million, $20 million, and $15 million in funding, respectively. Notably, the top eight startups in the early stage raised at least $10 million each in their new fundraise. The list counts Keus, OTO, Moove, Vidyut, and Interview Kickstart. [Stage-wise deals] Series-wise, Seed and Series A startup funding deals co-led the list with 33 deals each during February. Pre-Seed and Pre-Series A deals stood at 12 and 10, respectively. Among growth stage deals, Series B, Series C, Series D, and Series F are next on the list while as many as 10 startups raised debt funding during the month. [City-Segment] In terms of city-wise deals, Bengaluru retained the top spot with 45 deals worth around $482.6 million, or close to 54% of the total funding raised during February. Delhi-NCR and Mumbai-based startups were the next with 26 and 25 deals, respectively, collectively amounting to $311 million. Pune saw 9 deals followed by Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad among others. E-commerce startups re-captured the top position this month in terms of segment-wise number of deals with 27 deals. This was followed by healthtech (12), fintech (10), and SaaS (10). EV, proptech, AI, edtech, and food tech startups also made it to the top 10. [Most active investors] Early stage venture capital firm Blume Venture and venture debt firm Stride Ventures have emerged as most active investors in February with 5 investments each. Fireside Ventures was next on the list with four deals followed by 9Unicorns, Antler India, IAN, Omidyar, and others. The full list can be found at TheKredible. [Mergers and acquisitions] February witnessed 12 mergers and acquisitions deals. Acquisition of investing platform Kuvera by CRED, LotusPay by Juspay, cybersecurity startup Difenz by Signzy, gaming firm Ninja Global FZCO by Nodwin, and seafood platform CenSea by Captain Fresh were some of the notable deals during the period. In comparison, January saw nine mergers and acquisitions deals. [Layoffs, Shutdowns, and top-level exits] Like January, the layoffs spree continued in February as more than 350 employees were let go of across six startups. Log9 Materials topped this list with 115 employees followed by Licious, Waycool, and Polygon. Meanwhile, Indian startups also saw 10 top-level exits. Flipkart alone saw three departures including senior vice presidents Amitesh Jha, Dheeraj A, and Bharat Ram. Paytm Payments Bank also saw the exits of two independent directors and the surprising exit of Vijay Shekhar Sharma who was the part-time non-executive chairman and board member of the company. The full list can be found here. [Conclusion] It might be early signs, but we would venture to say that the situation is actually improving steadily, as over a year of relatively tough market conditions have ensured a higher focus on resilience in startups. A booming stock market has also meant that amidst all the gloom of a shrinking job market, investible funds do exist for the right idea, and newer segments like Proptech that are riding the real estate boom are set to make a splash with a few big deals sooner than later. As expected, the AI rush is not getting anywhere in a hurry, and the impact will be visible over a much more extended period of time. Climate tech can also be expected to make a serious play for investor funds soon, with new opportunities in carbon markets and more. Global realignments that are underway across manufacturing and soon, services as well, augur well for India in the medium to long term, and we will soon see the first, early bets on these shifts being placed soon. While many will see the upcoming elections as a crimp for the coming quarter, we believe it will be a good time to see just how far investors have moved away from counting on favourable policies, and looking instead at stable and consistent policies to base their thesis on.

Indian startups raise nearly $1.6 Bn in August

EntrackrEntrackr · 10m ago
Indian startups raise nearly $1.6 Bn in August
Medial

The Indian startup ecosystem seems to be bouncing back from the funding winter as venture capital investment has been steadily rising each month. August 2024 has been a standout, with several big funding rounds, important investments in growth-stage startups, many deals from tier II cities, IPOs, and major mergers and acquisitions. These factors make it unique compared to other months this year. Based on data compiled by TheKredible, homegrown startups raised nearly $1.6 billion across 112 deals in August. This total included 27 growth-stage deals worth $1.32 billion and 71 early-stage deals amounting to $267 million. Meanwhile, there were 14 undisclosed transactions mainly in early-stage deals. When compared, startups raised close to $1 billion in July. [Y-o-Y and M-o-M trend] The $1.6 billion raised in August is the second-highest funding amount of 2024, following June, and the third-highest in the past 12 months. On a year-over-year basis, August 2024 also ranked at the top for total funds raised. Also, Indian startups have raked in approximately $9.6 billion in the first eight months of 2024. If this trend persists, overall funding is likely to comfortably surpass the $11 billion achieved in 2023. For context, Indian startups received $38 billion in funding in 2021 and $25 billion in 2022. [Top 10 growth-stage deals] Among growth-stage deals, Zepto’s $340 million, DMI Finance’s $334 million, and OYO’s $175 million rounds together accounted for over 50% of the total funds raised last month. With the fresh funding, Zepto and DMI Finance attained $5 billion and $3 billion valuation milestones respectively. However, OYO saw more than 75% fall in its valuation to $2.4 billion from a peak of $10 billion. Just like in July, August saw the emergence of a new unicorn, as the Hero Moto-backed Ather Energy surpassed the $1 billion valuation mark with its latest funding round. Other notable growth-stage deals included Neo, Blue Tokai, Visit Health, Yubi, Livpure, and Syfe. Swiggy, which raised funds from Amitabh Bachchan’s Family Office, did not disclose the deal size. [Top 10 early-stage deals] EV startup Kinetic Green led the early-stage funding chart with a $25 million Series A round, followed by Even Healthcare with $20 million, FreshBus with $10.5 million, and both Beco and Investors AI, each raising $10 million. Agrizy’s $9.8 million funding was the fourth-largest in agritech for 2024, a sector that has been declining recently. Other major early-stage deals included Scimplify, a specialty chemicals firm; Kindlife, a new venture from ShopClues co-founder Radhika Ghai; automotive startup Kazam; and fintech startup Punch, all of which ranked among the top 10 early-stage investments. [Mergers and Acquisitions] In August, the number of merger and acquisition deals surged to 19, up from just 17 in July. Notably, the acquisition of Paytm’s movies and ticketing business by Zomato Limited for $244 million emerged as one of the largest M&A deals of 2024. Additionally, hospitality firm OYO acquired Checkmyguest for $27.4 million, and Fusebox Games Limited was purchased by Nazara in a $27.2 million deal. Some notable M&A deals in August included BrowserStack’s acquisition of Bird Eats Bug, Radio Mirchi’s parent ENIL’s purchase of Gaana, and VerSe’s acquisition of Valueleaf. Additionally, Emami Limited raised its stake in The Man Company from 50.4% to 100%, a development first reported by Entrackr in July. [City and segment-wise deals] In terms of city-wise funding, Bengaluru-based startups led with 38 deals totaling $265 million in August. However, startups in Delhi-NCR raised $724 million across 29 deals, more than double the amount raised by Bengaluru startups. Additionally, Mumbai-based startups surpassed Bengaluru in total funding, securing $453 million across 20 deals. Segment-wise, fintech startups led the show with 27 deals followed by e-commerce (including D2C brands), healthtech, SaaS, and proptech with 16, 8, 7, and 4 deals, respectively. Visit TheKredible for more details. Edtech was one of the least funded segments with 3 deals amounting to $5 million. It contributed only 0.3% to the total amount raised in August. [Stage-wise deals] Regarding funding stages, 35 startups raised capital in the seed round, 28 in Series A, 13 in pre-Series A, and 9 in Series B. Debt-only funding made up 2.56% of the total funding for the month. For the complete breakdown of stage-wise deals, visit TheKredible. [Layoffs, shutdowns, departures, and key hirings] Layoffs experienced a significant drop from 650 employees in July to 290 employees in August. Notably, Google and Reliance-backed Dunzo reportedly fired 150 employees, Beepkart let go of 100 staff, and ShareChat reduced its workforce by 30-40 employees. Additionally, Kenko Health, My Tirth India, and Airtel’s streaming app Wynk Music shut down their operations. Wynk’s closure is attributed to increasing competition, while Kenko Health and My Tirth India ceased operations due to funding difficulties. In August, there was an increase in both hiring and the departure of key executives. Notable exits included Manish Tiwary from Amazon India, Prashant Sinha from Metadome.ai, and Srinivasagopalan Ramamurthy from Freshworks. On the hiring front, Meesho, Swiggy Instamart, EvenFlow, Zetwerks, Perfios, and OYO brought new talent into roles such as chief executive, co-founder, and independent director, among others. [Trends] More IPOs in pipeline: In the first eight months of 2024, ten startups have gone public. In August alone, Ola Electric, Unicommerce, and FirstCry completed their IPOs. Swiggy is targeting a listing in the first week of September, while companies like Infra.Market, Bluestone, Ecom Express, OfBusiness, and OYO are also progressing on their IPO plans. Additionally, Zappfresh has filed draft IPO papers with SEBI to list on the BSE SME platform. Quick commerce in action: The quick commerce sector is intensifying in competition, highlighted by Zepto’s mega-round, Flipkart’s recent entry, and BigBasket’s complete shift to rapid delivery. Amazon is expected to enter the market early next year. The e-commerce giant was also in talks to acquire Swiggy’s quick commerce business. At present, Zomato-owned Blinkit stands as the leading player in quick commerce followed by Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, and Tata Digital-owned BigBasket. Startups from tier II cities: In addition to major metro areas and startup hubs such as Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, there has been a notable influx of deals from cities like Mangalore, Raipur, Dehradun, Udaipur, Surat, Jodhpur, Nashik, and Lucknow. This indicates a significant, albeit minor, shift in traditional startup funding patterns. Founders fueling growth: OYO’s $175 million funding round included a significant $100 million investment from the company’s founder, Ritesh Agarwal, showcasing another instance of a founder investing in their own startup. Similarly, Yubi secured $30 million from its founder and CEO, Gaurav Kumar, while Cambrian Bioworks received an undisclosed amount from its founder during its seed round. This practice of founder investment has previously been seen with Ather Energy, Byju’s, and BluSmart. [Conclusion] While the decline of debt funding is something to be welcomed, as it doesn’t seem to sit well with the idea of backing startups, we would add a note of caution here on the sustainability of the current recovery. While, as indicated earlier, an expected interest rate cut by the US Fed will ensure the momentum stays well into 2025, the fact remains that significant parts of public markets are well into ‘exuberance’ territory in terms of valuations. Unlike the public markets, however, the private VC markets remain much more dependent on foreign fund flows, and that could yet be a disruptor in the ecosystem, despite the rise of domestic capital. Although with the US-China issues, and now, even Brazil moving arbitrarily against Twitter, India could find itself in a sweet spot yet again for global investors. It would perhaps be fair to say that the bottom has been reached, and a bounce is well on its way for Indian startups when it comes to their funding environment.

Startups rope in new CEOs amid cash crunch, layoffs, profitability and IPO plans

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Startups rope in new CEOs amid cash crunch, layoffs, profitability and IPO plans
Medial

Management rejig and layoffs at several prominent startups have continued to make headlines this year. For layoffs, startups have cited a familiar reason i.e. redundancies, efficiencies as well as getting a step closer to profitability. As far as management changes go, reasons and circumstances vary. For instance, DealShare’s CEO position was vacant for a long time. These changes, however, also bring a fresh wave of optimism in the ecosystem, which has of late faced a host of challenges, ranging from funding crunch to stringent regulatory actions. Data compiled by TheKredible shows that this year more than 10 Indian startups have appointed, elevated or are on the verge of naming their new chief executive officers (CEOs). The list includes the likes of DealShare, MyGate, Inshorts, Cult.fit, Third Wave Coffee, Byju’s, Ola, PhonePe, and Setu, among others. Interestingly, half of them have been elevated to the role of chief executive whereas some founders took charge as the operational leaders after the exit of the existing CEO. [Elevated CEOs] The year 2024 started with a new trend of appointing new CEOs and e-commerce platform DealShare was first when they elevated Kamaldeep Singh as the new chief executive of the company from being the president of their retail business. The firm faced several challenges during the second half of 2023 as its three co-founders left the firm in a short span of time and it also had to shut down its B2B vertical after a flat growth in FY23 with rise in losses. Community management app MyGate, news aggregator InShorts and fitness tech firm Cult.fit also elevated Abhishek Kumar, Deepit Purkayastha and Naresh Krishnaswamy, respectively, as their new chief executive officers. All previous CEOs of these three companies namely Vijay Arisetty, Azhar Iqubal and Mukesh Bansal have now taken the role of chairman. Iqubal recently joined Shark Tank India season III as a judge. Also, InShorts is pivoting from news aggregation to influencer led platform which could be the reason behind this reshuffle in leadership. Cult.fit also faced challenges early this year as it fired more than 150 employees. As per the company, it reduced some redundant positions with the aim of streamlining operations. Meanwhile, fintech unicorn BharatPe finalized Nalin Negi as its full time CEO. Negi, the former chief financial officer of the company, had been working as interim CEO since January last year. Freshworks also went through a reshuffle as the firm’s founder Girish Mathrubootham stepped down from the position of CEO after 14 years. Mathrubootham has transitioned into the role of executive chairman while the company’s president Dennis Woodside has been elevated as the new CEO. Freshworks went public in September 2021. It’s important to note that most of these companies in this list had losses until FY23. Though, a few of them managed to control losses during the fiscal year. For context, DealShare’s GMV remained flat but its losses jumped 14% to Rs 502 crore in FY23. InShorts posted flat scale with 33.6% jump in losses to Rs 310 crore in FY23. MyGate, Cult.fit and BharatPe also managed to control its losses. Check the graph below for more details. [New CEOs appointed in 2024] In January, PhonePe announced the appointment of Ritesh Pai as CEO of its International Payments business while Infibeam Avenues announced the appointment of Rajesh Kumar SA as CEO of its AI business venture Phronetic.AI. These appointments appeared to be a positive sign for both companies which are expanding their businesses. Third Wave Coffee’s co-founder and CEO Sushant Goel stepped down as the firm’s chief executive role and transitioned to a board member in March this year. The WestBridge-backed company named KFC India and Nepal CEO Rajat Luthra as Goel’s replacement. Before the exit of Goel, Third Wave Coffee also went through layoffs, firing more than 100 employees. In April, Aakash Educational Services, owned by edtech company Byju’s, appointed Deepak Mehrotra as its new managing director and chief executive officer. Mehrotra joined Aakash after the exit of its chief executive Abhishek Maheshwari. Recently, the firm raised money from Manipal Group’s Ranjan Pai to clear the debt raised from Davidson Kempner in May last year. Aakash has plans for a public listing this year. Last month, API infrastructure company Setu, owned by Pine Labs, named Anand Raisinghani as new CEO of the company. Raisinghani will succeed Sahil Kini, who is the erstwhile chief executive of Setu. Earlier this month, Paytm Money’s CEO Varun Sridhar also quit the position and Rakesh Singh has been appointed as the new chief executive of the stock trading platform. Before joining Paytm Money, Singh was the CEO of fintech company Fisdom. On Monday, Adda247 appointed Bimaljeet Singh as its chief executive for skilling and higher education business. Like several edtech firms, Adda247 also went through layoffs in the last quarter of 2023. It’s worth noting that Paytm Money and Phronetic.AI are owned by public companies One97 Communications and Infibeam, respectively. In terms of financial performance, Aakash reported profit in FY22 and expected to replicate same growth in FY23. Pine Labs reported more than Rs 1,600 crore revenue with control in its losses to Rs 227 crore in FY23. Third Wave Coffee reported a three fold jump in its revenue with same growth in losses to Rs 54 crore in FY23. During FY23, PhonePe as a group posted revenue of Rs 2,914 crore and Rs 1,755 crore loss. During the period, Adda247 reported Rs 115 crore revenue and Rs 110 crore loss. [Founders, executives took the charge after CEOs exit] Last month, Arjun Mohan, the CEO of Byju’s India operations, stepped down from his position seven months after joining the edtech firm. After his exit, the company’s founder Byju Raveendran returned as the operational leader to see day-to-day functioning. During the process, Byju’s also sacked more than 500 employees. It’s worth highlighting that Byju’s has been facing a cash crunch for a long time and failed to pay the salary of its employees on time. Recently, Ola Cabs’ CEO Hemant Bakshi left the firm after three months of joining. His departure came at a time when Ola is gearing up for an initial public offering (IPO). The company also fired 10% of its total workforce. In the interim, Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal will oversee operations until a new executive is appointed. In January, Indus Appstore’s CEO Rakesh Deshmukh announced quitting the firm. Since then, the firm has been led by ⁠its CPO and co-founder Akash Dongre, and CBO Priya Meenakshi Narasimhan. The firm is yet to announce the name of the official CEO. As per a media report, Beardo’s CEO has gone on a year-long sabbatical from April this year. During his absence, CBO Siddharth Vaya, and Koteshwar LN, head of digital first business, are expected to lead the company. Beardo was acquired by Marico Group in June 2020. In the ongoing calendar year, Sukhleen Aneja, CEO of The Good Glamm D2C vertical and Subramanyam Reddy, CEO of upGrad’s Knowledgehut also announced their departure from the company. While Knowledgehut is yet to name the new CEO, The Good Glamm has decided not to appoint a new CEO for the D2C vertical. As per reports. Ketan Bhatia and Ankita Bhardwaj will lead the brand’s business operations. Last month, The Good Glamm Group resorted to layoffs and went through top level restructuring as it is gearing up for public listing. More recently, Paytm Payments Bank’s CEO and MD Surinder Chawla decided to hang up his boots. He will be relieved from his positions on June 26 while the firm is yet to announce his replacement. Public company Paytm laid off more than 1,000 employees in December 2023 in a cost cutting effort. As per reports, the firm also went through layoffs amid back to back departures of top level executives and the recent diktat by RBI. However, Paytm denied any fresh layoffs at the company. When it comes to financial performance, Byju’s and Ola are in deep losses and Beardo slipped into the red in FY23. Edtech unicorn upGrad reported close to Rs 1,200 crore revenue in FY23 with Rs 558 crore loss in FY23. Good Glamm Group is yet to file its annual financial report for FY23. [Conclusion] For those who have sniped at CEO salaries at startups, the last year should be a good indication of just why salaries refuse to moderate. Besides the high turnover, it is no secret that many investors and even founders have considered CEO’s as a horses for courses option, taking in people with specific skill sets when they were relevant for the organisation. Thus, be it fundraising, cost cutting, or all out for growth mindset, we have seen how different CEO’s bring their own competencies, which, unfortunately, have a use by date in most cases. Many of course can simply struggle to adapt to the startup culture and the unstructured challenges it throws up, which can be the worst outcome for a startup with little achieved during their tenures. Perhaps the toughest ask of a startup CEO is what she is expected to do in what seems like compressed time to most, making it most challenging to attract quality personnel at times. That is also one reason why we see investors take over the job of bringing in the CEO when they feel a founder needs to move on to a more strategic role or simply take a break from the intense pressure. Don’t expect the CEO churn to slow down anytime soon for these reasons.

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