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Funding and acquisitions in Indian startup this week [07 - 12 Oct]

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
Funding and acquisitions in Indian startup this week [07 - 12 Oct]
Medial

During the week, 32 Indian startups raised around $134.42 million in funding. These deals count 4 growth-stage deals and 22 early-stage deals while 6 startups kept their transaction details undisclosed. Last week, 21 early and growth-stage startups cumulatively raised over $92.63 million in funding. [Growth-stage deals] Among the growth-stage deals, 4 startups raised $55.8 million in funding this week. Industrial robotics maker Haber spearheaded with $38 million funding round. SaaS platform for physical therapy professionals Spry Therapeutics raised $15 million followed by aerial intelligence platform Aereo and pharmaceutical packaging startup Sorich Foils with $1.8 million and $1 million in funding, respectively. [Early-stage deals] Further, 22 early-stage startups secured funding worth $78.62 million during the week. D2C diaper brand Bumtum (Millennium Babycares) led the list followed by EV firm UrjaMobility, vacuum and process solutions provider Economy Process Solutions, space-tech firm XDLINX, and dental care platform Dezy among others. Meanwhile, Jivi, Suraasa, Adloggs, Humm Care, A4 Hospital, and Deftouch also raked in funding but did not disclose the transaction details. For more information, visit TheKredible. [City and segment-wise deals] In terms of the city-wise number of funding deals, Bengaluru-based startups led with 11 deals followed by Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Coimbatore, et al. Segment-wise, Healthtech startups are on the top spot with 5 deals. SaaS, E-commerce, Fintech, Media and entertainment, Edtech, and Robotics startups followed the list among others. [Series-wise deals] During the week, seed funding deals are on top, with 18 deals followed by Series A, pre-Series A, Series B, and pre-IPO deals among others. [Week-on-week funding trend] On a weekly basis, startup funding went up 45.11% to $134.42 million as compared to around $92.63 million raised during the previous week. The average funding in the last eight weeks stands at around $358.15 million with 28 deals per week. [Fund launches] D2C Insider, a community of D2C founders, launched the Super Angels Fund with a corpus of Rs 25 crore. LC Nueva Investment Partners launched the LC Nueva Momentum Fund with a target corpus of Rs 150 crore. Northern Arc launched the Finserv Fund with a target corpus of Rs 1,500 crore. [Key hirings and departures] The startup ecosystem witnessed 17 notable hirings this week. Evenflow onboarded Priyesh Singh, Aparajitha Vijayaraghavan, Prashant Agarwal, and Ruchi Shaikh at different leading positions. Oyo also welcomed Sonal Sinha, Rachit Srivastava, Shashank Jain, Pankhuri Sakhuja, and Ashish Bajpai to fill different roles. Meanwhile, Orios Venture Partners’s CFO & CEO Gaurav Bindal, Zomato’s Independent Director Gunjan Soni, and Menhood’s Compliance Officer resigned. [Mergers and Acquisitions] This week, three notable acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. Ozonetel acquired CloudConnect Communications, eBikeGo purchased Varcas Automobiles, and Exicom took over Tritium. [ESOP buyback] Whatfix, a digital adoption platform (DAP), has introduced a $58 million liquidity program for its employees and investors. Online gaming startup Winzo has also announced the completion of its fourth round of employee stock options plan (ESOP) liquidation. [Shutdown and layoffs] Plug-and-play platform Toplyne is shutting down operations and returning capital to investors. While two-wheeler marketplace BeepKart reportedly fired another 60-70 employees. Visit TheKredible to see series-wise deals along with amount breakup, complete details of fund launches, and more insights. [New launches] Fintech startup Jar forays into the D2C jewelry space with the launch of Nek Blinkit to launch ‘Cafe’ for quick snack deliveries IPO-bound Swiggy rolls out large order fleet in Gurugram Ranveer Singh-backed Bold Care ventures into women’s wellness Innov8 launches Managed Office Spaces vertical ShareChat launches social media app ‘Vibely’ [Potential Deals] D2C fashion brand Zouk set to raise $10 Mn led by Aavishkaar Capital Prosus to double down on Urban Company in a secondary deal Amazon-backed ToneTag in talks to raise $50 Mn [Financial results this week] Servify posts Rs 755 Cr revenue in FY24; cuts losses by 59% Kuku FM reports Rs 88 Cr revenue in FY24; spends Rs 100 Cr on marketing Pine Labs India posts Rs 1,384 Cr revenue in FY24; losses jump 3X DCGpac hits profitability as revenue nears Rs 100 Cr in FY24 Leegality turns profitable with 87% revenue growth in FY24 boAt cuts losses by 47% in FY24, revenue holds steady at Rs 3,122 Cr Your-Space posts Rs 142 Cr revenue in FY24; losses up 20% Info Edge revenue touches Rs 1,230 Cr revenue in H1 FY25 [News flash this week] Ola, Uber, and Porter score zero in Fairwork India Ratings 2024 Ola Electric faces show-cause notice amid rising complaints Magicpin becomes the largest food delivery seller app on ONDC Govt. eyes action against e-commerce firms for dark pattern violations Zetwerk begins talks with JP Morgan and other bankers for an IPO Physics Wallah selects four investment bankers for $500 Mn IPO BlackBuck gets SEBI nod For Rs 550 Cr IPO Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal exits, Titan Capital’s Kunal Bahl joins Shark Tank India [Conclusion] After a dip in funding last week, the weekly funding surged over 45% $134.42 million this week. The week saw three startup-focused fund launches namely D2C Insider (Super Angel Fund), LC Nueva Investment, and Northern Arc (Finserv AIF Fund). The Indian government is poised to take action against e-commerce companies that have been accused of flouting dark pattern regulations during the festive season sales. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) is investigating complaints alleging that these companies have used deceptive design elements to trick consumers into making purchases. Dark patterns, such as creating a false sense of urgency or misleading customers, have become a growing concern as e-commerce has boomed in India. To address this issue, the government introduced guidelines last year to regulate the use of dark patterns and curb deceptive practices by e-commerce companies. Around tech IPOs, Zetwork and Physics Wallah are in talks with investment bankers for their respective IPOs while logistics firm Blackbuck has received SEBI’s green signal for the public listings. Kunal Bahl, the founder of Snapdeal and Titan Capital, is joining Shark Tank India as a new shark. His addition comes after Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal stepped down from his role as a judge due to Swiggy’s sponsorship of the show. A new report by Fairwork India has ranked Ola, Uber, and Porter lowest for working conditions for gig workers in India. The evaluation assessed 11 platforms and found that while BigBasket, Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zomato performed well, no platform fully met all five principles of fair labor standards. The report emphasizes the urgent need to improve conditions for gig workers in the country’s rapidly growing platform economy.

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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