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Paras Chopra to launch advanced AI lab in India after $200 Mn exit

EntrackrEntrackr · 5m ago
Paras Chopra to launch advanced AI lab in India after $200 Mn exit
Medial

Paras Chopra to Launch Advanced AI Lab in India After $200 Mn Exit Indian entrepreneur Paras Chopra, who recently sold SaaS startup Wingify for $200 million, is now planning to set up a modern AI lab in India. Announcing the development on social media platform X, Chopra stated that he aims to create efficient reasoning models and advanced AI algorithms that can have a global impact. Chopra is assembling a team to prepare a proposal for India’s AI mission and is seeking technical experts to join, either full-time or part-time. However, he has not yet disclosed the name of his next venture. He believes that solving problems in complex domains is crucial for economic growth and that enhancing AI models capable of highly intelligent reasoning could help address some of the world’s most pressing challenges, such as poverty, cancer, and fundamental questions about the universe and human consciousness. Unlike large Western AI labs with massive budgets for GPUs, Chopra’s project will prioritize efficiency. The team will explore innovative methods such as reinforcement learning, distillation, pruning, and neuroscience-based approaches to improve AI performance using limited computational resources. This will mark Chopra’s third startup venture, following Wingify (VWO) and Nintee. While Wingify was acquired by Everstone, Nintee was shut down in April last year. The company, backed by Peak XV, Kunal Shah, and others, returned most of the capital it had raised from investors.

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Everstone to acquire Paras Chopra’s Wingify for $200 Mn

EntrackrEntrackr · 5m ago
Everstone to acquire Paras Chopra’s Wingify for $200 Mn
Medial

Everstone to acquire Paras Chopra’s Wingify for $200 Mn SaaS company Wingify is in the process of being acquired by private equity firm Everstone, according to sources familiar with the development told Entrackr. This acquisition is set to be one of the largest deals in the SaaS space and a significant milestone for a startup that has been bootstrapped since its inception. Sources indicate that Everstone is set to acquire a majority stake in the Delhi-based company. "Co-founder Paras Chopra will retain a minority stake in Wingify but will not have any operational role. Meanwhile, co-founder and CEO Sparsh Gupta will hold a significant stake and continue leading the company as chief executive officer (CEO)," said one source on condition of anonymity. TechCrunch, which reported the development first, said that the deal will be worth around $200 million. Entrackr has reached out to Chopra and Everstone for comments. Wingify offers SaaS solutions to online enterprises, supporting them in optimizing their conversion rates through their proprietary tool known as the Visual Website Optimizer (VWO). While Wingify has reached $50 million in annual recurring revenue, its revenue from operations increased to Rs 288.61 crore in FY24 from Rs 220.60 crore in FY23. The company’s profit after tax also increased 30% year-on-year to Rs 61.04 crore. Besides Wingify, Chopra also co-founded two startups: VWO and Nintee. Backed by Peak XV Partners, Kunal Shah, and others, Nintee was shut down in April last year, with the firm returning the majority of the capital it had raised from investors. According to Chopra’s LinkedIn profile, he has been the founder and independent director of Turing's Dream since April of last year. With a fund size exceeding $2 billion, Everstone focuses on the Indian and Southeast Asian markets. It has deployed capital in mid-market, control growth, and cross-border opportunities across sectors such as technology services, healthcare and pharma, consumer, financial services, and industrials.

Paras Chopra’s Nintee shuts down, to return investors’ money

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Paras Chopra’s Nintee shuts down, to return investors’ money
Medial

Nintee, a digital health startup launched by Wingify founder Paras Chopra, has announced shutting down its operations after a year of launch. In a blog post, Chopra said that the majority of funding raised by the company is still remaining and will be returned to investors over the next few weeks. Nintee was backed by the likes of Peak XV Partners, Kunal Shah, and others. “Our original hypothesis was to use AI for helping people build better habits to transform their lives. This attracted a passionate niche, but we couldn’t build conviction that it could be a VC-scale business,” said Chopra. After abandoning the initial idea, the firm tried another pivot to explore education and learning related ideas, but Nintee team quickly discovered that building a successful consumer app today is very hard. Nintee has provided four months of severance to the impacted employees and also offered them to join Chopra’s other company VWO at the same salary. Nintee was the third company founded by Chopra after VWO and Wingify. His bootstrapped company Wingify reported back-to-back profits in the past fiscal years. Its revenue from operations increased 16.8% to Rs 223 crore in FY23 with Rs 51 crore profit after tax. Around half a dozen startups operating in India have announced shutting down their operations in the ongoing calendar year so far. The list counts Resso (India), Rario, OKX (India), Muvin and GoldPe. In 2023, more than 15 startups ceased their operations over funding and other challenges.

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