Founders Unfiltered: Recent Episodes
A Junior VC
Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Mazin and Aviral.
Join us as we talk to Ashok Hariharan, the CEO of IDfy about their story.Ashok earned his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Penn State Engineering and went on to complete his MBA at the Indian School of Business. His career as a hardware engineer includes positions at Acterna, Coree Networks, Marconi Communications, Laurel Networks, and Astuto Networks. He also served as a strategy manager at British Telecom. In 2008, he founded Gaboli Online Services and has been the CEO of IDfy since May 2011.🏢 About IDfy:IDfy is an Integrated Identity Platform that combats fraud with advanced KYC, KYB, and verification solutions. Recognized by Deloitte and Forbes in 2023, IDfy performs 2 million daily verifications. Key offerings include APIs for verification, a video onboarding platform, RiskAI for risk management, IDfy360 for custom workflows, and CrimeCheck for legal history checks.🌐 For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/Playlists🎬:🎙️Founders Unfiltered: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_1r_yCxtrkFtTqwgoKj8f66 🎥 AJVC BTS: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_2SqAGAJ0_rS1--1u82jvfL🦄 Start-up Chronicles: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_0ujPMygWRZQcJBK250BXbC🔎 AJVC Insights: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_00SpPyAU_zhicXdehoNuBd🎯 Deep Dives: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_2BHzAOji1wBEKjXo-go7e6📈 Founder Insights: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_1L3HjHLvNUQgPWGrfcoc-q🎤 About the Hosts :Aviral Bhatnagar is a VC at Venture Highway and is the Founder of A Junior VC. He started the A Junior VC Newsletter in 2018 after observing whitespace in conversations in the Indian Venture ecosystem. He completed his B. Tech from IIT Bombay and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Mazin Biviji is a Product Owner at Agoda and a founding member of A Junior VC. He previously worked at Deloitte as a Senior Consultant. He completed his MSE and BSE from the University of Michigan and his MBA from INSEAD. 🌍 Join us at https://ajuniorvc.com/community/ to be a part of an exclusive community and grab the opportunity to question and hear our guests live every Sunday.🚀 AJVC: https://ajuniorvc.com/✂ Editing Credits:1. Neel Panji - https://www.linkedin.com/in/neel-panji-598b7b176/2. Sweta Singhania - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sweta-singhania-755b92183/🔎 Research:1. Ayush Kumar - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayushkcs/ 2. Sahil Nizam - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahilnizam12/ 3. Aditya Chauhan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditya-chauhan-27b298177 4. Deepthi Nagoorkar - https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepthi-nagoorkar-64408085/00:00 Intro02:24 Rapid Fire08:24 Early Days17:02 First Company19:01 Meeting the Co-founder20:33 The Idea22:30 Post Ideation23:51 Failure of the First Version25:20 Start of the Enterprise Business25:53 Initial Pitch28:32 Growth Stage29:50 The Struggles31:21 Leadership lessons in Growth Phase33:36 Vipassana35:12 The North Star37:07 Culture and Transition38:57 Leadership Development41:58 The Website45:10 Fraud1:00:18 Accelerated Growth01:04:26 Unfiltered Feedback#ajvc #startups #india
Join us as we talk to Uttam Digga, the Co-founder & CEO of Porter about their story.Uttam completed his integrated MSc in Economics at IIT Kharagpur in 2012. Following that, he held positions as an Analyst at both HSBC and J.P. Morgan before launching Porter in 2014.🏢 About Porter:Porter goes beyond logistics, fueled by their mission to 'move a billion dreams, one delivery at a time.' Embracing 'Own It,' they've grown rapidly with 7.5 million drivers and 15 million customers. Backed by $150 million in investments from leaders like Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global, their tech-driven approach sets new standards in last-mile logistics.
Join us as we talk to Ranvir Singh, the Founder and CEO of Kissht and Ring about their story.Ranvir completed his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2001 and his MBA from IIM Bangalore in 2005. He served as an associate partner at McKinsey & Company, held the position of Managing Director at Si-Creva, and established Kissht in 2016. He is also the founder and CEO of Ring and a founding member of FACE.🏢 About Kissht & RING:Kissht is a fintech platform that provides instant, seamless credit to consumers for purchases at both online and offline points of sale. This next-generation financial technology company strategically aids individuals in increasing their borrowing capabilities.RING is a top fintech company in India, emerging from the success of Kissht. It excels in data-driven lending and serves over 11 million customers, with 40% from tier 2 cities and beyond. RING provides both short and long-term loans for business, personal, and recurring needs.
Join us as we talk to Rajat Deshpande, the Co-founder and CEO of FinBox about their story.In 2009, Rajat completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering at IIT Bombay. His professional journey includes roles such as General Analytics Associate at ZS Associates, Senior Associate at Citigroup, Advisor at BookMyCab, and Vice President of Product at GoPigeon.In 2017, he co-founded FinBox.🏢 About FinBox:FinBox was founded in 2017 with a mission to democratize financial services for the next billion Indians.It provides advanced credit infrastructure, simplifying business operations so companies can concentrate on growth.It offers a comprehensive lending platform, featuring tools like bank statement analysis, alternate data underwriting, LOS, journey orchestration, partner management, business rules, and multi-bureau analytics.
Join us as we talk to Sumeet Mehta, the Co-Founder and CEO of LEAD Group about their story.Sumeet earned his Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering at PEC, followed by an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad in 1999.After his MBA, he delved into brand management at Procter & Gamble, Singapore, and later served as CEO at Zee Learn for almost five years.In 2012, he co-founded LEAD School.🏢 About LEAD Group:LEAD, India's largest school EdTech unicorn, strives to revolutionize schools for a confident India.With a vast network of over 9000 LEAD partner schools, LEAD impacts over 5 million students across 400+ cities in India.
Join us as we talk to Sneh Jain, the Co-founder of The Baker’s Dozen about their story.Sneh Jain completed his B.Tech degree at UDCT, Mumbai, and subsequently an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad in 2009.He gained professional experience at renowned firms such as Cipla and Orchid Pharma before serving as a consultant at McKinsey & Company post his MBA.In 2012, alongside his wife, Aditi Handa, he co-founded The Baker’s Dozen.🏢 About The Baker’s Dozen:The Baker’s Dozen is a neighbourhood artisan bakery specializing in a wide range of international baked goods, with a focus on delivering high-quality, freshly made European breads and pastries.
Join us as we talk to Ramaswamy Iyer, the Founder and CEO of Vayana Network about their story.Ramaswamy completed his Bachelor of Engineering at VJTI, Mumbai, followed by an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Subsequently, he gained experience as a senior consultant at Accenture. Additionally, he played a pivotal role as a Co-founder of CashTech Solutions, later acquired by Fundtech.Following this, he Co-founded Clayfin in 2009 and eventually founded Vayana Network in 2017.🏢 About Vayana Network:Vayana, India's top supply chain finance platform, offers trade credit and trade enablement solutions for all supply chain tiers. It has facilitated financing of over USD 30 billion across 3,000+ supply chains and 3,00,000+ enterprises. It spans 600 cities and 2000+ pin codes, focusing on MSMEs.
Join us as we talk to Mohit Bedi, the co-founder of Kiwi about their story.Mohit pursued his MBA degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Management in 2000. Subsequently, he held positions such as Product Manager at GE, AVP and Product Head at Citi Bank, Head of Bancassurance at Barclays, Head of Credit Cards at Standard Chartered Bank, SVP and Business Head at Axis Bank, and Senior Vice President at PayU.Finally, in 2022, he co-founded Kiwi.🏢 About Kiwi:Kiwi introduces an innovative payment solution that combines the advantages of a credit card with the ease of UPI payments. With Kiwi, users can experience the seamless blend of credit card perks and the simplicity of UPI transactions, marking a significant shift in India's payment landscape. 🌐 For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.Join us as we talk to Anshuman Singh, the Co-Founder of Scaler about their story.Anshuman graduated with a B.Tech in Computer Science from IIIT Hyderabad in 2010. As a college student, he excelled as a two-time ACM ICPC World Finalist. He began his career as an intern at Directi before joining Facebook's US office. Later, he moved to Facebook's London office, contributing significantly to tech recruitment. In 2015, he co-founded InterviewBit, followed by Scaler in 2019.🏢 About Scaler:Scaler offers comprehensive programs for individuals looking to enhance their coding skills and pursue successful careers in software engineering or data science. The curriculum is industry-ready and taught by expert instructors, fostering a supportive learning environment.
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.Join us as we talk to Yamini Bhat, the Co-founder & CEO of Vymo about their story.In 2004, Yamini completed her Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from BITS Pilani, followed by her MBA from IIM Bangalore in 2007. She gained internship experience at Goldman Sachs, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, and INSEAD before joining McKinsey & Company as an engagement manager. In May 2013, she co-founded Vymo.🏢 About Vymo:Vymo is a sales engagement platform designed for financial institutions, prioritizing mobile accessibility and offering solutions for over 18 industry-specific challenges. Its unique focus lies in addressing real issues faced by banks, insurance, and financial services.
Join us as we talk to Sacheth Kadam, the Co-founder of 56 Secure about their story.Sacheth completed his Bachelor of Engineering at Visvesvaraya Technological University in 2010 and pursued Executive Education in Business Administration at the University of Notre Dame.His professional experience includes roles such as a research assistant at the Indian Institute of Science, a business analyst at Stratburg Market Research & Consulting, and a director at GraspIO Innovations.Additionally, he served as the founding member and lead at OLA Smart Mobility, and in 2020, he co-founded 56 Secure.🏢 About 56 Secure:56 Secure is an AI-powered automated security platform for homes and enterprises. It is India's only connected security platform, on a mission to create a safer world by making security effective and accessible to all.
Join us as we talk to Anand Jain, the Co-founder of CleverTap about their story.In 1996, Anand completed his Bachelor of Commerce degree at Sahajanand Arts & Commerce College. Despite having a commerce education, he gained experience as a software engineer at various companies, including Compoint Computers, Cyberworld Technologies, Software Frontiers, Brience, and Motorola. Additionally, he worked as a consultant at AT&T in the Seattle office.In 2005, Anand played a key role in the co-founding of Burrp!, a venture that was later acquired by Network18 in 2009. He also served as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Network18 for two years.Finally, in 2013, he co-founded CleverTap. 🏢 About CleverTap:CleverTap is the all-in-one engagement platform that helps brands unlock limitless customer lifetime value by helping them create personalized experiences to retain their most valuable customers.Backed by leading investors such as Peak XV Partners, Tiger Global, Accel, CDPQ and 360 One, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with presence in San Francisco, New York, São Paulo, Bogota, London, Amsterdam, Sofia, Dubai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Singapore, and Jakarta
Join us as we talk to Suyash Singh, the Co founder & CEO of GalaxEye of about their story.Suyash completed his undergraduate studies in mechanical engineering at LNCT College, followed by his postgraduate studies in aerospace engineering at IIT Madras in 2019.He gained experience as a data analyst and machine vision researcher at TCS and also founded Team Avishkar Hyperloop.In May 2021, he co-founded GalaxEye.Suyash received the Fortune India 40 under 40 recognition in 2023.🏢 About GalaxEye:GalaxEye, an IIT Madras-incubated space tech startup, is creating The Drishti Mission, the world's pioneering multi-sensor imaging satellite. Founded by a team of 5 IIT Madras students/alumni, previously part of the successful Team Avishkar Hyperloop, GalaxEye was the sole Asian finalist at the 2019 SpaceX Hyperloop Competition led by Elon Musk.🌐 For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Join us as we talk to Hari Krishnan Nair, the Co-founder of Great Learning about their story.Hari completed his computer science engineering degree at SCT College of Engineering, followed by an MBA from MDI, Gurugoan. He gained experience at various firms, such as Asian Paints and Withya, and held the role of Associate Director at the Great Lakes Institute of Management.In 2007, he was a co-founder of iLabs, which was eventually acquired by an IT enterprise company in 2010. Subsequently, in 2013, he co-founded Great Learning. 🏢 About Great Learning:Great Learning, part of the BYJU'S group, is a top global ed-tech firm offering hands-on programmes in business and tech fields. Partnering with leading academic institutions, it provides unparalleled learning experiences to millions worldwide, leveraging expert faculty and industry mentors.
Join us as we talk to Varun Khurana, the Founder of Otipy about their story.Varun completed his B.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Delhi in 2001. Following this, he held the position of a lead engineer at a network appliance company. Subsequently, he established Wirkle Technologies, which was later acquired by Location Labs. Afterward, Varun held the role of Head of the India Development Centre at Location Labs. He then co-established MyGreenbox, which got acquired by Grofers, now known as Blinkit, and subsequently served as Grofers' CTO. Additionally, he is the founder and CEO of Crofarm. Finally, in 2020, he founded Otipy.🏢 About Otipy:Otipy is India’s fastest-growing community group buying (CGB) player, which delivers handpicked farm-fresh vegetables and fruits directly from the farm to the consumer's doorstep in about 12 hours through a community of resellers (mainly women) with only 2 touch points involved.
Join us as we talk to Ankit Agrawal, the Founder and CEO of InsuranceDekho about their story.Ankit completed his Bachelor's degree in Commerce at the University of Kolkata and pursued his MFC at the University of Delhi. He gained experience as an associate at Kotak Wealth Management, Unitech Reality Investors India, and UBS, progressing to the role of AVP at Anand Rathi Advisors. Additionally, he held positions such as Head of Corporate Finance at MoveInSync Tech and COO of Insurance at CarDekho. In 2019, he founded InsuranceDekho.🏢 About InsuranceDekho:InsuranceDekho is an online platform that lets you compare and buy insurance quotes from top-rated insurance companies across motor, health, life, travel, and other insurance from multiple companies.
Join us as we talk to Prashant Sachan, the Founder of AppsForBharat about their story.Prashant completed his Bachelor's degree in Technology from Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University and a Master's in Design from IIT Bombay in 2014. He gained experience through internships at companies such as Hindustan Aeronautics, IBM Research, and Informatica. Later, he worked as a senior product designer for Samsung and Microsoft. In 2016, he co-founded Trell and left the company in 2020. In the same year, he established AppsForBharat. Additionally, Prashant has made investments in various companies, including Toplyne, Park+, UniCards, Josh Talks, Rocket Pay, and more.🏢 About AppsForBharat:AppsForBharat is on a mission to assist a billion Indians in their spiritual journey and help them feel happier, peaceful, and more content through a range of products and services.🌐 For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.Join us as we talk to Manan Khurma, the founder & CEO of Cuemath about their story.Manan finished his electronics and communication engineering from IIT Delhi in 2007. Immediately after graduation, he co-founded Locus Education, a JEE test-prep venture. At Locus, Manan mentored over 10,000 students in 6 years, building on his penchant for mathematics and flair for teaching.Motivated to shape young math learners, he started Cuemath in December 2013.🏢 About Cuemath:Cuemath is an ed-tech company focused on math learning for K-12 students. Its mission is to create problem solvers for an AI-driven future. It operates an offline teaching center and an online education platform. Cuemath is present in 80+ countries today and is trusted by 200K students for all their math needs.
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.Join us as we talk to Nityanand Sharma, the Founder of Simpl about their story.Nitya finished his mechanical engineering in 2002 at Punjab Engineering College. Then, he went on to do an M.S. in Financial Mathematics and Finance at the University of Michigan. After that, he had jobs as a Structured Credit Trader at Bear Stearns & Co. and as a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in the Greater New York City area.Eventually, in May 2015, he started Simpl.🏢 About Simpl:Simpl is India’s fastest-growing checkout and post-purchase experience platform. Simpl uses machine learning and AI to offer a quick, secure, and hassle-free checkout experience to its users and build trust in the post-purchase experience.
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.Join us as we talk to Amit Gupta, the Co-Founder & CEO of Yulu about their story.Amit graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 2000. Later, he completed an executive programme at Harvard Business School. His professional journey included roles as a software engineer at Aditi Technologies, an assistant manager at Citifinancial India, a manager at Andale, and a founder and advisor at Analyticsworks. He also held a global board member position at MMA. In 2006, he co-founded InMobi, and later, in 2017, he co-founded Yulu.🏢 About Yulu:Yulu is India's largest shared micro-mobility service provider, using electric two-wheelers to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution in urban India.Yulu’s technology-driven mobility platform uses IoT, ML, and AI for demand-supply management and efficient operations. Currently, Yulu is present in Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, and Greater Mumbai.
Join us as we talk to Vinayak Shrivastav, the Co-Founder & CEO of VideoVerse about their story.
Vinayak pursued his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Savitribai Phule Pune University. Following that, he gained valuable experience in a wide range of fields. He contributed as a production engineer at KMO Engineers, took on the role of business development head at BigSchoolBox.com, and served as the head of sales and marketing at iolytics.
His entrepreneurial spirit led him to co-found several successful ventures, including Styck, Magnifi, Illusto, and most recently, VideoVerse, established in 2022. Additionally, Vinayak holds the distinguished title of being an official member of the Forbes Technology Council.
🏢 About VideoVerse: VideoVerse is a video tech company that encapsulates an ecosystem of smart video editing tools using AI for all enterprise and individual content creators.
oin us as we talk to Nitin Chhabra, the CEO of Ace Turtle about his story. In 1995, Nitin completed his B.Com. degree at the University of Delhi, followed by a master's in business and management in 1997 from the Apeejay School of Management. He started his professional journey as a territory sales manager at Hindustan Unilever. He subsequently held positions of increasing responsibility, including the role of vice president at Arvind Brands, VF Corporation, and Reliance Brands Limited. Nitin also served as CEO for Brooks Brothers India and Iconix Brand Group. In September 2013, he took on the position of CEO at Ace Turtle.🏢 About Ace Turtle:Ace Turtle, the forefront tech-native retail company of the new India, is pioneering the next phase of change in the retail sector. With vertical integration spanning design, local manufacturing, and direct consumer outreach, it employs proprietary technology driven by data science. This ensures it consistently meets evolving consumer needs from design to fulfilment.
Join us in our discussion with the Co-Founder of ePlane, Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy.
Prof. Satya Chakravarthy received his Bachelor of Technology in Aerospace Engineering from IIT Madras in 1991 and went on to obtain his PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.
Following his academic pursuits, he returned to his alma mater, IIT Madras, in 1997 as a professor in Aerospace Engineering. At present, he leads the Centre of Propulsion Technology at IIT Madras and has also established and heads the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD) within the institution.
Prof. Satya is very passionate about deep tech entrepreneurship to democratise technology. He holds the roles of Co-founder and Advisor in various companies, including AgniKul Cosmos, Aerostrovilos Energy, GalaxEye, TuTr Hyperloop, and X2Fuels. He also serves as an advisor for Avishkar Hyperloop and NewTrace.
In April 2018, Prof. Satya took the initiative and founded ePlane.ai.
🏢 About ePlane.ai: ePlane is developing India’s first flying electric taxi for up to 10 times faster intra-city commutes and cargo transport.
As an Urban Air Mobility (UAM) startup, they aim to alleviate on-road traffic congestion in cities worldwide by offering safe, sustainable, and affordable flying experiences through their flagship product, The ePlane e200.
🌐 For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Join us as we talk to Ravi Kumar, the Cofounder of Upstox about their story.
Ravi and his younger brother Raghu were born in Madhya Pradesh, India, then moved to France before settling in Canada for 8 years. Ravi completed his high schooling there and developed a strong interest in startups.
He later moved to California to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Information and Computer Science at UC Irvine, graduating in 2004.
In September 2006, the brothers relocated to Chicago and co-founded RK Trading Partnership, a successful HFT firm that earned them over a million dollars in just two years.
However, the 2008 crash forced them to return to India. In 2009, Ravi co-founded Upstox.
🏢 About Upstox: Upstox is an online trading app for Demat Account, Share Market, MF, IPO with 1cr+ customers. Backed by Ratan Tata and venture capitalists such as Tiger Global, Upstox offers a best-in-class technology-enabled trading platform.
Headquartered in Mumbai, Upstox holds memberships with the NSE, BSE, MCX, and MCX-SX.
🌐 For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Playlists🎬: 🎙️Founders Unfiltered: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_1r_yCxtrkFtTqwgoKj8f66 🎥 AJVC BTS: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_2SqAGAJ0_rS1--1u82jvfL 🦄 Start-up Chronicles: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_0ujPMygWRZQcJBK250BXbC 🔎 AJVC Insights: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_00SpPyAU_zhicXdehoNuBd 🎯 Deep Dives: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_2BHzAOji1wBEKjXo-go7e6 📈 Founder Insights: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_1L3HjHLvNUQgPWGrfcoc-q
Join us as we talk to Rohit Chennamaneni, the Co-founder of Darwinbox about their story.
Rohit Chennamaneni completed his Bachelor's degree in Technology from VIT Vellore and subsequently pursued his master's degree at IIM Lucknow.
Following his education, he gained professional experience at renowned organisations such as Google, Procter & Gamble, and McKinsey & Company. Ultimately, in November 2015, he co-founded Darwinbox.
🏢 About Darwinbox: Darwinbox is a leading provider of cloud-based HR Management Software (HRMS). Their SaaS platform uses AI and ML to create a smarter and mobile-first HR experience.
Darwinbox serves over 750 organisations and 2 million employees across 100+ countries. Their clients include notable conglomerates and technology companies like Adani, Kopi Kenangan, MatchMove, Mahindra, Bank BTPN, TVS, Shakey's, JSW, Nivea, Swiggy, Tokopedia, JG Summit Group, NutriAsia, Indorama, and more.
🌐 For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Playlists🎬: 🎙️Founders Unfiltered: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_1r_yCxtrkFtTqwgoKj8f66 🎥 AJVC BTS: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_2SqAGAJ0_rS1--1u82jvfL 🦄 Start-up Chronicles: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_0ujPMygWRZQcJBK250BXbC 🔎 AJVC Insights: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_00SpPyAU_zhicXdehoNuBd 🎯 Deep Dives: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_2BHzAOji1wBEKjXo-go7e6 📈 Founder Insights: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_1L3HjHLvNUQgPWGrfcoc-q
🎙️Founders Unfiltered Ep-81:
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Madhusudan Ekambaram, the CEO and Co-Founder of KreditBee about their story.
In 2004, Madhu completed his Bachelor's degree in Information Technology from NIT, Karnatka. He enrolled in the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto to pursue an MBA in 2010 but later dropped out in 2011.
Throughout his career, Madhu has worked with notable companies such as TCS and Krazybee. In 2020, Madhu co-founded the Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE). Additionally, he serves as an angel investor in various companies, including Wint Wealth, OneCode, Jodo, and others. Finally, in 2018, he co-founded KreditBee.
He is also a proud recipient of "Rashtrpathi Puraskar" from K.R. Narayanan, President of India, and "Rajya Puraskar" from Khurshid Alam Khan, Governor of Karnataka State, India, for his contribution towards the Scout Movement.
🏢 About KreditBee: KreditBee is a financial technology (FinTech) platform that enables professionals to obtain immediate personal loans based on their specific needs, with loan amounts of up to Rs. 4 lakh.
The platform has received funding in its Series-D round and is supported by reputable investors such as Advent International, Premji Invest, Motilal Oswal Alternates, TPG-NewQuest, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, ICICI Bank, and Mirae Asset Venture Investments.
Presently, the company serves a customer base of 10 million individuals throughout the country.
🌐 For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
🎙️Founders Unfiltered Ep-80:
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Manish Rathi, the Co-founder & CEO of Rail Yatri and IntrCity about their story.
In 1992, Manish successfully earned his Bachelor's degree in Technology from the University of Mumbai. He continued his academic journey and obtained his Master's degree from Western Michigan University in 1997.
Following his graduation, Manish began his career as a research scientist at Telcordia Technologies. Subsequently, he gained valuable experience working in various roles with different companies, including Leapstone Systems, July Systems, and ultimately GlobalLogic.
In July 2011, Manish took on a new venture and co-founded Intrcity.
🏢 About Rail Yatri and IntrCity: Intrcity RailYatri began its journey in 2011, and Intrcity SmartBus was introduced in early 2019.
Intrcity SmartBus consists of a group of buses with special branding, aiming to offer passengers a consistent, safe, secure, and comfortable bus travel experience. In early 2019, Intrcity SmartBus started operating in two cities, and now it connects over 100 cities across India.
The objective of RailYatri is to offer current and accurate information to the 25 million passengers who travel by train daily. Within its first year of launch, RailYatri's Android app has crossed 1 million downloads.
🌐 For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Join us as we talk to Ashish Jhina, the Co-founder Jumbotail about their story.
In 2005, Ashish earned a dual degree in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from IIT Delhi. He later pursued an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and an MS in Environment and Resources—Freshwater from Stanford University in 2011.
During his time at IIT Delhi, Ashish gained valuable experience interning at the Technical University of Denmark and the French National Institute of Agricultural Research. Subsequently, he worked with prominent companies such as Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Moutain Hazelnuts. In 2009, he co-founded a company named NextDrop before co-founding Jumbotail in 2015.
Ashish's dedication to excellence and his commitment to empowering retailers have resulted in Jumbotail being recognized as a transformative force within the industry. Apart from his contributions to Jumbotail, Ashish is highly regarded as a leading figure in the entrepreneurial community.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Join us as we talk to Srinath Ravichandran, the Co-Founder & CEO of AgniKul Cosmos about their story.In 2006, Srinath Ravichandran completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the College of Engineering Guindy in Chennai. He then went on to earn his master's degree in Financial Engineering from Columbia Engineering in 2009. Additionally, he pursued a Diploma in filmmaking at the New York Film Academy. In 2021, Srinath Ravichandran furthered his education by completing a second master's degree in Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also obtained a certification in Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space engineering from UCLA in 2018.Srinath Ravichandran has an extensive professional background, having served as a Senior Director at AXA US and as an Assistant Director in Market Risk Management at AIG. Furthermore, in 2016, he took on the role of co-founder at Agnikul Cosmos, showcasing his entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to innovation.About AgniKul Cosmos:Agnikul is a pioneering space technology startup that specializes in the development, production, testing, and launch of orbital class rockets specifically designed for micro and nano satellites. The team operates from the esteemed National Center for Combustion R&D at IIT-Madras, where a diverse group of individuals, including rocket scientists, engineers, former bankers, and space lawyers, collaborates synergistically. This distinctive mix of talent and expertise stands as one of Agnikul's greatest assets, contributing to their exceptional capabilities and success.If you are excited about their journey, please reach out to them @ humancapital@agnikul.inFor more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
In 1996, Shub Bhowmick completed his B.Tech. in chemical engineering from IIT-BHU and later pursued his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Throughout his career, he worked with a number of companies, including Infosys, Motif, Mu Sigma, inVentic Health, American Express, and Liberty Advisor Group, before co-founding Tredence in February 2013.Shub Bhowmick's journey is a testament to his commitment to excellence, innovation, and the pursuit of growth. His passion for data analytics and business intelligence has played a key role in Tredence's success, and his contributions continue to shape the company's future.After earning his Bachelor's degree in Technology from IIT Madras, Shashank Dubey pursued an MBA from ISB. He then gained work experience with DRDO and Mu Sigma before co-founding Tredence.His passion for data analytics and business intelligence, combined with his entrepreneurial spirit and leadership skills, have helped Tredence establish itself as a leader in the industry. About Tredence:Tredence is a global data science solutions provider focused on solving the last mile problem in AI. The ‘last mile’ is the gap between insight creation and value realization. Headquartered in San Jose, the company embraces a vertical-first approach and an outcome-driven mindset to help clients win and accelerate value realization from their analytics investments. Tredence is a Great Place to Work-Certified and a ‘Leader’ in the Forrester Wave: Customer Analytics Services. Tredence is 1,500-plus employees strong with offices in San Jose, Foster City, Chicago, London, Toronto, and Bangalore, with the largest companies in retail, CPG, hi-tech, telecom, healthcare, travel, and industrials as clients.For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Join us as we talk to Avnish Anand, the Co Founder and COO and Mithun Sacheti, the Co Founder and CEO of CaratLane, a Tanishq Partnership, about their stories.Mithun completed his B.com from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics. Later on, he completed his Master's from IIM Bangalore in 2010. He served as a Director of Jaipur Gems for 10 years and founded CaratLane in 2008. Avnish completed his Bachelor's degree in Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute in 1998 and later obtained an MBA from IIM Lucknow in 2001. He has worked with several companies such as ONIDA, Standard Chartered Bank, and DuPont India before joining the founding team of CaratLane in 2007.About CaratLane:CaratLane, India’s first omni-channel jewellery brand, was founded in 2008 by Mithun Sacheti and Srinivasa Gopalan with a simple but courageous objective: to make beautiful jewellery accessible, affordable, and forever wearable.With a strategic investment from Titan Company Limited, CaratLane is now a partner with India’s largest retail jeweller, Tanishq. The partnership aims to work towards a common mission: to offer customers beautiful jewellery and a distinctive shopping experience that fits today’s values and lifestyles, enabling CaratLane to grow as India’s 21st century jewellery brand.
Arnav Kumar is the Founder of Leap Finance, a digital platform that helps Indian students access loans for studying abroad. He completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Applied Mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur in 2010. After graduation, he worked at Deutsche Bank as an Analyst and then joined UrbanTouch.com as a Vice President. In 2013, he founded Sokratik, but unfortunately, he could not find product-market fit and had a suboptimal GTM strategy. Later on, he founded Zoomo in 2014. He then joined Elevation Capital (previously known as SAIF Partners) as an Associate Vice President. Finally, in 2019, he founded Leap Finance.About Leap Finance:From Sundar Pichai to Indira Nooyi and Satya Nadella to Laxman Narasimhan, Indians today lead the world’s most influential companies. Increasingly, young Indians are going beyond geographical boundaries - to study at the best global schools and pursue global careers. Leap Finance supports future leaders from India in their quest for global impact. They create modern financial products and services that help Indian students pursue a global career. From choosing the right university and the best financing option to lining up job interviews and introductions, Leap Finance invests heavily in your success. Leap Finance (www.leapscholar.com) offers counselling and related services for study abroad aspirants.
Rohan is an accomplished entrepreneur and computer scientist who is best known for founding the technology company Soroco. Born in 1983, Rohan Murty is the son of N.R. Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of the Indian multinational corporation Infosys.Rohan Murty graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Cornell University. He later went on to obtain a Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard University, where he specialised in "Opportunistic Wireless Network Architectures".He also worked as a research intern with Caltech and Microsoft. In 2010, Rohan Murty founded Soroco, a company that develops and implements automation solutions for various industries.Apart from his work at Soroco, Rohan Murty is also an author and philanthropist. He has authored several books, including a translation of the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata. He has also established the Murty Classical Library of India, a project that aims to translate and publish classical Indian literature.Rohan Murty's entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to innovation have made him a leading figure in the technology industry. His contributions to the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning have helped shape the way businesses operate and have set the stage for future advancements in the field. About Soroco:Soroco's mission is to enable organizations to enhance how teams experience work and drive higher productivity by scaling empathy through Scout work graph. Today, teams spend over 60% of the workday on unstructured interactions across emails, documents, and custom applications – outside of ERP, CRM, and other systems of records. This massive enterprise data is untapped and undocumented. Our flagship product Scout, powered by the work graph, provides near real-time, structured insights into this last mile of manual digital work and helps enterprises accelerate their transformation journey. Unlike traditional solutions, the "work graph" provides a single source of truth. We are a deep tech company with ~40 patents. We have operations across the USA, Europe, UK, Singapore & India, with a roster of Fortune 500 customers across 30 countries. Visit www.soroco.com to learn how we help teams discover their work graph.
Join us as we talk to Aakrit Vaish, the Co-Founder & CEO of Haptik about their story.
Aakrit Vaish holds a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which he completed in 2008. Following his graduation, he gained valuable experience by working with renowned companies such as Motorola and Deloitte in the Bay Area. In 2011, Aakrit joined Flurry Inc., where he served as the Director of Global Business Operations and India, playing a pivotal role in the company's success. In the years that followed, Aakrit went on to co-found several companies, including Flato.to and Interakt. He also served as a managing partner for Peercheque and as an advisory board member for H2 (h2.co), where he shared his expertise and insights with fellow entrepreneurs. In July 2013, Aakrit co-founded Haptik, a groundbreaking conversational AI platform that has revolutionized the way businesses engage with their customers. As the company's CEO, Aakrit has been instrumental in driving its growth and success by building a team of talented professionals and leading the development of cutting-edge technology.
About Haptik: Haptik is a prominent conversational AI platform that helps brands create engaging and personalized experiences for users across 20 channels and 100+ languages. By using cutting-edge AI technology, Haptik enables brands to design delightful experiences that improve conversion rates throughout every stage of the customer journey. With a vision to create the most compelling conversational commerce platform of the 21st century, Haptik has established itself as a leader in the industry. The company has a global presence with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Singapore and boasts an impressive client roster that includes KFC, Whirlpool, Starhub, HP, Reliance Jio, CEAT, Disney Hotstar, OLA, and Zurich Insurance, among others. Haptik's Conversational Commerce platform has received widespread recognition and acclaim from leading industry experts, including Gartner, G2, Opus Research, and many others, who have hailed the company as a category leader in the space. Through its innovative technology and commitment to excellence, Haptik is poised to continue driving growth and success for its clients well into the future.
Join us as we talk to Victor Senapaty, the Founder of Propelld about their story.
Victor Senapaty is a highly acclaimed Indian entrepreneur and the founder of Propelld, a groundbreaking startup that provides assistance to students in securing education loans for higher studies. He earned his bachelor's degree in technology from IIT Madras, and his MBA from the esteemed University of Delhi's Faculty of Management Studies. Prior to founding Propelld, Victor served as a senior analyst for Deutsche Bank and also co-founded the StockUpp app. His experience and expertise in the finance and technology domains, coupled with his vision and passion, led him to establish Propelld in August 2016.
About Propelld: Propelld is an innovative startup based in India that aims to revolutionize the education loan industry. The company was founded in August 2016 by Victor Senapaty, a renowned Indian entrepreneur with a background in finance and technology. Propelld provides a platform that offers hassle-free, digital loan processing to help students secure education loans for higher studies. The company's vision is to make education accessible to all, and its innovative approach has helped thousands of students in India to fulfill their dreams of higher education. Propelld's dedication to leveraging technology to solve real-world problems has made it a trusted and reliable name in the education financing space.
Join us as we talk to Raghuram Talluri, the Co-founder and CEO at LoadShare Networks about their story.
Raghuram Talluri is a highly accomplished and visionary entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of LoadShare Networks. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Later on, he pursued his master's degree from IIM-L. Prior to co-founding LoadShare Networks, Raghuram held several senior leadership positions at well-known companies like McKinsey & Company and Myntra, where he was instrumental in driving growth and innovation.
About LoadShare Networks: Loadshare Networks is a technology driven new-age logistics company. They are building an asset light integrated logistics network stitching together SMEs in the logistics sector using a proprietary technology platform. It is co-founded by Raghuram Talluri (CEO, ex-Myntra, McKinsey), Pramod Nair (CTO, ex-Freecharge, Snapdeal, MartMobi), and Rakib Ahmed (Co-Founder, ICICI, Lunate Technologies).
Last fortnight, HealthifyMe released its campaign with Mandira Bedi, hot on the heels of its campaigns with Farhan Akhtar and Sara Ali Khan as it doubled down on celebrity marketing.
Tushar Vashisht is an Ivy League alumnus, and a Wall Street banker. When he got a chance to work with Nandan Nilekani on the UID project, he decided to come back to India. He and his roommate Matthew Cherian wanted to build a business that had a social impact, and made money too!
They decided to run an experiment - subsist for a month on what the average Indian does - just 100 rupees ($2.04) a day. The outcome - both of them lost a significant amount of weight.
People wanted a copy of the tracking journal they had maintained during this experiment. Tushar and Matthew created a business out of it.
HealthifyMe was born in 2012.
By 2014, it had 100K users on its app, grew 5X by 2015, and had a Series A round of $6M. It was well poised to gain traction in the $6B Indian wellness industry. By 2017, it had crossed 2M downloads. By 2020, it was making INR 100 Cr in ARR.
How did it leverage conversational AI (even before ChatGPT), and how will it disrupt the $5Tn global wellness market?
Read full article here: https://ajuniorvc.com/healthifyme-business-case-study-startup-tech-india-explained-weight-loss/
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
Last fortnight, Kreditbee raised $80M, getting close to a $700M valuation in a funding market that was suffering from lack of capital.
Read The Article Here: https://ajuniorvc.com/kreditbee-tech-fintech-lending-unicorn-loans-startup-india-case-study/
ajvc #startups #india
Join us today, as we revisit the conversations with our previous founder guests on - "How They Acquired Their First Customers?"
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:33 DUNZO
02:10 BukuWarung
04:01 Wakefit
05:54 FamPay
08:15 Ather Energy
10:11 Pratilipi
12:07 NoBroker
13:13 Perpule
14:25 Jupiter
15:45 Bewakoof
17:05 Bizongo
19:17 CoinSwitch
Last fortnight, DMart reported ₹11.3K Cr of quarterly revenue, clocking a 25% YoY growth, putting it on track for ~₹40K Cr of annual revenue.
Radhakishan Damani was a stock trader in Dalal Street. In the 80s, he was head-to-head with Harshad Mehta. Mr D lost big with Apollo Tyres - his first encounter with Harshad. But Damani is not a man to accept defeat easily.
Damani learnt the art of trading under Manu Manek - the cobra of D-Street. By the turn of the century, Damani was doing significantly well for himself as a trader.
He had won the battle against Harshad, been a value investor alongside Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, and an early predictor of HDFC Bank's supreme success. Yet, he felt anxious to start a business that brought value to Indian consumers for every rupee they spent.
D-Mart was born, with its first store in Powai. Since then, it took eight years to grow to 10 stores, but only 5 years for the next 50 stores. It IPOed in 2017, and thereafter never touched the offer price again.
With strong unit economics, focus on frugality and high customer satisfaction, will DMart continue being the blue-eyed boy of Dalal Street?
Read full article here: https://ajuniorvc.com/dmart-ipo-story...
Welcome to 2023 with our first podcast. Join us as we speak to our first guest from the United States, who is expanding his startup to India. Amjad was born in Jordan, where he grew up with a computer long before others had it. Like any emerging market, his parents wanted him to get a good education. Instead, he became a hacker who built Replit as a side project while working at Yahoo. In 6 years, Replit went from a side project to a company. Today it supports 17M+ developers and is on its way to being a developer unicorn
Replit is a browser-based integrated development environment for cross-platform collaborative coding available worldwide. Replit raised from YC after failing thrice to get there. Replit has raised $100M from investors such as Coatue, a16z and YCombinator.
What a year!
We started with our predictions a few years ago. Now we can't stop waiting for the year to turn and see how we fared against our predictions.
Last year we made six predictions on IPO and unicorn counts, D2C, Creator ecosystems, deep tech and fintech.
During a year when people saw crazy overnight changes in the status quo (Ukraine invasion, interest rate hikes), we scored a mad 9.5/10 on our predictions.
This gets us pumped to crystal gaze into the next 12 months.
Read our recap of 2022, and the predictions for 2023 here: https://ajuniorvc.com/2022-predictions-2021-recap-ipo-d2c-fintech-indian-startup/
Join us as we talk to Jani Pasha, the Co founder and CEO of Lokal about their story. Jani Pasha completed his B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur in 2013. Later, he worked with companies, including Tata Steel and Zoomo India. He founded businesses including Halfteaspoon and TheSoup before starting Lokal in 2018. He was also a participant in Ycombinator S19 and was featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2020 list. About Lokal: Lokal is on a mission to strengthen hyperlocal communities by enabling its mostly non-English users to share, interact, and transact in their regional language. Lokal users gain access to hyperlocal information such as daily commodity prices, local jobs, real estate, matrimonial, local business advertorials, and classifieds that would otherwise be scattered across local newspapers. The app is available in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Marathi and has 10 million downloads with a presence in more than 100 districts across South India. Lokal has been supported by marquee investors, namely 3One4 Capital, India Quotient, and Y Combinator.
Join us as we talk to Aprameya Radhakrishna, the Co-founder and CEO of Koo about their story.
Aparmeya started his career as a software engineer at Infosys and then moved to other corporate roles before deciding to quit to start his first company Taxi for sure. The idea for Koo, occurred to them while building thier second company, Vokal. Koo then took off growing rapidly as it was promoted by the Indian government who found themselves frustrated with Western social media platform
About Koo: Koo founded in 2020 has been downloaded 50M times and currently functions in over 100 countries. It is available in 11 languages, and recently added 1M new users in Brazil in 48hrs after the launched in Portuguese
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Join us as we talk to Srikanth Velamakanni, the Co-founder, Group Chief Executive & Vice-Chairman of Fractal Analytics about their story.
Srikanth Velamakanni completed his engineering bachelor's degree from IIT Delhi and later pursued an MBA at IIM Ahemdabad. He held positions at ANZ Investment Bank as an associate and ICICI Bank as an assistant manager. He was also a member of the AI Task Force for Defense in India and the co-chair of the NASSCOM BPM Council. Additionally, he served as the chairman of the board for companies like Qure.ai, Crux Intelligence, and FinalMile Consulting, as well as an independent board member for Metro Brands Limited. He co-founded Plaksha University in March 2018 and Fractal Analytics in February 2000, respectively.
About Fractal Analytics: Fractal is one of the most prominent players in the artificial intelligence space. Fractal's products include Qure.ai to assist radiologists in making better diagnostic decisions; Crux Intelligence to assist CEOs and senior executives in making better tactical and strategic decisions; Theremin.ai to improve investment decisions; Eugenie.ai to find anomalies in high-velocity data; and Samya.ai to drive next-generation enterprise revenue growth management. Fractal has more than 3,000 employees across 16 global locations, including the United States, UK, Ukraine, India, Singapore, and Australia.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Join us as we talk to Manish Jethani, the Founder of Hevodata about their story.
Manish Jethani hails from a small town in India called Shahdol. He finished his graduation from IIT Roorkee and ventured straight into entrepreneurship. Prior to starting Hevodata Manish also founded SpoonJoy which was later acquired by Grofers (now Blinkit). In addition to being an entrepreneur, Jethani has also worked in product management for companies such as Grofers and FashionandYou.com.
About Hevodata: Hevo is an end-to-end data pipeline platform that enables businesses to easily pull data from all their sources to the warehouse, run transformations for analytics, and deliver operational intelligence to business tools.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Founders Unfiltered Ep-64:
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Ankit Prasad, the Co-Founder and CEO of Booble AI about their story.
Ankit Prasad is a lifelong entrepreneur, the founder of a tech startup, an advisor and mentor to other tech companies and government bodies, an angel investor, and a public speaker. The Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2018 List recognised him. Besides this, he is also recognised in the "Fortune 40 Under 40" list, "BW 40 Under 40" list, "50 Fabulous Innovative Leaders" list, and as a TEDx Youth Speaker.
Rahul Prasad is the Co-Founder and CTO of Booble AI. He pursued his computer science engineering degree at SMU. He has also been recognised by Fortune India on their 40 under 40 List of 2021 and Entrepreneur India on their Tech25 2021.
About Booble AI: Bobble AI is the world's first Conversation Media Platform. It is transforming the interactions of over 50 million people and counting with expressive and personalised content like stickers, GIFs, and emojis; deep localization with over 100 languages; AI-based contextual recommendations; speech-to-text, and much more! Bobble Indic Keyboard, the company's flagship product, enables real-time content creation and customization using cutting-edge AI technology. The world's best keyboard, in terms of ratings, engagement, and retention. For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Founders Unfiltered Ep-63:
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Trivikraman Thampy, the Co-Founder & CEO of Games24x7, about their story.
Vikram (Trivikraman) Thampy is an Aerospace Engineer turned economist turned amateur poker player turned gaming entrepreneur. He pursued his B.tech at IIT Bombay and received his PhD in Economics from New York University. Later, he founded Play Games 24x7 in 2008.
Founded by New York University-trained economists Bhavin Pandya and Trivikraman Thampy in 2006, Games24x7 is an India-headquartered online gaming company with a portfolio that spans skill games (RummyCircle and My11Circle) and casual games (Ultimate Games). Backed by marquee investors like Tiger Global and The Raine Group, the company specialises in using behavioural science, technology, and artificial intelligence to provide awesome gaming experiences across all its platforms. The diverse, talented, and passionate Games24x7 team is spread across three continents with offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Kiev, Philadelphia, and Miami.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Join us as we talk to Abhishek Goyal and Neha Singh, the Co-Founders of Tracxn about their story.
Neha Singh pursued her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in technology from IIT Bombay. Later, in 2014, she completed her MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. She also served as an Associate with the BCG Group and an Investment Analyst with Sequoia Capital.
Abhishek Goyal completed his Bachelors of Technology in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur. In the IIT JEE Exam, he received an All India Rank of 60. Later, he served as a software engineer for organisations including Amazon, Yahoo, Andale, and Resume Pro.
About Tracxn: Tracxn is one of the world’s largest platforms for tracking 1.4 million entities through 1,800 feeds categorised across industries, sectors, sub-sectors, geographies, affiliations, and networks globally. It is powered by a unique blend of technical prowess and human analysts that filters through billions of data points to create one of the most useful data intelligence platforms.
Tracxn has over 850 customer accounts worldwide, spread over 50 nations, and is backed by investors like Accel Partners and Sequoia. The Tracxn platform is also utilized by several governments, accelerators, incubators, and universities to track innovative businesses and industries. Tracxn has been featured in the Forbes Top 100 Global Analytics Startup List (2015), and Fortune 40 Under 40 (2018).
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Founders Unfiltered Ep-61:
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Sagar Khatri, the Co-Founder and CEO of Multiplier Technologies about their story.
Sagar Khatri is the Co-Founder and CEO of Multiplier. He is an Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay graduate. Later, he worked as an investment banker for Nomura and served as Hmlet's VP of Growth and Expansion. He oversaw the 40 million dollar Series B funding, expansion into Australia and Japan, and a joint venture with MEC in Japan.
About Multiplier Technologies:
Multiplier, a top global hiring platform, is simple for businesses to hire teams abroad. It enables businesses to handle employee benefits, tax payments, and employment contracts and comply with these requirements. It generates revenue through subscription-based business models. In March 2022, the company raised $60M in Series B fundraising.
For more details- https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Founders Unfiltered Ep-60: Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Abhishek Nayak, the Co-Founder & CEO of APPSMITH about their story.
Abhishek Nayak is the co-founder and CEO of Appsmith. After earning his degree from BITS Pilani in 2010, he went on to co-found businesses like Gharpay, Wise Mobile Technology, and Bicycle AI. He also served as director of product for Ezetap Mobile Solutions.
About APPSMITH: It is the first open-source low-code tool that helps developers build dashboards and admin panels very quickly. It's a platform that helps businesses build any custom internal application within hours. The business was established in the middle of 2019, and its open-source software has been downloaded more than 5 million times by users at more than 1,000 businesses in more than 100 countries.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Last fortnight, the ED began investigating crypto exchanges in connection with instant lending apps, soon after, the RBI banned PPI instruments from loading via credit lines. In this week's episode of A Junior VC behind the scenes, talk about the history of lending in India which some day is as old as humans.
For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/lending-loan-fintech-credit-navi-startup-india-unicorn/
For more content on startups visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Deepit Purkayastha, the Co-founder of Inshorts about their story.
Deepit is a computer science and engineering graduate from IIT Kharagpur, where he started building Inshorts in his final year of college along with his co-founders from IIT Delhi. He previously worked as an intern with Goldman Sachs during his college days.
About Inshorts: Read the latest news with Inshorts in less than 60 words related to business, sports, Bollywood and technology in India and worldwide in English and Hindi.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Last fortnight, MilkyMist announced it was looking to raise 800 Cr in the financing, after reporting close to 1,000 Cr in revenue.
Once bankrupt, this failing family business has come a long way to clock 1300Cr revenue for FY 2021.
For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/milky-mist-case-study-cream-cheese-startup-india-fundraising-dairy-amul/
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/
Founders Unfiltered Ep-58:
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Rohan Nayak, the Co-Founder of Pocket FM about their story.
Rohan completed his high school at DPS, RK Puram in 2010 and graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 2014. He later worked for several companies, including Credit Suisse, Cube26, and Paytm. About Pocket FM: Pocket FM is a personalised vernacular audio streaming service, built with a vision to redefine the OTT space with an audio-first approach. It was launched in September, 2018. Pocket FM is a Series C stage company and has raised US $93.6 million in five rounds and is backed by some marquee investors like Lightspeed, Times Internet, Tanglin Venture Partners, Goodwater Capital, Naver and others.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
About the Hosts :
Aviral Bhatnagar is a VC at Venture Highway and is the Founder of A Junior VC. He started the A Junior VC Newsletter in 2018 after observing whitespace in conversations in the Indian Venture ecosystem. He completed his B. Tech from IIT Bombay and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.
Mazin Biviji is a Product Owner at Agoda and a founding member of A Junior VC. He previously worked at Deloitte as a Senior Consultant. He completed his MSE and BSE from the University of Michigan and his MBA from INSEAD.
Join us at https://ajuniorvc.com/community/ to be a part of an exclusive community and grab the opportunity to question and hear our guests live every Sunday.
AJVC: https://ajuniorvc.com/
Last fortnight, LEAD reported explosive growth due to the unlocking of schools, hot on the heels of a unicorn fundraise earlier this year.
Join us at https://ajuniorvc.com/community/ to be a part of an exclusive community and grab the opportunity to question and hear our guests live every Sunday.
AJVC: https://ajuniorvc.com/
Founders Unfiltered Ep-57:
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Anurag Sinha, the Co-founder, and CEO of One Card about their story.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Last fortnight, Mamaearth announced that it was gearing up for a $3Bn IPO, hot on the heels of the company becoming a unicorn.
For more - https://ajuniorvc.com/mamaearth-unicorn-consumer-startup-india-ipo-brand-shark-tank-alagh-case-study/
Last fortnight, Zomato acquired Blinkit, hot on the heels of Swiggy shutting down SuprDaily and Zepto raising a $200M round as the quick commerce market twisted and turned.
For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/quick-commerce-10-minutes-blinkit-swiggy-zomato-zepto-unicorn/
Founders Unfiltered Ep-56:
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Chirag Taneja, the Co-founder, and CEO of GoKwik about their story.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
In what was the biggest stock market listing in India, LIC IPO-d last fortnight at 6 lakh crore or almost $90Bn, rocketing to India’s #5
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/lic-ipo-history-case-study-valuation-insurance-startup-journey/
AJVC: https://ajuniorvc.com/
Founders Unfiltered Ep-55:
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin. Join us as we talk to Prashant Pitti, the Co-Founder of EaseMyTrip about their story.
About Prashant Pitti:
Prashant Pitti is the co-founder of EaseMyTrip. After graduating from IIT Madras, he worked at Capital One as a business analyst and later as an assistant vice president in the Risk Department of HSBC, Chicago. He also served as CEO and founder of Profoundly & NearGroup, which is a social/dating app.
About EaseMyTrip:
In 2008, Nishant Pitti, Rikant Pitti, and Prashant Pitti founded an Indian online travel company called EasyMyTrip. The company, based in New Delhi, offers hotel bookings, air tickets, travel packages, bus bookings, and white-label services. With overseas offices in Singapore, Dubai, Maldives, and Bangkok, EaseMyTrip can help you plan your trip. EaseMyTrip is one of the world's few consumer startups that bootstrapped its way to an IPO and later became a unicorn. Without any outside financial infusion, EMT has grown to become the second-largest and has been profitable for the past 13 years. EMT is also the most rapidly expanding travel company. From FY16 to FY20, EMT grew at a CAGR of 47 percent. EMT has grown through word of mouth thanks to its no-convenience-fees philosophy.
Last fortnight, Open Financial Technologies became India’s 100th unicorn after raising $50M in its Series D funding round.
Read the complete article here - https://ajuniorvc.com/open-100-unicorn-fintech-india-startup-case-study-niyo-bank-neobank/
AJVC: https://ajuniorvc.com/
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Prabhkiran Singh, the Co-Founder of Bewakoof about their story.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
About Prabhkiran Singh: Prabhkiran Singh is the Founder and CEO of Bewakoof.com, India's leading D2C fashion brand. After graduating from IIT Bombay in 2011, he started Bewakoof.com in April 2012. In college, he also started a lassi outlet chain called Khadke GLASSI, which offered fresh and flavoured lassi. This venture was even featured by The Times of India and the National News Channel News 24.
About Bewakoof.com: Founded in 2012, Bewakoof is a lifestyle fashion brand that makes creative, distinctive fashion for the trendy, contemporary Indian. Bewakoof was created on the principle of creating impact through innovation, honesty and thoughtfulness.
Last fortnight, Indian upstart Hasura enabled GraphQL hot on the heels of becoming India’s newest DevOps unicorn
For more follow the link - https://ajuniorvc.com/hasura-unicorn-india-startups-saas-developer-tools-devops-postman/
Last fortnight, Parle launched a campaign with RRR stars Ram Charan and Alia Bhatt, a first for the brand with the pairing as it targeted reaching 20,000 Cr of sales
For more details visit: https://ajuniorvc.com/parle-bisleri-case-study-history-brands-positioning/
About AJVC: A Junior VC was started in 2018 with the belief that there is whitespace on conversations by venture capitalists in the entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem in India.
AJVC has 4 offerings - Startup Stories, Founders' Unfiltered Podcast, the Slack community, and Startup Concepts.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
In May 2018, Walmart announced that it would pay $16 billion for 77% of Flipkart. Sachin decided to sell his 5.5% stake in the company he founded for Rs 7,650 crore.
Three years later, he founded Navi with a vision to build a financial services behemoth over the next two decades. The vision to build Flipkart into a global behemoth had been tantalizingly close but snatched. And with Navi, the hunger to outdo reigned dominant. The plan was to create a $100 Bn company with Navi.
From the beginning, the company focused on acquisitions to procure a universal banking license and meet the stringent criteria set by RBI and Sebi for a banking license. Navi is already into Asset Management, Insurance, and Lending. The company is now looking to expand its horizon and wishes to do an IPO and expand its lending footprint. Sachin Bansal is unlikely to make a mistake again, diluting its stake early on, and he is here for a long play. But will Navi achieve the $100Bn dream?
Last fortnight Navi announced a 4,000 Cr IPO which would be one of India's biggest.
Link to full article here: https://ajuniorvc.com/navi-unicorn-sachin-bansal-case-study-indian-tech-startup-ipo-fintech/
AJVC: https://ajuniorvc.com/
Join us as we talk to Aniket Deb, the Co-Founder of Bizongo about their story.
About Aniket Deb:
He is the Co-Founder and COO at Bizongo, a full stack supply chain enablement platform for customised goods. He graduated from IIT Bombay in 2013 and founded Bizongo in 2015. While working for Housing.com, Opera Solutions, EY and Biocon prior to establishing his own company, he gained extensive experience.
About Bizongo:
Bizongo is a full stack supply chain enablement platform for customised goods. The company today focuses upon packaging, textiles, apparels & other contract manufacturing goods as its product portfolio and has a network of over 1500 curated manufacturers across these categories. Through its proprietary digital platforms, such as Procure Live, Partner Hub, and Artwork Flow it is offering Digital Vendor Management, Supply Chain Automation & Supply Chain Financing as key services to its enterprise customers. Today, it services more than 120 enterprise customers in fashion & lifestyle, pharmaceuticals, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, home & personal care and e-commerce.
Last fortnight, Pune based Elastic Run crossed 1,000 Cr of revenue as it also raised $300M to build yet another Indian unicorn.
Link to the article: https://ajuniorvc.com/elasticrun-ecommerce-unicorn-rural-logistics-case-study-indian-startup-tech/
AJVC: https://ajuniorvc.com/
Founders Unfiltered Ep-51: Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Harsh Pokharna, the Co-Founder & CEO of OkCredit about their story.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Last fortnight, Nepal became the first country outside India to adopt UPI, hot on the heels of the announcement of a digital heavy budget.
More details - https://ajuniorvc.com/india-stack-fintech-unicorn-upi-aadhar-explained-case-study-global/
AJVC: https://ajuniorvc.com/
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Nitin and Vasant, two of the co-founder of OfBusiness about their story.
Asish’s desire to leave a crater of impact in the world, coupled with his “hands-on” nature of getting into the mud made him realise that his calling was in entrepreneurship. Even though he and his cofounders - Ruchi Kalra, Bhuvan Gupta - were in their late thirties, they decided to take the plunge.
Convincing Ruchi to join OfBusiness was probably harder for Asish. Ruchi was not only Asish’s wife but was also a partner at the consulting firm they worked together. Bhuvan, back then head of Tech at Snapdeal, was a friend of Asish’s, and both of them were discussing starting up for quite some time. Asish was discussing the problem of finding a tech co-founder with Bhuvan, and he joined as a co-founder.
Nitin Jain, an IIT Delhi Silver medallist and investment banker, and Vasant Sridhar joined the journey a month into the journey. They brought in skill sets that were complementary, but necessary for the success of the venture.
You need to stand on the shoulders of a giant to look further. Asish did that just, by assembling a great team with complementary skill-sets. In 2015, OfBusiness v1.0 was born.
About OfBusiness:
While commerce contributes 55% of its total net revenue, lending and SaaS have a pie of 43% and 2%, respectively. In terms of profits, lending is its biggest contributor followed by commerce. With these two pillars, Ofbusiness serves over 9,000 businesses. But perhaps more importantly it laid the foundation for unique digital services that allows SMEs to tap the global market.
Bidassist gives their customers access to government and private tenders across the globe from North America to Russia to the Philippines. Over 6 lakhs business had used bidassist for government and global tenders. OfBusiness has issued loans of 10,000 Cr+, supports more than 5,000 clients and 2,000 suppliers across their suite of products.
They have built a profitable business with a large and engaged user base that they are uniquely positioned to serve better than any other bank, fintech or e-commerce platform can stand alone.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Last fortnight, DeHaat posted a 2x jump in revenue, growing to 350Cr, hot on the heels of the largest fundraise announcement for an Indian agritech.
For more details visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/dehaat-agritech-india-startup-case-study-business-model-unicorn/
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Akhil Gupta, the co-founder and CTO of NoBroker about their story.
Mr. Akhil Gupta started his career with Oracle after he graduated form college. Over the years, he watched IRCTC, MakeMyTrip, and BookMyShow launch and emerge as big players in their respective fields. He soon realized that physical intermediation is being disrupted by technology. This, combined with a few bad and expensive experiences he had while house-hunting in a new city, led to the idea of NoBroker, a real-estate search site.
About Nobroker: NoBroker is a Bangalore based real estate search portal that connects flat owners and tenants directly with each other. Today, the unicorn has operates in several major Indian cities and has more than 7.5 million properties listed on its platform and over 16 million people have used its services.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Last fortnight, DarwinBox raised $72M and became a unicorn, continuing the momentum of unicorns in 2021 and becoming the first pure-play Indian HR tech company to do so.
Link to full article here: https://ajuniorvc.com/darwinbox-hr-saas-unicorn-india-startup-sap-oracle-hrm-case-study/
Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin.
Join us as we talk to Amit Ramani, the founder of Awfis about their story.
Mr.Amit Ramani was born in a family of engineers and took up architecture. He went on to pursue a master's at Kansas State. He became a first-generation entrepreneur after buying the Nelsen India business. He has talked about scaling up a co-working business from scratch & shared about his mistakes.
About Awfis: Awfis is an Indian company that offers co-working spaces to the startups, freelancers and entrepreneurial communities. It was founded in 2015 and has more than 35,000 seats in 67 centers across India.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Last fortnight, Ather Energy raised $60M in its newest round, as Tesla got courted by Indian states to set up a manufacturing plant
Article Link: https://ajuniorvc.com/electric-vehicles-future-ather-ola-bajaj-india-startup-tech-tesla/
More info on: https://ajuniorvc.com/
Last fortnight, MapMyIndia had a blockbuster IPO, becoming a $1Bn company as it listed after 3 decades.
For more details Visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/mapmyindia-story-india-startup-ipo/
Banks, across geographies, have been slow to catch up with technology. Customers who are exposed to new age, high quality services are often frustrated when left to deal with complex, irrelevant communication and poor consumer experience. Virender Bisht, who interacted closely with banks for payment solutions, was shocked to see the pace of technology adoption. He started looking for ways to disrupt the traditional approach. Virender developed a fascination for computers and software during his mechanical engineering days. This continued as he worked at TCS on some transformational technology projects across large and small clients. Along the way, he discovered that he enjoyed working with smaller teams and transitioned to the startup world. The idea to disrupt banking came when he led the technology vertical at Makemytrip. He was introduced to Vinay Bagri in 2015, when the duo set out to build disruptive financial products under the name Niyo. Virender talks to us about their journey of building products ranging from employee benefit solutions to full-fledged banking services in an over-arching effort to simplify finance with technology. As always, don’t miss out on the gems of unfiltered advice at the end!
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
For more details visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/2022-predictions-2021-recap-ipo-d2c-fintech-indian-startup/
A famous World War II term ‘Blitzkreg’ was used to describe scenarios where armies moved very fast, surprised enemies, and won. You either won big or lost big. ‘Blitzscaling’ in the startup world, while on a positive note, has a similar perspective. Companies find their space in a market and move extremely fast to expand their user base and revenue. Like the armies, this is often done on unfamiliar paths in spite of lurking risks and adversity! Such an approach led CoinSwtich Kuber to become the largest crypto trading platform in India with 10M+ users in just 15 months. Stay with us until the end as this promises to be an engaging conversation for anyone observing the crypto or startup space!
https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
In today’s episode, Prashant talks about this journey of navigating a web of regulatory hurdles, riding through the pandemic, and most importantly - building trust into the DNA of 1mg! We also learn about his transition into the TATA group and how this cements his aspiration of building India’s largest and most admired healthcare brand! As always, we leave you with a gem of unfiltered advice at the end!
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Last fortnight Chargebee appointed its Chief Financial Officer, a few months after turning unicorn in an incredible year for Indian SaaS
For more details: https://ajuniorvc.com/chargebee-saas-unicorn-india-startup-revenue-zuora-chennai-case-study/
When Pandemic struck in 2020, the banking industry was ready for disruption- the act of physical visits to bank or ATMs had to be done away with - which gave a golden opportunity to a new form of Banking to emerge- known as Neo Banking.
Jitendra Gupta- our guest for today -is the one of the most known faces in the Fintech space – he is also the co-founder of Jupiter- a mobile first neo banking platform targeted at millennials.
In todays podcast we discuss the Jitendra's journey so far- and get insights on how he managed to bring Jupiter from Ideation to reality.
For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Last fortnight, Paytm opened India’s biggest IPO.
Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - Will Paytm’s Rollercoaster hit IPO Gold?
Link to article - https://ajuniorvc.com/paytm-ipo-fintech-rollercoaster-mall-wallet-business-unicorn-startup-india/
Jaynti was born and brought up in a small town in Ahmedabad. He studied at a local college, where students’ ambition was limited to getting a job at TCS. Jaynti too followed a similar path and took a job at an Indian corporate.
**A friend introduced him to YC’s Hacker News - a website focusing on technology and budding startups.
Desiring to work with great people, he tried cold mailing people at top US startups - even offering to work for free, but didn’t receive any response. He worked at a couple of startups, and learnt more about the zero to one building journey. He was always working on multiple side projects, waiting for something that really clicks.**
**Jaynti came across bitcoin and was drawn to the endless possibilities the technology offered. Diving deeper into blockchains, he discovered the limitations of existing tech. Ethereum had made it possible for anyone to make apps on blockchain, but as the network grew transacting on ETH became increasingly slow and expensive - with cost of 1 transaction rising even higher than $80.
To solve the problem of scaling blockchains, Jaynti created Matic - a layer 2 solution that augments Ethereum and drives its scalability. Using Matic brings the transaction cost to less than 1 INR, while also making it 20 times faster.**
**Today, Matic’s worth more than $10B and is used by companies worldwide for applications including NFTs, DeFi
For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/**
Last fortnight, Zee and Invesco continued their major tussle, hot on the heels of Disney+Hotstar breaking records with the IPL and Facebook rebranding itself to Meta.
Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - Who will win Media’s Game of Thrones.
For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/media-google-zee-invesco-ott-netflix-winner-tech-startups-inshorts-dailyhunt/
More info on: https://ajuniorvc.com/
Raghav went to study in the US not knowing what to expect. Living there was an entirely new experience for him.
Even simple things like purchasing groceries had some technology involved for increased convenience.
**He worked in the Bay Area as a software engineer at emerging startups including Yelp & Twitter. After 2 years, he realized the world outside SF was full of opportunities, with many problems yet to be solved, and decided to come back to India.
Having witnessed the era of emerging marketplaces like Airbnb, Uber transforming the US service sector, Raghav wanted to do something similar. He started his first business in the ride-hailing space which didn’t work out.**
After a few months, he met Abhiraj & Varun at dinner through a common friend. The 3 of them discussed startup ideas late into the night and arrived at creating a marketplace for gig workers.
Thus, Urban Company was born.
Being in a highly competitive space with 60+ startups at one point in time, UC eventually emerged as the leader owing to its focus on quality user experience and mission to empower the workforce.
Today, UC has 32000+ trained professionals and has served over 5M happy customers.
For more visit: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
**Last fortnight, India added 500 more “Tech Crorepatis” as Freshdesk Inc IPOed at a valuation of $13 billion making it the first Indian SaaS company to get listed on Nasdaq.
For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/freshworks-india-saas-zoho-unicorn-ipo-story-history-girish/**
Jaydeep grew up in a Bengali household that loved food. While working in Pune, he missed the Kathi rolls he loved growing up and decided to start a restaurant as a side project. The two launched Faasos, a restaurant serving rolls, and outsourced its operations.
Jaydeep then went to pursue his MBA at INSEAD and landed a job at McKinsey London. After 5 years, he returned to India and had to choose between joining the firm’s rapidly growing India office or growing Faasos.
Faasos started from a single restaurant in Pune and eventually expanded to 10 across Mumbai and Bangalore. It offered doorstep delivery, a novel concept back in the day! In spite of the customer love, Faasos struggled to make unit economics work due to the high cost of real estate - a common problem for Indian restaurants.
**A shift in strategy was driven by a customer survey insight - 74% of customers had never visited a Faasos restaurant! This epiphany led them to adopt a 'delivery only' model and cut down costs. Rebel Foods eventually pioneered the concept of 'cloud kitchens' - a single physical kitchen serving as multiple brands.
Today, Rebel Foods is the leading internet restaurant company globally with 15+ brands and 3500+ restaurants across 10 countries.
For more details visit: ajuniorvc.com/podcast**
Last fortnight, Billdesk was acquired by Prosus’ PayU for $4.7Bn, making the combined provider the largest online player, and the acquisition the largest after Flipkart.
For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/billdesk-fintech-prosus-payu-acquisition-unicorn-razorpay-history/
More info on: https://ajuniorvc.com/
**Tarun took the aspirational middle-class education route. Being a good student in high school, he prepared for Engineering Entrance and got a decent rank to get into IIT.
Growing up, he had no exposure to how businesses worked. This changed when out of curiosity he joined his institute’s entrepreneurship cell and gradually developed an interest in building products. But it was not something he imagined he would do in the near future.**
**A few months later, he got in touch with his batchmate Swapnil who shared a similar experience. In college, the two would often have long discussions around sustainable energy and had worked on many projects together.
Brainstorming business ideas and analyzing the worst-case scenario, the two developed the conviction to quit their jobs and build something they were passionate about.
Tarun had been fascinated by the Electric vehicle space and figured as the sector grows there would be a dire need for good charging infrastructure.**
**Thus, Ather Energy was born. Inside a student hostel in Madras, far away from the Indian startup hub, by 2 graduates who had no knowledge of Electronics.
For more details visit: ajuniorvc.com/podcast**
**Last fortnight, OfBusiness raised $160M, joining the stampede of 26 unicorns this year.
Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - AJVC Unfiltered 33: Can OfBusiness help SMB's get Supply Smarter?
For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/ofbusiness-b2b-financing-supply-unicorn-india-startup-zetwerk-inframarket/**
Kabeer grew up in a small town in Dadra & Haveli, where starting one’s own business was unheard of. After completing his MBA, he started working as a sales executive at Airtel and later became a product manager.
**After spending a few years there, he decided to leave and spent a year doing nothing before finally starting his first startup. A location based service that offered coupon codes for local shops and worked on SMS communication.
He found Product market fit and eventually sold the company to hike.**
He again took a hiatus and decided not to work on anything for a while. After around 6 months, he stumbled across a personal problem.
Kabeer had the habit of staying organised and had a system in place for efficiently doing almost everything. Purchasing groceries every week though, proved to be a challenge.
**This urged him to think of a solution. Not thinking of it as a business, he started by simply creating a whatsapp group for taking orders and making deliveries himself.
Within 3 months, the member count reached over 10K, by word of mouth alone.**
It was then Kabeer realised the market for this problem is huge, and a business can be created around it.
**Thus, Dunzo was born.
Today, it is trusted by over 5 million users across 7 cities.
For more details visit: ajuniorvc.com/podcast**
Last fortnight, Indian ed-tech startup Eruditus raised $650MM **from marquee global investors at a $3.2Bn valuation, becoming India’s 3rd largest EdTech.
For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/**
Link to the article - https://ajuniorvc.com/eruditus-edtech-unicorn-byjus-unacademy-executive-higher-upgrad/
Gaurav grew up in a family that operated a large apparel business. Seeing his Dad grow the business had sown the early seeds of entrepreneurship in him. He worked in the family business for 6 years during which he witnessed the complete business journey - From IPO to an exit to a PE firm.
He decided to take a break and went to do an MBA at Stanford where he met his co-founder Shashank. The two had complementary skill sets and were clear they wanted to start a business together but didn’t know what. After graduating, they returned back to India and started searching for business ideas.
They had close to 40 ideas ranging from a ride-hailing service to QSR restaurants. Over the course of a year, they dug deeper to test each idea and narrow it down on one. They evaluated ideas on 3 important parameters - The Scale of the problem, Can Technology be used as a differentiator, and the Impact generated. SME financing was something that ticked all 3 boxes.
**In 2013, they started Capital Float to solve the problem of SME financing. Today Capital Float has expanded its offerings to also serve consumers through Buy Now pay later and Personal Finance solutions.
For more details visit: ajuniorvc.com/podcast**
**Last fortnight, CoinDCX became a unicorn, putting Indian crypto firmly back into the spotlight after years of wilderness.
For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/ Link to the article - https://ajuniorvc.com/india-crypto-startup-tech-coindcx-wazirx-polygon-unicorn-bitcoin/**
Souvik grew up in Kolkata in a middle-class neighborhood where entrepreneurship was something alienated and mainly constituted of generational family businesses. After completing his CA he started working at a construction company. He worked there for 5 years, then went on to pursue an MBA. He graduated in 2016 and witnessed the Indian startup ecosystem booming.
However, the B2B space was something that remained largely unexplored. Being familiar with the construction industry landscape, Souvik was aware of the inefficiencies and the large opportunity at hand.
His thesis constituted of 2 insights:
- the majority of the market is fragmented and served by many local manufacturers
**- Companies mostly set up centralized mega factories and use multiple distribution channels.
Souvik started Infra.Market with the mission to digitize procurement of raw materials using an asset-light model. In 2019, they started receiving investor interest and began expanding rapidly.**
**Today, Infra.Market supplies across 10 Indian states and exports to markets like Dubai, Singapore, Italy, etc.
For more details visit: ajuniorvc.com/podcast**
Last fortnight, India added a record 20th unicorn for the year, almost double in the number of 2020, surpassing the amount of funding **raised in all of the last year.
Article link - https://ajuniorvc.com/india-startup-tech-upi-jio-infosys-flipkart-gold-decade/ More info - https://ajuniorvc.com/**
Abhinav grew up in a traditional middle-class fashion and went on to college to study engineering. Becoming a part of the institute’s entrepreneurship cell, he got exposed to the world of startups. Interacting with founders and hearing their experiences, he had realized that he ultimately wants to become a founder one day.
**After graduation, he got a high-paying job at Goldman Sachs. After working for a few months in the Indian office, he went to work at the US office where he met his co-founder. The two loved discussing product ideas and study emerging market trends.
While living in the US, they witnessed the Black Friday sale and were awestruck. Everyone goes on a massive shopping spree with items getting out of stock in a matter of hours. This observation made them interested in the Indian space.
Amidst the Flipkart amazon rivalry, they were confident that offline retail also has an important role to play.**
Digging further into the Indian retail market revealed its inefficiencies and presented the large opportunity at hand. Wanting to give their best shot at the problem, they both quit their job and came back to India.
**Thus, Perpule was born.
For more details visit:** ajuniorvc.com/podcast
**Last fortnight, Digit Insurance raised a $200 million round to make it one of the largest funding rounds in India’s general insurance industry, valuing the company at $3.5B.
Article link : https://ajuniorvc.com/digit-insurance-lic-unicorn-india-startup-tech-general-acko/ More info on: ajuniorvc.com**
Ranjeet grew up in a small village with less than 1000 population. He used to go to the nearby city on weekdays to attend school and return to the village on the weekend. As a kid he was a voracious reader, starting with first his school textbooks, later devouring Hindi literature, comics, and novels. As he grew up, he slowly shifted to reading English as there was no regional content available online.
Coming from a humble background, getting a stable job was what his family wanted for him. After completing his MBA, he got a job at Vodafone. He liked the job but after a few years, he wanted to do something more challenging. So quit his job and decided to startup. As he started searching for business ideas, many of his friends advised him why doesn’t do something to solve online regional content - a problem Ranjeet often cribbed about.
As he started talking to people about this problem - he received many suggestions - Indians don’t read, People don’t read long-form content anymore, No one wants regional content. But he knew that wasn’t true and had a deep conviction that there was a space for an Indian regional content player.
Thus, Pratilipi was born.
**Today Pratilipi is India’s largest regional content platform with over 3 lac writers and more than 2.5 crore monthly active users
For more details visit:**ajuniorvc.com/podcast
Last fortnight, BrowserStack raised $200M, at a valuation of $4Bn, making it India’s most valuable SaaS startup.
Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - AJVC Unfiltered 28: Can BrowserStack be the World’s Software Tester?
For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/browserstack-saas-unicorn-bootstrapped-testing-app-browser-india-startup/
**Arjun Vaidya was brought up in a family with a rich culture in Ayurveda. His Grandfather had started an ayurvedic clinic about 150 years ago.
He went to study in the US, where he saw yoga repackaged and being sold all over the country. He pondered why India was lagging behind in it’s adoption, the land where it originated from.**
**He returned to India and started a brand to bring ayurvedic products to the Indian audience. His vision was to contribute to India’s renaissance, by making ayurvedic products for Indian consumers. He started by repackaging ayurvedic products for new use cases. Capsule Chawanprash and Hangover shield being 2 such items that received a great demand.
To build a D2C brand for Bharat, Arjun advises it’s crucial one should not consider their friends & themselves as the consumers. It’s important for the founders to talk to users every week at all times of the startup’s journey.**
He mentions that constant feedback and suggestions from users gave birth to many of Dr. Vaidya’s products that are now very successful.
**Today Dr. Vaidyas is trusted by over a million users from 1000+ cities.
For more details visit:** ajuniorvc.com/podcast
**Last fortnight, Tata Digital acquired 1mg for $200M, hot on the heels of its acquisition of BigBasket and its investment in Cure.fit.
Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - AJVC Unfiltered 27: Can Tata's 20-Year Tech Pivot Spin Up a SuperApp?
For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/tata-digital-tcs-super-app-startups-unicorn-titan-ratan-tata/**
Chinmay grew up in Bombay where he was surrounded by small businesses. His father had a textile factory and his mom ran a boutique tailor shop. They emphasized on Chinmay’s education so that he could get a stable job.
**After graduating from college, Chinmay got a job in Singapore as a software engineer. He later became a product manager and worked in Southeast Asia for 6 years. While working he met his co-founder Abhinay and found some great mentors, who encouraged them to startup.
The two brainstormed over a lot of ideas and tried narrowing down one. Building for MSMEs was one that stood out.**
**In Indonesia, SMEs’ contribution makes up 60% of the GDP, indicating a huge opportunity. And the majority of the business was still carried out using traditional ways.
Bukuwarung started out as a bookkeeping app for small shops, helping merchants maintain their cash flow.**
**In just 2 years after its start, Bukuwarung is now trusted by over 6.5 million+ users in Indonesia.
For more details visit: ajuniorvc.com/podcast**
Last fortnight, D2C brand acquirer Mensa raised $50M, hot on the heels of beauty brand SUGAR’s $21M fundraise. Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - Can India Consume D2C Brands?
Article Link: https://ajuniorvc.com/d2c-brands-startups-mamaearth-unicorn-nykaa-boat-influencer/
More info on: https://ajuniorvc.com/
After completing his MBA, Chaitanya started working as a management consultant in the US. There he learned about product management, user experience, and how large organizations function. He really enjoyed the work but didn’t like the travelling lifestyle and decided to quit to do something better.
**He came back to India and decided to startup in the consumer tech space. He ran the business profitably for some years and eventually exited the company and decide to remain in the startup ecosystem by working with Yourstory and LetsVenture. Finally while working at Tapzo he met his co-founder Ankit who shared a similar background - coming from a Middle-class family, studying engineering, and later founding a startup.
While buying furniture for his new home, Ankit found out purchasing mattresses is a very costly affair. In search of a solution to buy a cheap mattress, eventually led them to Wakefit.
Wakefit has been profitable from the start and remained completely bootstrapped for the first 3 years.
For more details visit: https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/**
Last fortnight, Groww raised $83MM to become a unicorn, becoming the seventh fintech in India to do so. Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece "Can Groww Help Indian Investor Wealth Grow?"
Article Link: https://ajuniorvc.com/groww-fintech-unicorn-india-mutual-fund-stocks-startup/
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Sai grew up in Hyderabad and developed an interest in building things right from his high school. Studying at IIT Kanpur, he tinkered around with different ideas that didn’t work at the time. But taught him the importance of overcoming failures to grow. After graduation, he got a job at Zynga, a company making video games for social networks. It was there he learned the Art of Product Management and Game Design.
His experience at Zynga had taught him that gaming works at scale only when Data, Device and Payments, All three are present. In 2016, UPI was launched and bridged that last gap. This insight gave birth to MPL, a mobile esports platform offering a plethora of games to users.
Today, MPL is India’s largest mobile gaming platform, with 50+ games and over 60 million users in India.
For more details visit: https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/
Last fortnight, Urban Company raised $190M, propelling it to become a $2Bn unicorn, a record-breaking 13th for 2021. Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece "Can Urban Company Makeover India's Gig Economy?"
Article Link: https://ajuniorvc.com/urban-company-clap-services-unicorn-gig-economy/
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Seeing the rise of Indian talent in foreign movies coupled with their interest in film and media, Ashwin, Aditi, and Anirudh decided to come back to India and do something in the space. They started with a production studio creating films but soon pivoted to a content creation company as they witnessed the growth of social media. To build a community serving multiple interests, they created multiple brands under Pocket Aces with a unique content thesis for each.
Today Pocket Aces is India’s leading original content company with over 700M monthly views. Their clients include all kinds of companies - large MNCs, FMCG brands, startups, and OTT platforms.Join us to learn how Ashwin, Aditi, and Anirudh built Pocket Aces to help solve boredom and provide entertainment to all of us. More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
Abhimanyu's interest in tech began in college where he met his co-founder Anshuman. The two of them worked together on many projects before joining as full-time engineers at young high growth startups in the US. They discovered how hard it is to scale a talented tech team. They started Interview Bit, a website that helped people prepare for tech interviews using high-quality content. But they felt there was a bigger problem at hand to be solved.
Scaler Academy is a virtual university that acts as a focused guide with mentors, relevant courses, and the correct learning environment. Abhimanyu talks about how important it is for companies to hire the right talent as bad hires hit the hardest in the tech domain. He explains the hiring process and suggests ways how both companies and employees should go about it. Join us to learn from Abhimanyu about building talent-dense organizations. More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
Last week, boAt announced a ₹50Cr (~$7MM) fundraise from the venture arm of a major global technology company, on the heels of a ₹750Cr ($100MM) PE investment 3 months ago.
boAt democratised audio technology in India. Will it be amongst the handful of Indian hardware unicorn startups?
Listen ahead to know more!
After college Prateek got a job at a big bank. He enjoyed the job but often felt like a small cog in the machine. Witnessing the early Indian startup wave closely, he decided to leave his job in 2014 and startup. He launched a B2B marketing platform that after 4 years got acquired by an Indonesian firm.
He moved to Indonesia and fell in love with its culture. The country’s budding startup ecosystem and sense of community led him to start Kitabeli, a social commerce app. Social commerce takes advantage of people’s behavior of sharing purchases and offers in their friend circles. This significantly reduces the logistics cost and the CAC as compared to traditional e-commerce. Join us to learn how Prateek built and grew Kitabeli to facilitate commerce in Indonesia. More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
Link to detailed article: https://ajuniorvc.com/nazara-gaming-ipo-esports-mpl-dream11/
Last week Nazara Technologies became the first gaming company ever to be taken public. This INR 583 Cr IPO was oversubscribed 176 times by investors. Even before a 21-year-old Nitish Mittersain could find his foothold with his fledgling startup, he found himself in a $660K debt after the dot-com crash. Nazara.com v1.0 was kept aside, and Nitish resorted to selling bulk SMS packs to stay afloat. But the wheels of his fortune were turning, and by 2005, Nazara had landed a $1.5 MM seed investment and Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador.
The journey ahead could only be in one direction - upwards. But there several more twist and turn that Nitesh had to content with. What did Nazara do to eventually spring back again? Was it just COVID, or did the demographics have a role to play? Will it be able to compete with the new-age fantasy gaming industry and come out on top?
Sumit grew up in a town full of small business owners. His family’s nudge towards STEM education was considered the unconventional path. While working as an equity analyst, Sumit discovered a unique problem in the fintech space - Indians have very high physical asset ownership, yet asset-backed lending makes only a minority of total borrowing. In 2015, he started Rupeek to fulfill this unprecedented demand. He believes Understanding customers is an ongoing process and one should keep running experiments to learn. Today, Rupeek serves over 1 lakh happy users across 25+ cities. Join us to learn how Sumit got to know his customers and built Rupeek. More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
Episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/aWkBTwiLQWc
Last month, Infra.Market raised $100M to gain unicorn status, only 20 months after getting its first-ever institutional round. Become one of the fastest Indian unicorns. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece Can India’s Fastest Unicorn Win the Infra.Market?
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Growing up, Reeju had never thought of starting his own venture. It was after receiving an admit from ISB when he started thinking about what he really wants to do in life. Considering the huge expense of Bschool, in addition to the opportunity cost at hand. He made the decision of not doing an MBA and starting up instead. He met his co-founder Akash through a mutual friend. The two often used to bounce around business ideas with each other. Before starting up, they evaluated many different ideas and narrowed down on the problem they both had faced personally, Cash on delivery payments for online businesses. Today, Cashfree is used by over 50000 businesses with transactions worth $12 billion processed annually.
More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
The AJVC team gets together to discuss BharatPe and how they raised $100M to reach within a touching distance of becoming a unicorn, within an incredible 3 years of founding. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece Will BharatPe Become Bharat’s Lending Tap?
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Pranay studied at IIT Delhi where he got to be a part of a true community in the form of his hostel. Post his MBA from IIMA, he got a job as a Stock Broker. As work used to get over by 4, he started helping his college startup accelerator after his working hours. This continued for a year after which he came full time as the CEO. After working at the accelerator for 4 years he met his co-founder Varun and decided to start 91 Springboard, a small fund to help startups. To make the fund economics work, they realized the need for a local community of startups.
More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
The AJVC team gets together to discuss Mobile Premier League(MPL) and it's rise to rocketship growth in the fantasy gaming segment. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece Is Mobile Premier League the Real Deal?
After graduation, Dhimant worked for a large tech company as a software engineer for 5 years. Intrigued by the business aspects of a company he decided to join a B-School. At ISB he met folks with diverse backgrounds including entrepreneurs that transformed his initial perspective of getting a high-paying job at a corporate. Dhimant highlights the importance of intertwining Business with Impact so both continue to grow simultaneously. Today Better India has a reach of over 90 million people in a month. Join us to learn how Dhimant built and grew Better India to empower citizens and catalyse change.
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The AJVC team gets together to discuss the evolution of SaaS in India - how we get here and where we are going. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece Is India SaaS Ready to Soar?
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Ashish built his first website and was competing with tech giants in his 10th grade! In college he kept toying with ideas and code which led to his first startup, providing telecom based value-added services that he exited in 2011. He started a Restaurant with a friend and realizing how painful it is to manage a restaurant, led them to create POSist, a cloud-based platform for restaurants. Today they serve 8000+ clients spread across 22 countries.
Join us as we talk to Asish about how POSist evolved overtime to find their business model and customer segment.
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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?
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Ajinkya grew up in Nasik, in a family where doing business was more of a default option than doing a job. He credits his entrepreneurial acumen to his father, who owns a manufacturing unit. His first startup idea was based on an emotional problem, and it didn’t work out. He stayed in the fintech industry, playing different roles at different companies, and finally landed on the idea of growfix.
Join us as we talk to Ajinkya about find a problem to solve and building Growfix.
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The AJVC team gets together to discuss Zenoti and their incredible journey of becoming India’s first vertical SaaS unicorn. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece Can Unicorn Zenoti become Wellness’ Default OS?
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Swapnil landed his dream job when he graduated from college. After 3 years at Twitter, he decided to come back to India and startup. What followed was an 18-month struggled to find the right idea and co-founder. Swapnil finally connected with his college roommate and their experiences lead them to start obseve.ai.
The two of them started selling the idea before they had a final product. When it came to growth, they experimented with a variety of sales channels to find out which ones work and doubled down on them. Swapnil advises founders to start selling in the right market from Day 1.
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The AJVC team gets together to discuss the Indian startup ecosystem. Join us for a behind the scenes conversation on how we did on our 2020 predictions and the week’s A Junior VC piece, Audaciously Predicting 2021.
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(Hindi Audio) Mr. Chaudhary started his first business with a small loan from his father to set up 2 looms. Today, Jaipur Rugs is one of the largest manufacturers of hand-knotted rugs serving clients all across the globe. Join us as we talk to NK Chaudhary about how he built his company and empowered artisans through self-management. More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
The AJVC team gets together to discuss Cars24 and their incredible journey becoming India's largest used car marketplace. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece Is this Cars24’s Long-Awaited Moment?
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Mithun started blowhorn with a bottom-up approach and hustled hard to grow the initial supply of drivers and acquire their first 1,000 customers without spending a single penny on marketing. Join us as we talk to Mithun about how he disrupted the disorganized logistics industry. More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
Last fortnight, Urban Ladder was acquired by Reliance for INR 182 Cr, at a steep discount from the 1,200 Cr it was valued at. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece What Happened to Urban Ladder?
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Mindtickle started with corporate events to improve employee engagement but over the course of 4 years and many pivots later they created a new category of enterprise software called sales-readiness. Join us as we talk to Deepak about how they built and sold their software to companies all over the world. More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
The AJVC team gets together to discuss the online dating market in India. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece Will BharatMatrimony Win Indian Matchmaking?
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On a mission to make quality education accessible to a wider audience, Ashutosh founded his 2nd startup Testbook, a one-stop platform designed for students to achieve better results on government exams. Join us as we talk to Ashutosh about he acquired over 13M users all over India through some innovative offline channels. More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
The AJVC team gets together to discuss the origin story and evolution of Fevicol. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece Can Fevicol Stick To Trusted 20 Year Building?
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Sairee, a serial entrepreneur, realized that the Internet has been built by men, with their needs in mind. Leaving women underserved. Many women have had a bad experience online and there is a lack of trust for women on the internet.
Join us as we talk to Sairee about her incredible journey building a safe community helping women with jobs, resources, networking, and advice. More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
The AJVC team gets together to discuss the rapid growth of the IPL and how it triggered a sporting renaissance. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece Can IPL Startup India's Sporting Revolution?
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Prasanth talks about his fifteen-year journey from learning how to code through trial and error, turning it into a profession, and then using the skills he acquired to build companies. He proudly discusses his failures and what he learned from it, as he sheds light on how he found product-market fit.
Join us as we talk to Prasanth about his incredible journey and finding product-market fit.
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The AJVC team gets together to discuss the evolution of the agriculture industry in India. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece Can Agritech Seed India’s New Green Revolution?
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Vivek and Neel met while working on Voicetap. In 2016, they started iZooto to help any company with a domain name to engage with their visitors.
Today iZooto delivers 60Bn notifications for some of the world's largest media companies without any external funding. This focus on a single customer segment that they could serve best has been one of the biggest reasons for their success and the market share that they now hold.
Join us as we talk to Neel and Vivek about how they segment their customers and how they discovered their DNA as a company.
More info on:ajuniorvc.com/podcast
The AJVC team gets together to discuss the direct to home meat and seafood industry. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece “Can Licious Be India's First Consumer Unicorn?”
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Gaurav is a serial entrepreneur who has built well over a dozen different products. He learnt how to code as a child and built his product when he was still in college. Since starting SaaS labs in 2014, Gaurav has built several products catering to different themes. Each one is a self-sustaining business with some of his products like Just Call generating millions in annual recurring revenue.
Based on his experiences, Gaurav created a 20 point SaaS playbook, which he used for a new product Helpwise.io, he grew it to $100K ARR in just 4-5 months. Join us as we talk to Gaurav about his journey.
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The AJVC team gets together to discuss Space tech and India’s role in defying the odds to become one of the world's space superpowers. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece “Is India Space Tech's Dark Horse?”
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Harshil was turned down by over a hundred banks when he started Razorpay in 2014. Instead of fretting over it, he spent the time talking to businesses and building a payment gateway to solve their problems. Their customer-centric approach made them one of India's best payment solutions. Once users trusted him to handle payments, branching out into banking services was natural.
Today 800,000 businesses rely on Razorpay for payments, bank accounts, and loans. Join us as we talk to Harshil about his journey and creating new products.
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The AJVC team gets together to discuss pharmeasy and India’s multi-billion dollar and rapidly growing e-pharmacy industry. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece “Will Pharmeasy Win E-Pharmacy’s Intense Battle?
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Shrehith is one of the founders of Finshots.
He met his co-founders in business school and they started writing and gradually built an audience but it was not enough to pay the bills. Just when they were running out of funds, one video went viral which helped them take the company to the next level. Today, Finshots delivers one 3 min read per day to over 100,000 subscribers on India's most important financial developments.
Join us as we talk to Shrehith about his journey and the early days of starting a company.
More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
The AJVC team gets together to discuss InMobi, India’s first unicorn and one of the pioneers of the Indian tech revolution. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece “Is InMobi Asia’s Advertising Dark Horse?”
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Kevin is the Co-founder and co-CEO of Gojek. In just a few years, he helped to build Indonesia's first decacorn.
Kevin started his career in investment banking but moved back to Indonesia where he worked for e-retailer Zalora which was founded by Rocket Internet. That’s where he met his co-founder and good friend Nadiem. Kevin joined Nadiem as the CFO of the company in 2014 but as the company grew, his role evolved. Gojek grew like crazy - 100% month over month for a 12 month period. Few people have experienced that kind of growth.
Join us as we talk to Kevin about how we built the rocketship and what he learnt on his incredible entrepreneurial journey.
The AJVC team gets together to discuss the Amul and India’s white revolution that Amul inspired, converting Indian from a Milk deficit national into the world’s largest producer of milk and milk products. Join us for a behind the scenes peak at the A Junior VC piece “Will Amul’s Epic Milk Run Win India’s Consumption Marathon?”
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Kush is the founder of FamPay. He started the company while he was still in college. He built FamPay with sheer determination and hustle. Today, just a year after Kush graduated from college, FamPay brings cashless convenience to millions of teens and their parents. Join us as we talk to Kush about his incredible entrepreneurial journey. More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
The AJVC team gets together to discuss the Indian fintech ecosystem and the rapid growth of the digital ledger Khattabook. Join us for a behind the scenes peak at the A Junior VC piece “Will Khatabook Uncover Bharat’s Elusive Fortune?”
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Ankur is the Co-founder and CEO of Nuclei. He has founded a successful restaurant chain and was part of the founding team of Tapzo a venture-backed startup that sold to Amazon. He first learnt to think bigger when he moved to Mumbai to study engineering, well before starting his entrepreneurial journey and he kept thinking bigger at each step in his professional life. Join us as we talk to Ankur about his entrepreneurial journey and the importance of think big.
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The AJVC team gets together to discuss the rise of the edTech industry and how it has bombed and rapidly evolved in India since the 2000s. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece “Is EdTech India’s Next Global Export?”
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RainCan, now called BB Daily, started off as hyper-local grocery delivery but it really took off due to a freak incident. The milkman in his colony went away, so Abhijeet decided to offer milk delivery as an experiment. He realized that even though milk is a low margin product it was the start of a relationship with his customers. He could then sell other products to customers once they knew that RainCan would be at their doorstep every day with the milk.
Today, BB Daily has over 2,500 employees serving more than 3 lakh subscribers per day! Join us as we talk to Abhijeet about how he built and scaled the company.
More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
The AJVC team gets together to discuss Postman, a SaaS used to test and develop APIs (Application Programing interface). Postman started off as a niche product built by developers for developers but as the usage of APIs exploded so did Postman’s popularity. Join us for a behind the scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece “Will Postman Deliver Tech to Build Software’s Global Bridges?”
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Varun first started playing poker in his college. After graduating, he worked in a variety of roles and continued playing poker online. As his love for poker grew he realized that there is an opportunity to create a better poker playing experience. In just 3 years, he built one of India's largest poker platforms. Join us as we talk to Varun about his journey and the importance of finding the right people to build his company.
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Sanchit started his company in 2013, right after he graduated from college. Today, Townscript is a market leader that operates in several countries helping event organizers issue over 3M tickets per year. Join us as we talk to Sanchit about his journey and how he built the Townscript marketing machine.
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Anuradha started her business as a hobby, teaching people English from Hindhi through simple animations on a Facebook page. Today, Multibhashi has over 1M+ downloads on the play store and offers a variety of service in 10+ languages. Join us as she reflects on her journey and talks about how to build for Bharat, specifically the lower-income but higher volume segment of society which is just starting to come online. More info on: ajuniorvc.com/podcast
Rohit and his company Trancelestial are using lasers to transmit data. They have already piloted a project with SK Telecom in South Korea to launch a 5G network at a fraction of the cost. Just one step on their journey to connect earth to deep space using a space laser communication network. Join us as Rohit talks about hisjourney, the challenges he encountered, the incentives for deep-tech founders and why this is such a huge opportunity.
We conclude the episode by talking to Akshay who is launching his MVP - A fantasy stock trading game that rewards learning. Try it for free on stoquity.in and win prizes while giving him valuable feedback just by participating.
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We talk to Neerav Jain the Co-founder and CEO of CityFurnish. His start-up journey began with simple but effective advice - talk to customers and validate assumptions. An idea that is still crucial to the company today and an integral part of their continuous pursuit to delight customers. We conclude the episode by discussing a listener's business idea and with that example, shed some light on how to implement this idea of validating assumptions in a B2B setting.
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We talk to Suyash Sinha the Co-founder and CEO of MyScoot. Join us as Suyash reflects on the transition from the corporate world to a startup, the challenges of building a company and the constantly evolving roles and relationships amongst the founding team. We conclude the episode by introducing the final segment and ask listeners to submit their startup ideas and MVP plans.
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