In this episode of Millionaire Mondays, featured in Startup Spotlights, an initiative by Google Play, we sit down with Tito Aby Idicula and Nigel Crasto, founders of Programming Hub, one of the largest apps to learn programming.

Since its inception in 2016, Programming Hub has taught coding to more than 40 Million people, reaching almost every single country in the world.

00:00 Introduction

03:41 Inception at L&T

04:34 Transitioning from Employment to Entrepreneurship

08:21 Financial Struggles and Creative Solutions

20:51 A Turning Point: Google Launchpad Accelerator

25:08 Understanding Userbase and Monetising them

34:32 Benefits of Bootstrapping

36:29 Project X

46:45 Insane Growth During Pandemic

54:05 AI: Boon or Bane?

1:04:29 Video Game Suggestions

Tito Aby Idicula and Nigel Crasto started Programming Hub in 2016. The company was founded with the vision of addressing the growing demand for programming skills in an increasingly digital world. Recognising that traditional education systems often fall short in providing flexible, up-to-date, and comprehensive coding education, the founders set out to create a platform that would democratise access to high-quality programming instruction.

At the heart of Programming Hub's appeal is its extensive library of courses, which covers a wide array of programming languages and technologies. From foundational languages like Python, Java, and C++ to specialized fields such as data science, machine learning, and mobile app development, Programming Hub caters to both beginners and advanced learners. Each course is meticulously designed to ensure a seamless learning experience, featuring interactive lessons, hands-on coding exercises, and real-world projects.

The platform also offers courses in emerging technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, ensuring that learners are well-prepared for the future of tech.

Both Nigel and Tito see AI as the biggest advancement in tech till now and see it as a big opportunity for Programming Hub in the future.

Among many things to take away from this podcast, their journey of building a bootstrapped profitable startup is something I am most impressed about.

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Today's episode of Millionaire Mondays is extra special - because it's also the first episode being featured in #StartupSpotlights, a Google Play initiative, where inspiring startup founders share their untold growth stories.In today's episode, we're in conversation with Yannick Colaço, co-founder of FanCode, a one-stop destination for sports fans in India. FanCode has more than 100M lifetime users, making it one of the largest sports streaming platforms in the country.00:00 - Introduction04:08 - Career Beginnings and NBA Experience11:23 - The Inspiration behind FanCode17:15 - Starting FanCode25:22 - Team and Culture at FanCode38:11 - Navigating the Pandemic42:28 - Growth and Expansion Post-Pandemic45:52 - Monetization and Revenue Strategies48:45 - Merchandise and New Ventures56:28 - Future Plans and Innovations58:33 - OutroYannick Colaço and Prasana Krishnan started FanCode in 2019. The company has positioned itself as a comprehensive destination for sports fans, offering a variety of services including live streaming, non-live content, sports statistics, and merchandise.Yannick Colaço previously worked with NBA India as managing director, while Prasana Krishnan was a former executive at sports pay-television broadcasters Sony Pictures Networks and Neo Sports.FanCode raised $50 Million in May 2021.One of FanCode’s significant strengths lies in its comprehensive sports coverage. The platform offers live streaming of matches, which includes not just major leagues and tournaments but also smaller, regional, and even grassroots events. This has democratised access to sports content, enabling fans to follow their favourite sports and teams regardless of their geographic location.FanCode also provides detailed sports statistics and real-time data, enhancing the viewing experience for sports enthusiasts who crave in-depth insights. Expanding beyond digital content, FanCode also offers sports merchandise, allowing fans to purchase official team gear. During the ICC World Cup 2023, FanCode was the official partner for Indian team jerseys.Social LinksGoogle India’s IG:https://www.instagram.com/googleindia/?hl=enGoogle India’s X:https://x.com/GoogleIndiahttps://x.com/googledevsin?lang=enGoogle India’s YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@GoogleDevelopersIndiahttps://www.youtube.com/GoogleIndiaGoogle India’s LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/googleplaybiz/posts/?feedView=allFanCode’s LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/fancode/mycompany/?viewAsMember=trueFanCode’s Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fancode/?hl=enFanCode’s X:https://x.com/FanCodeYannick's LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/yannick-colaco-237aab11/Yannick's X:https://x.com/yansports[This podcast is sponsored by Google Play.]#FanCode #StartupSpotlights #GooglePlay

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It all began in late 2008, amidst Abhinav Das' GATE exam. In a pivotal moment of realization, he abandoned the exam midway, recognizing that pursuing a master's degree wasn't his true calling. Instead, he crafted a business plan on the spot, birthing the concept of 'Evomo - Evolving Mobility'.The objective behind Evomo was straightforward: to replace the ubiquitous jugaad vehicles prevalent in rural India with Rural Utility Vehicles (RUVs). These RUVs were envisioned to be cost-effective, modular, and specially designed for rough terrains. However, Abhinav Das encountered a significant obstacle – funding. He required approximately 2.3 crore rupees, equivalent to about 383,000 dollars at the time, to kickstart his vision.Despite seven years of dedicated efforts and the creation of an impressive prototype, Evomo failed to generate any revenue. Abhinav Das attempted to secure venture capital to obtain certifications and commence manufacturing, but his endeavors only yielded a fraction of the required funds – a mere 12 lakh rupees, or 18,000 dollars at the time.Facing limited options, Abhinav Das took a daring leap and applied for Y Combinator in 2015. Despite being accepted for an online interview, he fell short of securing a spot after the in-person interview in California.The setback was a crushing blow, leading Abhinav Das to shutter Evomo, depart from Ahmedabad, and return to his parents' home in Delhi. He grappled with a profound sense of purposelessness, battling bouts of depression characterized by prolonged sleep and difficulty in getting out of bed.Yet, amidst the darkness, Abhinav Das resolved to reclaim his passion for entrepreneurship. He embarked on a journey to resurrect his dreams, eventually founding Orangewood Labs alongside his co-founders, determined to make a lasting impact in the world of robotics.Abhinav Das and his fellow co-founders at Orangewood Labs are on a mission to revolutionize the robotics industry. Their focus? Building robotic arms that are not only affordable but also incredibly easy to program, thanks to their innovative AI-powered software named RoboGPT.

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00:00 Intro02:52 Building Ather S340 and 45009:15 Indian EVs vs Chinese EVs19:29 Can India become the biggest electric vehicle exporter? 28:10 Indian EV industry (wave 1)33:30 Struggles of building an EV company40:40 How Ather almost shut down 52:09 The hardware wave58:10 How to take feedback 1:04:48 Asteroid mining is the future 1:09:59 The future of the energy industry 1:15:45 Outro

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00:00 Intro

01:50 From a Bedroom, to a Basement

05:53 Hiring in 2005: a Big Challenge

10:26 Building Culture, Organically

11:10 Running a Global Company in India

14:16 Being Profitable and Bootstrapped

16:16 Three Near-Death Experiences

22:40 Milestones and the Path Ahead

Pallav Nadhani founded FusionCharts at the age of 17 in an effort to earn himself some extra pocket money. He succeeded in doing so, and now, 17 years later, he has more pocket money than he knows what to do with. The data visualization company has over 28,000 customers as of December of 2019, some of which include Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Adobe, Walmart, NASA, and many, many more. In this video, Pallav explains how he built FusionCharts from his bedroom and turned it into a multi-million dollar company over the course of the last 17 years.

From a Bedroom, to a Basement: Pallav Nadhani was able to run FusionCharts for three years on his own before he realized that he needed help. He onboarded his first employee, a friend of his cousins, and together they worked out of Pallav's bedroom for about a year and a half. By the end of this period, they were working with over 1,000 customers, and couldn't handle to workload on their own anymore. They shifted into a basement office and started hiring more employees.

Hiring in 2005: a Big Challenge: Hiring wasn't a very easy thing to do for a startup in Calcutta in 2005. India's startup ecosystem was still in its infancy, and the startup ecosystem in Calcutta was nonexistent. Employees were hesitant to join the startup despite the fact that they were already working with a number of Fortune 500 companies. However, with time and experience, Pallav was able to assemble of solid team of engineers.

Building Culture, Organically: Even as FusionCharts was scaling up and the startup was onboarding more and more employees, Pallav really didn't know anything about building strong culture. Instead, he simply focused on instilling values like pride in the company, a strong work ethic, and the desire to learn and grow on the job. As a result of these values, FusionCharts was able to establish a strong culture organically.

Running a Global Company in India: Less than 1% of FusionCharts' customers are Indian. This is something that Pallav takes pride in, because going global from India was a pretty big challenge when FusionCharts was first starting out. In spite of this, FusionCharts has been able to build quality products that are good enough not only for India, but also for the world. What is more, they have done so as a bootstrapped, profitable company from day 1.

Being Profitable and Bootstrapped: Because FusionCharts has always been profitable and bootstrapped, they have very rarely struggled with money problems. In fact, the biggest money they have faced is a surplus of funds. The challenge for them has been to figure out what to do with these funds. Part of the reason that they are able to be profitable and bootstrapped is that FusionCharts is a very lean company: they have 68 employees serving 28,000 customers!

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Pravesh Pandey is one of the most renowned faces in India's Hotel and Restaurant Industry. He started his career with ITC Hotels back in 2002, where he was a Guest Service Coordinator. He spent the next decade of his professional career in senior positions at key companies like P&O Cruises, Lizard Lounge, Henry Tham Lifestyle Restaurant, and Hard Rock Cafe. In 2020, Pravesh started Bissi Bissi Oota, which is India's first QSR brand serving home-style meals that are 'Shuddha', 'Aarogya', and 'Taaza'. They ensure the provision of fresh, nutritious, and hygienic food at the most affordable prices. In fact, a meal is provided at a price of INR 30.Pravesh is also one of the shareholders and directors at Byg Brewski Brewing Company , which at the time of its opening was India's largest Microbrewery.Pravesh early in his career also helped in the rapid expansion of 'Social'.

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Candice Lock's journey from her upbringing in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, oto her tech career in New York is a tale of cultural fusion and culinary passion. Growing up in a Cantonese family, she later found herself at the Copacabana salsa club in New York, where the Latinos affectionately referred to her as "Chinita," meaning "little Chinese girl" in Spanish. Her love for Latin American cuisine, especially Mexican food, blossomed during her time in the city that never sleeps.When Candice moved to Bengaluru for work in 2008, fate intervened, and she crossed paths with Amit Mirchandani, who had a deep appreciation for Mexican cuisine from his time in the United States. In 2010, and Candice had not only married Amit but had also fully embraced her passion for Mexican food.Together with Amit and his brother Sameer, who shared her love for Mexican cuisine, they embarked on a journey to bring the flavors of Mexico to Bengaluru. Tacos became their specialty, and they started selling them at Bengaluru's Soul Sante.

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When Anubhav was a kid in school, he used to flip phones. That's the start of his business venture even though he didn't know that's how business worked. During his teenage, his parents wanted him to do his UPSC exam and become an IAS Officer but he chose entrepreneurship without his parent knowing about it.He moved from Delhi to Indore to start his entrepreneurial journey and decided to start selling chai. They came up with a business plan to start selling chai and decided to open their very first store in near a girls hostel. As they opened it, they had no name for the place. When customers came for chai, they started calling them "gumnaam chaiwallah" and that's they came up with the name Chai Sutta Bar.Chai Sutta Bar doesn't allow people to smoke in or around their outlets even though it has "sutta" in it's name. After they started their first store in Indore, they saw a massive demand and decided to open more locations. They had expanded to 3 stores by 2016 with a franchise model. Then in 2019 they expanded to 65 locations.Today, Chai Sutta Bar has expanded to 500 location across 300 cities, including 3 stores in Dubai. They are planning to open more stores in other countries like USA, Canada and the UK.

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Explorex’s website: https://explorex.co/

When Nicolas moved to India from France for an internship, he was struck by nostalgia for the sandwiches from his homeland. And so, he embarked on a culinary journey. In 2015, he took a bold step and launched a food truck called Paris Panini in Bengaluru, with the aim of introducing gourmet French street food to the city.Paris Panini was among the pioneering food trucks in Bangalore, housed within a converted old-school van. Its weekly route quickly gained a following, with customers tracking its whereabouts through social media and forming long queues upon its arrival.Introducing a novel product to the Indian market posed its challenges, but Nicolas was determined to refine the menu to cater to local tastes while preserving the authenticity of French cuisine.One of Nicolas's key objectives was to change the prevailing perception of Indian street food as being predominantly unhealthy and unhygienic. To achieve this, the food truck was designed with an open counter, allowing customers to witness the panini preparation process, and fostering trust through a professional and hygienic live kitchen experience on wheels.Initially, the menu was quite limited, featuring approximately ten items. The primary focus was on delivering high-quality products crafted from fresh ingredients. Every item was painstakingly made from scratch, including the hand-cut and double-fried French fries that have since become iconic, reflecting the preparation methods in Nicolas's hometown of Arras, in northern France.Nicolas's unwavering passion and dedication catapulted Paris Panini into the limelight. The food truck gained immense popularity, leading to invitations to cater for major festivals, birthday parties, and weddings throughout the city.However, the food truck scene in Bangalore was marked by unpredictability, primarily due to the absence of regulation. At one point, the city's notorious traffic congestion even led to a temporary ban on food trucks. As Paris Panini's popularity continued to soar, Nicolas faced the challenge of scaling up his operations.This pivotal moment arrived when Nicolas crossed paths with AB and Nikhil from The Pizza Bakery, who shared his vision of transitioning Paris Panini from a food truck concept to a brick-and-mortar casual dining restaurant. They remained committed to maintaining the brand's core values while developing an extensive menu that would provide customers with an authentic Parisian cafe experience.In November 2019, Paris Panini opened its doors on the bustling 12th Main Road in Indiranagar, Bangalore. The restaurant's walls were adorned with hand-drawn Parisian street scenes, effectively transporting patrons to a Parisian cafe ambiance. The menu showcased gourmet panini, signature French fries, freshly brewed coffee, and delectable crepes, offering an authentic culinary journey.Today, Paris Panini boasts a rapidly expanding fan base, with the brand establishing itself in ten locations across Bangalore. It has quickly risen to become the city's leading purveyor of gourmet sandwiches, serving as a testament to Nicolas's dedication and commitment to bringing a taste of authentic French cuisine to the heart of India.

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Explorex’s website: https://explorex.co/

Ankit got his start building an online community called YouthPad, with the tagline “Have your say” - the website’s goal was to bring together the youth of Delhi NCR onto common platform, and he ran this platform from 2007 to 2010 when he got a job working at Flipkart.By 2015 Ankit had proven himself to be a formidable intrapreneur, and was promoted to the position of Chief Business Officer - everything was going well for Ankit, but in 2016, after more than 6 years at the company, he left and teamed up with Mukesh Bansal, Flipkart’s Head of Commerce & Advertising to built Curefit, and over the next four years, Curefit evolved into India’s leading health and fitness startup. They acquired numerous gyms across the country, worked with celebrities like Hrithik Roshan, and launched a health food brand called EatFit.Ankit Nagori had a vision to build marketplace of health restaurants for people who go to the gym and workout. So Ankit Nagori and Mukest Bansal started Curefoods and Acquihired EatFit as their first brand to build one of the biggest healthy-food facing house of brands startup in India. Now, Curefoods currently operates brands like EatFit, CakeZone, Sharief Bhai, Nomad Pizza, Frozen Bottle, Olio, Rolls on Wheels, Great Indian Khichdi, Home Plate, Juno's Pizza, Ovenfresh.

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00:00 Intro04:04 How Matt started a coffee business07:13 Challenges while roasting coffee in India08:58 Blue Tokai's marketing strategy09:49 Blur Tokai's ₹40 lakh roaster11:19 The raise of Blue Tokai15:25 Opening their first location21:25 Challenges faced while expanding24:28 How Shivam Shahi joined Blue Tokai27:01 Becoming a cafe 28:39 Delhi Police seals Blue Tokai locations32:03 Evolving coffee culture in India32:43 Blue Tokai during the pandemic34:56 Blue Tokai post pandemic36:30 Blue Tokai vs other cafes38:56 Will coffee price increase in India?43:27 Blue Tokai products45:52 Blue Tokai going global?47:14 Challenges for becoming profitable51:08 Bootstrapped vs external capital52:35 Blue Tokai IPO56:11 OutroIn the United States, third wave coffee culture in the United States was in full swing. During this third wave, concepts like farm to cup and single origin beans were popularised, and Matt Chitharanjan had been living in the Bay Area from 2003 to 2007, so he’d jumped into this movement headfirst during his time there. He even bought a small roaster and started preparing small batches of coffee as a hobby. When Matt came to India in 2011 for a 1-year job opportunity in Chennai, he spotted an opportunity. He saw the Cafe Coffee Days and the Baristas of India and realised that coffee’s third wave hadn’t reached India yet.It was in Chennai that Matt met his wife and co-founder Namrata Asthana, and after moving to Delhi in 2012, they got to work setting up India’s first homegrown specialty coffee brand, Blue Tokai.Now, Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters is India’s largest specialty coffee brand, with its headquarters in Gurgaon, India.

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Explorex’s website: https://explorex.co/

When Bert Mueller first visited India in 2010 he never could have anticipated that he’d spend the next decade of his life building a business there. Today he runs a profitable 50+ location QSR chain called California Burrito - they did ₹110 crore in FY22.

Bert Mueller started California Burrito with two American co-founders, Dharam Khalsa and Gaelan Draper. They each put in $15,000, and were able to raise an additional $250,000 from family and friends using a Tumblr blog which documented their startup’s journey.

Initially they thought they’d launch their inaugural restaurant in Gurugram, but chose Bengaluru instead because real estate was more affordable there. Their first choice was Orion Mall, but after that deal fell through, they settled on Embassy GolfLinks Tech Park.

This first location was a huge success. Located opposite of Goldman Sachs, the restaurant was doing 150 bills per hour in their first three months with no marketing. Bert and Gaelan Draper spent the first six months behind the counter serving burritos himself.

Bert Mueller and an employee did ingredient procurement themselves. They bought a Maruti Omni and would fill it up with veggies from a local market twice a month. Seeing how much each vegetable cost was a key factor in the company’s strong unit economics.

Apart from their dine-in business California Burrito also dabbled in catering; they made burritos for Zynga and a few other companies. Then, after opening two more restaurants in Bengaluru, they raised $750,000 in a round led by entrepreneur and angel Adhvith Dhuddu in 2013.

Using these funds, California Burrito was able to expand their footprint to 15 locations using a COCO (Company Owned Company Operated) model. Bert Mueller believes that the franchising approach only works in countries where legal recourse is easily achieved, e.g. the United States.

Despite the business’s success, Gaelan Draper stepped away from California Burrito to get married and return to the United States in 2014, leaving Bert and Dharam Khalsa to build the business on their own.

By 2020 California Burrito’s business was thriving: they had their best month in February, bringing in ₹4 crore in revenue across 37 stores. However, because they were largely reliant upon tech parks and malls for customers, their business was devastated by the pandemic.

Overnight, ₹4 crore dropped to ₹25 lakh monthly revenue, and while they did have ₹1.5 crore in the bank, Bert decided to raise a small round in May 2020 to keep the business afloat. With these funds, California Burrito finally began investing in marketing to increase sales.

Also in May of 2020, Bert’s remaining co-founder, Dharam Khalsa, returned to the United States and built a startup called Mirador in California, leaving Bert to build California Burrito in India on his own as a solopreneur.

By October of 2021, California Burrito achieved pre-pandemic sales with fewer stores. They did this by only opening stores that were located 8 kilometres apart, thereby optimising delivery efficiency. Today delivery makes up 60% of their business, up from 30% pre-pandemic.

They also improved their outlet economics, setting an internal benchmark of ₹30 lakh revenue per store, up from their previous standard of ₹12 lakh. Other changes include product innovations like tacos, and new ingredients such as Mexican tomatillos and hass avocados.

California Burrito celebrated their most successful location launch ever in May of 2023 when they expanded to Chennai. They now have a presence in Bengaluru, NCR, Hyderabad, and Chennai. Bert is aiming for California Burrito to have 100 stores by March 2025.

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Explorex’s website: https://explorex.co/

00:00 Intro04:26 How Samosa Party started10:27 How Samosa Party got it's name11:25 From B2B to B2C18:58 Expanding the brand30:12 Diksha joining as a co-founder33:03 Samosa Party during the pandemic44:54 Expanding to different cities50:47 Outro Amit Nanwani and Diksha Pande started Samosa Party in 2017, with an aim to provide a hygienic yet authentic alternative to India’s favourite snack.Before starting Samosa Party, Amit was a developer at INTEL, and while working here, he started Samosa Party as a side hustle. His initial plan was to start a catering business for corporate events, and while Samosa was one of the items they were selling at this time, they weren’t the sole focus.Diksha on the other hand had spent her corporate career in the F&B industry from the Oberoi Group to Pizza Hut to Chai Point, and this is where she learnt skills that would help her in future as a second co-founder of Samosa Party.She joined Amit full-time in January 2020.With Samosa Party, the co-founders want to create a differentiated experience for the urban millennial customers who value convenience, hygiene, and quality even if they have to pay extra.And today, Samosa Party is selling 35,000 Samosas every single day across 50 locations in 5 cities.

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Explorex’s website: https://explorex.co/

00:00 Intro

1:52 Vijayawada - Barkaas' First Location

7:57 Hustle - The Struggles of Running a Restaurant

10:16 Mangalagiri - Barkaas' Second Location

12:05 Money - The Financials of Barkaas

17:09 Bengaluru - Experiences in Marketing

20:39 Expansion - The Challenges of Franchising

25:05 Scale - Managing 10 Locations

27:29 COVID-19 - Barkaas During the Pandemic

33:13 New Normal - Bouncing Back After the Pandemic

38:25 Round 2 - Expanding to 20+ Locations

40:00 Strategy - The Barkaas Business Model

45:34 Global - Barkaas' International Expansion

49:13 Gyaan - Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

51:38 New Frontiers - Old Mill Brewery

56:03 Outro

Gowtham Kudapa launched his first Arabic cuisine restaurant, Barkaas, in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, in 2016. The idea for Barkaas as an Arabic mandi-centric restaurant first came to him on a trip to Sharjah where he was fascinated by the culinary culture of sitting while eating. He decided to bring the tradition of mandi back with him to Vijayawada.

Gowtham Kudapa is a hotel management graduate, and understood flavours and recipes well, and from this education he also understood hospitality. Using his skills and experience, he was able to craft an Arabic mandi restaurant menu which preserved the dishes and styles of food from the UAE, while enhancing flavours and adding masalas which would be recognised and appreciated by the palate, and more specifically, the palate of people in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. Barkaas also brought in new ways of experiencing food via large plates upon which food for multiple people was placed and eaten, as well as cushioned seating areas instead of elevated tables and chairs like most restaurants.

Gowtham Kudapa and his business partners spent between ₹30-₹35 lakh to get their first location up and running, and this initial ROI paid off immediately. Barkaas saw a tremendous response from the people of Vijayawada, and it quickly became the most popular Arabic restaurants in Andhra Pradesh. This meant that Gowtham Kudapa and his business partners and staff often worked 16-18 hour days just to keep up with demand.

In spite of these challenges, Barkaas expanded to a second location about 6 months after the success of the first location. This second location was located in Mangalagiri, Andhra Pradesh, about 15 kilometers from the first location. This second location was very successful.

From the financial side though, Barkaas was doing well. They were taking a margin of 35-40% which was amazing. These margins enabled the Barkaas team to think about expanding beyond Andhra Pradesh, to Karnataka, and more specifically Bengaluru.

Expanding to Bengaluru was a real challenge for Barkaas. This was when Barkaas began allocating some of their expenses to marketing. It took 6 months for Barkaas to begin seeing acceptable footfall in Bengaluru.

In Bengaluru, Barkaas took a very conscientious call to only onboard franchisees who were ready to be restaurant operators and managers. They didn't want any absentee franchisees.

By taking control of the kitchen and inserting their own people into franchisee's locations, Barkaas was able to bring restaurant quality back to the level that they had envisioned in 2016. However, then the pandemic hit, forcing Barkaas to halt their expansion plans.

As the pandemic came to an end, Barkaas began experimenting with technology to offer a contactless dining experience, including QR code menus from their restaurant operating system platform, Explorex.

Today, Barkaas is still doing well financially - they take a margin of about 20-25%, and have expanded to more than 20 locations across India. They have plans to go global too, and Gowtham Kudapa is also setting up his first brewery, called Old Mill Brewery. This new business, Old Mill Brewery, will be established in 2023.

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Explorex’s website: https://explorex.co/

There’s an Indian burger startup that is stealing market share from Burger King and McDonald’s. Its founder hadn’t tasted a burger before 2010. Now he’s running a ₹100 crore ARR burger chain with 100+ locations. This is the story of Biggies Burger:

Biraja Rout is from Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He comes from a regular working-class family. In 2010 he got a job at Infosys, and briefly shifted to Mysuru for training: it was here that he tried his first burger. The experience had an unusually profound impact on him.

After shifting to Bengaluru to work at Infosys’ campus in Electronic City, Biraja borrowed ₹1.5 lakh from a friend and purchased a fabricated 5 sq. ft. booth. This was the first Biggies Burger location. He would man the booth after office hours and on weekends.

Biraja was passionate about burgers but he had no business experience. From 2011 until 2015 he rarely had more than ₹1,000 in his bank account, and his motorcycle would often run out of petrol while he drove to Namdhari's to buy expensive, fresh lettuce for his burgers.

Biggies Burger’s second kiosk was set up in Bhubaneswar in 2012. Biraja would transport ingredients from Bengaluru via the Prasanthi Express train’s AC chambers, as an affordable alternative to expensive cold chain logistics. He lost money on every Bhubaneswar burger sold.

Biggies Burger became extremely popular in Bhubaneswar - it was essentially the only burger joint in a 200 kilometre radius. This caught the attention of Sandeep Satpathy, who approached Biraja about setting up a franchised location in Raipur in 2013.

Raipur is a largely vegetarian city, and at this time the brand name was Biggies Burger ‘n’ More. One of their secondary product lines were hot dogs, which were made of chicken meat. These meat products were underperforming in Raipur, and so Biraja decided to create a veg option.

However, due to a lack of quality veg hot dog products in the Indian market, Biraja wasn’t impressed and decided to import hot dogs instead, sourcing them from Malaysia. These hot dogs equated to a loss of ₹860 per kilo. Biraja sustained this loss for several years.

By 2016, the business was still in a financially precarious position, owing between ₹18-20 lakh to various vendors. During this time, on any given day, Biggies Burger was ₹10,000 away from collapse, and when Biraja got married in 2016, he couldn’t afford to buy a blazer.

Biraja’s fortunes finally turned when a master territory franchise was established and four franchisees paid their fees in rapid succession. Suddenly, Biraja and Biggies were out of debt. By the end of 2016, Biggies had 18 locations.

In 2016, Sandeep Satpathy joined Biggies burger as a co-founder, along with Abilash Bellur, who had purchased the Electronic City location in 2013 as a franchisee. Abilash Bellur took on operations, Sandeep spearheaded business development, and Biraja focused on R&D.

From 2016 onwards, the business was able to achieve financial stability. Biggies’ parent company, Beamer Food and Beverages, also launched a new subsidiary brand, Bigguy’s Wingery, to compete with KFC in the chicken QSR space.

Today, Biggies has 124 locations, and is doing annualised revenue of ₹100 crore.

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Explorex’s website: https://explorex.co/

Sohrab Sitaram began his career as a manager at Taj Hotels. In 2000, he started his first business, No Escape, a nightclub in Connaught Place, New Delhi. Over the next 14 years, he would go on to start numerous restaurants in multiple cities across India, including Tabularasa, Chi Kitchen & Bar, Shalom, and Italic.

Then, in 2013, Sohrab Sitaram was approached by Agastya Dalmia and Aman Arora. This co-founder duo had been trying to revitalise the Keventers brand, which had been in the Dalmia family since 1940 when it was purchased by Ramkrishna Dalmia from the nephew of Edward Keventer, the original founder of Keventers. Edward Keventer had come from Sweden to India as a dairy technologist, and had started a successful dairy business soon after arriving in India. The brand soared to new heights after being acquired by Ramkrishna Dalmia, but when their main Chanakyapuri factory was shut down, the business languished. Ramkrishna Dalmia walked away from Keventers, and over the years, the brand dissolved into a handful of unofficial, unrecognised locations run by Keventers original distributors.

In 2013, Agastya Dalmia and Aman Arora attempted to revitalise the brand, but without a solid strategy, their attempt failed. It wasn’t until Sohrab Sitaram stepped in as a consultant, then partner and co-founder, that Keventers began to reclaim its forgotten success. Agastya Dalmia and Aman Arora had attempted to set up their first location in Pitampura, in Delhi, but Sohrab Sitaram recommended Select CITYWALK instead. At this premium location, Keventers saw a lot of footfall, and soon enough the brand was opening franchises in cities across India.

Keventers expanded via a franchised business model. However, when the pandemic hit, many of Keventers’ franchise owners couldn’t sustain themselves. Many, about 70-75%, sold their franchises back to Keventers. Others turned to less honest methods, diluting ingredients in order to cut costs. This resulted in a lawsuit wherein one of their franchisees allegedly sold sub-standard milk products at a Keventers outlet. The judge didn’t have good things to say about Keventers though, saying, “Keventers was no longer as good as it used to be,” and that their “products are not at all fit for consumption.”

In subsequent years, Keventers has taken a company-owned business strategy to keep quality under control, and has also been expanding their menu to keep up with changing tastes. Apart from normal dairy milkshakes, Keventers now offers sundaes, hot chocolate, vegan dairy-free milkshakes, and they’re also working on a line of offerings which have less sugar than their traditional milkshakes.

Under the leadership of Sohrab Sitaram as CEO, Keventers has also expanded to Kenya, Dubai, Oman, and Abu Dhabi.

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Explorex’s website: https://explorex.co/

Mainak Sarkar and Pritam Khan started Eatables in 2016 while they were studying at IIT Kharagpur. This startup was their answer to a problem they had discovered while visiting restaurants in Kolkata, wherein many of the restaurant menus that they’d discover online while on campus at IIT Kharagpur were inaccurate and contained incorrect prices or items that were no longer available when they actually travelled to Kolkata. When Mainak Sarkar and Pritam Khan asked restaurants why this was happening, they were told that it would often take a week or two for restaurants to actually update their menus on Zomato. Mainak and Pritam saw this as an opportunity to build a platform which would enable restaurants to quickly and easily update their menus online.

Sadly, their platform didn’t see widespread adoption, with only 250 restaurants signing up and 10,000 lifetime downloads overall. They had hoped that if they relocated Eatables to Bengaluru, it would see more adoption, so Mainak dropped out of IIT Kharagpur in 2017 and shifted to Bengaluru. However, only 100 restaurants signed up. Mainak Sarkar and Pritam Khan were devastated. Their startup was failing.

Towards the end of 2018, Mainak Sarkar and Pritam Khan decided that offering an app for restaurants to keep their online menus up-to-date wasn’t working, and so they pivoted to providing restaurants with digital menus that their customers could scan with QR codes. However, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and stopped Eatable in its tracks.

Mainak Sarkar and Pritam Khan had basically been bootstrapping Eatable up until this point, having only raised a small FFF round. However, when the pandemic hit, Mainak asked his mentor for ₹15 lakh and was able to keep the startup alive even though all of Bengaluru’s restaurants were shut.

In 2020, Mainak and Pritam applied for Y Combinator for the third time. Their initial attempts had failed because they struggled to get through the interview round due to nerves. However, by their third attempt, they were able to crack the Y Combinator interview and got to be a part of YC’s first remote cohort. Their pitch involved Mainak explaining how Eatable would build an ecosystem for restaurants, solving all of their problems with a single platform. This impressed the team at Y Combinator, and eventually Eatable was able to raise $150,000 from YC. Then, in August of 2020 Explorex raised an $850,000 seed round, bringing their total fundraise to $1M at the end of 2020.

In 2021 when restaurants began opening back up again, Mainak and Pritam onboard three breweries in Bengaluru for their MVP, which consisted of an ordering and order management system. Their new customers loved Explorex, and the company realised that they had finally found product/market fit.

In 2022, Explorex raised $5 million from angels like Kevin Lin, co-founder of Twitch, James Park, co-founder of Fitbit, and Taher Savliwala, co-founder of Relief Technologies.

Today, Explorex powers more than 1,000 restaurants across 15 cities in India, including Easy Tiger, Forty Six Ounces, La Casa, Jook, ShakesBierre, Stories, Vapour, Fire Station, Fox In The Field, Cafe Azzure, Oia, and Tiger Tiger Brewhouse.

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Learn more about Plivo here: https://www.plivo.com/

In this podcast, we sat down with Venky Balasubramanian to talk about the story of Plivo, a cloud communications platform that simplifies and personalises businesses’ customer communications. Every kind of business, from startups to public companies, can benefit from Plivo’s enterprise-grade communications platform, which includes a premium carrier network with connectivity in more than 190 countries, an API platform for messaging and voice calls, and solutions for sales and support teams.

Venky Balasubramanian started Plivo in 2011 along with his co-founder Michael Ricordeau. Initially, Plivo was an open-source GitHub project, but after attending a developer conference in Chicago, the co-founder duo decided to commercialise their voice-based app communication framework.

Initially, they applied for Y Combinator’s Winter 2011 Batch, but were rejected. Venky emailed Paul Graham to ask why they had been rejected, and he said: 1. Venky B and Michael Ricordeau didn’t have a lot of in-person co-founder experience; they had only met offline in Chicago at that conference, and 2. Plivo was a pre-revenue company.

Venky Balasubramanian got to work proving to Paul Graham that he and Michael had what it took to succeed as a business, scoring Plivo’s first customer and beginning to generate revenue. He also raised a pre-seed round from Morpheus, Seeders and One97 Mobility Fund, along with Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Following this, Plivo was accepted into Y Combinator’s Summer 2012 batch, and counted companies like 9GAG, Boosted Boards, Coinbase, Soylent, and Zapier as its batchmates. Venky B clearly remembers seeing Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong offering other Y Combinator founders bitcoins in exchange for signing up for Coinbase.

By the time Plivo’s time at Y Combinator was over, they were generating more revenue than most of their fellow startups, and were able to raise a $1.5M seed round from investors like YC, Battery Ventures, A16Z, and Qualcomm Ventures. This fundraise grabbed media attention and also solidified Plivo’s reputation as a business with trustworthy, legitimate backers.

In 2017, Plivo raised $8M in venture debt, rather than pursuing a Series A. While these funds did temporarily alter the startup’s culture, Venky B and Michael Ricordeau were able to course-correct, saving the company from the high-burn trap many other SaaS businesses fall into. By raising debt instead of a Series A, Venky and Michael were also able to retain their equity in Plivo.

Plivo has no plans to go public or sell, and are looking forward to growing Plivo’s new offerings including Contacto and Sellular. Contacto is an omnichannel contact center that seamlessly combines your customer conversations and your existing systems, and Sellular is a modern sales platform built for Salesforce users. Both Contacto and Sellular have been internally funded by and set up within Plivo, but with siloed teams and goals which enable them to grow independently.

Today Plivo has a team of 300, the company is fully remote across USA and India, they’re profitable, and are bringing in somewhere between $50 to $100 million in annual revenue from customers across 190+ countries. They’ve also been profitable for 6.5 years!

Stay updated on what’s new at Plivo: Twitter — https://twitter.com/plivo Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/Plivo/ LinkedIn — https://in.linkedin.com/company/plivo-inc GitHub — https://github.com/plivo

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In this episode of the Backstage With Millionaires podcast, we sit down with Awis Ahmed, founder of Pixxel, to discuss his entrepreneurial journey.

00:00:00 Intro 00:02:41 Building the pod 00:06:25 Working at SpaceX 00:07:31 Why Awais chose asteroid mining 00:14:11 Why no one got into hyperspectral commercial space 00:22:23 Raising funds to build a satellite 00:32:58 Building the first satellite 00:43:54 Raising funds during the pandemic 00:49:41 How Pixxel generates revenue 00:50:21 Launching the satellite 1:09:58 Outro

Pixxel is a space data company building a constellation of the world’s highest-resolution hyperspectral earth imaging satellites and the analytical tools to mine insights from the data.

The images gathered by Pixxel's satellites will provide global coverage every 24 hours and help detect, monitor, and predict global phenomena across agriculture, mining, environment, and energy use cases.

About Awais Ahmed:

Awais Ahmed started his professional journey at HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited), as a research intern.

Around the same time in 2016, he was also the founder member and engineering lead at Hyperloop India.

He started Pixxel in 2019.

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In this episode of the Backstage With Millionaires podcast, we sit down with Avnish Anand, founder of CaratLane, to discuss his entrepreneurial journey.

00:00 Intro 02:50 How Avnish Got into CaratLane 08:15 First customer 13:27 Scalability of a business 17:56 Sponsor segment 19:14 CaratLane's Branding 21:28 Why Avnish left CaratLane 29:31 How the Titan acquisition changed CaratLane 46:07 Outro

Avnish first met Mithun and Srinivasa in August of 2007 while he was in the midst of a career transition. He’d done brief stints at ONIDA, Standard Chartered Bank, and DuPont India, but none of these positions left him feeling fulfilled.

CaratLane was founded in 2008, with the objective to make beautiful jewellery accessible, affordable and forever wearable.After speaking to hundreds of women across the country, CaratLane came to find that there was a common dilemma women faced - picking between expensive jewellery for special occasions, and everyday jewellery that was of inferior quality and was not keeping pace with their changing lifestyle. CaratLane was founded, to give women access to modern, fine jewellery that was also wearable everyday.

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/bwmillionaires/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/back... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backstagewi... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5rGPalo...

startup #entrepreneur #jewellery

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Download the OctaFX Trading App at https://bit.ly/OctaFX_Backstage100 and get 5,000 USD on your demo account! Enter promo code - BACKSTAGE100 and double your deposit! 🎁Listen to this podcast as audio: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...In this episode of the Backstage With Millionaires podcast, we sit down with Arjun Vaidya, founder of Dr. Vaidya's, to discuss his entrepreneurial journey.00:00 Intro02:50 Foreign adoption of Indian concepts 06:00 Why Indian brands aren't going global?08:38 The Restart of Dr. Vaidya's10:05 Sponsor Segment11:36 The struggle after Dr. Vaidya's launch event17:36 Dr. Vaidya's breakthrough19:04 What inspires Dr. Vaidya20:08 Work-life balance problems23:26 Finding the right customers24:15 First funding round 29:57 How the pandemic affected Dr. Vaidya's33:35 The end of Arjun Vaidya's journey at Dr. Vaidya'sArjun Vaidya went to Brown University for his undergrad in 2009. There he witnessed the natural and organic products revolution and also saw yoga become a multibillion-dollar industry with a repackaged identity for modern consumers. This made him realize the opportunity with Ayurveda.In 2013, Arjun moved back to India and joined a consumer sector-focused growth private equity fund called L Catterton. In October 2016, Arjun quit his job to take on his family’s Ayurveda legacy. Dr. Vaidya’s repackaged the ancient Indian science of Ayurveda for modern consumers and emerged as India’s largest Ayurveda brand online. In 4 years, the company successfully reached 2m+ consumers across 16,500+ pin codes in India and launched 80+ products, and clocked 5,000+ orders per day.Arjun was the first Ayurvedic Entrepreneur to be featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia List and Business World 40 Under 40 List. He also won Youth SMB of the Year from Amazon and the Retail Startup Award from the Retailers Association of India. In June 2019, Arjun sold his startup to RP Sanjiv Goenka Group, making it one of India’s first successful D2C exits. Connect with us:Twitter: https://twitter.com/bwmillionaires/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/back... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backstagewi... Discord: https://discord.gg/XySGGhXKepSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5rGPalo...

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In this episode of the Backstage With Millionaires podcast, Caleb Friesen sits with Akshay Singhal, founder, and CEO of Log9 Materials, to discuss his entrepreneurial journey.00:00 - Intro03:10 - Inefficiencies in Fuel-Cells05:01 - Disruption during the Pandemic06:52 - Idea for Corona Oven14:58 - Getting Back Stronger28:30 - Tech Behind Log9 Efficiency33:06 - Log9's Market Share 34:25 - Transition to two-wheeler Batteries38:51 - Concept of Day Zero42:42 - OutroAkshay Singhal started his entrepreneurial journey in 2015 when he started Log9 Materials, to develop India's first commercial application of Graphene. Currently, Log 9 Materials is using its core competence in Graphene nanotechnology to develop advanced energy storage technologies from the synthesis of electrode materials, and cell fabrication to pack assembly.Their rapid charging battery packs solve the challenges in adoption for the two-wheeler and three-wheeler electric vehicle platforms while their Aluminum Fuel Cell technology is targeted towards the electrification of long haul, heavier vehicles.Log9 currently has a 20% market share in the three-wheeler battery segment and going ahead they are planning to enter into bus and truck segment as well.Till now, Log9 Materials has raised over $50 Million in funding.Connect with us:Twitter: https://twitter.com/bwmillionaires/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/backstagewithmillionaires/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backstagewithmillionaires/ Discord: https://discord.gg/XySGGhXKepSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5rGPalovc6AKsfbOyjh32p#startup #entrepreneur #ev

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In this episode of Backstage With Millionaires podcast, Caleb Friesen sits with Abhishek Nayak, founder and CEO of Appsmith, to discuss his entrepreneurial journey. Abhishek started his entrepreneurial journey in 2011, when he built 'GharPay', a platform to let e-commerce companies collect cash payments. He then started 'Clink', a product in the transaction marketing space with the Gharpay team and investors. After Ezetap acquired Clink, Abhishek worked as director of products at Ezetap before moving on to his next venture. He started 'Wise' in 2015, a hardware startup, where their team built two products, but couldn't find a product-market fit, and hence pivoted to an AI started called Bicycle AI. Bicycle AI applied deep learning and machine learning to automate customer service for companies. The team saw success there but had issues with the working on AI and hence shut it down. Abhishek started Appsmith in 2019, an open source project that makes it easy to build and maintain custom internal business tools. It has since raised over $51 Million, and is currently valued at over $250 Million. Appsmith currently has a team of 140, and their clients are present in every country on the globe. Connect with us: Twitter: https://twitter.com/bwmillionaires/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/backstagewithmillionaires/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backstagewithmillionaires/ Discord: https://discord.gg/XySGGhXKepSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5rGPalovc6AKsfbOyjh32p #startup #entrepreneur #saas

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In this episode of Backstage With Millionaires podcast, Caleb Friesen sits with Tushar Vashisht, founder and CEO of Healthifyme, to discuss his entrepreneurial journey. 00:00 - Intro 02:21 - Time at Aadhaar 04:26 - 100 Rs a day experiment 08:00 - Seed for Healthifyme 10:40 - Early days of company 11:58 - Sponsored Segment 13:06 - Initial Money to start 13:49 - Moving To Bangalore 14:55 - Raising Angel Round 17:20 - Meeting co-founder 20:58 - Running out of money 26:18 - $1 Mn Seed Round 30:18 - Goa Saga 33:02 - Pivot to AI 37:32 - Growth during COVID 41:02 - 1 Billion dreams 44:28 - Outro Tushar started his professional career as an analyst at Deutsche Bank. He returned to India to work on an ambitious government project of Aadhar in 2010. He started Healthifyme in 2011 as a project to help people to keep track of their calories. Since then, HealthifyMe has served over 30 Million users and is now present in over 5 countries worldwide. Tushar and his team have an ambitious goal of helping to 1 Billion people on their journey to being fit. Connect with us: Twitter: https://twitter.com/bwmillionaires/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/backstagewithmillionaires/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backstagewithmillionaires/ Discord: https://discord.gg/XySGGhXKepSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5rGPalovc6AKsfbOyjh32p #startup #entrepreneur #health

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In this episode of Backstage With Millionaires podcast, Caleb Friesen sits with Rajiv Srivatsa, Partner and Investor at Antler India, to discuss his professional journey.

00:00 - Intro 02:13 - Leaving Urbanladder 03:27 - Moving on to Antler 09:42 - How Antler India started? 15:04 - Meeting co-founder(s) 16:46 - How to start a VC firm? 21:39 - Antler's Business Model 26:38 - Founder Hat to Investor Hat 28:33 - Antler India's sectoral focus 30:27 - India: Building for the world 34:01 - Being flexible as an investor 37:10 - Future plans

Rajiv Srivatsa started his professional career with corporate roles in companies like Infosys, Congizant and Yahoo. He started Urbanladder in 2012 with his IIMB batchmate Ashish Goel and ran it for almost 7 years. At it's peak company was valued at over 1 Billion dollars. In 2019, Urbanladder was acquired by Reliance and Rajiv moved on to his next adventure.

During this time he was approached by Antler Global team to start Antler in India and Rajiv along with his co-founder Nitin, started Antler India in June of 2020. Antler India partners with early-stage founders to build scalable startups, by guiding them through the entire process from inception to raising a Series A. They offer a stipend of Rs 1 lakh and a pre-seed fund after 10 weeks for selected startups. Rajiv's plan for the near future is to strengthen entrepreneurship in India through Antler, and he feels startups are the way for our country to progress.

Connect with us: Twitter: https://twitter.com/bwmillionaires/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/backstagewithmillionaires/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backstagewithmillionaires/ Discord: https://discord.gg/XySGGhXKepPodcast: https://anchor.fm/bwmillionaires

startup #entrepreneur #antlerindia

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In this podcast, Caleb Friesen and Gagandeep Reehal, co-founder and CEO of Minus Zero sit down to chat about self-driving vehicles, the journey of Minus Zero, and their future plans.

Minus Zero is India's first startup building fully autonomous vehicles. It was started in 2020 and the team moved their operations to Bengaluru in 2021, after raising initial money.

Minus Zero became the first company in India to test a fully driverless prototype live on unregulated Indian public roads. They are backed by Chiratae Ventures, who was the lead investor in their seed round raised in 2022.

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In this episode of the Backstage With Millionaire Podcast, Caleb and Pankaj sit with Riten Debnath of Fueler.io to discuss his journey of building his startup, Fueler.

Fueler is an online platform to help you showcase your work on the internet. It's like Github but for Generalist individuals.

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Permissionless, a deep-tech startup founded by Roshan Vadassery, is building open-source public infrastructure on the internet.

Backed by ex-General Partner a16z Balaji Srinivasan, their viral Gen Z startup culture is attracting some of the brightest minds in India.

Check out Permissionless here: https://prmsnls.xyz/

Roshan Vadassery's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshan-vadassery-951708138/

Roshan Vadassery's Twitter: https://twitter.com/roshanvadassery

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Will Poole started Capria Fund as a fund-of-funds, with a network of more than 15 managers and a collective AUM of more than $1 billion and presence in the leading tech hotspots in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and India. Capria's second fund is structured as a conventional venture fund, investing in individual early-growth startups selected from the 350-company portfolio of their partners across the global south.

Will Poole first came to India in 2003, leading Microsoft's Windows global expansion. This experience opened his eyes to the potential of the Indian market as a startup ecosystem and tech hotspot. In 2009 he became an investor and co-chair of innovative education startup Vidyanext Learning, and helped them to establish dozens of Vidyanext learning centers in Bengaluru and Gurugram. Following this he established Unitus Ventures in Bengaluru in 2012 to support early-stage tech startups with India scale and global potential. Then in 2015 he founded Capria Ventures as a financial services innovator. Capria invests in and alongside leading emerging managers in emerging markets, and also manages Unitus Ventures.

Unitus Ventures: https://unitus.vc/

Unitus Ventures Resources/Articles: https://unitus.vc/resources/

Capria Ventures: https://capria.vc/

Capria Ventures Resources/Updates: https://capria.vc/updates/

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In this episode of Backstage With Millionaires, Caleb discusses ONDC with founders of Gogappi, Arvind Sekhar and Samhitha Kotaamasu, one of India's first ONDC buyer apps. Gogappi is one of the first startups on ONDC. ONDC is short for Open Network for Digital Commerce, it is an initiative by the government of India to promote an open network for exchange of goods and services over the Internet. This basically means that the government is trying to create a level playing field for all the small business owners in India. ONDC is promising same power and features to these small owners that big e-commerce companies like Flipkart and Amazon have. ONDC can be a game changer for these small businesses as now you won’t have to pay anything to reach all these customers. All you have to do is list yourself with ONDC and customers across the country can find you from any application of their choice. The government has compared this with ‘hypertext transfer protocol for information exchange over the internet’ where you could reach millions of customers without spending anything. Next big issue right now for D2C brands is efficient inventory management. ONDC promises to solve this by standardizing operations like cataloging, inventory management, order management and order fulfillment. This would mean that as a small seller, you could use any ONDC compatible application and you don’t have to worry about managing everything on your own. It will be interesting to see how ONDC unfolds in India. An open network for doing business will certainly give confidence to millions of retailers and small brand owners to come online and do business and we could see thousands of unicorns in the future just from taking this direct-to-customer approach. However, we as buyers have become very comfortable and spoiled with the services provided by these e-commerce giants, from order tracking to return and refund, we tend to get aggrieved with every small issue we face. And this would be a challenge for ONDC to solve.

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We tried ONDC. Here's how it went.

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Rahm Shastry is a serial entrepreneur from Bengaluru and the Silicon Valley. He is also an active angel investor who helps companies with his vision and business strategies.

He talks about his journey, DriveU's growth, his exit form TaxiForSure, and unit economics.

On today's episode:

00:00 Intro

00:52 DriveU's background

02:23 Who is Rahm Shastry?

03:23 A life changing advice

05:07 Entrepreneurial journey

08:50 The network effect

09:07 How did TaxiForSure happen?

10:23 What kind of investor is Rahm?

11:09 Cab situation back then

12:44 TaxiForSure VS Ola

13:23 DriveU's beginning

15:56 DriveU's journey

18:10 VC's toxic culture

20:07 DriveU's first investment

22:23 Unit economics

24:08 Smooth sailing?

25:57 A near-death experience

27:33 Genius move

28:16 Pivot point

29:46 DriveU's efforts for it's drivers

32:05 Covid consequences & tackle points

37:00 Unicorn culture

42:39 Outro

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Enjoy the content! ;)

bwm #startup #startuppodcast

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This week in Indian Startup News: BYJU'S shut down their Kerala office, 900+ restaurants opted out from Swiggy Dineout, Ola Electric has launched its third e-scooter Ola S1 Air and Uber Pilots EV Rides In Delhi-NCR.

BYJU'S shut down their Kerala office:

Aggrieved BYJU’S employees also met Kerala Labour Minister V Sivankutty, who said that a probe would be ordered into the matter.
BYJU’s blames the ‘ongoing organisational restructuring for profitable growth’ and redundancy behind the closure of Trivandrum office.
This comes nearly a week after BYJU’s announced plans to layoff 2,500 employees across verticals including product, content, media, and technology.

900+ restaurants opted out from Swiggy Dineout:

Recently, The National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) asked restaurants to pull out of Swiggy Dineout as it believes that Swiggy is exploiting the restaurants.
The NRAI said that Swiggy’s discounts are affecting the dine-in restaurants heavily and ‘popularising a dangerous culture of discounting that will be irreversible’.
As a result, more than 900 restaurants have opted out from Dineout.

Funding this week:

This week at least 13 Indian Startups raised more than $1 Million, in total raising $450 Mn. These are the top three-

SiMa.ai raised $37 Million
Devtron raised $12 Mn
BluSapphire raised $9 Million

Quick Updates:

Ola Electric launches a new EV:

Ola Electric will start delivering S1 Air scooter in April 2023.
The scooter will include a 4.5 kW hub motor that will enable it to reach a peak speed of 85 kmph.
Besides a new scooter, Ola Electric has announced the launch of its new software upgrade dubbed Move OS3.

Uber Pilots EV Rides In Delhi-NCR:

Currently, EV cabs are only available for pre-scheduled trips, and users have to ‘reserve’ a ride on the Uber app.
Uber is offering the service to support the Indian government’s target to reduce 45% emission by 2030.
The cab aggregator is reportedly launching two-wheeler and three-wheeler electric vehicles in other parts of the country in the next few months.

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In this third episode of Backstage With Millionaires podcast, Caleb and Pankaj talk about recent controversy on Ola's toxic work culture.

Bloomberg in a recent article, talked about several instances where Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Ola, behaved in a manner which could be termed as 'toxic'. During one of the instances, "When Bhavish Aggarwal arrived for a recent visit at the Ola Futurefactory, marketed as the world’s largest electric two-wheeler plant, the company’s founder was quick to spot a shuttered entryway that should have been left open. He immediately summoned a custodial manager, people who were present said, and meted out a punishment: run three laps around the several-acre-large plant." Other than this, we also talk about whether Bhavish can turn things around for Ola and become India's answer to Elon Musk.

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This week in Indian Startup News: Ola Employees reveal hostile work culture, BYJU’S raises $250 Mn, Karnataka HC Allows Ola, Uber, Rapido To Continue Auto Services and Flipkart launched Flipverse. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 00:00 Introduction 00:06 Ola Employees reveal hostile work culture 01:27 BYJU’S raises $250 Mn 02:50 Bird's Eye Segment 03:48 Karnataka HC Allows Ola, Uber, Rapido To Continue Auto Services 04:07 Flipkart launched Flipverse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ola Employees reveal hostile work culture: 1. The current and former employees of Ola electric have referred to the company’s work culture as “Hostile”. They have also revealed that Bhavish Agarwal’s attitude towards his employees is worrying. 2. Some instances of this mistreatment include ripping a report that an employee wrote in half, because he forgot to include page numbers, shouting at people in the office because he wasn’t satisfied with the quality of the paper, and sometimes referring to teams within the company as “useless”. 3. Addressing this issue, Bhavish said that not everyone is fit for the company’s work culture. He doesn’t want an easy journey for either himself or for Ola. BYJU’S raises $250 Mn: 1. BYJU’s was looking to raise somewhere around 500 million dollars to 700 million dollars. So, the 250 million dollars round seems a bit low when compared to what they were targeting. 2. BYJU’S CEO Byju Raveendran also made a statement that the company’s unit economics works and they are targeting profitability by the end of the ongoing financial year 2022-23. 3. To make this happen they will be taking a three-pronged approach and the focus on international markets will also be increased. They have consolidated their K-10 companies into a single business unit. Whereas Akash and Great learning will be operating separately. Funding this week: This week at least 13 Indian Startups raised more than $1 Million, in total raising $450 Mn. These are the top three- 1. BYJU'S raised $250 Million 2. Ather Energy raised $50 Mn 3. Progcap raised $50 Million Karnataka HC Allows Ola, Uber, Rapido To Continue Auto Services: 1. The Karnataka high court allowed Ola, Uber and Rapido to continue their auto services until the state government fixes their fares. 2. Apart from 5% GST, they can also charge users 10% of the base fare as convenience fee. 3. This is just a temporary direction until the government comes up with some fair set of rules and regulations and new base fares. Flipkart launched Flipverse: 1. Flipverse is an online shop where Flipkart’s users will be able to buy products inside the metaverse. And this feature can be accessed literally by any of you guys right from the Flipkart app. 2. All you need to do is open Flipkart, navigate to Categories and tap on Firedrops. And you will enter the Flipverse.

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00:00 - Intro 00:30 - What's going wrong? 03:33 - Blinkit Deal 06:33 - Why are restaurants unhappy? 08:33 - What does Zomato have to say? When Zomato went public last year, it was considered as the biggest startup IPO in the Indian market. Its valuation was just around $5 Billion before going public, and they were targeting a valuation of over $8 Billion post IPO. And that did happen, honestly. Zomato’s IPO was super-successful. Their investors made 65% gains on listing day itself. Overall, the IPO was oversubscribed by 38 times. But a year since, Zomato's stock price is down more than 50% from their listing price and there is question that can Zomato become profitable ever? Zomato’s acquisition of Blinkit came with a lot of confusion and panic for investors, and following the acquisition, Zomato lost 25 percent of its value in just 4 days. Zomato acquired Blinkit as this acquisition was considered a natural extension of Zomato’s core business, food delivery and that it will also bring synergies, increase the addressable market and the potential profit pool and also make the business more defensible. But Zomato paid a massive 3000 crores on top of Blinkit's actual value. More than 1100 crores was the loan given by Zomato to Blinkit and 1800 crore Rs is what Zomato will be spending on Blinkit to cover it's losses in next few years. This changed the sentiment among public for Zomato and the company has struggled on stock market ever since. Another issue for Zomato is that their core business of food delivery doesn't seem sustainable. If we take a look at Zomato's competitors on global scale, none of the companies have made profits from delivering food alone and that is one of the reasons why Zomato is now eyeing grocery delivery and other sectors to expand into. And lastly, restaurants aren't really happy with Zomato as well. Here’s a quote directly from Jubilant, the parent company of Domino’s: “In case of an increase in commission rates, Jubilant will consider shifting more of its businesses from online restaurant platforms to the in-house ordering system." Zomato now is focusing heavily on profitability. The company’s CEO Deepinder Goyal has said categorically that they’re gonna be focusing on profitability moving forward. This is a huge pivot for them, because up until very recently they were pretty comfortable burning through tons of money, but now Deepinder has actually speculated that their core business might be profitable in about a year. These potential profits are also intended to be stable, and long-term - this isn’t a one-year strategy, this is Zomato attempting to permanently be in the black. Their strategy here involves 3 key business lines: food delivery, quick commerce through Blinkit, and Hyperpure, and in case you’re not familiar with Hyperpure, this is actually a potentially game-changing business for Zomato. It’s a platform whereby Zomato provides fresh, hygienic, high quality ingredients to restaurants, and it’s growing pretty fast. It will be very interesting to track Zomato's story from hereon and see wheather it can turn around things for itself?

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In this second episode of BWM Podcast, Caleb and Pankaj discuss current situation at BYJU's and their future plan of going global. BYJU's recently revealed their numbers for FY-21 and it's revenue from operations barely grew 4% to Rs 2280 crore in FY21 from Rs 2,189 crore in the previous fiscal year (FY20). However, the company’s losses ballooned 14.9X to Rs 4,564 crore during the same period. After this announcement, BYJU's fired 2500 of it's employees and announced a plan to become profitable by March 2023. According to Divya Gokulnath, co-founder of Byju, the company will start concentrating on establishing brand awareness abroad through new collaborations and hire 10,000 teachers for both its Indian and international operations. "We have designed a path to profitability which we plan to achieve by March 2023. We have built significant brand awareness throughout India and there is scope to optimise marketing budget and prioritise the spends in a way that it creates a global footprint. Second is operational cost and the third is integration of multiple business units," Gokulnath said. Along with this, company is now looking at global markets like US, South America and Europe. In this direction, BYJU's has acquired rights to become principal sponsor of FIFA World Cup 2023.

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This week in Indian Startup News: Karnataka government bans Ola, Uber and Rapido Auto, Byju's are going to layoff 2,500 employees, RBI to soon pilot Digital Rupee

Karnataka government bans Ola, Uber and Rapido Auto:

The transport department of Karnataka issued a notice to Ola, Uber and Rapido following complaints about them over charging customers
The companies have been accused of charging higher than prescribed fares for auto rides, and the department has sought a compliance report from them
The notice stated: "The cab-aggregator apps are in violation of the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016 by running auto services"

Byju's are going to layoff 2,500 employees:

Byju's said that it has laid off 2,500 employees to its piling up control losses.
Byju's will also be consolidating its K-10 acquired businesses such as Toppr, HashLearn, Scholar, among others, into one business unit.

Funding this week: This week at least 6 Indian Startups raised more than $1 Million, in total raising $328 Mn. These are the top three-

Adda247 raised $35 Million
Pillow raised $18 Mn
Good Health Company raised 10 Million

RBI to soon pilot Digital Ruppee

On 7th of Ocotber, the RBI released a concept note for Digital note.
On the concept note, the RBI said that it aims to create awareness about digital currencies in general and the planned features of the digital rupee
The RBI said that the main motivation for exploring the issuance of CBDC in India is the reduction in operational costs involved in physical cash management

Quick Update:

Dhoni invests in a plat-based meat startup!

MS Dhoni has invested an undisclosed amount of equity funding in plant-based meat startup Shaka Harry.
Shaka Harry will form a partnership with Dhoni to expand customer reach and introduce new product offerings.
The startup said it is currently serving 30,000+ customers across 10 cities on a monthly basis

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In this first episode of our new 'Unnamed' podcast, Caleb and Pankaj discuss the impact of UPI going Global. UPI (Unified Payments Interface) is an instant real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India. The interface facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer and person-to-merchant transactions. Currently, more than 15 countries have either adopted or are in process of adopting UPI. These include Singapore, Malaysia, France, Japan and Oman. Recently because of ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, many of Russian banks were removed from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a financial system that enables seamless and speedy transmission of money across borders. This has resulted in Russian banks losing access to quick and easy transactions offered by SWIFT, causing payments for its agricultural and energy exports to be disrupted. Now that banks had to communicate directly with one another, there were delays and additional expenses, which ultimately impacted the Russian government’s finances. According to estimates, the Russian economy is thought to have lost 10-15% of its GDP due to the SWIFT ban. The embargo also targeted $630 billion in Russian foreign exchange reserves. This has started discussion that could their be alternative to SWIFT and if UPI can be that option. Other important reason that India sees for the use of UPI is, Remittances. India receives more remittances than any other country in the world. In 2021 alone, the country received more than $87 billion in remittances. So, if in future, India is excluded from the SWIFT network, it would heavily impact Indians sending money back home.

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This week in Indian Startup News: UPI is off to International markets, ONDC launches its Beta tests!, Meesho crosses Amazon in festive sale orders.

UPI is off to International markets:

On 3rd of April, 2020, the NPCI registered a subsidiary company called NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) with a motive to make UPI an internationally accepted and used payments service. The NIPL’s primary focus is to make UPI and RuPay as widely accepted as possible and it seems like they are on the right track in doing so.
A lot of countries across the globe have already adopted UPI as an accepted form of payment in their country. These include Singapore, France, UAE, The UK, Russia, Nepal, and all of the other countries that you are seeing on your screen. And on top of this, NPCI International is also in talks with 30 more countries for the adoption of UPI in which 3 have already signed MoU regarding the same.

ONDC launches beta tests!:

ONDC’s is not yet available in every city or pan-India as it is still in its pilot stage but the beta tests which launched on 30th September, 2022 are currently live in 86 cities which include cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Bhopal and Lucknow.
The first app that went live on ONDC was Paytm Mall. This also means that almost all Bengaluru-based users can now order products online from various sellers that are listed on the ONDC via the Paytm app. Funding this week: This week at least 6 Indian Startups raised more than $1 Million, in total raising $328 Mn.

These are the top three-

Meesho raised $192 Million 2. Euler motors raised $60 Mn 3. Byju's raised $49 Million Quick Update: Meesho beats Amazon in festive order volumes! 1. Flipkart continues to lead the festive season sale with an order sale share of whopping 49%. But, for a change the second spot is now held by Meesho instead of Amazon with a sale share of 21%.
Now, this data is only for the first week so there’s a chance that Amazon can catch up in the coming weeks but it’s interesting to see that what has always been an Amazon vs Flipkart fight is now witnessing a third player, Meesho.

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This week in Indian Startup News: Swiggy will soon start the pilots for middle-mile drone deliveries, Flipkart will reportedly enter Metaverse with the launch of "Flipverse", Mahindra Logistics acquired Rivigo for an undisclosed amount.

00:00 Introduction 00:13 Swiggy pilots middle mile drone deliveries 02:07 Flipkart will reportedly enter the Metaverse 03:12 Bird's Eye Segment 05:18 Sponsored Segment 06:56 Mahindra Logistics acquires Rivigo

Swiggy will soon start pilots for middle-mile drone deliveries: 1. The flight corridors have been approved by the government: Swiggy CTO Dale Vaz 2. Customer-directed drone deliveries could involve fraud, and safety constraints while the middle-mile opportunity is insulated from such challenges.

Flipkart will reportedly enter Metaverse with the launch of "Flipverse": 1.Flipkart has reportedly partnered with social media giant Meta and Ethereum Layer-2 scaling startup Polygon for the project. 2. Flipkart will likely announce the Metaverse offering during the ongoing ‘Big Billion Day Sales’ and launch the project around Diwali. 3. Flipverse is expected to deploy Web3.0 technologies to elevate current 2D user experience to include virtual reality and other interactive features.

Funding this week: This week at least 10 Indian Startups raised more than $1 Million, in total raising $99 Mn. These are the top three- 1. Unravel Data raised $50 Million 2. Elucidata raised $16 Mn 3. Saveo raised $21 Million

Quick Update: Mahindra Logistics has acquired Rivigo for an undisclosed amount.

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This week in Indian Startup News, OYO has filed for an IPO, UPI can now be used in credit cards too, ONDC beta testing to begin soon, Co-founder of Zepto, recently emerged as the youngest Indian to have a net worth of over Rs 1,000 crore in a survey. 00:12 Introduction 02:37 OYO filed for an IPO 03:50 UPI can now be linked to Credit Card 03:53 Sponsored Segment 04:57 Bird's Eye Segment 07:12 Quick Updates OYO has become EBITDA positive for the first time since its registration in 2012. The company saw its EBITDA margins rise to +0.5% in quarter 1 of FY23 from -9% in FY22. This is because they have managed to cut off a lot of expenses. The narrowing of losses has also prompted OYO to file fresh documents for its IPO with SEBI. It’s a speculation that they are looking to go public at the end of October, somewhere around Diwali. RuPay credit cards can now be linked to UPI! Yes, you heard right, now you can use your RuPay credit card to do UPI transactions. Well, this is just a pilot as of now, and hence, has only been launched for customers of Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, and Indian Bank. The pilot phase will be centered on extracting ‘actionable learnings’ from the operations. The project will be scaled up with time to include other banks and to increase usage. Funding this week: This week at least 10 Indian Startups raised more than $1 Million, in total raising $161 Mn. Zopper raised $75 Million Bhanzu raised $15 Mn Join Venture raised $23.5 Million Urban Company FY22 Loss Widens 2X To INR 514 Cr but the Operating Revenue increases upto 77%. 19 yr old Kaivalya Vohra, the co-founder of Zepto, recently emerged as the youngest Indian to have a net worth of over Rs 1,000 crore in a survey.

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In the first and second part of ‘How Bengaluru became India’s Silicon Valley’, we discussed the journey from Bengaluru’s early history, to setting up of Indian Institute of Science, and then finally the post dot-com bubble burst scene. In this video, we take a look at how Amazon’s arrival into India changed Bengaluru’s entrepreneurship scene forever. Amazon hired best talent in India and focussed obsessively on customer satisfaction, and this was adopted by two of it’s employees, Sachin and Binny Bansal with their own E-commerce startup, Flipkart. A month before Flipkart was started, Infibeam launched their own Amazon-inspired e-commerce platform. The company’s founder, Vishal Mehta, had been working for Amazon in Seattle for 5 years before moving back to India in 2007 after realising that Amazon had put their plans to launch in India on hold. Meanwhile, Binny and Sachin were struggling financially. They’d approached Sequoia, Matrix Partners, IDG Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, but without any luck. In 2010 when Flipkart raised their headline-grabbing Series B, but they weren’t the only game in town. Fabmart.com had been around since 1999, and by 2010, they had rebranded to indiaplaza.com and then there was also Myntra as well. Then, in Mumbai, Flipkart had an indirect competitor in eBay India, and there was also Naaptol, which is still around to this day. In 2010, Flipkart’s real competition wasn’t in Ahmedabad or Bengaluru - it was in NCR, where a number of companies were vying for a piece of the e-commerce pie. One of the earliest was Snapdeal, which got its start in 2008 as a coupon service in Delhi called MoneySaver, which was pivoted into Snapdeal in 2010, and at that time they weren’t selling products, they were selling discounts, so they weren’t a huge threat yet. Besides Snapdeal, you also had Homeshop18LIST starting out in 2008 in Noida, Letsbuy came onto the scene in 2009 as eTree Marketing in Gurugram and was selling items like mobile phones, cameras, laptops and home appliances, and then in 2011, Gurugram-based startups like Jabong and Shopclues appeared too. Jeff Bezos was excited by the burst of e-commerce activity in India, and finally decided to put their limited presence in Bengaluru to good use. But instead of trying to re-enter India under their own name, Amazon instead approached Flipkart in 2011 to talk about a potential acquisition13, and in response, Sachin Bansal told Amazon that he would only sell at a 1 billion dollar valuation. This deal didn’t happen and Flipkart ended up raising 20 million dollars from Tiger Global, this was their Series C round, later on in 2011, at a 200 million dollar valuation. This was the single-biggest round of funding secured by an e-commerce startup in India.

Flipkart would go on to raise 150 million dollars in their Series D round, then 200 million, then 160 million, then 210 million, and then a billion dollar Series G round in 2014. And they weren’t the only ones raking in the capital here - in 2014, Snapdeal raised a massive round too: 600 million dollars from Softbank, and this is just e-commerce we’re talking about here. There were multiple other industries being fought over by startups at around this time, like Ola and TaxiForSure, both of which were based in Bengaluru, and then Uber showed up, with Bengaluru being its first city as well. And then towards the end of 2014 and into 2015, India saw its first startup food fight, where companies like FoodPanda, TinyOwl, Swiggy, and Zomato raised hundreds of millions of dollars to capture India’s food delivery space.

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In this video, we take a look at top 10 startups based out of the city of Pune. CHAPTERS: 0:00 Intro 1:30 Noccarc Robotics 2:37 EventBeep 3:33 Pariksha 4:29 Bamboo India 5:27 Repos Energy 6:48 Haber 7:56 RoadBounce 8:56 Fittr 9:55 Moonshine 10:48 Biddano

Noccarc Robotics: Noccarc invented a solar panel cleaning machine that doesn’t use water and is fully automated. They were off to a really great start as a company - they raised a $1.6 million seed round from the Indian Angel Network. 2. EventBeep: The goal here is for this app, Beep, to be a student’s all-in-one app: students can also see nearby events, they can get notifications from the college they’re attending, participate in live quizzes, get a student credit card and exclusive cashbacks, find out about workshops and sporting events, and just generally feel more connected with their college and friends. 3. Pariksha: India’s largest vernacular edtech platform, and the name of the company is actually the Hindi word for exam, and what sets Pariksha apart from other edtech startups is their focus on vernacular exams. They actually focuses on another customer segment, the kids who don’t have a lot of money, who come from smaller towns, have a harder time sourcing these prep materials, AND aren’t fluent in languages like English or Hindi. 4. Bamboo India: Bamboo India is disrupting this 500 crore rupee market in a big way - they’ve already sold upwards of 4 million toothbrushes to customers in 18 countries, and are currently manufacturing upwards of 50,000 new bamboo toothbrushes every single day in their Pune manufacturing plant. 5. Repos Energy: I can describe their startup is that, just like Zomato and Swiggy deliver food, and Zepto and Blinkit deliver groceries, Repos Energy delivers fuel, and they got off to a great start: in 2019 Ratan Tata agreed to invest an undisclosed amount into the startup as an angel investor, and also became a strategic partner - Repos has now tie up with Tata Motors to make and market fuel trucks with built-in pumps.
Haber: Haber built a robot, eLIXA, which is able to collect data using a variety of different sensors, and then it’s able to react to that data in real-time using AI and machine learning - another way of putting it is that eLIXA is to the manufacturing industry what autonomous vehicles are to the automotive industry, but unlike modern autonomous cars which typically still need to have a driver present in case the AI makes a mistake, eLIXA is completely automated, there’s no human intervention required whatsoever.
RoadBounce: The RoadBounce app records the quality of the road in real time. Now this is nice and all, but how does RoadBounce actually generate revenue? Well, as I mentioned earlier, it’s primarily a B2G company, business to government. By purchasing the data that RoadBounce collects, contractors and government agencies can make data-driven decisions as they build or repair roads. 8. Fittr: Fittr makes you fitter - they do this with their app’s free diet and training tips, and some premium paid features like personalised guidance, customised fitness and nutrition plans, and weekly check-ups from the company's in-house coaches.
Moonshine: Moonshine Meadery, there actually aren’t any mead brands in Asia, let alone India, so it is a very new type of drink for this market, but in spite of that, they were able to raise a seed round in September of 2018. They tried to raise more capital on Shark Tank India, and while they did get offers from the investors on that show, nobody could agree on a valuation so these deals all fell through.
Biddano: Biddano acts as a middle-man between medical supply distributors and the pharmacies and hospitals that wanna buy these medical supplies.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Instant Grocery Delivery startups extend their delivery time, Byju's losses pile up, ONDC beta testing to begin soon, Lido learning files for bankruptcy.

00:00 Introduction 00:30 Instant Grocery Delivery startups extend their delivery time 03:33 Byju's losses pile up 04:30 Bird's Eye Segment 06:13 ONDC beta testing to begin soon 06:38 Lido learning files for bankruptcy 06:50 Sponsored Segment 08:15 BWM Update

Instant Grocery Delivery startups extend their delivery time: Zepto, Dunzo, Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart are now testing pilots for late night deliveries. These pilots are only available for selected markets in cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Chennai. They are doing this mainly because Indian customers tend to stay up late, and when they stay up late, they tend to order snacks and other eatables in the night. This would give extra business to these companies.

Byju's losses pile up: Byju’s, world’s biggest ed-tech company, has posted their financials a couple of days ago after delaying it for almost an year; and it's not looking good. They reported a loss of 576 million dollars in FY21 from 29 million dollars in FY20, that's a massive increase of 1,880% or 19.8X. Company’s total revenue declined by 3.3% from 315 million dollars to 305 million dollars. The main reason for this loss is acquisitions and marketing. 1/4th of the losses are because of WhiteHat Jr, a code learning platform which Byju’s acquired back in 2021, which reported a loss of 212 million dollars alone.

Funding this week: This week at least 10 Indian Startups raised more than $1 Million, in total raising $143.8 Mn. Yulu raised $82 Million Agritech startup Akshayakalpa raised $15 Mn Deeptech startups raised $21 Million

ONDC beta testing to begin soon: ONDC beta testing will begin at the end of September. The beta testing is likely to take place in Bengaluru, said ONDC CEO.

Lido learning files for bankruptcy: Lido Learning has filed for bankruptcy! Lido failed to pay off debts payable to its ex-employees, customers, vendors, lenders and sundry creditors.

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upGrad was started by Mayank Kumar and his two friends Ravijot Chugh & Phalgun Kompalli. They were later joined by serial entrepreneur Ronnie Screwala as the fourth co-founder. Mayank got the idea for upGrad when he saw a major gap in India's education sector. Mayank discovered that brick & mortar higher education was reaching less than a quarter of TAM - that’s 150 million people that make up the total addressable market, who should be in college, but aren’t, and Mayank saw this as a massive opportunity. Around the same time Ronnie Screwala, well known for building UTV and many other category-defining businesses, sold his controlling stake in UTV to Disney for a reported 2,000 crore rupees. By January of 2015, Ronnie had officially joined Mayank, Phalgun, and Ravijot as a co-founder, and he also made a seed-stage investment of $16 million dollars into the company, which was at that time something that he had re-branded to UEducation. The lack of offline market penetration was one gap that online education could fill, but another opportunity was the disconnect between traditional college curriculums and industry requirements and this what upGrad decided to solve. Their first course was a 12-week rigorous online entrepreneurship program that taught students through live lectures, case studies, group assignments, and guidance. This first StartUp program was just a test, really. An MVP of sorts. It was taught mainly by UpGrad, along with a couple of people they’d brought in from successful startup companies, but this wasn’t going to be the long-term structure that these programs would take - UpGrad planned step back, out of the teaching role and into the administrative role, so that rather than becoming an OEM, an original education manufacturer like for example BYJU’S or Unacademy, they would instead tie up with IITs and global universities to create online-only courses specifically for UpGrad students. By the end of 2018, using this innovative approach had taken UpGrad’s student base from 100 to upwards of 15,000. They’d tied up with multiple higher education institutions including the University of Cambridge, IMT Ghaziabad, BITS Pilani, IIIT-B, and MICA. They’d also started teaming up with recruiting partners to ensure that UpGrad graduates could get placements right out of their programs.

By the end of 2020, UpGrad had crossed a million learners across 50+ countries, and delivered 10 million hours of learning experience to their students. They also raised their first external capital, which was $6.7 million dollars in debt funding from IIFL. They followed this round up with a $9.3 million dollar venture round from Ronnie’s Unilazer Ventures in April of 2021, and then $185 million dollars from Temasek, the World Bank’s IFC and IIFL in a round that closed in August of 2021. This last round of 2021 brought their valuation - which was unknown at the beginning of 2021 - to $1.2 billion dollars.

In 2021, UpGrad tripled their course offerings, scaled university partnerships, closed 3 acquisitions. After raising $225 million in June of 2022, UpGrad opened up a number of offline experience centers across cities in India. In the first three months of 2022, they were profitable - their revenue had seen a 150% growth, reaching an ARR of $300 million, and this resulted in a 70% gross margin across all of their income streams, which allowed them to start thinking globally. Today, UpGrad has a goal of $2 billion gross revenue by 2026, and while it’s unclear whether the profitability they saw in Q4 of the financial year of 2022 will continue into the financial year of 2023, sustainability is definitely one of UpGrad’s core company values, and that’s what it’s gonna take for Mayank, Phalgun, and Ronnie to achieve their goal of becoming one of top 3-5 companies globally in edtech.

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This week in Indian Startup News: 1. “Unacademy One” launched by Unacademy 2. Flipkart launched a new hotel booking service- Flipkart Hotels 3. Bengaluru is flooded 4. Tata 1mg becomes a unicorn 5. Ola Electric’s EV registrations have fallen. 00:00 Introduction 00:10 Flipkart launches Flipkart Hotels 02:14 Unacademy launches Unacademy One 04:21 Bird’s eye Segment 05:50 Quick Updates 07:05 BWM Update Unacademy launched Unacademy One - a collection of 50 youtube channels: Indian Ed-tech giant Unacademy launched “Unacademy One” which is a collection of 50 youtube channels. Unacademy has always used YouTube to drive traffic for its paid learning products, but this is the first time that Unacademy has expanded the content universe under its own branding. Funding this week: This week at least 16 Indian Startups raised more than $1 Million, in total raising over $195 Mn. Rupeek - $16 Mn Gromo - $11 Mn Tata 1Mg - $40 Mn SenseHawk - $32 Mn iBus Networks - $15.65 Mn Flipkart has announced the launch of a hotel-booking feature on its main app - Flipkart Hotels. Flipkart Hotels is an extension to Flipkart’s travel supply chain which already includes companies like Flipkart flights which is a flight booking service launched in 2018. The company has also set up a dedicated customer care centre to support customers with user-related queries arising from the hotel booking service. 1mg: now called Tata 1mg is an online Pharmacy Company that provides health care products, lab test bookings, delivery of medicines, tele-consultation and more. The Startup has raised a total of 40 million dollars from Tata Digital at a valuation of 1.09 billion dollars. After all the burning incidents and controversies, the demand for Ola Electric’s EV’s have gotten down- The overall Ev two-wheeler market is seeing a steady growth of 13% month on month and yet Ola Electric’s struggle continues. India’s Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, is drowning. The rains and water logging affected the lives of normal people and operations of many startups as employees struggled to reach office timely.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Zomato just launched an Intercity Food Delivery Pilot, Indian Govt to promote over 10,000 startups, NPCI looking to pick 9-10% stake in ONDC.

00:00 Introduction 00:13 Zomato just launched an Intercity Food Delivery Pilot 02:21 Bird's Eye Segment 03:12 Sponsored Segment 06:14 Indian Govt to promote over 10,000 startups 07:09 NPCI looking to pick 9-10% stake in ONDC 08:30 BWM Team Update

Zomato just launched an Intercity Food Delivery Pilot: Food delivery company Zomato has launched a service called 'Intercity Legends' that will let users order dishes and delicacies from famous outlets and restaurants in other cities. For now, service is limited to South Delhi and Gurugram. People living in these areas will be able to enjoy rosogollas from Kolkata, biryani from Hyderabad, and kebabs prepared in Lucknow. In a latest statement, Zomato’s CEO Deepinder Goyal said that Zomato is going to show profits soon and that he is very enthusiastic about it. Funding this week: This week at least 9 Indian startups raised more than $145 Million.

Bike Bazaar raised $52.8 Million Genome research startup MedGenome raised $50 Mn Fintech startups - Early Salary raised $13 Million Indian Govt to promote over 10,000 startups: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma said that the government is looking to promote more than 10,000 startups in the coming five to six years under its GENESIS - that’s an acronym for Gen-Next Support for Innovative Startups - initiative. So, Digital India GENESIS is a deeptech startup platform that will help tech startups largely from Tier-II, III cities. MeitY has already partnered with 22 accelerators under Centre’s SAMRIDH.

NPCI looking to pick stake in ONDC: The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is looking to pick a 9-10% stake in the government’s digital commerce initiative, the Open Network for Digital Commerce or ONDC which is a government owned open source platform. NPCI manages the digital payments network of UPI and its CEO, Dilip Asbe, is also a part of the advisory council of ONDC.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Ex-unicorn Rivigo looking for Buyers at discounted price, Dezerv raises funding, Unacademy's Relevel shuffles 100 employees internally, ONDC to open for public from September. 00:00 Introduction 00:12 Ex-unicorn Rivigo looking for Buyers at discounted price 02:17 On the side 03:00 Bird's Eye Segment 04:33 Startup Spotlight 08:45 ShopX shuts down 09:40 Unacademy's Relevel shuffles 100 employees internally 11:03 ONDC to open for public from September Ex-unicorn Rivigo looking for Buyers at discounted price: Logistics Unicorn Rivigo is facing some tough times right now as the company is not being able to raise any funds and they are considering the only solution left to them - being acquired at a much less valuation. Rivigo’s board has given green signal for this acquisition and according to an ET report, company is in early-stage talks with Flipkart’s logistics arm eKart and FirstCry for acquisition. (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/troubled-logistics-tech-unicorn-rivigo-held-talks-with-flipkart-firstcry-for-a-sale/articleshow/93715606.cms) Funding this week: This week at least 12 Indian startups raised more than $281 Million. Fintech Sector - EarlySalary raised $97 Million Device Management Startup Servify raised $65 Mn F&B startups - Hector Beverages raised $50 Million Startup Spotlight: dezerv was founded in 2021 by co founders who have 50+ years of collective experience in managing over INR 50,000 Cr. It is the next big step in dezerv.’s mission of making expert-led investing available to professionals using its unique Integrated Portfolio Approach (IPA) which is built on decades of iinvesting expertise and modern portfolio science ShopX shuts down: ShopX, founded by Amit Sharma and Apoorva Jois in 2014, provided logistics and procurement support to kirana stores and other SME retailers. It offered assisted ecommerce solutions, including sourcing, supply chain and credit lines. It also provided digital services such as mobile and DTH recharge, bus and flight bookings, and utility bill payments. Unacademy's Relevel shuffles 100 employees internally: At least 100 of employees who were working on Relevel, have been asked to interview for other roles in Unacademy. Among these, 15-20 employees have declined this offer as they claim that the company was overburdening those retained at Relevel. ONDC to open for public from September: Currently ONDC is running on pilot in few Indian cities and right now ONDC officials are focusing on improving customer experience, building ONDC-compatible tools for small sellers and weeding out challenges within the network.

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In this interview, I sit with Pratham Mittal of Masters' Union School of Business.

00:00 Introduction 02:23 Early Entrepreneurial life 09:04 College Hackathon 15:00 How to deal with Failure? 18:01 First company 25:28 Moving back to India 27:07 Why education? 29:01 Why India? 31:17 How Masters' Union started? 36:15 Problems with current Education System 37:37 Starting Masters' Union 49:15 Profitability in Edtech

We talk about Pratham's journey, from Jalandhar to Doon School and then to University of Pennsylvania. Pratham started his entrepreneurial journey during his college days and after coming back to India, he saw a gap in how business education is provided to students and that's when he decided to start Masters' Union School of Business. At Masters' Union School of Business, Pratham and his team have rediscovered how business education is provided in India. Their focus is more on on-ground and practical learning and their teachers consists of industry experts from the field of business. In last couple of years, students graduated from Masters' Union's course have received higher salaries than top business institutes in India and this has become their USP now. In the video, Pratham also talks about what's inherently wrong with Indian EdTech players right now and how outcome based learning is going to be the future of EdTech in India.

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This week in Indian Startup News, PRAVAIG announce their first EV, Ola launches Electric Car and S1 scooter, PhonePe building Grocery Delivery App, Cred’s acquisition of Smallcase falls through.

PRAVAIG announce their first EV: Pravaig Dynamics has officially announced their first production EV. Company has been developing this EV in stealth mode for sometime now however there is no fixed timeline on when this EV will hit the market.

Ola launches Electric Car and S1 scooter: Ola has finally unveiled their Electric Car on the occasion of India’s Independence day. This car will be available to buy in 2024 and according to CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal, they are building the capacity to produce 1 million of these cars every year. Ola has announced that they will be making three big production plants - one each for their scooters, four-wheelers and for making batteries. So these factories, according to Bhavish, will produce 1 Mn cars, 10 Mn two-wheelers and 100 GWh of cell capacity every year.

Funding this week: This week at least 9 Indian startups raised more than $122 Million. Ecommerce Sector - Graas raised $40 Million Logistics startups - Shiprocket raised $33.5 Mn Creator-Economy startups - Phyllo raised $15 Million PhonePe building Grocery Delivery App: Fintech Platform PhonePe is working on a hyperlocal grocery delivery app, and it is building this app under the government's ONDC scheme. PhonePe's new grocery delivery app is currently in it’s pilot stage, and they are doing it in Bengaluru currently. This app will be a separate app and not part of PhonePe’s main app, as the company wants to differentiate it’s payments and commerce offerings. Cred’s acquisition of Smallcase falls through: Cred was in talks to acquire stock investment platform Smallcase for over 6 months now, and it seems now that this is not going to happen. Both parties couldn’t agree to Smallcase’s valuation. According to a report in ‘The Morning Context’, Smallcase wanted a $500 Million valuation and Cred didn’t agree to it and that’s why these talks have fallen through.

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Check out Ditto Insurance and book a call with their team for free by clicking on the link - https://bit.ly/3QiQi9L 00:00 Introduction 00:12 Ola Drivers Go to Court against Company 03:45 Startup Spotlight 05:14 Bird's Eye Segment 07:01 OYO Acquires Danish Vacation Home Company 07:21 Mswipe receives RBI’s nod for payment aggregator license 07:53 Sponsored Segment 11:01 Side Note This week in Indian Startup News, Ola Drivers allege Fraud by company, OYO Acquires Danish Vacation Home Company To Expand in Europe, Mswipe receives RBI’s nod for payment aggregator license. In Startup Spotlight, we have EdTech unicorn upGrad, who have recently raised $210 Million and are planning to hire 3000 more employees over next few months. In Funding news we have, upGrad, Clevertap, Jodo, Lenskart and 8 other Indian startups raise more than $1 Million. Ola Drivers Go to Court against Company: Ride hailing giant Ola is under big legal trouble as hundreds of it’s former drivers have alleged that the company has committed fraud, and they are now going to Allahabad high court against the company. So the whole issue started when Ola started leasing out cars to the drivers under it's subsidiary company Ola Fleet Technologies and it gave 4 years times to drivers to make payment in the form of daily rentals. Due to COVID, when it couldn't happen, Ola started taking back cars from these drivers and so now these drivers are taking legal route. (https://inc42.com/features/how-indias-cabbies-are-fighting-legally-against-mobility-giant-ola/) Startup Spotlight - upGrad: upGrad has recently announced closing of a funding round of $210 Million and they had earlier announced that they will be hiring 3000 employees in the next three months. One reason, where upGrad seems to make itself stand apart from other edtech players, is instead of focusing on TAM (total addressable market), which a lot of major edtech players focus on, upGrad focuses on profitability. (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/funding/edtech-unicorn-upgrad-raises-210-million-from-marquee-investors/articleshow/93413012.cms) Funding this week: This week saw at least 12 Indian startups raising more than $397 Million. Edtech Sector - upGrad raised $210 Million SaaS startups - CleverTap raised $105 Mn Fintech startups - Jodo raised $15 Million OYO Acquires Danish Vacation Home Company To Expand in Europe: Hospitality giant OYO has announced acquisition of Danish vacation home company ‘Bornholmske Feriehuse’. This acquisition will allow OYO to expand it’s footprint in Europe. This company, Bornholmske Feriehuse, manages around 737 vacation homes in Denmark and now all of these properties will be listed on OYO’s platform. (https://inc42.com/buzz/oyo-acquires-danish-vacation-home-company-bornholmske-feriehuse-to-expand-footprint-in-europe/) Mswipe receives RBI’s nod for payment aggregator licence: After Razorpay, Pine Labs and Innoviti, now payment startup Mswipe has received a payment aggregator license from RBI. Currently Mswipe is a mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) network provider for merchants and its target market is mainly MSMEs of India. Currently, it helps them to accept card payments from smartphones and feature phones and now with payment aggregator license, they will be working on building an in-house online payment gateway, which will be able to offer full-stack payment solutions to offline and online merchants. (https://www.business-standard.com/article/finance/mswipe-technologies-gets-rbi-approval-for-payment-aggregator-s-licence-122080901096_1.html)

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A startup always begins with an idea, and this stage for a startup is called the ideation stage. When founders actually start working seriously on the this idea and start planning, it's called the planning stage. In the planning stage, a founder or founders will decide what their mission is gonna be, they’ll settle on an initial strategy, a potential revenue model, they’ll start thinking about company names and values that they’ll want to instill in their startup’s culture, and they’ll map out of a few milestones they wanna hit in the next couple of years. Next is what we know as commitment stage, it's where some of the plans created during the planning stage begin to be executed. It’s the point in the startup’s journey where the venture is actually registered as a company, where the founders will sign a legally binding shareholder agreement, and the most important thing here, the building of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) begins. For startup which is planning to raise money, all these stages come under pre-seed stage. At this stage, founder have very limited ways on how they can raise money. Initially, the venture will probably be self-funded - the founder or founders are gonna be building this startup during their spare time along with their job. Another form of self-funding can be called personal debt funding, basically taking debt from bank to fund your startup. Raising funds from external investor at this stage is hard since you don't have an MVP and that's why most founders raise money from family and friends. This could be in exchange of equity or could be a debt. Two alternatives to selling equity directly to a family member or friend at an agreed upon valuation, and those are convertible debt notes or convertible equity. These allow family and friends to purchase shares in the company, but how much of the company they own isn’t decided until later on when other investors like angels and VCs invest too. Another type of investor who may choose to participate in a pre-seed round is called Angel Investor. But angels see few things before investing in a startup. Firstly, many angels won’t invest in a single-founder startup. Secondly, professional and life experience matters here. If the founder or founders have attended a prestigious university or they’ve worked as executives or consultants, if they have leadership experience or product experience and especially if they have entrepreneurial experience then angels are definitely gonna be more likely to invest. Thirdly, an angel investor will oftentimes invest based on the feeling they get from the founder or founders themselves. And then, angels see if the idea is even viable in the market. The final type of investor for a pre-seed round is actually not an individual, but rather a crowd. It's called Crowdinvesting. It has a tangible ROI for these investors in the form of a fixed return if we’re talking about debt crowdinvesting, and platforms like Grip offer this.

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In this episode, we explain different stages of a startup; from idea stage to seed and then growth and finally exit stage.

Different stages of a startup can be grouped in following way:

Idea Stage: Pre-seed Round - The very first round when a startup raises funding is called Pre-seed round, and this is basically the idea stage for a startup. Here founders test their hypothesis by doing market research. This process is known as Hypotheses Validation. Since the idea is still not tested, it's difficult to raise funding from external investors and that's why most common pre-seed funding sources are self-financing, friends and family and business pitching events.

Early Stage: Seed Round - As the name suggests, Seed round is like planting a seed. It means you have tested the idea and found the product market fit and now you need to move towards building an MVP (minimum viable product). Seed funding enables the founders to conduct market tests, onboard mentors, and build a founding team. Other common sources at this stage are incubators, accelerators, angel investors, and crowdfunding platforms.

Growth Stage: Series A Round - By this stage, a startup has launched their product or service in the market and are ready to scale. Startups raise their series A round to do that and Investors financing at this stage give importance to key performance indicators like customer base, revenue figures, and app downloads, among others. The Series A stage also marks the beginning of venture capital (VC) financing.

Series B, C and D rounds: By this stage, startup is growing fast and now the focus is basically expansion. Startups burn a lot of money in marketing at this stage and that's why raise new series of funding rounds. And since you have already raised multiple rounds of funding, the risk factor significantly decreases and now new avenues of funding become available. Family Offices, Private Equity Firm and Investment Banks to name a few. And now that you are a stable company, you also have an option to take a loan; where you don’t have to give any equity and you can just return the money with some interest in the future.

Exit stage: After the growth stage comes the maturity stage. As a founder you have spent years building a startup into a big company and now you have several options in front of you; do an IPO, merge with or acquire other companies or buyback shares. In a different scenario, a founder wants to continue to run his startup and he wants to regain control of the startup, in which case he can buy back shares of his own company from other investors, and give them exit.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Funding in Indian Startups decline by 90%, Vedantu and Unacademy lay-off more employees, Swiggy Introduces Moonlighting Policy To Allow Employees To Take Up Side Gig.

In Founder Spotlight, we have the founder and CEO of Slice, Rajan Bajaj - who started Slice in 2016 after realizing there is a need to educate millennials about credit and fintech in India.

In Funding news we have, Dezerv, Twid, Bizongo, Xpressbees and 8 other Indian startups raise more than $1 Million.

Funding in Indian Startups decline by 90%: In the month of July 2022, Indian startups raised a total of only $1.1 Billion, which was the worst month since January 2021, in terms of funding raised. And this is a 90% drop from July of last year, when Indian startups had raised over $11 Billion. Even if we talk about 2022, the month of July saw a 60% month on month decline in funding raised. And the biggest impact this is having is on the layoffs we are seeing taking place in Indian startups.

Founder Spotlight - Rajan Bajaj: This week for the founder's spotlight we have Rajan Bajaj, who is the founder and CEO of Slice. Rajan realised that this entire space of credit and payment in India hasn’t evolved to the level that he hoped and so in 2016, he started Slice. He focused on millennials and gen z, and he made it easy for these young people, who were finding it hard to borrow loans from banks and elsewhere, to get a monthly credit and pay it back in installments. Funding this week: This week saw at least 12 Indian startups raising more than $145 Million. Fintech Sector - Dezerv raised $20.7 Million Packaging startups - Bizongo raised $25 Mn Logistics startups - Xpressbees raised $24.6 Million

Vedantu and Unacademy lay-off more employees: Edtech unicorn Vedantu has announced that they will be laying off another 100 employees as part of ‘business restructuring’. So till now Vednatu has laid off more than 700 employees just this year. In another development in edtech, Unacademy has abruptly suspended contracts of its NEET and JEE doubt-solving educators for six months, as a part of its cost cutting strategy. So what this suspension of contract basically means is that, for the next six months Unacademy doesn’t need their services and in turn, these educators won’t be paid for this time period.

Swiggy Introduces Moonlighting Policy: This new policy is called ‘Moonlighting Policy’ and it is, according to Swiggy, a step in being ‘employee-centric’. Under this, Swiggy’s full-time employees will be able to take a second job in their extra time. The idea behind this is to allow the employees to use their extra hours that they have after doing their full day job, and use this time to work on something else, in a way to make some extra income.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Swiggy Delivery Partners Go On Big Strike, Innoviti Gets Payments Aggregator License from RBI, Arzooo To Launch B2C Platform To Help Offline Stores.

In Founder Spotlight, we have the founder of Bambrew, Vaibhav Anant - who started a company to remove single use plastic, after watching a video of a marine biologist removing a plastic straw stuck in a sea turtle’s nose. In Funding news we have, Jai Kisan, SuperShare, ChattyBao, Tracecost and 8 other Indian startups raise more than $1 Million.

00:00 Introduction 00:11 Swiggy Delivery Partners Go On Big Strike 05:14 Founder Spotlight 06:50 Bird's Eye Segment 08:17 Innoviti Gets Payments Aggregator License from RBI 08:43 Arzooo To Launch B2C Platform 09:15 Sponsored Segment 10:25 On a Side Note

Swiggy Delivery Partners Go On Big Strike: Last week, thousands of Swiggy delivery partners went on a strike in Bengaluru and later the same thing in Mumbai and now it’s happening in Delhi. They have three main demands; higher payouts, recognition as employees rather than ‘partners’, and a face to face communication with management. And it is not that only Swiggy is facing this. Even delivery partners of Dunzo have announced a strike. (https://www.newsclick.in/Swiggy-Delivery-Partners-strike-Bengaluru)

Founder Spotlight - Vaibhav Anant: This week for the founder's spotlight we have Vaibhav Anant, who is the founder of Bambrew. Vaibhav came across a similar video of a marine biologist removing a plastic straw stuck in a sea turtle’s nose. And this video affected Vaibhav so much that he quit his job as Associate Vice-President at a leading edtech company, and decided to work on eco-friendly packaging. Bambrew uses its proprietary technology to provide alternatives to ecommerce mailer bags, food packaging in the F&B industry, pouches and foldable cartons in the FMCG industry and PVC in the pharmaceutical industry.

Funding this week: This week saw at least 12 Indian startups raising more than $48.6 Million. Fintech Sector - Jai Kisan raised $18 Million Online Content startups - SuperShare raised $6.5 Mn Hyperlocal startups - ChattyBao raised $7.5 Million

Innoviti Gets Payments Aggregator License from RBI: Bengaluru based Fintech startup Innoviti has received authorisation from the RBI to operate as a payment aggregator. As many as 185 companies had applied for this payments aggregator license from RBI, it includes CRED, Razorpay and PhonePe. Earlier this month, the RBI granted the licence to Razorpay, Pine Labs and Stripe. RBI is soon going to announce the names of other startups who have received this licence. (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/innoviti-gets-rbi-nod-for-payment-aggregator-licence/articleshow/93118715.cms)

Arzooo To Launch B2C Platform To Help Offline Stores: B2B retail tech startup Arzooo is all set to launch a new B2C platform. According to a source quoted by Inc42, the startup is planning to invest around $6 Mn-$8 Mn for this and this platform will help offline retail stores to connect with customers. Currently, Arzooo is a B2B retail tech platform and it helps offline retailers, particularly in the consumer electronics segment, solve their sourcing problems and buy different products from a single platform. (https://inc42.com/buzz/retail-tech-startup-arzooo-to-launch-b2c-platform-with-6-mn-8-mn-dollar-investment/)

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In this episode, we take a look at top 10 startups based out of the city of Hyderabad.

Pure EV: Founded by two IITians, Nishanth Dongari and Rohit Vadera in 2016, Pure EV began its journey as an IIT Hyderabad incubated startup, and today, they are one of the leading electric two wheeler startups in India. Their most recent product, an electric motorcycle called the Etryst 350, is completely designed, developed and manufactured in India.

Skyroot Aerospace: Started by two former ISRO scientists, Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana in 2018, the startup’s goal is to open Space for all by making Spaceflight affordable, reliable and regular. Their current project, Vikram-1, will be India’s first ever privately designed and developed launched vehicle, which they’re hoping to launch before 2022 is over.

Swipe: The company was founded by two serial entrepreneurs and friends, Aditya Vemuganti and Sri Teja Allaparthi, in 2021, and their goal was to make life easier for small and medium-sized businesses. Their main competitors are OKCredit and Khatabook.

Recykal: The company was started by serial entrepreneur Abhay Deshpande, who after selling his second startup, Martjack, in 2015, decided to build his next business out of trash. In the early days, their startup followed a B2C model, where they would work with ragpickers who collected waste from residential homes and deposited this waste at Recykal’s recycling centres, but later moved to B2B model as it was more profitable.

Ekincare: Founded by Dinesh Koka, Kiran Kalakuntla, Dr. Noel Coutinho, and Srikant Samudrala, Ekincare works with corporates to offer health benefits programs to their employees. They started with B2C model but quickly realised that B2C preventive healthcare was a hard sell because people don’t usually try to improve their health until serious symptoms start to show up, so the company ended up pivoting to a more profitable B2B2C model.

AdOnMo: The company was founded by Krishna Chaitanya Bommakanti, Sandeep Bommireddi, and Sravanth Gajula back in 2016 with the goal of revolutionising outdoor advertising. AdOnMe built a prototype for this service in 2017, they were testing mounted digital screens on just 5 cabs in Hyderabad, but today the startup has partnered with over 700 brands, they have 18,500 screens across 12 cities in India.

StanPlus: Three INSEAD graduates, Antoine Poirson, Jose Leon, and Prabhadeep Singh started this company back in 2016 with the goal of basically building the Uber of ambulances. The way that they’ve done this is by building a tech platform that aggregates and standarises hospital ambulances, private operators, and government-run services, along with other options like air ambulances at comparatively affordable prices through a business vertical called StanAir.

Bhanzu: The company was founded by Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash, who at the age of 15 held the title of World’s Fastest Human Calculator. He started his entrepreneurial journey in June of 2020, soon after the COVID-19 pandemic started, and he along with his team started teaching math to students through recorded lecture videos on YouTube.

Neemans: This D2C footwear startups was started by Taran Chhabara, when he came up with the idea for an all-in-one shoe. In 2018, Taran launched Neemans along with Amar Preet Singh - a natural, sustainable, D2C merino wool shoe brand. Eventually, as the company’s popularity grew, they expanded out of the D2C model to put their shoes on the shelves of offline stores like Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, and online marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart.

Darwinbox: This SaaS unicorn was started by Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti, and Rohit Chennamaneni back in 2015, when they realised that none of the available products were focusing on the entire HR lifecycle.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Slice changes business model after RBI crackdown on fintech, Cars24 see high level exits, Ola Electric's big push into Batteries.

In Founder Spotlight, we have the founder and CEO of Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma - who took a big bet on lending part of the company and now it seems to be paying off big time.

In Funding news we have, Niyo, Eka care, Fitterfly and 12 other Indian startups raise more than $1 Million.

Slice's Big Pivot after RBI crackdown: RBI had last month given a big shock to fintech startups when it barred them from loading credit lines into prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) and wallets, and it made many of these fintech startups rethink their business model entirely. Fintech unicorn Slice has announced a big pivot in their business model going ahead. What Slice has decided to do is they have launched a feature called ‘Purchase Power’ and they will be analyzing your credit worthiness in real time.

Founder Spotlight - Vijay Shekhar Sharma: This week for the founder's spotlight we have Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who is the founder and CEO of Paytm. And the reason we are talking him this week is because the bets that he took with Paytm in last one year are showing great results for the company and now it seems Paytm has found a path towards profitability. When Paytm wasn’t seeing growth in any of it’s verticals, that’s when Vijay decided to go all in in the lending space. For the first quarter which ended in June 2022, Paytm’s loan disbursement increased 9 times compared to last year.

Funding this week: This week saw at least 15 Indian startups raising more than $96 Million. Fintech Sector - Niyo raised $30 Million Healthtech startups - Eka Care raised $15 Mn Edtech startups - Creative Galileo raised $7.5 Million

High Level Exits at Cars24: Company’s Global CTO Jitendra Agrawal announced his leaving earlier this week and now according to sources quoted by Inc42, it’s business head Kingshuk Sanyal and chief HR officer Mrinal Sinha will also be leaving the company soon. Earlier the company had in the month of may, laid off more 600 employees.

Ola Electric's big push into Batteries: Last week Bhavish Aggarwal, had unveiled India’s first indigenously built lithium-ion cell and now the company has announced plans to build a Battery Innovation Center in Bengaluru. Company will be investing $500 Mn for this and it will have capabilities to develop complete packages of battery pack design, fabrication and testing under one roof.

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In this episode, we take a look at Top 10 Indian Startups who are making Two wheeler vehicles.

10 Revamp Moto: This Nashik-based two-wheeler EV startup was founded by Jayesh Tope, Pritesh Mahajan, and Pushkaraj Salunke, they’re building scooters that double as miniature dukaans, or stores. Their scooters, called the RM Mitra 02 and the RM 25 are still in the development stage. The startup recently closed their pre-seed round at $1 million in June of 2022.

9 emote Electric: This Coimbatore-based electric motorcycle startup was founded by Pranav Singanapalli, and they’re building something unique: India’s first geared electric motorcycle, called Surge. According to Pranav, in certain conditions, this motor efficiency increase can be as high as 35%. This also means that their bike’s motor can be 2.5x smaller than a gearless motor of the same performance, and this size reduction also results in a price reduction too.

8 InGO Electric: This Bengaluru-based micro-mobility startup was founded in 2018 by Nikhil Gonsalves and they are an indigenous competitor to Yulu. InGO’s scooters are designed and manufactured in India. InGO recently tied up with Log9 Materials, which will be supplying them with Lithium ion battery cells.

7 Atumobile: This Hyderabad-based electric bike startup was founded by Vamsi Gaddam. Their first vehicle, the Atum 1.0, has a top speed of just 25 kilometres per hour, which is just an MVP. They plan to follow it up with a 50 kilometre per hour variant, the 1.1, and an even faster variant, India’s 1st high-speed electric cafe racer, the AtumVader.

6 ElecTorq Technologies: This New Delhi-based micro-mobility startup has taken full-stack approach in offering micro-mobility for gig workers. They have battery swapping stations, they have an app so that their users can find scooters and batteries, and they have the hardware itself. Also, ElecTorq scooters are custom-built for Indian roads.

5 Orxa Energies: This Bengaluru-based performance electric motorcycle startup was started by Prajwal Sabnis and Ranjita Ravi. Orxa Energies revealed their flagship product, Mantis, in December of 2019, and while it’s currently still in the testing stage, it’s already breaking records: it covered a distance of 13,510 km in 54 days - this was done as a way of testing the motorcycle in all kinds of conditions

4 Simple Energy: This Bengaluru-based electric scooter startup was started by Suhas Rajkumar, when he decided to build a value-for-money EV in January of 2019. He was later joined by his friend Shreshth Mishra as co-founder. They have taken an indigenous approach to build their scooter and that's why the startup has had to delay the sale of these scooters repeatedly.

3 Ultraviolette: This Bengaluru-based electric performance motorcycle startup was built by Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan. Their maiden motorcycle, the F77, has already received upwards of 60,000 pre-orders from around the world and is expected to start selling in 2022, although there have been several delays since 2020 so whether or not 2022 is the year of the F77 remains to be seen.

2 Ather Energy: This Bengaluru-based electric scooter startup was started by two IITians, Swapnil Jain and Tarun Mehta. Their first product was Ather S340 which they sold directly to consumers, Where they really made an impact was with the 450 Plus and 450X, the extremely impressive scooter duo that Ather is known for today.

1 Ola Electric: This Bengaluru-based electric two wheeler startup is a subsidiary of cab-hailing startup Ola, which was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal. They were the top EV two-wheeler seller for few months until April 2022, when they started seeing issues like fire in their scooters and were eventually toppled by other players.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Unacademy's Big Restructure - No Free Meals, Salary Cuts, Ola Electric unveils First Indigenously Developed Li-ion Cell, Fraazo Lays Off Over 150 Employees.

In Founder Spotlight, we have the founder and CEO of Zoho Corporation, Sridhar Vembu - who recently questioned the entire significance of VC culture in the Indian startups ecosystem and why it's not healthy.

In Funding news we have, Onecard, Vegrow, Detect Technologies and 10 other Indian startups raise more than $1 Million.

Unacademy's Big Restructure: Ed-tech unicorn Unacademy seems to be going through a major overhaul; company has recently shut down their test preparation platform in the US and now it is taking tough decisions like pay cuts for leadership and reduced employee benefits and perks. CEO Gaurav Munjal announced measures like no complementary food in the office, no business class travel for anyone, no dedicated drivers for CxOs and salary cuts for founders and management.

Founder Spotlight - Sridhar Vembu: This week for the founder's spotlight we have Sridhar Vembu, who is the founder and CEO of Zoho Corporation. And the reason we have Sridhar this week is because of a speech he recently gave in a regional conference in Bengaluru and which has started a debate on the entire significance of VC culture in the Indian startups ecosystem. He himself has bootstrapped his company for the last 21 years and may be the biggest reason is that he doesn’t want VC to come and dictate what steps the company should take.

Funding this week: This week saw at least 13 Indian startups raising more than $242.5 Million. Fintech Sector - Onecard raised $100 Million AI startups - Detect Technologies raised $28 Million Agritech startups - Vegrow raised $25 Mn Supply Chain & Logistics - Wheelocity raised $12 Million

Ola Electric unveils First Indigenously Developed Li-ion Cell: Bhavish Aggarwal led Ola Electric has unveiled their first ever Made-in-India Lithium-ion cell. Company has said that this cell will be in heart of their EV goals going ahead and they will start it’s mass production from 2023, in their upcoming Gigafactory. This is really important for Ola Electric to manufacture battery cells in house as it will give them more control over the quality. We had earlier seen multiple cases of Ola and other EV scooters catching fire and one major reason was the battery management issues.

Fraazo Lays Off Over 150 Employees: Another startup announcing layoffs, and this time it is Mumbai-based fresh vegetables delivery startup Fraazo, which has laid off at least 150 full time employees. Main reason behind this is to cut costs which is after the company was unsuccessful in raising fresh funds. Now the company has also decided to shut it’s Delhi-NCR operations. And it can also shut down it’s operations in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, which would result in more layoffs.

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In this episode, we talk about Top 10 Startups from Mumbai - financial capital of India.

10: PepperFry: The startup was founded by two former eBay employees, Ambareesh Murty and Ashish Shah, back in 2011 as Trendsutra Platform Services. In the beginning they were selling all e-commerce products, but they realised in early 2013 that if they were gonna succeed as a startup, they were gonna need to focus in on one product category, and that category ended up being furniture. Their last valuation was $462 million, during their Series F round in February of 2020.

9 Jupiter: The company was started by Jitendra Gupta whose first big startup success was fintech startup Citrus Pay. They offer their customers legitimate bank accounts, and with these bank accounts, they can also offer products like Jupiter Edge which is a sort of buy now, pay later credit hybrid, a salary advance account, and a traditional debit card as well. They have raised $155 million at a valuation of $711 million.

8 Zepto: It was started by two teenagers Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra. They first started KiranaKart, a Mumbai-based grocery delivery startup that partnered with kiranas to deliver items to customers, but they quickly realised that being the middle-man between kiranas and customers wasn’t a scalable model so they launched Zepto in April 2021. Zepto is a soonicorn, they were last valued at $900 million back in May of 2022, and their investors have poured $360 million into the company.

7 Purplle: This company was incorporated in 2011 as Manash Lifestyle Private Limited, by three IITans, Manish Taneja, Rahul Dash, and Suyash Katyayani and it is a omnichannel beauty startup like Nykaa. Purplle follows a marketplace model as oppose to Nykaa's inventory model. They have over 600 foreign and Indian brands on their marketplace, and were last valued at $1.1 billion in June of 2022, making them a unicorn.

6 LEAD School: Started by Smita Deorah and Sumeet Mehta back in 2012, LEAD School is actually a B2B SaaS play - when a school signs up with LEAD, they gain access to LEAD’s international standard curriculum, their backend SaaS systems which allow faculty to manage things like admissions, students, classrooms, grades, all from a single online platform. They’ve got upwards of 3,500 schools signed up with them in more than 400 cities, and in 2022 they achieved a valuation of $1.1 billion.

5 Acko: It was started by Varun Dua and Ruchi Deepak as a new insurance provider that would make the process of buying and claiming insurance fast, easy, and affordable. They got a licence to sell insurance in 2017, and today, they’ve sold car, taxi, bike, and health insurance to 50 million unique customers and they are currently valued at $1.1 Billion.

4 upGrad: It was started by Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, Ravijot Chugh, and Ronnie Screwvala, in March of 2015. Company focuses on higher education and upskilling and they were valued at $1.2 billion last year.

#3 Rebel Foods: It began with a single offline QSR restaurant in Pune, Faasos, in 2003 by Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee and today, Faasos has 500 restaurants across 10 countries. Rebel Foods is a cloud kitchen startup, they operate something called internet kitchens, basically these are kitchens specifically catering to people ordering online using platforms like Swiggy or Zomato.

2 CoinDCX: Founded by two friends Neeraj Khandelwal and Sumit Gupta in 2018, it is India’s first ever crypto unicorn. Today, they’re one of the leading crypto exchanges in India with more than 13 million users, and they’ve raised a total of $244 million from their investors at a $2 billion valuation as of August of 2021.

1 Pharmeasy: Dharmil Sheth and Dhaval Shah, started this company in 2015 to make healthcare completely doorstep deliverable in India.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Zomato’s acquisition of Blinkit - A disaster or long term bet, BYJU’s owned Whitehat Jr and Toppr fire 650+ people and Ola Shuts Used Cars And Quick Commerce Business. In Founder Spotlight, we have the founder and CEO of Unacademy, Gaurav Munjal, who recently opened first offline center in Kota and is now becoming hot favorite for students in offline space. In Funding news we have, Arzoo, Solv, Battery Smart and 10 other Indian startups raise more than $1 Million.

00:00 Introduction 00:06 Zomato’s acquisition of Blinkit 02:58 Founder Spotlight 05:20 Funding Analysis 06:33 Sponsored Segment 08:16 BYJU’s owned Whitehat Jr and Toppr fire 650+ people 09:25 Ola Shuts Used Cars And Quick Commerce Business

Zomato’s acquisition of Blinkit: Last week, Zomato had finally concluded its acquisition of quick commerce startup Blinkit and in less than four days of this acquisition, Zomato’s share has fallen more than 21% which means that more than 13,000 Crore Rs of Zomato’s market value has been wiped off. This seems a bad decision in the short term as Blinkit is a loss making company but Zomato realized that food delivery and grocery delivery have a lot of synergies as both are hyperlocal businesses and the company already has a fleet of delivery people. And that's why they are thinking of this as a long term bet. Founder Spotlight - Gaurav Munjal: This week we have Co-founder and CEO of Unacademy, Gaurav Munjal, and the reason for him to feature here is the aggressive strategy he along with his team is taking at Unacademy to disrupt the offline coaching space in India, and especially in a city called Kota. Gaurav is known for killing off the competition by acquiring them or bleeding them dry by poaching the talent and this is exactly what is happening in Kota right now. More than 40 teachers from Allen have already joined Unacademy and this battle is heating up. Funding this week: This week saw at least 13 Indian startups raising more than $314 Million. B2B Marketplaces - Arzoo raised $70 Million Fintech startups - Progcap raised $40 Million EV startups - Battery Smart raised $25 Mn Real Estate - PropShare raised $50 Million

BYJU’s owned Whitehat Jr and Toppr fire 650+ people: BYJU’s owned Whitehat Jr and Toppr have laid off 300 and 350+ employees respectively. Company has termed these lay offs as ‘business restructuring’ and according to Inc42, sales and marketing team were the worst affected. Edtech wasn’t the only sector that saw layoffs, as B2B Ecommerce Unicorn Udaan has also laid off around 180 employees to cut costs. Another startup called Nova Benefits, which is a Bengaluru-based insurtech startup, has also laid off around 70 employees. Ola Shuts Used Cars And Quick Commerce Business: Bhavish Aggarwal led Ola has decided to shut down its used car division Ola Cars and its quick commerce business, Ola Dash. The company will now focus on its electric vehicles and mobility businesses from here on. According to the company, they are reassessing their priorities at this point and it seems quick commerce isn’t their priority as of now. Company will be using the lessons it learnt from it’s Ola Cars business for making go to market strategy for Ola Electric.

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In this episode, we take a look at Navi's journey, from it's inception to now it's IPO. When Sachin Bansal sold Flipkart to Walmart back in 2018, he received $1 Billion in exchange for his 5.5% stake in the company. Sachin then wanted to do something in the fintech space as he wanted to give Indian middle class customers same financial services what an HNI enjoys. With this mission, Sachin with his college friend Ankit Agarwal started BACQ Acquisitions Pvt. Ltd in 2018, which he later renamed to Navi Technologies. With Navi, Sachin and Ankit wanted to offer all the major financial services and for this their goal was to obtain a universal banking licence from the RBI. There are many stringent requirements that applicants need to meet in order get a universal banking licence from the RBI: they need to have had a successful track record for at least 10 years, they need to be deemed to be ‘Fit and Proper’ by the RBI, meaning they need to have sound financials, credentials, integrity, they need to have a specific corporate structure, and there’s a minimum capital requirement too, of 5 billion rupees. They acquired Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services, or CRIDS, which was founded in February of 2012, and has a subsidiary called Chaitanya India Fin Credit which offers loans for things like two-wheelers, housing, small business and education. The purpose of this acquisition was two-fold. Navi wanted to fulfil the 10 year requirement set out by the RBI for a universal licence, and CRIDS would meet that requirement in February of 2022, and also, this company was aligned with the direction that Navi wanted to take with their startup: they wanted to meet the needs of Indians who hadn’t historically been able to access financial services like loans, credit, investmenting, and banking. In 2020, Navi renamed CRIDS to Navi Finserv, and started offering digital loans, housing loans, and loans against property. So far, they’ve dispersed 4.81 lakh personal loans worth 2,246 crore rupees , and they’ve also issued 604 home loans too. Navi wanted to be present in every category that they could before they applied for their universal banking licence, so in 2020 they bought another company, DHFL General Insurance, which they later renamed to Navi Insurance, and today they’re offering insurance in the health, motor, travel, and home categories. Navi’s most recent acquisition was Essel Mutual Fund in February of 2021, which they rebranded to Navi Mutual Fund through which they’re currently offering access to 15 unique mutual funds that their customers can invest in through 9 different platforms including Groww, INDMoney, and Zerodha Coin. But when Navi applied for universal banking licence, the RBI issued a press release stating that Chaitanya India Fin Credit Private Limited was found to be not suitable for a universal banking licence. This was because of reasons like Sachin was facing a charge by Enforcement Directorate and few other cases. Then, there’s the unsolicited SMS issue, which the RBI had investigated themselves. Now earlier this year, Navi announced their plans to go public. The company filed their DRHP in March of 2022 and they will be going public anytime before end of current year. But a question rises; why is Sachin taking Navi public? Sachin had earlier lost control of his own startup, and he didn’t want to repeat that same mistake with his next startup, which is why he currently owns 97.77% of Navi. So far, he’s invested more than 4,000 crore rupees into the company, that’s more than half of his net worth, and believes in what he’s building. He had wanted to build Flipkart into the future, he wanted it to be a $100 billion company, but that opportunity was taken away from him, so with Navi, he has said that he’s planning to build it for the next 20 years, and that it will be a $100 billion company.

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This week in Indian Startup News, ONDC to break Swiggy and Zomato Monopoly, RBI’s blow to e-wallet providers like Paytm, SuperLearn shuts shop, Leadsquared becomes unicorn, Layoffs Continue in Indian startups, 450 employees laid off this week. In Founder Spotlight, we have the founders of Mamaearth, Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh, who have announced plans to take Mamaearth public. In Funding news we have, Stashfin, Leadsquared, Leap and 18 other Indian startups raise more than $1 Million.

ONDC to break Swiggy and Zomato Monopoly: A recent report has revealed that ONDC is working with a number of restaurants to end ‘monopolization’ by Swiggy and Zomato. ONDC is doing this with the partnership of National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI), which is actually the main organization to represent the restaurant industry in India. This seems to be a welcoming step for restaurants. They were surely not happy with Swiggy and Zomato as they had to pay huge commissions, sometimes upto 25% of the order value, just to list on the platform. RBI’s blow to e-wallet providers: RBI has announced that prepaid payment providers - mostly e-wallets like Paytm, Slice and Uni, won’t be able to offer non-bank credit to customers. Currently, companies like Paytm and Slice provide you BNPL services by partnering up with NBFCs, which are not banks but an organization which is just providing some banking services. Founder Spotlight - Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh: Mamaearth was started when Ghazal and Varun were expecting their first child and they were looking for natural and safe products for the baby. Mamaearth was the first Asian company to receive MadeSafe certification. Company received huge word-of-mouth outreach, making them the fastest growing D2C brand in India. In May 2020, less than 4 years after starting up, it crossed the 100 Crores turnover mark.

Funding this week: This week saw at least 14 Indian startups raising more than $763 Million. Fintech startups - Stashfin raised $270 Million SaaS startups - Leadsquared raised $153 Million E-commerce startups - Cashify raised $90 Mn Overseas Education - Leap raised $50 Million SuperLearn shuts shop: Bengaluru-based SuperLearn was started in 2020 by Kunal Bhatia and Ricky Gupta, when they realized that there are many skills like financial literacy, entrepreneurship and public speaking, which children are not taught in schools and so in December of the same year they started the company. After raising seed round of $300k, company wanted another round but investors weren't buying edtech story anymore and so they decided to shut down. Leadsquared becomes unicorn: Bengaluru-based SaaS startup, LeadSquared, became India’s 103rd unicorn after closing its Series C round and raising $153 million from Westbridge Capital and Gaja Capital. The company was started by Nilesh Patel, Prashant Singh, Sudhakar Gorti, and Sukhbir Kalsi back in 2011, and it offers end-to-end sales and marketing solutions to over 2000 enterprises across various sectors.

450 startup employees laid off this week: Social commerce platform Citymall which has laid off 191 employees. Unacademy owned Prepladder, which has laid off around 150 employees. Aquaculture startup Aqgromalin, which has laid off 30% of its workforce, or 80 full-time employees. Crypto Exchange Vauld, which has laid off 30% of its workforce, which is around 30 employees.

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In this podcast, we try to explain what exactly is a Startup? How is it different from a small scale business?

There are many definitions of a startup. According to Alex Wilhelm, Editor in Chief of TechCrunch, if a startup has a $50 million revenue run rate, OR if it has 100 or more employees, OR if it’s worth more than $500 million, then it’s no more a startup.

On the other hand, Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO of Zomato, has its own definition of a startup. According to him, it’s all about the company’s culture - even if you have more than 100 employees or your ARR is upwards of $50 million, or you’re valued at more than half a billion dollars, you’re still a startup if you behave and think like a startup.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm once said, “A startup becomes a company when the founder doesn’t know what’s happening—so, when teams can take independent decisions without including the founding members.”

Now, other than these individual opinions, Government of India also has it’s own definition of a startup. According to them, a company is considered a startup up to a period of 10 years from the date of incorporation, if its annual turnover has no exceeded 100 crore rupees, and if it’s working towards innovation, development or improvement of products or processes or services, or if it’s a scalable business model with a high potential of employment generation or wealth creation.

So ultimately there isn’t a single definition of a startup and there could be multiple answers at the same time.

Next important question is, the difference between MSMEs and a startup.

Most important factor here is scalability, a startup has a grow fast mentality. A healthy MSME grows incrementally, for an extended period of time, and generates profits which can be used to make the owner of the business more wealthy, or they can be set aside as a rainy day fund, or given to employees as a bonus. A healthy startup on the other hand grows rapidly, once it’s found it’s product market fit, it can raise a large amount of money very quickly to reach to it’s target market. This money could come from various sources like Angel Investors, Venture capitalists or even loans from banks in many cases.

One example to explain this is ‘Beyond Snacks’, a startup that was also seen in Shark Tank India. They sell banana chips, like thousands of other small banana chips sellers. According to Beyond Snack’s founder, Manas Madhu, Beyond Snacks’ goal is to be valued at 100 crore rupees, and to be a national brand in the next 2 years, and this production of scale and rapid growth mentality is exactly what separates him from thousands of banana chips sellers on the street.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Unacademy opens first offline learning center in Kota to take on Allen and other players, Paytm Shows Strong Growth in Lending Business, Shiprocket acquires Pickrr, Mensa Brands buys Pebble, Sequoia Closes Largest India & SEA Fund At $2.85 Bn. In Founder Spotlight, we have the founders of Dukaan, Subhash Choudhary and Suumit Shah, who have announced plans to take Dukaan global. In Funding news we have, upGrad, WOW Skin, infra.market and 18 other Indian startups raise more than $1 Million.

Unacademy Open first Offline Center: India's Edtech sector is seeing a major shift as billion-dollar startups are now taking on Offline coaching centers like Allen in offline space. After the impact of Covid going down and schools reopening, ed-tech startups have seen their growth slow down as we saw in the case of Byju's and Whitehat Jr and other startups like Unacademy, Vedantu and Lido Learning laying off hundreds of employees. This move by Unacademy has brought a big pushback from Allen as their founder Brajesh Maheshwari released a video warning it's teachers not to leave it. In response, Unacademy has asked for police protection for it's teachers.

Founder Spotlight - Subhash Choudhary and Suumit Shah: Subhash and Suumit started Dukaan in 2020 to help Indian small businesses go online. After having a great run in local market, they have now decided to go global and take on Shopify. They have identified the issues that brands face with Shopify and they want to solve them. The major issue that they feel brands are facing with Shopify, is speed and performance and this is causing merchants to lose out on sales if customers have to wait even a few additional seconds for sites to load. Now this move by Dukaan would further solidify Indian SaaS companies reputation worldwide and would inspire more entrepreneurs to make products for the world.

Funding this week: This week saw at least 21 Indian startups raising more than $637.6 Million. Edtech startups - upGrad raised $225 Million D2C startups - Skincare Brand WOW Skin raised $48 Million Social-tech startups - Mohalla Tech - parent company of Sharechat raised $77 Mn Construction sector - infra.market raised $50 Million Paytm Shows Strong Growth in Lending Business: After a period of sad state of affairs for Paytm ever since it’s IPO in November last year, there is finally some good news for Paytm in it’s lending business. For the two month period ending May 2022, Paytm has seen growth of over 471% YOY (year on year) as compared to the same period last year. Along with this rise in lending business, total number of users transacting on Paytm have also increased by almost 50%, to 74 Million compared to 50 Million during same time period last year.

Shiprocket acquires Pickrr, Mensa Brands buys Pebble: Logistics startup Shiprocket has acquired it’s rival Pickrr in a $200 Million deal. Started in 2017, Shiprocket has been one of the market leaders in logistics space and now they are looking at an inorganic channel of growth as they are on a massive acquisition spree. Since the start of this year, they have acquired majority stakes in Glaucus Logistics, market automation startup Wigzo, B2B logistics platform Rocketbox and SaaS-based Logibricks and Pickrr is their 5th acquisition this year. Mensa Brand acquiring Noida-based wearable brand Pebble is next and this acquisition will allow Mensa Brand foray into India’s smart wearable segment.

Pebble was started in 2013, by father and daughter duo – Ajay Agarwal and Komal Agarwal and it offered audio products, fitness wearables, chargers and cables. Now Pebble was a very significant player in the smart wearable segment, with more than 10 Million customers in 9 countries.

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In this video, we take a look at what ONDC promises and how this is going to impact D2C brands in India.

ONCD is short for Open Network for Digital Commerce, it is an initiative by the government of India to promote an open network for exchange of goods and services over the Internet. This basically means that the government is trying to create a level playing field for all the small business owners in India. ONDC is promising same power and features to these small owners that big e-commerce companies like Flipkart and Amazon have. Today if you want to sell products online, you just have two options; either to start your own website and sell it there or register on platforms like Amazon and Flipkart and sell it there. The issue with first option is, it requires knowledge of tech - to build a website, inventory management, hiring a delivery partner, payment partner etc. This is a big hassle. If you register on Amazon or Flipkart, you will have to pay hefty fees to them every time you sell something. This commission is generally in the range of 20-30%. Many people are still paying this commission because these platforms provide all these facilities to them, like storing their products, managing the inventory, delivery of the products, payment etc. But the issue with this is, this is limiting the growth of these small players. These Foreign brands have monopoly over Indian e-commerce and this is one of the important reasons for introducing ONDC.

ONDC is trying to become UPI for India's commerce sector. ONDC could be a revolution for Indian D2C brands and it will solve two of the major problems D2C brands face in India. Keeping customer-acquisition-cost (CAC) low and efficient inventory management and customer experience, which includes order tracking, post order issues like return, replacement, grievances, or feedback that can make or break their trust in your brand.

ONDC can be a game changer for these small businesses as now you won’t have to pay anything to reach all these customers. All you have to do is list yourself with ONDC and customers across the country can find you from any application of their choice. The government has compared this with ‘hypertext transfer protocol for information exchange over the internet’ where you could reach millions of customers without spending anything. Next big issue right now for D2C brands is efficient inventory management. ONDC promises to solve this by standardizing operations like cataloging, inventory management, order management and order fulfillment. This would mean that as a small seller, you could use any ONDC compatible application and you don’t have to worry about managing everything on your own.

There are many challenges with ONDC as well, which needs to be addressed. Firstly, data-privacy concerns. Now this is a concern involved with every of the government's massive projects; something we recently witnessed in the case of Aadhar, where the government itself warned people that their Aadhar data could be misused. In case of open commerce, the data could be even more sensitive in nature; your bank accounts, credit card number, addresses, if gone into wrong hands could pose a big threat. Next major challenge would be to maintain quality or the product. Currently, the quality control is the responsibility of these platforms like Amazon and Flipkart, wherein if you receive a fake product, you could return it and ask for replacement or even refund. In the case of ONDC, there has been no addressal of this issue; will there be inbuilt technology to deal with this or will these companies who plan to work with ONDC, make sure of the quality control.

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1000+ Layoffs This week: At least 6 startups in India this week fired more than 1000 employees this week. Out of this, Gurugram-based edtech startup Udayy has completely shut down as it’s not seeing any growth potential, due to which more than 100 of their employees will be let go off. Gurugram-based B2B ecommerce marketplace Yojak is shutting down it's India operations due to cash crunch and due to which they have fired around 140 employees. Social commerce platform Yaari is on the verge of shutting down and has laid off 150 employees in the last one month. Yaari was a new venture by real estate giant ‘Indiabulls' and it was competing with Meesho, Dealshare, Trell, and Shopsy. Bengaluru based upskilling startup, FrontRow has laid off 145 employees, in order to control their burn and increase runway. Bengaluru-based esports and mobile gaming unicorn Mobile Premier League (MPL) has also fired 100+ employees and are shutting down their streaming service. Dubai based mobility startup Swvl has also fired more than 400 of their employees.

Founder Spotlight - Ronnie Screwvala: For this week, we have Ronnie Screwvala, who during this reality check phase for startups with heavy losses and layoffs happening all around, is emphasizing on building a ‘real’ business model and he is not doing this just by his words but he is actually hiring 3,000 new employees for his edtech startup upGrad. Ronnie blamed private equity firms for a lot of current problems, saying that they pressure young entrepreneurs to keep increasing their valuations after every round of funding without concentrating on the core business. He further talked about what's ahead for Indian startups in an interview.

TechEagle drone delivers mail: Gurugram-based drone startup TechEagle on Tuesday delivered mail successfully by a drone in Gujarat. This was done with the collaboration of government owned India Post. This mail delivery by drone covered the distance of 46 kms in less than half hour, and this was five times faster than any surface transportation, according to the startup.

Reliance Industries to invest in edtech startup Lido Learning: Lido Learning, edtech startup which in January this year fired 1200 of its employees citing lack of funds, could now raise fresh funds from Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries. Reliance could even acquire Lido Learning, according to reports.

Fintech startup Slice introduces UPI payments: Fintech startup Slice, which is a credit card provider, is now betting big on UPI payments and for this company has raised $50 Mn. Slice, which already has more than 12 Million customers, now wants to tap into the trillion dollar payments market of India.

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This week in Indian Startup News Mfine Fires 600 Employees, Ritesh Agarwal-Led OYO Delays IPO, Flipkart Enters At-Home Services Segment To Take On Urban company, Manish Maheshwari and Tanay Pratap led Invact Metaversity shuts down. In funding and acquisition news, Edtech Startup Infinity Learn Acquires Majority Stake In Wizklub, Dairytech Startup Country Delight Raises $108 Mn and more.

Mfine Fires 600 Employees: Digital health platform MFine fired around 600 employees, which is around 75% of its total workforce. According to the employees, the main reason behind these layoffs is cash crunch and that company has run out of money to pay salaries. Company through an email, informed its employees that they will be only paid for 20 days in the month of May. Ritesh Agarwal-Led OYO Delays IPO: Oravel Stays Ltd, parent company of hospitality startup OYO, has decided to delay its plans of going public and the company is also looking to lower its valuation by at least 30%. Company is doing this mainly for two reasons - one is the current market conditions, and other is company's losses this year and company wants to show a path to profitability before going to the listing.

Flipkart Enters At-Home Services Segment: Flipkart has announced its plans of entering in on-demand at-home services market, and it will start with offering AC cleaning and repair services to consumers. Till now Urban Company was only big player in this market. This new service by company will be offered by Jeeves Consumer Services - a company Flipkart bought back in 2014. Edtech Startup Infinity Learn Acquires Majority Stake In Wizklub: Sri Chaitanya Group’s edtech startup Infinity Learn has bought 75% stake in WizKlub - a high order thinking skills platform for children, for $7.5 Million. Infinity Learn till now had its presence in the test preparation segment and with this new acquisition, the company is trying to target students aged 6-14.

Founders Spotlight - Manish Maheshwari and Tanay Pratap: Manish and Tanay led ‘Invact Metaversity’ - a startup which started in December 2021 and promised a 16-week MBA program in Metaverse, for which they also raised $5 Million, has shut down abruptly and the company is now looking to return the remaining money to its investors. Among the many reasons which resulted in this downfall, the most important factor was the difference of vision between Manish and Tanay. Dairytech Startup Country Delight Raises $108 Mn: Direct-to-consumer (D2C) food essentials brand - Country Delight, has raised $108 million in Series D round taking its valuation to $615 million. With this funding, it is looking to add new categories like pulses, grains, spices, oils, pickles and basic snacking items. Company will also expand its footprint across the country, by moving to new cities.

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Angel investor is a high-net-worth individual who provides financial backing for small startups or entrepreneurs, in exchange for equity. In this episode, we take a look at Top 20 Angel Investors in India.

20 Sandeep Tandon: Sandeep co-founded one of India’s first mobile payment platforms, Freecharge. He began his journey as an angel in 2015, and his portfolio includes Spinny, Dukaan, Unacademy, and Indiagold.

19 Arihant Patni: Arihant is a Mumbai-based entrepreneur, financial advisor, and angel investor whose father founded Patni Computer Systems. His portfolio as an angel includes companies like Lido Learning, TheMathCompany, White Owl Brewery, BabyChakra, and Fitternity.

18 Alok Mittal: Alok is a founding board member of Indian Angel Network and so far he’s made 30 angel investments, including companies like M2P Fintech and Pando.

17 T.V. Mohandas Pai: Mohandas Pai as an angel investor has 30 portfolio companies under his belt, including Zoomcar, YourStory, and Licious. #16 Rajesh Sawhney: Rajesh started his journey as an angel with a 2010 Series A investment into American streaming service Viki, which was later acquired by Rakuten. He has since made 34 other personal investments. #15 Gaurav Munjal: Gaurav is the co-founder and CEO of India’s second most valuable edtech startup, Unacademy and he has more than 35 companies in his portfolio as an angel investor. #14 Sujeet Kumar: Sujeet, is the co-founder of Bengaluru-based B2B trade platform, Udaan and he has invested in 38 companies as an angel. His portfolio includes companies like Euler Motors, Newton School, Unacademy, and OneCode.

13 Amrish Rau: Amrish is the co-founder of Citrus Pay, and his investments include fintech company Open, which recently became a unicorn, B2B fish and seafood supplier Captain Fresh, CRED, and KhataBook. #12 Girish Mathrubootham: Girish is the co-founder and CEO of Freshworks, and as an angel investor he has 39 companies including Pepul, traveltech startup PickYourTrail, logistics platform Pando, and social recommendation app Fril. #11 Vijay Shekhar Sharma: Vijay is the founder and CEO of Paytm and he began his journey as an angel in 2010 with a seed-stage investment into Indian crowdfunding platform Milaap, and has since made investments into 40 other companies including Evenflow, GOQii, Unacademy, FloBiz, and Hiver.

10 Ratan Tata: Ratan Tata began his journey as an angel investor in 2014 as a lead investor in Snapdeal and has since added another 39 companies to his portfolio, including GOQii, CarDekho, YourStory, Ola, Paytm, Urban Company. #9 Anand Chandrasekaran: Anand is a partner at American VC firm General Catalyst, and his journey as an angel started around 2014. He has invested in Indian startups like Mudrex, Pesto Tech, Evenflow, SuperK and Oye Rickshaw. #8 Jitendra Gupta: Jitendra is founder and CEO of Jupiter, and he began his investing journey in 2015 and he’s added 45 other companies to his portfolio including Open, FarMart, Captain Fresh, and Dukaan. #7 Binny Bansal: Binny started xto10x Technologies to mentor young entrepreneurs and help them scale their startups. His investments include Acko, Curefoods, SigTuple, Unacademy, NIRAMAI, Superplum, Magnifi, and more.

6 Rohit Bansal: Rohit is one of the co-founders of Snapdeal, and he now has 56 companies in his own personal portfolio. It includes companies like Mamaearth, Nat Habit, Bira91, Open Secret, Bewakoof, and Flyrobe.

5 Ramakant Sharma: He began his entrepreneurial journey back in 2012 when he co-founded Zing Ecommerce, and he’s invested in 61 companies so far, including Toothsi, Convin, Captain Fresh, Trell, Rupifi, and Wiz Freight.

4 Kunal Bahl

3 Anupam Mittal

2 Rajan Anandan

1 Kunal Shah

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This week in Indian Startup News, Paytm Mall’s Valuation Drops 99.5%, Vedantu Lays Off 400+ employees, Ola Scales Down Food Delivery Business. In Acquisition and funding news, Swiggy Acquires Dineout, Phonepe acquires wealthdesk and openq, GreyOrange Raises $110 Mn and more.

Paytm Mall’s Valuation Drops 99.5%: Once valued at $3 Billion, Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led Paytm Mall’s valuation has now come down by more than 99.5% and is currently valued at $13 Million. This comes after Jack Ma led Alibaba and Ant Financials exited the company, selling their 43.32% stake back to the company, for just 42 crore Rs. This happened as Paytm Mall decided to pivot to an open platform for e-commerce by joining Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform, which is an initiative by the Indian Govt to democratize the e-commerce market in India Vedantu Lays Off 400+ employees: Vedantu has announced that it will lay off 424 employees. This is in addition to the 200 employees the edtech unicorn laid off earlier this month. Main reasons behind these layoffs as told by their CEO Vamsi Krishna is long term sustainability and that company wants to reduce costs.

Ola Scales Down Food Delivery Business: Ola has, for the third time, announced that it will scale down its food delivery business and the company will instead focus on quick commerce business. Before this, Ola had started Ola Cafe in 2015, bought Foodpanda in 2017 and then again forayed into food business by taking a multichannel approach in 2019 by setting up 50 cloud kitchens, and launching brands like Khichdi Experiment, The Biryani Experiment, Paratha Experiment and The Daily Diner. Swiggy Acquires Dineout: Food-delivery giant Swiggy has announced that it will be acquiring dining out and restaurant tech platform - Dineout, best known for discovering restaurants and making table reservations, and it currently has over 50,000 restaurant partners in the country.

Phonepe acquires wealthdesk and openq: Walmart-backed digital payments platform PhonePe has announced acquisition of two wealth management startups–WealthDesk ($50 Mn) and OpenQ ($25 Mn) for $75 Mn. This acquisition will allow Walmart to move into investment and wealth management space, something its principal competitor Amazon got involved last year in, by investing in Smallcase. GreyOrange Raises $110 Mn: Robotics firm GreyOrange has raised $110 Mn in growth financing, led by it’s existing investor Mithril Capital Management. Greyorange designs, manufactures, and deploys AI-based robotic systems, which helps large ecommerce and retail firms to automate routine tasks at their warehouses.

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In this episode, we take a look at current scenario of Indian Edtech sector and decode the road ahead for these edtech companies. Since the start of 2022, nearly 4,000 people either quit or been fired in this sector. To understand how this happened, we have to look at how did we reach here? Indian edtech as we see today started in early years of last decade. Around 2016, when jio came, suddenly these companies saw huge influx of people consuming this educational content and this was the time when VCs took this business seriously.

BYJU’S raised more than $100 Million in 2016 and became India’s first edtech unicorn in 2018. Companies like Unacademy and Toppr also raised venture capital at this time. This continued on till 2020, when the pandemic hit the world, and all education moved online. In 2020, Indian startups raised $10.14 Billion in total in 2020, and more than 20% of this went into edtech. In 2021, this number more than doubled to $4.7 Billion. Companies used this money for acquisitions and growth. BYJU’S bought 13 companies including Aakash Institute and Whitehat Jr, spending $3 Billion. Unacademy bought 10 companies, including Prepladder, Mastree and Codechef. These acquisitions and sharp growth meant that these companies were spread too thin and this resulted in companies lose their focus and move away from their core businesses. And when in 2022, things started opening up, students are now choosing to switch back to a mainly offline educational experience.

These has resulted in declining revenue for edtech startups, which means higher customer acquisition cost (CAC) and now companies find themselves too spread out. In February of 2022, Lido Learning announced they are shutting down, resulting in 1200+ people losing their jobs. Then in March, Unacademy shut down their K-12 business, and in April it was announced that they’d laid off about 1,000 people. Vedantu was next with 200 employees, and then between 200 and 800 employees resigned when BYJU’S-owned WhiteHat Jr. asked them to stop working from home. With the decline of revenue, another issue these companies are facing is funding crunch. Now as the demand of edtech is slowing down and number of new customers is decreasing, investors aren’t quite as enthusiastic. In addition to this, global economy has also taken a turn: the Russia-Ukraine war has caused supply chain issues in almost every sector, creating a sense of uncertainty and panic in the market. These edtech startups are trying to extend their runway in the hopes of surviving the global venture capital shortage and staying alive.

So now, what does the road ahead look like for Indian edtech? It seems we will see more layoffs in the near term and companies will have to take sharp measures like price cutting to stay attractive for students. For example, Vedantu recently launched Ai Live, a cheaper alternative to their main offering, where an annual course costs just 5000 Rs, compared to earlier price of 22,000 to 25,000 Rs. Other thing these companies will have to do going ahead, is take an omnichannel approach. BYJU’S, for example, acquired Aakash for $1B back in 2021, which seems like a smart and long term move now. They’ve also launched BYJU'S Tuition Centre, which combines offline and online learning experiences in 200 cities. Unacademy, too, has launched an experience center in Delhi, and they’re looking to open similar centres in Kota, Jaipur, and Lucknow too. Upgrad is also making the transition to offline - they acquired offline test preparation institute, The Gate Academy, which has about 50 centers across India. We also have Physics Wallah Pathsala, which is PW’s offline offering for students in a number of cities across India.

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This week in Indian Startup News, 800 Whitehat Jr Employees resign, Swiggy shuts down supr daily, OYO IPO under trouble, Ola’s chief marketing officer resigns.

In funding and acquisition news, Great Learning Acquires Northwest Executive Education, OYO Acquires Croatia-Based Hospitality Service Provider Direct Booker, Ather Energy raises $128 Million, SirionLabs raises $85 Million and more.

800 Whitehat Jr Employees resign: At least 800 Whitehat Jr Employees have resigned in last two months as company asked all these employees to come to office from April 18. According to these employees, 1 month notice period is very less to move to a new city to join office and also company isn't giving a salary hike to these employees. Swiggy shuts down Supr Daily: Swiggy has shut down it's subscription based service Supr Daily in five out of six cities. It will continue in Bengaluru for now. Supr Daily was a daily delivery service for stuff like Milk, Bread and Eggs. Company has decided to shut it down to focus on its core business of food delivery and Grocery Delivery.

OYO IPO under trouble: Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has reached out to SEBI asking to cancel OYO's upcoming IPO. According to FHRAI, Oyo is continuously running in losses, and it's IPO will make founders and management rich, while making common public poor. OYO has filed its DRHP in Sept 2021, and company is expected to go public in 2023. Ola’s chief marketing officer resigns: Ola's chief marketing officer Varun Dubey has resigned from the company amidst other high profile exits like CTO Dinesh Radhakrishnan, CEO of Ola Cars Arun Sirdeshmukh, its Chief Financial Officer Swayam Saurabh, Chief Operating Officer Gaurav Porwal, HR head Rohit Munjal and General Counsel Sandeep Chowdhury. Great Learning Acquires Northwest Executive Education: Byju’s-owned upskilling platform Great Learning has acquired Singapore-based Northwest Executive Education for a $100 million cash and stock deal. This acquisition will allow Great Learning to expand it upskilling offerings to senior employee segment as well.

OYO Acquires Direct Booker: Travel and hospitality platform OYO has acquired Europe based company ‘Direct Booker’ for $5.5 million. Direct Booker’s portfolio primarily consists of vacation rental homes and this acquisition will strengthen OYO’s presence in Europe broadly and Croatia specifically. Ather Energy raises $128 Million: EV startup Ather energy has raised $128 Million in it's series E round led by National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Hero MotoCorp. The company plans to use the funds raised to expand its manufacturing facilities, invest in research and development, charging infrastructure and to grow its retail network. SirionLabs raises $85 Million: SaaS Platform Sirionlabs has raised $85 Million in its series D round. SirionLabs is focussed on contract lifecycle management and the company will use the fresh capital to boost product innovation and expand its enterprise customer base.

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In this video, we take a look at India's journey to 100 unicorns, from it's first ever startup unicorn in 2011, in the form of inMobi, to neobanking startup Open becoming 100th unicorn in 2022. The term 'unicorn' was created by American VC and entrepreneur Aileen Lee in 2013, she took all of the U.S.-based software companies that were started in or before 2003 and had achieved a valuation of $1 billion through public or private market investors, and put them in a club: the Unicorn Club. In India's case, it's unicorn journey started in 2011, when InMobi, a company that was founded in 2007, became a unicorn. Following this, Flipkart became a unicorn in 2012, Mu Sigma in 2014 and then Ola in 2014. Snapdeal also became a unicorn in 2014, but they have since exited from this club due to their valuation falling below $1 Billion. Companies like Quikr, Hike and Shopclues also fall in this category. Then we have companies who have been since acquired and also bags the question that should they be counted as unicorn today? Flipkart is an example here, which was acquired by Walmart. Then you have startups like Billdesk, which was bought by PayU, PhonePe getting acquired by Flipkart and BigBasket, which became a unicorn in 2019 and were acquired by Tata Digital in 2021. All this while, India's unicorn growth was pretty slow but steady till 2017, when Jio launched its 4G services, and this brought a mobile internet revolution in the country. From 1 unicorn in 2017, India saw 10 unicorns in 2018: B2C unicorns included Swiggy, OYO, BYJU’S, Policybazaar, Paytm Mall, and Phonepe, and B2B unicorns included Rivigo, Freshworks, Billdesk, and Udaan, which was the fastest company to become a unicorn at the time - it took them just 26 months. Then, in 2019, things slowed down a bit, with just 7 unicorns that year: in the B2C category were Ola Electric, Lenskart, Dream11, Delhivery, and BigBasket, and in the B2B category were Incertis and Druva. In 2020, COVID increased people’s reliance upon the internet, and host of Indian e-commerce startups like Firstcry, Cars24, and Nykaa became unicorns. Facilitating these online payments resulted in fintech companies like Razorpay and Pine Labs also achieving unicorn status. B2C startups like Verse Innovation (Dailyhunt), ed-tech startup Unacademy, fintech startup Zerodha, and SaaS startup like Zenoti and Postman also became unicorn in the same year. 2020, was followed by an even bigger year in terms of unicorns in 2021, when 44 Indian companies became unicorns. This year saw 11 E-commerce startups (Spinny, OfBusiness, Moglix, Mensa, Meesho, Mamaearth, Licious, Infra.Market, Good Glam Group, GlobalBees, Droom), 11 Fintech startups (Zeta, Slice, Mobikwik, Groww, Digit, CRED, Coinswitch Kuber, CoinDCX, Chargebee, BharatPe and Acko) becoming unicorns. Then we have 5 enterprisetech and SaaS startups (Mindtickle, MapmyIndia, Gupshup, BrowserStack, Apna), 4 health startups (Cure.fit, Innovaccer, Pharmeasy, Pristyn Care), 4 consumer service startups (Blinkit, CarDekho, Rebel Foods, Urban Company), and 3 edtech startups (Eruditus, Vedantu and Upgrad) also becoming unicorns. Other 2021 unicorn categories include Media and Entertainment startups MPL and sharechat, Logistics startup Blackbuck, Traveltech startup Easemytrip , Real Estate startup Nobroker, and Manufacturing startup Zetwork. Talking about where where these startups coming from, they were all from tier 1 cities. Bangalore is leading this list with 39 unicorns, NCR region with 32 unicorns, mumbai with 16, Pune with 6, Chennai with 5 and Hyderabad with 2. Now we are halfway in 2022 and we have already produced and now it seems that by 2025, India will have upwards of 250 unicorns. So that will be exciting to watch and we will continue to track all of this in our upcoming episodes.

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In this episode, we take a look at why many of Indian Cryptocurrency startups and entrepreneurs are moving to Dubai in recent times. So India never had a clear scene with Cryptocurrency up until 2017. This was the year when Indian authorities started cracking down on crypto exchanges and sending notices to Investors who made money from Bitcoin and other currencies. This was followed by RBI, banning all regulated Indian banks from holding or facilitating cryptocurrency transactions in April 2018. This ban remained for two years, resulting in first wave of brain drain in India’s crypto space. ZebPay, India’s oldest crypto exchange, Vauld, left India for Singapore in 2018 - the following year, in 2019, CoinDCX which had been registered in India since January of 2018, registered a Singapore entity, and Matic Network, a hugely popular Layer 2 scaling solution built on Ethereum, now called Polygon, left India and moved to Dubai. In 2020, that ban was overturned by the Supreme Court, but it didn't make crypto legal so confusion remained among people. And in early 2022, Indian govt announced a tax on crypto transaction, recognizing Cryptocurrency as an asset class. During the 2022 Union Budget, India’s Finance Minister announced that the government would be levying a 30% tax on any income generated from the transaction of virtual assets including cryptocurrencies and NFTs. A second tax of 1% at source, that’s TDS, was also imposed, and the interesting thing here is that this new taxable asset class doesn’t benefit from losses being offset against profits. Once these tax laws came into effect, crypto trading volume in India fell by 55% in the first 2 days. This was followed by fintech companies and banks denying crypto transaction, resulting in further drop of Crypto volumes. By the end of the second week of April, trading volume was down between 70 and 90% across India’s entire crypto market. This led to Indian crypto entrepreneurs and investors looking elsewhere and Dubai seemed perfect destination to move to. In India, there’s a 30% tax, plus that 1% TDS. In Dubai, other than a general 5% VAT, there’s no income tax, virtual assets are just a form of income, and because income isn’t taxed in Dubai, any gains you make from selling virtual assets like crypto or NFTs are yours and yours alone. In Dubai there are clear laws regarding Crypto buying and selling, thanks to the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulation Law. Now this brain drain could have an adverse effect India’s growth and development in the crypto space and would also result in lot of VC money going to these countries. So India still has time as most of these companies have moved their offices outside, but their employees are still working in India. Also, Crypto builders and investors are waiting for India's Crypto Bill, and if government listens to these voices and makes laws accordingly, most of these entrepreneurs would love to come back to India.

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In this episode, we take a look at upcoming Top 10 Startup IPOs, many of whom are expected to IPO in 2022.

10 Ixigo: Founded in 2006 by Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, Ixigo is an AI-based travel app that facilitates organizing, booking and tracking trips for its 255 million users. The company is currently valued at $600 million and has raised $72 million from their investors. Company is expected to raise 1600 crore rupees through an IPO which will value the company at $850 million.

#9 Navi Technologies: Founded by Ankit Agarwal and Sachin Bansal in 2018, the company offers personal loans, insurance, lending, and a host of other services in the BFSI space. So far, they’ve raised over $580 million from various investors at a valuation of $650 million. Company became profitable in FY21 and is looking to raise 3350 crore rupees from their IPO.

8 Ecom Express: The company was started in 2012 by 4 ex-Blue Dart employees - K. Satyanarayana, Manju Dhawan, the late Sanjeev Saxena, and T.A. Krishnan, and provides end-to-end logistics solutions to both small and large e-commerce companies. With a current valuation of $750 million, the startup has raised over $485 million from a number of VCs and the company is looking to raise 4860 crore rupees with their IPO.

7 Mobikwik: Founded by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku in 2009, the company started off as a payments platform but has slowly transformed into a fully-fledged fintech startup offering various financial services. They’re currently valued at $1 billion and have raised a total of $165 million from a number of prominent VCs. They’re looking to raise an additional 1900 crore rupees by going public.

6 Droom: Founded by Sandeep Aggarwal in 2014, Droom is India’s largest e-commerce platform for trading used automobiles with a listed inventory of over $14 billion. The company has raised about $333 million from their investors, and they’re looking to raise 3000 crore rupees from this IPO.

5 Delhivery: Founded in 2011 by Bhavesh Manglani, Kapil Bharati, Mohit Tandon, Sahil Barua, and Suraj Saharan, Delhivery provides transportation, warehousing, freight, and order fulfillment services to their customers. So far, Delhivery has raised $1.4 billion from their investors, and by going public, the company is looking to raise around $700 Million at a $5 billion valuation.

4 Firstcry: Founded by Amitava Saha and Supam Maheshwari in 2010, FirstCry offers a wide range of baby products and toys with an inventory of over 90,000 items. Their investors have poured $740 million into the company at a $3 billion valuation, and they’re expected to be raising $700 million from this IPO, at a $6 billion valuation.

3 Pharmeasy: Headquartered in Mumbai, the company was started by two friends, Dharmil Sheth and Dhaval Shah with the goal of building an all-in-one healthcare platform. The startup’s investors have poured $1.6 billion into the company so far, and they are currently valued at $5.4 billion, and their IPO is expected to value them at between $7 and 8 billion. They’re planning to raise 6250 crore rupees from their IPO.

2 Oyo: Founded by Ritesh Agarwal in 2012, and then later Manish Sinha, OYO provides a platform for users to easily find and book accommodation like hotels and homes. They have raised $3 billion from their investors valuing them at $9 billion currently. They’ll be raising 8430 crore rupees at a valuation of $12 billion.

1 BYJU'S: Founded by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath in Bengaluru in 2011, BYJU’S serves over 150 million students around the world with online and offline courses and exam prep. BYJU's IPO is likely be going to take place in second quarter of FY23.

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This week in Indian Startup News, India touches 100 Unicorns Mark, Swiggy begins trials for delivery by Drones, Vedantu Lays Off 200 Employees, MamaEarth eyes IPO by 2023, Delhivery IPO nears.

In funding news, Zepto raises $200 Million, Pharmeasy in talks to raise $250 Million and more.

India touches 100 Unicorns Mark: India has touched an exciting milestone of 100 Unicorns in the country. This journey started with Inmobi becoming India's first unicorn back in 2011. Since then this journey remained slow and steady and picked up pace after pandemic hit in 2020. In last two and half years, India has seen 70 unicorns and now people are predicting that we can hit 250 Unicorns by 2025.

Swiggy begins trials for Drone Deliveries: Online grocery delivery startup Swiggy has begun trials for Drone delivery in Delhi NCR and Bengaluru. Swiggy who last year tested Drone deliveries for the first time for food and medicines, is now planning to do the same for grocery delivery. Company has selected Garuda Aerospace and Skyeair Mobility to do these pilots.

Vedantu Lays Off 200 Employees: Edtech Unicorn Vedantu has laid off 200 of its employees, 120 of which were on contract and 80 full-time employees. Company has clarified that these lay-offs are on performance basis but employees who have been fired, are claiming that this is done to cut costs. This comes after companies like Unacademy, Lido Learning, Furlenco have also laid off employees in big numbers and in total Indian startups have laid-off 1900 in 2022 alone.

MamaEarth eyes IPO by 2023: D2C skincare and beauty brand MamaEarth, which earlier became first unicorn of 2022, is now planning to go public by mid-2023. So, Mamaearth had a great run during the pandemic and their revenue has increased more than 10x in last two years. Company now wants to expand its presence in other countries.

Delhivery IPO nears: Logistic startup Delhivery's IPO is just around the corner as company has announced it will open for subscription on May 11 and will close on May 13, and the company's shares are likely to list on stock exchange on 24th May. So the company had earlier decided on the total issue size of Rs 7,460 crore, which it now has cut down significantly to Rs 5,235 crore.

Zepto raises $200 Million: Quick commerce startup Zepto has raised $200 Million in Series D round led by Y Combinator Community Fund. This has valued the company at $900 Million. They will be using these funds to expand into 12-20 cities and hire 1,000 people over the next one year.

Pharmeasy in talks to raise $250 Million: Online Pharmacy Startup Pharmeasy is in talks to raise around $250 million in a debt round, from private equity investors. So the company is soon to go public, but has delayed it till markets become more conducive to launch an IPO, and this debt round is a bridge financing round to help the company fund its business until its IPO.

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In this episode, we take a look at the journey of Delhivery, leading Indian delivery and e-commerce logistics company, from its origin back in 2011 to its IPO now, in 2022.

Origins: Back in 2008, Sahil Barua wanted to start a business, where he would help startups in scaling by providing them expertise and finance. However, he couldn't achieve this and took a job at Bain and Company instead. Here Sahil met his future co-founders, Suraj Saharan and Mohit Tandon. This was the time when e-commerce and food delivery were taking shape in India and this trio decided to jump onto this opportunity. After talking to co-founders of Zomato Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, Sahil, Mohit, and Suraj decided to start a hyperlocal, Delhi-based delivery service geared towards restaurants. They onboarded Bhavesh Manglani as fourth co-founder who was good at coding. They hired an entire fleet of delivery boys from a restaurant in Delhi, which was shutting down, and this was how Delhivery started.

The Pivot: from hyperlocal to e-commerce logistics - Delhivery started as a food delivery startups but soon realised the potential in delivering other e-commerce goods like clothes. And so, the team decided to start delivering e-commerce goods along with their ongoing food business. They soon realised that existing logistics delivery companies like Blue Dart and DTDC weren't doing a great job and were taking 2-3 days to deliver goods for small distances. This was because they were using something known as hub and spoke model, which was inherently slow. The team realised that they can disrupt this model with a quicker one by using technology into a model known as Mesh Network model, that enabled them to deliver packages faster and cheaper than anybody else. After doing this, Delhivery's revenue rose four times and that's why they decided to pivot from a food delivery to a fully-fledged e-commerce logistics startup.

What was Delhivery doing differently? - Delhivery first and foremost focused on customer-centricity. They decided to do everything that their customer would like, for eg. real time updates or orders. Next they did, which was never tried before in India - modularity. They started offering first-mile delivery, last-mile delivery, and middle-mile delivery as separate, standalone services, alongside their comprehensive, full service packages. This made their business extremely efficient and cheaper. Next thing was, payment collection, which was a huge pain point at the time. At that time, the time taken from a customer paying money to it reflecting in the bank account of seller, could be over 30 days. Delhivery decided to change this by setting up collection centres close to bank and then in 2013, acquired cash-collection startup GharPay, to speed things up even further. By doing this, Delhivery was able to cut down this time from 30 days to 2 days.

Growth and competition - Delhivery started to grow rapidly and they started by giving 30 day free trial to their potential customers. They converted most of these customers as their service was so much better. They acquired their biggest clients at the time, IndiaTimes, by doing this only. They believed in their product so much, that they would go to a potential customer and offer them free trial. Then they decided to perfect their operation at one place, before expanding to more cities. They took one year to perfect their operations in Gurugram and then successfully replicated to other cities in India, and today they cover 88.3% of all PIN codes in India.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Ola Electric Announces Autonomous Car, RBI rejects MobiKwik’s payment aggregator license, CarDekho Sets Up Fintech Platform Rupyy, Swiggy Launches accelerator programme for Delivery partners, FirstCry plans $1 billion IPO.

In funding and acquisition news, Veranda Learning acquires test-prep firm T.I.M.E, Slice to raise $55 Mn, Lenskart raises $25 Mn and more.

Ola Electric Announces Autonomous Car: Ola Electric has announced its plans to launch an Autonomous Electric car by end of 2023 or early 2024 and they are aiming to price it around Rs 10 Lakh. Company is already testing it for past six months now and we will see them give more details in coming time. RBI rejects MobiKwik’s payment aggregator license:

RBI has rejected Mobikwik's licence for its payment aggregator service 'ZaakPay'. Mobikwik is gearing for an IPO and it is considered a big setback before company goes public. Many people have considered Mobikwik's support to Cryptocurrency exchanges as one of the reasons behind RBI's decision.

CarDekho Sets Up Fintech Platform Rupyy: Automobile marketplace unicorn CarDekho has launched a fintech platform Rupyy which will be one stop platform for all its customers for their financing needs. With Rupyy, Cardekho is aiming to cut down loan process from days to minutes and is aiming towards capturing 35-40% market share of used-car finance segment.

Swiggy Launches accelerator programme for Delivery partners: Swiggy has launched an accelerator programme for its delivery partners which will upskill them and help them get managerial roles like Fleet Managers. The delivery partners applying for this will require to have eligibility criteria like a College Degree, employment with Swiggy for few years, decent communication skills and knowledge of computer.

FirstCry plans $1 billion IPO: Omnichannel Baby E-commerce company Firstcry has started its process of IPO by onboarding Kotak Mahindra Capital and Morgan Stanley to its board. Company was earlier planning a $600-$700 Million IPO but is now aiming for $ 1 Billion IPO, looking at positive market response.

Veranda Learning acquires test-prep firm T.I.M.E: Ed-tech firm Veranda Learning Solution, which got listed on the stock market earlier this month, has acquired test prep firm T.I.M.E for Rs 287 crore. This acquisition will help Veranda to expand its national footprint and also through this acquisition will aid diversification to the pre-school and the language training space.

Slice to raise $55 Mn At $1.8 Bn Valuation: Bengaluru-based fintech unicorn slice is in talks to close $55 Mn, in the first phase of its bigger Series C round, at a valuation of $1.8 - $ 2 Billion. Tiger Global and Insight Partners will be leading this round.

Lenskart raises $25 Mn: Multi-channel eyewear brand Lenskart is looking to raise $25 Million in its bigger Series 'I' round, at a valuation of $4.32 Billion. They will use these funds for expansions are looking to open 400 more outlets by FY23.

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In this episode, we look at top 10 Indian startups based in the city of Chennai.

10 Planys Technologies: Rakesh Sirikonda, Tanuj Jhunjhunwala, and Vineet Upadhyay started Planys Technologies in 2015. Company provides its customers with underwater robotic inspections using their indigenously manufactured remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs. Company has raised $4.1 million from their investors till date.

9 The ePlane Company: IIT-Madras professor Satya Chakravarthy founded The ePlane Company back in 2019, with his student, to solve the problem of Traffic. They’re building an electric compact flying taxi called the e200. Company has already begun testing the scaled down version of this ePlane and they have till now raised $6 million from their investors.

8 Guardian Link: Arjun Reddy, Kameshwaran Elangovan, Keyur Patel, and Ramkumar Subramaniam founded Guardian Link in 2016, to enable their customers to build their own NFT marketplaces using the startup’s APIs. Startup is already supporting more than 40 branded NFT marketplaces globally. After bootstrapping the startup for five years, they finally raised $12 million in 2021 from Kalaari Capital.

7 Agnikul Cosmos: Srinath Ravichandran and Moin SPM founded Agnikul Cosmos with a mission to democratize space by building their own customisable rocket called Agnibaan. This rocket can launch small satellites weighing up to 100 kg into space. Company is expected to launch their first rocket into space some time in 2022. They have so far raised $14.5 million from their investors.

6 Mad Street Den: Founded in 2013 by husband-wife duo Anand Chandrasekaran and Ashwini Asokan, Mad Street Den was started to capitalise on the e-commerce boom that was happening at the time. After spending two years researching and building their AI and computer vision technology from scratch in India, they launched their flagship product Vue.ai in 2016 in the US. So far, they have raised $21.2 million from their investors.

5 Wiz Frieght: Founded by Ramkumar Govindarajan and Ramkumar Ramachandran in 2020, Wiz Freight is simplifying the process of booking and managing cross-borders shipments for importers and exporters. With a network of over 2,000 vendors and carriers, Wiz Freight is helping more than 1,500 enterprises to ship their products. Till now, their investors have poured in $42.5 million into the startup.

4 WayCool: Founded by Karthik Jayaraman and Sanjay Dasari in 2015, WayCool started its journey as a B2C food supply chain startup called SunnyBee. They decided to pivot to a farm to fork B2B business model in 2017. WayCool has enabled more than 100,000 customers to gain access to fresh fruits and vegetables till now, also supporting 85,000 at the same time. To date, their investors have poured in $221.5 million into the startup.

3 M2P Fintech: Founded by Madhusudanan R, Muthukumar A and Prabhu R in 2014, M2P Fintech is building next-generation fintech and neo banking products. Their customers include NiYO Solutions, Jupiter, Uni Cards, Slice, CRED, and RazorPay. Till now, their investors have poured in $107 million into the startup – valuing them at $605 million.

2 CredAvenue: Founded by Gaurav Kumar in 2020, CredAvenue is offering a platform for businesses and enterprises to secure debt from banks and other financial institutions. CredAvenue has already facilitated loans worth $10.5 billion. To date, their investors have poured in $226.7 million into the startup.

1 Chargebee: Krish Subramanian, Rajaraman Santhanam, Thiyagarajan Thiyagu and Saravanan KP started Chargebee in 2011 to solve the problem of recurring billing and payment subscriptions for SaaS startups. Today, Chargebee has more than 3,000 customers, a majority of which come from the US and Europe. To date, the startup has raised $468.2 million from their investors – valuing them at $3.5 billion.

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In this episode, we take a look at Top 10 Bollywood Investors into Startups in India.

10 Varun Dhawan: Varun started his entrepreneurship journey with the launch of his own clothing line called Dhawan & Only in 2018. Since then, he has has invested in a nutrition supplement brand Fast&Up as an angel investor and most recently, invested in multi-brand cloud kitchen startup Curefoods and also became the brand ambassador of their flagship brand EatFit.

9 Malaika Arora: Malaika started her entrepreneurial journey with an investment into yoga and wellness startup Sarva. Last year, she launched her own delivery-only food brand called Nude Bowls and since then, she has launched ‘Malaika Arora Ventures’ to invest in startups in the lifestyle, health, and wellness sector. She recently invested in a D2C Ayurvedic nutrition brand Kapiva, while also becoming their brand ambassador.

8 Akshay Kumar: Akshay started his journey of investing into startups in 2019, by investing an undisclosed amount in a wearable fitness brand GOQii while also becoming its brand ambassador. In 2020, he launched celebrity-led online learning platform Social Swag, with actor Rana Daggubati.

7 Anushka Sharma: Anushka started her journey as an investor with her brother Karnesh Sharma, with the launch of a production house called Clean Slatez Film in 2013. In 2017, she launched her own clothing brand, Nush. She started investing in startups by investing ₹2.5 crore in insurtech unicorn Digit Insurance, in 2020 with her husband Virat Kohli. Recently, she along with Virat invested in a plant-based meat startup Blue Tribe.

6 Alia Bhatt: Alia launched her own environmentally friendly kidswear brand Ed A Mamma, and has scaled it to a valuation of ₹150 crores. Before that, she invested in an online personal styling platform StyleCracker. In 2020, Alia invested ₹4.95 crore into omnichannel beauty and wellness marketplace Nykaa - where her investment of ₹4.95 crore turned into ₹54 crore by the time Nykaa went public. In 2021, she invested an undisclosed amount into D2C wellness startup Phool.

5 Priyanka Chopra: Priyanka started her investment journey in 2018, by investing into college alternative startup The Holberton School. She later invested in online dating startup Bumble and also helped them launch in India. Last year, she launched a restaurant named SONA in New York and earlier this year, in 2022, she launched a vegan hair care brand called Anomaly in the US.

4 Farhan Akhtar: Farhan started his journey as an entrepreneur by setting up a production company called Excel Entertainment back in 1999. In 2016, he first invested in film discovery app Flickbay, then in Indian beer brand Bira 91 and more recently, in 2021, in Ola Electric.

3 Amitabh Bachchan: Amitabh launched his own production and event management company called Amitabh Bachchan Corporation in 1995. This turned out to be a bad investment but he learnt his lessons and in 2011, invested ₹6.27 lakh into Just Dial and making 100x returns on his money. In 2015, he invested $250,000 into a blockchain startup named Ziddu. In 2019 he followed this up by investing into an edtech startup called Eduisfun, and then in 2022, he funded merchandise startup Macmerise Celfie Design.

2 Suniel Shetty: Suniel launched a production company, Popcorn Motion Pictures in 2002, a luxury homes real estate business S2 Realty and Developers, and a luxury furniture and home lifestyle business, R House with his wife Mana Shetty in 2013. In terms of startups, Suniel has invested in a number of startups including fitness platform Fittr in 2019, healthtech startup Vieroots and edtech venture Sai Estate Management and Skills Institute in 2020 and protein water brand Aquatein in 2022.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Crypto Industry worried amid uncertainty in rules, Indian SaaS industry to reach $100 bn in revenues by 2026, Zepto launches 10-minute food delivery service 'Cafe', Govt To Bring EV Battery Quality Norms.

In funding news, CoinDCX Bags $135 Mn, Rario raises $120 mn, Loop Health Raises $25 Million, Urbanpiper raised $24 Million.

Crypto Industry worried amid uncertainty in rules: New Indian taxation laws regarding trade in cryptocurrency along with banks reluctance in buy and sell of crypto has resulted in trading volumes across various Crypto Exchanges down as much as 60%. Many founders are worried over uncertainty regarding rules subjecting to Cryptocurrency and are looking for option outside india to continue their businesses.

Indian SaaS industry to reach $100 bn in revenues by 2026: According to a report by VC fund Chiratae Ventures and Zinnov, Indian Saas Industry is set to cross $100 Bn in revenue by the year 2026. The report said, that if current growth sustains, India could surpass China to become second largest Saas Market by 2026.

Zepto launches 10-minute food delivery service 'Cafe': After disrupting quick grocery delivery space, Zepto has decided to make its first move into delivering food items through its new service 'Cafe' which is currently available in few parts of Mumbai. Through this service, Zepto is delivering products like tea, croissants, samosa and coffee in 10 Minutes. Company has tied up with restaurants such as Blue Tokai Coffee, Chaayos, Gurukripa snacks and Sassy Teaspoon.

Govt To Bring EV Battery Quality Norms: After witnessing a series of events of fire involving electric scooters, Indian Govt has now decided to come up with a Battery policy, which will ensure key characteristics like performance testing and manufacturing standards of these batteries, along with their heat resistance capacity.

CoinDCX Bags $135 Mn: Crypto Trading Exchange CoinDCX, has raised $135 Mn in a round led by Pantera Capital and Steadview Capital – raising their valuation to $2.15 billion. Company will use the funds to increase its headcount to over 1,000 by the end of next year from 400 now and hire across functions like engineering, product and compliance.

Rario raises $120 mn: Cricket NFT platform Rario has raised $120 mn in a round led by Dream Capital. The investment will provide Rario access to 140 million users of Dream Sports.

Loop Health Raises $25 Million: Health insurance distribution startup Loop Health has raised $25 Million in a round led by Elevation Capital and General Catalyst, which values them at $120-150 million. Company will use funds for expansion and raising their customer base from 80,000 currently to five million members in next five years.

Urbanpiper raised $24 Million: SaaS/restaurant management platform Urbanpiper has raised $24 Million in a round led by Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, Swiggy, Zomato. Company will use funds to bolster the platform’s capabilities by scaling its product and engineering teams and expand its offering to over 200,000 restaurant locations across the globe.

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In this video, we look at how Alakh Pandey created PhysicsWallah (PW) and it's journey of becoming an Ed-Tech Unicorn.

Humble Beginnings: Alakh Pandey wanted to go to IIT during his childhood, but due to lack of guidance and money, he couldn't fulfill his dream and so, he started teaching engineering students during his graduation days. Alakh started his Youtube Channel in 2014 and he always thought of becoming famous through Youtube. For next five years, Alakh stayed consistent on Youtube as a one man team, and also this time saw the rise of Ed-Tech startups like Unacademy and Vedantu. By 2019, Alakh realised he has to build an app and register a company to provide more options and features to his students. He started the company in June 2020 with his co-founder Prateek Maheshwari.

What did PW do differently? - PW distinguished itself from other competitors mainly on Pricing. For a typical course of JEE, where Unacademy charges anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000 Rs, PW only charges Rs 3,500. According to Alakh, the startups till now have targeted only top 15% of the market, and that's why more than 85% is up for grabs and this market is cost-sensitive. The other thing working for PW is popularity of its founder Alakh Pandey, who was already very popular among students due to his style of teaching and his allowed him to get audience organically without spending ton of money on Marketing.

Challenges Ahead: PW is not raising its first VC round it will bring its own set of challenges for the company. Firstly, the more they expand into various things, the involvement of Alakh Pandey is going to be less and less and this put the question forward whether students will still join in big numbers how they did earlier. Second question is, Does PW really need this money or do they just want to be in the leagues of other big names by raising big money? Thirdly, now that PW has decided to expand offline, they are set to face the same challenges that other companies are facing and that is to keep the cost of courses low.

Journey Ahead - PW has disrupted the Ed-tech market and its inspiring journey of bootstrapping a big company like this, is an example for next set of entrepreneurs who will come out of smaller cities like Alakh Pandey.

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This week in Indian startup news, Unacademy lays off 1,000 employees in 2 months, Ola’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal steps away from day-to-day operations, After Zomato, Ola now enters 10-minute food delivery, Meesho lays off 150 employees, Rebel Foods acquires majority stake in Smoor.

In funding news, Lenskart raises $100 million, Medikabazaar raises $65 million, PhableCare raises $25 million, Newton School raises $25 million.

Unacademy fires over 1,000 employees: Indian edtech startup Unacademy has reportedly laid-off around 600 of their employees, less than a month after they fired 300 employees in march, this includes both on-roll and contractual staff. This is mainly to cut costs as they plan on turning profitable by the end of this calendar year (2022).

Bhavish Aggarwal steps away from day-to-day operations: Ola’s co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has decided to hand the reins of day to day operations to Ola group’s CFO G R Arun Kumar - who has been with Ola as the group’s CFO since last May. This decision could have been taken as Ola is gearing up for an IPO and would preferably want to have someone like G R Arun Kumar who is a veteran and has worked for over 16 years at Vedanta Resources and General Electric in building strong businesses to bring in control and discipline in terms of their financials while Bhavish can continue to build and innovate at Ola Electric.

After Zomato, Ola enters 10-minute food delivery: Ola has confirmed that they have been piloting 10-minute food delivery for a while now. Ola will be using Mukunda Foods - that makes robotic equipments which can reduce the food preparation time by 20-50%. The kind of food items that will be on the menu for include items like khichdi, pizza and rolls.

Meesho lays off 150 employees: Social commerce unicorn Meesho has also laid-off 150 employees as it restructures and rebrands their grocery business Farmiso to Meesho Superstore. According to company spokesperson, this move is aimed at bringing in efficiencies and the company will help those impacted secure new opportunities outside the company.

Rebel Foods acquires majority stake in Smoor: Cloud kitchen startup Rebel Foods has acquired a majority stake in luxury chocolate brand Smoor - in a bid to build their portfolio of brands. Smoor has grown at a rate of over 40% CAGR over the last five years and this partnership with Rebel Food will help them grow their brand and expanding their omnichannel distribution strategy through their offline kiosks, cafes and lounges in tier 1 cities and also leveraging their own digital platform and Rebel Foods’ digital platform to grow their online sales.

Lenskart raises $100 million: Eyewear brand Lenskart has raised $100 million in a round led by Alpha Wave Incubation taking their valuation to $4.3 billion. The startup is planning to invest a portion of their funding into their own Thrasio-style business by acquiring and scaling brands in the eyewear segment.

Medikabazaar raises $65 million: B2B healthcare marketplace Medikabazaar has raised $65 million in a round led by Lighthouse India Fund, which takes their valuation to $700 million. They will use funds to strengthen their technology platform, deepen their supply ecosystem, expand distribution network and expand global operations.

PhableCare raises $25 million: Healthtech startup PhableCare has raised $25 million in a round led by Kalaari Capital to invest in strategic acquisitions, accelerate market expansion, strengthen technology, build their brand and add new revenue streams.

Newton School raises $25 million: Edtech startup Newton School has raised $25 million in a round led by Steadview Capital. Newton School offers multiple programs for students and working professionals to develop their skills.

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In today’s video, we look at top 10 Indian startups based in the Delhi-NCR region.

10 Rivigo: In 2014, Deep Garg and Geet Kalra set out to make the profession of truckers more humane and address the growing need of truck drivers in the country by starting Rivigo. The company’s innovative relay trucking model not only helps its drivers to go home to their families every day but also makes deliveries for their customers much faster. It is no surprise that Rivigo has become a unicorn and continues to enjoy the support of its investors who have pumped in $268.7 million.

9 GlobalBees: Founded by Edelweiss’ former President Nitin Agarwal and FirstCry’s co-founder Supam Maheshwari in 2021, GlobalBees invests in and acquires D2C brands that they believe have massive growth potential. GlobalBees then uses their own expertise to help these brands scale their business, turning them into highly successful portfolio companies.

8 MamaEarth: Founded by Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh in 2016, Mamaearth is a D2C babycare brand that sells toxin-free babycare products. Today, they have expanded their toxin-free product portfolio to enter the adult personal care market as well. In FY21, Mamaearth’s revenue grew 4X to reach ₹461 crore.

7 Pristyn Care: Founded by Garima Sawhney, Harsimarbir Singh, and Vaibhav Kapoor in 2018, Pristyn Care is trying to innovate in India’s fragmented healthcare market, and they’re focusing on the surgery space specifically. By partnering with around 500 hospitals and clinics – Pristyn Care handles a patient’s entire healthcare journey, from doorstep pickup and drop, finding them the right doctor, completing hospital paperwork, getting a diagnosis and submitting insurance documents, and then finally post-surgery recovery and home delivery of medicine.

6 Spinny: Founded by Ganesh Pawar, Mohit Gupta, Niraj Singh, and Ramanshu Mahaur in 2015, Spinny started as an online classifieds platform for buying and selling used cars. However, they soon realised by putting control over the quality of the cars in the hands of sellers, the customer experience on their platform was suffering for buyers.

5 Urban Company: Founded by Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Varun Khaitan and Raghav Chandra in 2014, Urban Company is India’s largest homes services marketplace. The company has a network of more than 35,000 home service professionals. They have also expanded beyond India to countries UAE, Australia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia.

4 BharatPe: In 2018, Ashneer Grover joined Bhavikkumar Koladiya and Sashvat Nakhrani to build BharatPe, a solution to the problems that merchants had been facing. By leveraging India’s UPI, they were able to launch an interoperable UPI-based QR code – allowing merchants to accept UPI payments from any digital payments provider, and the best part was they didn’t have to pay any commission for accepting these payments.

3 Cars24: Founded by Gajendra Jangid, Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal and Vikram Chopra in Gurugram in 2015, Cars24 was created to organise the highly fragmented used car market in India. They did this by making it easy for customers to sell used cars on their platform. Cars24 inspects the vehicle, settles on a fair price, and then they handle the documentation, all in less than an hour.

2 Delhivery: Founded by Bhavesh Manglani, Kapil Bharati, Mohit Tandon, Sahil Barua, and Suraj Saharan in 2011, Delhivery is India’s leading logistics company with a more than 20% market share in the e-commerce delivery space.

1 OYO: Founded by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013, Oyo Rooms is India’s hospitality unicorn that had expanded rapidly to international destinations before shrinking operations due to the pandemic. So far, OYO’s investors have poured $3.1 billion into the startup.

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In today’s video, we look at the reasons why Paytm's (India’s biggest ever) IPO crashed and failed.

Paytm’s underwhelming IPO subscription: Last year in 2021, Paytm made history when they launched India’s biggest ever IPO – raising ₹18,300 crore at a valuation of around $20 billion. There was a lot of excitement – as Paytm was following the success of Zomato and Nykaa’s IPO – which both came close to doubling their investors’ money. On the other hand, Paytm’s stock prices were down 27% on the day it was listed on the Indian stock markets, and at the time of my filming this video they were down more than 70% from their IPO price. Unlike Zomato and Nykaa which were oversubscribed 38X and 82X respectively, Paytm’s IPO was barely oversubscribed - just 1.89X.

Paytm’s Chinese connection: Paytm raised a total of ₹18,300 crore during their IPO, and ₹8,300 crore of this was primary shares - meaning these were first-hand, brand shares issued by the company. But then, the remaining ₹10,000 crore were secondary shares. This means that these shares have already been held by someday else, one of Paytm’s stakeholders, who is now taking the IPO as an opportunity to get rid of those shares. And then, one other variable here was Paytm’s ownership - specifically, the nationality of some of the company’s key stakeholders and what that represented. See, Paytm had raised a lot of money from Chinese investors: Alibaba and Ant Group owned 6.8% and 27.9% of Paytm respectively before the IPO, and Ant Group specifically was selling shares worth ₹5,000 crore, that’s half of all of the secondary shares that Paytm was selling to the public.

Understanding Paytm’s stagnating and complex business model: The demonetisation happened in November 2016 and Paytm was all set up to capitalise on this event - their user base went from 125 million to 185 million in three months, and by the end of November of 2017, a year after demonetisation, they had 280 million people on their platform. Things were going great for Paytm, but what they failed to realise or perhaps chose not to acknowledge was how precarious this wallet business was - all it would take was an alternative that didn’t require the additional step of setting up and putting money into a wallet, and Paytm would become obsolete. And that’s exactly what happened. UPI allowed users to transact without wallets - they could pay directly from their bank accounts using QR codes and UPI IDs. Suddenly, a huge part of Paytm’s business was wiped out.

Paytm Payments Bank debacle: Now, it is worth noting that things haven’t been all bad at Paytm. Yes, they are into a lot of loss-making businesses, but Paytm Payments Bank is one venture that has been consistently profitable and growing for the last three years. Their Chinese investors, Alibaba and Ant Group, still own around 31% of Paytm, and specifically, when it comes to Paytm Payments Bank, they own 15%. And this is a serious cause for concern - just last month, in March of 2022, the RBI stopped Paytm Payments Bank from onboarding new customers. On the day that this news came out, Paytm’s stock fell 14%, and later, a report by Bloomberg said that RBI had punished Paytm Payments Bank for sharing the data of its customers with their Chinese investors.

Will Paytm survive: Paytm still doesn’t have a clear game plan - they’re still trying to figure out how to turn their huge user base into paying customers. They’ve diversified into consumer lending, gaming, online wealth management, and insurance, but to investors, these don’t look like strategic initiatives, these look like Paytm throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.

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This week in Indian startup news, Pixxel launches their first satellite into space, CCI probes Swiggy and Zomato for anti-competitive behaviour, OkCredit shuts down their e-commerce enablement platform OkShop, and Stanza Living acquires Singularity Automation.

In funding news, Dailyhunt’s parent VerSe Innovation raises $805 million, Wiz Freight raises $36.2 million, IndiQube raises $30 million and Enkash raises $20 million.

Pixxel launches their first satellite into space: On 1st April 2022, Indian spacetech startup Pixxel launched their first satellite named ‘Shakuntala’ into space onboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. It is a hyperspectral imaging satellite - what it means is that it can click some extremely detailed images of earth from space and this data can be used by their customers for any number of crucial processes like monitoring mines, detecting leaks in oil and gas pipelines, analysing levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in soil and more.

CCI probes Swiggy and Zomato for anti-competitive behaviour: Last year, the National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) which represents over 500,000 restaurants across the country had filed a complaint with the Competition Commision of India (CCI) flagging anti-competitive practices used by these food delivery platforms.

OkCredit shuts down their e-commerce enablement platform OkShop: Last month, we had reported that OkCredit had laid-off around 35-40 employees and the startup had confirmed the lay-offs saying that they were changing their priorities to focus more on their fintech initiatives. Now, we know a little bit more about the situation - OkCredit has decided to shut down their e-commerce enablement platform OkShop - which allowed kirana store/small business owners to set up their online storefront, create their product catalogues and share their inventory directly with their customers.

Stanza Living acquires Singularity Automation: Coliving accommodation provider Stanza Living has acquired IoT (internet of things) based solutions provider Singularity Automation in an all-cash deal to manage all their properties more efficiently.

Dailyhunt’s parent VerSe Innovation raises $805 million: VerSe Innovation, the parent company of news aggregator platform Dailyhunt and short video app Josh, has raised $805 million in a round led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board – raising their valuation from $3 billion to $5 billion in just eight months.

Wiz Freight raises $36.2 million: Digital supply chain startup Wiz Freight has raised $36.2 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management to open two new R&D centres in Bengaluru and Singapore to strengthen their AI/ML, blockchain and IoT capabilities and to launch operations in 15 countries in Southeast Asia, Middle East and Africa.

IndiQube raises $30 million: Co-working space provider IndiQube has raised $30 million in a round led by IndiQube’s promoters, WestBridge Capital and angel investor Ashish Gupta (co-founder of Helion Ventures and Junglee) to expand their office space footprint to over 10 million square feet by adding properties across more than 15 tier 2 cities - over the next two years.

Enkash raises $20 million: B2B fintech startup EnKash, which offers a single platform for businesses to manage their finances, has raised $20 million in a round led by Ascent Capital to invest in the development of their product and strengthen their technology platform and to expand their presence across MENA region.

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In today’s video, we take a look at Ola’s journey of building their flagship electric scooter Ola S1 and S1 Pro. And how a promised EV revolution turned out to be a catastrophe.

Start of an EV revolution: The mission of Ola Electric was simple: start an EV revolution in India. In May of 2020, when Ola acquired Amsterdam-based electric scooter startup Etergo that Indian consumers started to get excited. See, the plan was to make some minor tweaks to Etergo’s AppScooter and then simply launch it in India. And that sounds easy enough, right? But of course, AppScooters were designed for the Netherlands, a country that’s known for having some of the best roads in the world. They also have very cold weather over there, with an average summer high of between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius. India, in contrast, is a fairly hot country with more challenging road conditions. See, Bhavish is a resourceful and ambitious man - that’s how he’s come so far as an entrepreneur. He knew that there would be challenges. They hired 2,000 people around the world, with more than 1,000 of them being engineers - the objective here was to solve all of the problems that Ola Electric would inevitably face, like the software in the scooters, the vehicle’s mismatched design, and the battery technology - the goal was to build a state-of-the-art, flagship electric scooter, and for this they would need a state-of-the-art facility. In December of 2020, Bhavish announced Ola Electric’s plans to build the world’s largest electric scooter factory, named the ‘Futurefactory’.

Ola’s S1 and S1 Pro launched: On the 2nd of July of 2021, Bhavish Aggarwal shared a video of himself riding Ola Electric’s scooter on the streets of Bengaluru - this created a ton of excitement, both for Indian EV enthusiasts and also just regular, everyday people. The hype grew so intense that when Ola opened up pre-bookings for these scooters on the 15th of July, more than 1 lakh people reserved a scooter. And keep in mind here, there were no specs available at this time - the scooter's top speed, range, and charging time were all unknowns. Then, exactly one month later the scooters were officially launched as two variants: the S1 and the S1 Pro. And much to everyone’s delight, the specs of these scooters didn’t disappoint! They had an impressive range of 181 km, and some cool software features like hill hold, cruise control, remote unlocking and more.

Everything starts to go wrong for Ola’s flagship electric scooter: Finally, on the 15th of December of 2021, after multiple delays, Ola started delivering their electric scooters. And that’s when things went from bad to worse. See, that launch video - where Bhavish was proudly talking about the Ola S1 Pro’s 181 KM range, was way off-base. In reality, the scooter’s true range was just 135 KM. Oh and those cool software features that I mentioned earlier? Hill hold, cruise control, remote unlocking - customers would have to wait another six months to be able to use them. Then, multiple reports of battery overheating started coming in, and complaints from customers about receiving damaged scooters as well. Angry customers started flooding the internet with complaints and criticism.

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In this video, Caleb catches up with Caya from Slidebean to discuss startups. They talk about how India’s startup ecosystem is different from the United States.

Visiting India’s Silicon Valley – Bengaluru: Bengaluru is the place to be to truly understand the depth of India’s startup ecosystem. You can regions inside of Bengaluru which is dedicated to startups – walk down miles and you can find hundreds of startups talking about disruption.

India’s SaaS revolution: Slidebean has been a customer of a lot of Indian SaaS startups including Zoho, Freshworks and Chargebee and a lot more. What’s surprising is that even though they have been a customer of a lot of Indian SaaS startups, they didn’t even know that these companies were from India.

India’s booming EV space: Even though Tesla is yet to make its mark in India, Indian EV startups have been taking over the country in the last few years. From Tata’s Nexon to Ather’s scooters – electric vehicles are driving the revolution in India. All of this probably might not have been possible if Tesla might have entered India early.

Differences between India and United States’ Fintech ecosystem: India’s fintech ecosystem is quite unique with UPI playing a significant role across the ecosystem. Transactions are a lot smoother and more seamless due to UPI, but the entire thing is dependent of India’s own ecosystem and isn’t compatible with United States’ fintech ecosystem. Understanding salary differences: India is the place for global companies to hire a quality workforce at cheaper costs. This is only possible due to the huge salary and living expense differences between India and the US.

India’s closely-knit startup culture: The concentration of startups in a single place in cities like Bengaluru is mindboggling. You can go out for a coffee and you might bump up with some of India's leading startup entrepreneurs.

The ‘Jugaad’ mentality: With a lot of the new-age startup founders coming from small towns and cities where they had a lack of resources - a lot of Indian startups have this 'Jugaad' mentality - which keeps them frugal while building some world-leading products.

Different countries, different problems: While startups in the US are more focused on streamlining and making things more efficient, startups in India have the opportunity to disrupt industries completely.

India’s savings culture: India is more of a savings focused economy where people are used to buying products only from their savings and mostly stay away from taking any loans. This is why credit card penetration in the country is extremely low. On the other hand, people in the US are a lot more comfortable with buying things they can't afford. This is why credit card penetration is a lot higher in the US.

More cultural and lifestyle differences: Caya was blown away by the fact that there is a market for super expensive products in India while at the same time India's average salary is on the lower end of the spectrum. He believes that it's the cultural differences like focus on savings and salary differences that make up for these extreme lifestyle differences.

India’s wealth disparity: Also, the fact that there is a growing opportunity in India's tech space for engineers who are getting paid much higher than average salary is creating a huge wealth disparity among Indians. Startups are creating disproportionate wealth and enabling the Indian markets.

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Why are electric scooters catching fire: This week, there have been instances of four electric scooters from Indian EV startups Ola, Okinawa and PureEV catching fire. While the investigations are still underway, Okinawa has claimed that the incident happened due to ‘negligence in charging the vehicle’ - the electric scooter was plugged into an old socket which led to a short circuit - which sparked a fire in the vehicle. On the other hand, it is being said that Ola and PureEV’s electric scooters have caught fire due to ‘thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries’ - this happens when cells in a battery overheat and initiates a chain reaction among surrounding cells due to which the temperature of the battery increases rapidly in milliseconds.

Furlenco lays-off 180-200 employees: After Lido Learning and Trell, now furniture rental startup Furlenco has laid-off around 180-200 employees involved in customer support roles. They’ve also (temporarily) shut down operations across Kolkata, Mysuru, Chandigarh and Jaipur. This news comes less than a year after Furlenco had raised $140 million (in a mix of equity and debt) and was even planning for international expansion.

Ola to acquire Avail Finance: Ola is set to acquire financial services provider for blue-collar workforce Avail Finance - in a share-swap deal worth $50 million - which is down from their previous valuation of $86 million. It’s worth noting that Avail Finance is founded by Ola’s co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal’s brother Ankush Aggarwal. With this acquisition, Ola plans to strengthen their financial services arm Ola Financial to cater to the financing need of their driver-partners and to launch their own neo-banking products.

Chalo acquires Vogo: Bus transport technology provider Chalo has acquired scooter-sharing startup Vogo. This is Chalo’s second acquisition in six months - previously they had acquired office shuttle service provider Shuttl. Chalo already has access to over 15,000 buses through its platform and with this acquisition they want to boost bus ridership by making it convenient for their users by providing access to Vogo scooters at major bus stops - for rides to and from these bus stops.

FanCraze raises $100 million: Cricket NFT marketplace FanCraze has raised $100 million in a round led by Insight Partners to build a cricket metaverse - where users will be able to collect cricket NFTs, engage in play to earn cricket games and buy their own digital lands.

Citymall raises $75 million: Social commerce platform Citymall has raised $75 million in a round led by Norwest Venture Partners at a $350 million valuation to expand to 100 cities in the next 18 months and add products across new categories like fashion and general merchandise.

Classplus raises $70 million: Edtech startup Classplus, which helps teachers to manage, launch and sell their online courses, has raised $70 million in a round led by Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global Management at $570 million valuation to expand their global presence.

HackerRank raises $60 million: Developer hiring platform HackerRank, which helps developers hone their coding skills and connects them with software companies to ease their hiring process, has raised $60 million in a round led by Susquehanna Growth Equity at $500 million valuation.

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In this video, Voosh’s co-founder Priyam Saraswat explains how they are delivering more than 1,000 food orders every day in under 10 minutes in Bengaluru.

Voosh’s pivot from a SaaS platform for restaurants to 10-minute food delivery: When Voosh was founded in 2020, they were building a SaaS platform for restaurants to help them boost their revenues through their virtual brands offering. But after surveying over 1,000 people – they realised that people in Bengaluru were craving for a service that could offer then a more affordable and convenient way of delivering foods and that’s when they decided to start a pilot of their 10-minute food delivery to test out the waters.

Voosh’s 10-minute food delivery business grows 1000% every week: They established their first satellite kitchen called pod in Bengaluru and launched on 12th February 2022. As orders kept rolling in, they launched their second pod in the second week. And their 10-minute food delivery business has been growing 100% every week ever since. Disrupting the food delivery space: Priyam believes that the current food delivery space is much like the online cab booking space in 2013-14 when people had to check with multiple cab companies to find the best cab rates and booking them. It was a cumbersome process. That is why customers who want convenience and affordability are loving Voosh’s 10-minute food delivery which is disrupting India’s food delivery space.

How Voosh is achieving 10-minute delivery while keeping their drivers safe: Priyam says that they use a lot of data analytics to figure out the best place for them to open their pods. They make sure that their pods are located within 2 km from their customers and their drivers can deliver within 10 minutes even if they ride at an average speed of 30 km/hr. By optimising their systems, they can achieve 10-minute delivery without compromising the safety of their drivers.

High gross margin business: In this business, Priyam claims that their margins are as high as 60% - which is why they are able to pass on these profits to their customers as well as their drivers. Making sure that food on their platform is more affordable and their drivers are even able to earn 25% more compared to their counterparts. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Voosh’s aggressive growth plans: Right now, Voosh is only serving a small region of Bengaluru with their 2 pods. They plan on expanding to 10-12 localities in Bengaluru and have ambitions of reaching around 10,000 orders per day – from their current 1,000 orders per day. They are confident to cover entire Bengaluru in the next 2-3 months. Before moving on to conquer other cities across the country.

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This week in Indian startup news, Zomato to launch 10-minute food delivery, Ola Electric to bring 5-minute EV charging to India, After Infra.Market, Income Tax Department raids Zetwerk and Reliance Retail acquires 89% stake in Clovia.

In funding news, OfBusiness’ lending arm Oxyzo raises $200 million, Plum raises $35 million and Leverage Edu raises $22 million.

Zomato to launch 10-minute food delivery: Last year, it was grocery delivery that was disrupted by the 10-minute delivery startups and now Zomato has announced their plans to launch Zomato Instant to deliver your food in just 10 minutes at your doorsteps. They are planning to pilot Zomato Instant in Gurugram with four ‘finishing stations’ - starting next month.

Ola Electric to bring 5-minute EV charging to India: have partnered with an Israeli startup named StoreDot to bring their revolutionary 5 minute extreme fast charging technology to India. With this partnership, Ola will be getting exclusive rights to manufacture batteries integrating StoreDot’s 5-minute charging technology. This means we can see Ola bringing 5-minute charging to their flagship electric scooters Ola S1 and Ola S1 Pro.

After Infra.Market, Income Tax Department raids Zetwerk: Last week, we talked about how the IT (Income Tax) department was raiding the offices of Infra.Market - a B2B construction materials marketplace and now it's being reported that the startup had an undisclosed income of ₹224 crore. Now, a B2B marketplace for manufacturing items Zetwerk is also allegedly being investigated for tax evasion. The Income Tax department is conducting raids at their offices as well as their founder’s homes.

Reliance Retail acquires 89% stake in Clovia: Reliance Retail has acquired 89% stake in D2C women’s innerwear brand Clovia in a deal worth ₹950 crore. This isn’t the first time Reliance is acquiring a women’s innerwear startup, in fact, this is their third such acquisition in three years - other two being Zivame (in 2020) and Amante (in 2021) and now Clovia.

OfBusiness’ lending arm Oxyzo raises $200 million: OfBusiness’ lending arm Oxyzo has raised $200 million in a round led by Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global – making them India’s 13th unicorn of 2022.

Plum raises $35 million: D2C beauty brand Plum has raised $35 million in a round led by A91 Partners to help strengthen their omnichannel strategy by scaling their exclusive outlets to 12-15 in the next 2-3 months, add more products in categories beyond skincare, and expand their geographical reach.

Leverage Edu raises $22 million: Edtech startup Leverage Edu which offers a one-stop platform for students to help them study abroad has raised $22 million to expand their presence in existing markets like Australia, India and Nigeria and to plan an initial launch in new markets like the US.

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In today’s video we’ll take a look at top 10 crypto startups and projects that began in India.

Easyfi Network: Founded by Ankitt Gaur in 2020, EasyFi Network is building an infrastructure where developers can use EasyFi’s network to build their own lending DApps (decentralised apps). Right now, EasyFi Network is offering what is called overcollaterised loans – this means that you can borrow one crypto by putting up another crypto as collateral.

Mudrex: Founded by Alankar Saxena, Edul Patel, Prince Arora, Rohit Goyal and Snehil Buxy in April 2018, Mudrex is a no-code platform that would enable crypto traders to create their own crypto trading algorithm bots. Today, Mudrex has evolved into a complete crypto investment platform.

Stader Labs: Founded by Amitej Gajjala, Dheeraj Borra and Sidhartha Doddipalli in 2021, Stader Labs is a crypto staking platform. The goal of Stader Labs is to simplify this process, by giving their users a convenient and safe way to maximise their staking returns without having to worry about the headaches and risks of manually delegating cryptocurrency to individual validators.

Biconomy: Founded by Ahmed Al-Balaghi, Aniket Jindal and Sachin Tomar in 2019, Biconomy is making tools for developers to help them make their Web3 apps frictionless and as easy to use as possible. Take for example their flagship product Hyphen – this tool allows DApps to offer their users instant cross-chain transactions.

Vauld: Vauld was founded by Darshan Bhatija and Sanju Sony Kurian in 2018, and it’s basically a crypto neobank – they offer users a platform to store cryptocurrencies, take out loans, and trade. And one nice feature is that Vauld offers interest rates as high as 12.68% on cryptocurrencies that users store in their Vauld wallet, which is a lot higher than what traditional fiat currency banks offer as an incentive for you to use their savings accounts.

Chingari: Chingari has actually been around since 2018 and was founded by Sumit Ghosh and Biswatma Nayak. In 2021, they began the transition from web2 to web3, with the announcement that they would be moving their entire platform onto the Solana blockchain network, and have since launched their own cryptocurrency, the GARI token.

CoinDCX: Founded by two friends Neeraj Khandelwal and Sumit Gupta in 2018, CoinDCX is crypto trading platform and India’s first crypto unicorn. By 2019, they had only managed to onboard 50,000 users, but then in 2020, the RBI’s crypto ban was overturned by the Supreme Court. Many of their competitors by this point had given up, CoinDCX on the other hand was ready with a very impressive catalogue of products and services. Today, they’re one of the leading crypto exchanges in India with more than 10 million users.

Founded by Prateek Dwivedi, Pratik Gauri and Vilma Mattilda in 2021, 5ire is a sustainability-focused blockchain network. 5ire is charting a new course: their consensus mechanism is called sustainable proof of stake (SPoS), which features all of the same benefits of Proof of Stake but also uses the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals so that companies and organisations using 5ire’s blockchain will be rewarded for how sustainable they are.

CoinSwitch: Founded by Ashish Singhal, Govind Soni and Vimal Sagar in 2018, CoinSwitch continued to build and grow its crypto trading platform, but on a more diluted global scale. That changed though in 2020 when the Supreme Court overturned the ban - now, Coinswitch was able to finally cater to the needs of Indian crypto traders specifically, and they’re now one of the top crypto exchanges in the country.

Polygon: Founded by Anurag Arjun, Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal and Mihalio Bjelic in 2017, Polygon is an Ethereum-based layer 2 blockchain network that is trying to solve the scalability, high network fees and speed issues of the Ethereum network.

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This week in Indian startup news, Karnataka HC quashes FIR against Dream11 founders, Navi Technologies expected to file for IPO, Meesho expected to file for IPO by early 2023 and Info Edge acquires 76% stake in dating app Aisle.

In funding news, CredAvenue raises $137 million to become a unicorn, Money View raises $75 million, Jiffy.ai raises $53 million and Captain Fresh raises $50 million.

Karnataka HC quashes FIR against Dream11 founders: Karnataka High Court has finally quashed the FIR that was filed against Dream11 founders Bhavit Sheth and Harsh Jain last year. Last month, the Karnataka High Court had struck down the amendments in the Karnataka Police Act 1963 - which banned all kinds of real money-based online gaming platforms. Now that there was no law prohibiting Dream11 from operating in the state, the FIR seems pointless and the Karnataka High Court has quashed the FIR against their co-founders.

Navi Technologies expected to file for IPO: According to media reports, it looks like Sachin Bansal’s second venture Navi Technologies is gearing up to file for an IPO as soon as this week. A good sign for potential investors is the fact that Navi will only be issuing fresh shares for the IPO - which means none of the investors will be selling their stake in the company.

Meesho expected to file for IPO by early 2023: Indian social commerce unicorn Meesho is also looking to go public by early 2023 and right now they are still looking at both Indian and US exchanges for a listing. Meesho was last valued at $4.9 billion and they’ve already raised $1.1 billion from their investors.

Info Edge acquires 76% stake in dating app Aisle: Info Edge has acquired a 76% stake in an online dating platform Aisle. With this acquisition, Info Edge wants to strengthen its position in the Indian matchmaking space - they already have Jeevansathi.com geared towards marriage, now Aisle could help them enter India’s rapidly growing online dating market as well.

CredAvenue raises $137 million to become a unicorn: CredAvenue, an online debt marketplace for startups and businesses to secure debt from banks and NBFCs, has raised $137 million in a round led by Insight Partners, B Capital Group and Dragoneer at a $1.3 billion valuation – making them India’s 11th unicorn of 2022.

Money View raises $75 million: Money View, which offers personal loans and BNPL options to its users, has raised $75 million at a $626 million valuation to grow and scale its core credit business and also to expand its product portfolio by adding digital bank accounts, insurance and wealth management products.

Jiffy.ai raises $53 million: B2B automation platform Jiffy.ai has raised $53 million in a round led by Eight Roads Ventures to scale their sales and marketing efforts and strengthen their AI-enabled no-code automation platform HyperApps.

Captain Fresh raises $50 million: B2B seafood marketplace Captain Fresh has raised $50 million in a round led by Prosus Ventures and Tiger Global at a $500 million valuation to scale their international business.

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This week in Indian startup news, Navi Technologies files for Rs 3,350 crore IPO, Trell to lay-off half of its workforce, Infra.Market under investigation for allegedly not paying their taxes, and Clear acquires Xpedize.

In funding news, Amagi raises $95 million to become a unicorn, Byju’s raises $800 million, Licious raises $150 million and Blinkit raises $100 million.

Navi Technologies files for Rs 3,350 crore IPO: Navi Technologies has filed for a Rs 3,350 crore IPO. Back in 2020, Navi had applied for a universal banking licence to achieve their banking dreams. But it’s been over two years but RBI has still not granted them a universal banking licence. In the midst of this, Navi Technologies failed to secure funding from SoftBank. And in order to keep their banking dreams alive, Navi Technologies has no option but to go public at a time when the global stock markets are taking a hit. However, the fintech startup is counting on its strong financials to make its IPO a success.

Trell to lay-off half of its workforce: Social commerce platform Trell is looking to let go of 300 of their employees out of the total workforce of 700 people (500 of whom are full-time employees). While this six-year-old startup has raised a total of $61.9 million - they raised a $45 million round less than a year ago - valuing them at $120 million. Since last year there have been multiple reports of Trell being in talks with Amazon to raise anywhere between $50-80 million. But those talks seem to have fallen through after reports of a probe being conducted by EY India into alleged financial irregularities in the startup. It seems now that Trell is left with no choice but to let go of their employees in order to survive.

Infra.Market under investigation for allegedly not paying their taxes: According to an ET report, income tax authorities have raided B2B construction materials marketplace Infra.Market’s offices in multiple cities and founders' homes were reported to be raided as well. It is said that Infra.Market is being investigated for not paying their taxes as well as some fake invoices. However, this news comes at a bad time as the company is reportedly looking to close $450 million at a $4 billion valuation.

Clear acquires Xpedize: Clear (previously known as ClearTax) has acquired supply chain financing platform Xpedize in a deal which is estimated to be worth ₹100 crore. This is Clear’s second acquisition after acquiring B2B payments platform Ybanq in July last year. With this acquisition, Clear will be rebranding Xpedize to Clear Invoice Discounting to offer financing solutions to 1.1 million SMEs that use their platform.

Amagi raises $95 million to become a unicorn: SaaS-based media technology startup Amagi has raised $95 million in a round led by Accel at a $1 billion valuation making them India’s 12th unicorn of 2022.

Byju’s raises $800 million: Edtech giant Byju’s has raised $800 million in a round led by its founder Byju Raveendran – taking his family’s ownership into the $22 billion edtech behemoth.

Licious raises $150 million: D2C meat and seafood brand Licious has raised $150 million in a round led by Amansa Capital at a $1.6 billion valuation to launch new product categories and invest in strategic acquisitions to expand their reach.

Blinkit raises $100 million: 10-minute grocery delivery startup Blinkit has raised $100 million from Zomato – which is expected to be a part of a larger $400 million funding round. There are talks that Zomato will be buying out Blinkit to get into the instant delivery business.

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In this video, we look at the reasons for the momentous rise of BNPL startups in India and also explore if BNPL is disrupting India's lending space for better or for worse.

What is BNPL or Buy Now, Pay Later: If you’ve bought anything online recently, you might have noticed an option to buy now and pay later. It’s becoming pretty prevalent across e-commerce websites and apps, but you might even spot Buy Now, Pay Later offerings offline too at stores and malls. Normally you would have to save up - you’d have to put money away every month until you could afford that shiny new expensive thing that you want to buy, and nobody wants to do that, especially if it’s on sale right now, but maybe won’t be in a month or two. That’s where Buy Now, Pay Later comes in, often shortened to just an acronym, BNPL, and BNPL startups are taking the allure of paying for things later the same way you would with a credit card, and they’re making it simple, and easy, and straightforward.

What makes BNPL different from credit cards: Conceptually, both BNPL and credit cards are very similar. The big differentiator between BNPL and credit cards is in their execution. If you’ve ever applied for a credit card, you know how difficult it is to get a credit card in India. BNPL startups are lowering the bars that credit card issuers have set so high. Pretty much anyone can buy now, pay later, all you need to do is provide details like your PAN and Aadhaar number. Instead of relying on credit scores, these BNPL providers use their own algorithms to determine how much credit they should give you based on your transaction history and your location.

How do BNPL startups make money: Well, there are a couple of sources of revenue for BNPL startups. The first comes from merchants. Like credit card companies and POS providers, BNPL companies charge merchants anywhere between 2 and 8% of the purchase amount. Now, the merchant is okay with this because of the benefits that they see from partnering with the BNPL provider. Firstly, they see an increase in conversions and average transaction value, because customers that probably wouldn’t be able to afford big-ticket items in their store or marketplace now can. So basically, tying up with a BNPL company gives merchants more customers who spend more money. Their second source of revenue, much like credit card companies comes from late fees.

Problems with BNPL: See, there are many Indian BNPL customers who don’t even know what a credit score is, they don’t realise that by failing to pay off their BNPL debt on time, they’re irreversibly damaging their financial identity. With a shockingly small amount of paperwork and no proof of income to speak of, you can comfortably apply for BNPL from four or five different platforms and borrow upwards of 1 lakh rupees. There are even instances of BNPL companies not doing proper KYC or credit bureau checks, they’re growing so fast that they’re unable to scale their due diligence, and there have been reports too of defaults not being reported to credit bureau agencies.

Will BNPL overtake credit cards: So, coming back to our question: will BNPL overtake credit, in terms of market adoption. Yes. That is almost a given at this point. In fact, the number of BNPL users are estimated to be 10-15 million already and are expected to grow as much as 10X to 100 million by 2026.

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Hedonova is an alternative investment hedge fund for all. They are building a platform that is democratising investment into hedge funds for retail investors. Hedonova’s alternative investment hedge fund allows you to invest in alternative asset classes like cryptos, startups, NFTs, emerging market real-estate and art – all through their platform starting at just $1000.

Sharan from ‘Finance with Sharan’ explains what exactly is Hedonova: Basically, Hedonova works as a mutual fund but for alternative assets. Now, alternative assets are nothing but asset classes that lie outside of equity, debt and gold – these include assets like cryptocurrencies, startups, NFTs, real-estate, and art. At Hedonova, they invest in three buckets namely – growth portfolio, income-generating portfolio and miscellaneous portfolio. Their growth portfolio includes assets like startups, cryptocurrencies and real estate. The income-generating portfolio includes assets like litigation financing, equipment financing and agronomy. And their miscellaneous portfolio includes asset classes like Artwork, wine, NFT, carbon credits and student financing.

How good are Hedonova’s returns: Hedonova has given returns of 53% CAGR over the last two years and last year alone their returns were 120%. This means their investors doubled their investment last year alone. What’s interesting to note is that cryptocurrencies in Hedonova’s portfolio alone gave 700% returns last year. However, even if you removed cryptocurrencies from their portfolio – Hedonova gave a healthy 32% CAGR return – which is significantly higher than Nifty’s 15% average over the last 30 years.

How Hedonova is enabling retail investors to access assets available to HNIs: In India, if you want to invest in a hedge fund – you will need somewhere around Rs 1 crore – which is not something regular investors can invest in. This is why Hedonova’s platform allows retail investors to start investing in these asset classes with as low as $1000 – which is much for affordable compared to Rs 1 crore. Also, Hedonova doesn’t have a lock-in period – allowing their investors to withdraw their money after just 30 days. So basically, Hedonova is lowering the barriers for retail investors through lower ticket size and no lock-in period.

Hedonova’s origin and investment thesis: Hedonova was founded by two investment bankers Alexander Cavendish and Suman Banerjee in 2020. At the time, Suman was trying to invest in equities in the US from India but couldn’t do it. So, the two decided to build a single platform where investors would be able to invest in assets from across the world. The way Hedonova picks the assets they want to invest in is by using a combination of the momentum strategy and supply chain efficiency.

Hedonova’s security token to remove geographical investment barriers: Hedonova is planning to launch their own security token on the blockchain which will allow investors to trade their crypto with Hedonova’s token which can be used for investment from across the world. They are planning to launch their own token by the end of 2022.

Investing in NFTs, artworks and startups: Another set of asset classes that Hedonova let’s its users to invest is in NFTs and artworks. And then there are startups. Not a lot of people have the money to become angel investors and invest in these startups. So, Hedonova helps retail investors by curating unicorn startups that are preparing to go public – so investors are able to invest in startups that are already successful and can potentially increase their returns.

Making money through litigation financing and music royalties: Litigation financing is another way Hedonova invests their money – where they help finance the litigation expenses of companies and take a cut from the money the companies get after the settlement of their dispute.

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This week in Indian startup news, Metaverse startup Ikonz raises undisclosed amount from Village Global and Woodstock and plans to launch Tinkle’s iconic character Suppandi’s NFT, ALT Balaji launches a metaverse game based on their reality show Lock Upp, Radhe Shyam’s trailer launch in the metaverse crashes servers, FTX Gaming partners with IndiGG for web3 and crypto gaming, Polygon Studios makes strategic investment in Zipmex, Blockchain analytics and security startup BitsCrunch raises $3.6 million.

ALT Balaji launches a metaverse game based on their reality show Lock Upp: Indian OTT platform ALT Balaji has launched a fantasy metaverse game based on their reality show called ‘Lock Upp’. Lock Upp is similar to Bigg Boss/Big Brother - but instead of keeping the celebrity contestants in a house, they are kept in jail for 72 days. Based on this reality show, ALT Balaji has also launched a fantasy metaverse game - where players can interact with the contestants on the show, explore the Lock Upp metaverse, complete tasks and predict the winner of the show to win real prizes every week.

Radhe Shyam’s trailer launch in the metaverse crashes servers: On Thursday (3rd March), the trailer of the upcoming movie Radhe Shyam was released on the metaverse hosted by Spatial.io and within just 3 minutes of the release - more than 2 lakh fans rushed to watch the trailer in the metaverse which ended up crashing their servers. That’s not all, it looks like the movie will also be creating its own metaverse and people will have the opportunity to create their own avatars and explore the ‘Radhe Shyam’ metaverse.

FTX Gaming partners with IndiGG for web3 and crypto gaming: FTX Gaming, which is the subsidiary of Bahamas-based crypto exchange FTX, has partnered with IndiGG, which is a subDAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) of Yield Guild Games. With this partnership, the two want to drive the adoption of web3 gaming across India. IndiGG has already partnered with Polygon to build a play-to-earn gaming hub in India. Through this partnership, gaming studios under FTX Gaming will be able to access IndiGG’s distribution network to launch their games in India.

Polygon Studios makes strategic investment in Zipmex: Polygon Studios, the gaming and NFT arm of layer-2 blockchain network Polygon, has made a strategic investment in digital assets exchange Zipmex’s native token ZMT. Just last month, Zipmex had launched their own NFT exchange marketplace Zixel - which they are celebrating by hosting Thailand’s first metaverse concert on Decentraland. This partnership will also help Zipmex to build out new metaverse experiences targeting the Asia Pacific market throughout 2022.

Blockchain analytics and security startup BitsCrunch raises $3.6 million: BitsCrunch, blockchain analytics and security startup has raised $3.6 million in a round led by Animoca Brands to expand their team in India and to focus on securing other blockchains like Solana, Polkadot, and Algorand.

Metaverse startup Ikonz raises undisclosed amount from Village Global and Woodstock: Metaverse startup Ikonz has raised undisclosed amount from Village Global and Woodstock to drop new NFTs from different IP partners.

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In this video, we look at Ashneer Grover’s journey of building BharatPe into a unicorn to the controversy that led to his resignation.

BharatPe wasn’t Ashneer’s idea: Back in March 2018, Bhavikkumar Koladiya and Shashvat Nakhrani had founded BharatPe. But coming from a small town, neither of them had the connections to secure the kind of funding they’d need to build and scale BharatPe. So in July 2018, they reached out to Ashneer Grover to seek angel investment but they also got their third co-founder – who had the perfect founder profile and had already helped Grofers raise $170 million. Over the next three years, Ashneer helped BharatPe raise over $700 million and helped make BharatPe into a $3 billion unicorn.

The leaked audio recording that changed everything: An audio recording of a phone call was leaked on 5th January 2022 and in this clip, someone was heard berating and threatening to kill an employee of Kotak Mahindra Bank - this male voice also hands the phone over to a female voice, who talks with the Kotak employee as well - the reason? Not being able to get allotment in Nykaa’s IPO. According to the leaker, this person was Ashneer Grover and his wife, Madhuri Jain Grover. Ashneer, of course, quickly tweeted that the clip was fake, but later on, he deleted this tweet, and the leaked audio clip was also removed soon after. It was later revealed that Ashneer and Madhuri had, in fact, sent a legal notice to Kotak Mahindra Bank for the same issue - not getting allotment in Nykaa’s IPO. Things escalated to the point where Kotak initiated legal action against Ashneer and Madhuri over the leaked audio clip. The entire issue might have flown under the radar of a lot of people if Ashneer hadn’t been a judge of Shark Tank India. He was in the public eye now, at precisely the wrong moment. It was the perfect storm, and his rude and abrasive behaviour while talking to entrepreneurs on the show didn’t sit well with many of Shark Tank India’s audience members.

Ashneer and Madhuri go on a ‘voluntary leave’: All this controversy was not good for BharatPe’s business and so the board asked Ashneer to go on leave until the end of March – hoping things would settle down by then. But soon after Ashneer was sent on leave, his wife Madhuri was sent on leave as well. With the Grovers out of BharatPe, The startup’s board announced an independent audit to look into their internal systems and processes. While Ashneer went right ahead and hired himself a team of lawyers to protect his interests and shareholding at BharatPe. In response to this, BharatPe’s board hired PwC to conduct the independent audit. And PwC is one of the Big 4 accounting firms, and according to BharatPe’s Articles of Association, a founding member of the company can be removed and their equity can be bought back by the company at fair market value if one of the Big 4s can show any kind of gross negligence or wilful misconduct involving that founding member. So now BharatPe’s intentions were clear: they were looking for any kind of financial fraud that might have happened while Ashneer was heading BharatPe. And according to the leaked reports in the media, they found not one but two instances of financial fraud.

Madhuri is fired and Ashneer resigns from BharatPe: On the 23rd of February Madhuri Jain Grover was fired on allegations of financial fraud and misappropriation of funds at BharatPe .And a week after this happened, Ashneer Grover decided to put down his resignation in a scathing letter to the startup’s board and investors. And this was the end of Ashneer’s journey with BharatPe.

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This week in Indian startup news, Ola Electric is planning to build a battery cell manufacturing plant, Ashneer Grover resigns from BharatPe, Urban Company announces PSOPs worth Rs 150 crore and Scaler acquires AppliedRoots for $50 million.

In funding news, Niyo raises $100 million, Perfios raises $70 million, Pocket FM raises $65 million, Filo raises $23 million and Kuhoo raises $20 million.

Ola Electric is planning to build a battery cell manufacturing plant: According to recent Reuters report, it looks like after building the world’s largest electric scooter factory, Ola Electric is now planning to build its own battery cell manufacturing plant in India. The reports suggest that they might start by setting up a factory with 1 GWh capacity by 2023 and would eventually expand it to 20 GWh in the next 3-4 years.

Ashneer Grover resigns from BharatPe: Ashneer’s resignation comes merely a week after her wife Madhuri Jain Grover was sacked from BharatPe. And while Ashneer has claimed he and his family are innocent in all this, BharatPe’s board has accused him and his wife of doing financial fraud. Even though Ashneer is no more associated with the day to day workings of BharatPe, he is still the largest individual shareholder in the company with 9.5% stake.

Urban Company announces PSOPs worth Rs 150 crore: On-demand home and beauty services provider Urban Company has introduced what it is calling PSOP (Partner Stock Option Plan) worth ₹150 crore. PSOPs are just like ESOPs but instead of giving stock options to employees, Urban Company is giving them to the gig workers and service professionals working with Urban Company - whom they call partners. The company said that they are yet to figure out how these stock options will be disbursed and redeemed but they plan on executing their PSOPs in the next 5 to 7 years.

Scaler acquires AppliedRoots for $50 million: Edtech startup Scaler, which offers upskilling courses to college students and tech professionals, has acquired an online learning platform Applied Roots in a stock and cash deal worth $50 million.

Niyo raises $100 million: Neo banking startup Niyo has raised $100 million in a round led by Accel and Lightrock India to launch new products in the lending and insurance space and to fund their inorganic growth through acquisitions.

Perfios raises $70 million: Fintech startup Perfios has raised $70 million in a round led by Warburg Pincus and Bessemer Venture Partners to fund the acquisition of other companies and meet their capital expenditure requirement.

Pocket FM raises $65 million: Indian language audio streaming platform Pocket FM has raised $70 million in a round led by Goodwater Capital, Naver and Tanglin Venture Partners.

Filo raises $23 million: Live tutoring platform Filo has raised $23 million in a round led by Anthos Capital to onboard 200,000 tutors in the next 12 months and conduct 2 million live classes daily.

Kuhoo raises $20 million: Online student loans platform Kuhoo has raised $20 million in a round led by WestBridge Capital.

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This week in Indian web3 news, Infosys launches Metaverse Foundry to help clients create their own metaverse, BrightChamps starts accepting cryptocurrency payments, Jupiter Meta launches fully curated NFT marketplace, Asgard launches DAO bringing metaverse, Defi and NFTs on one platform, NFT Spotlight – Rush Gaming Universe Avatar NFTs, BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani indicted in a $2.4 billion crypto scam and NFT marketplace Rario in talks to raise $100 million from Dream Capital.

Infosys launches Metaverse Foundry to help its clients create their own metaverse: Infosys, which is India’s second-largest IT services company (in terms of market cap), is entering the metaverse business with the launch of Metaverse Foundry. With their latest initiative, Infosys wants to use their years of domain and design expertise to help their clients fast-track their adoption of metaverse technology by helping them create their own metaverse environments based on their business needs.

BrightChamps starts accepting cryptocurrency payments: Goa-based edtech startup BrightChamps has announced that they will now start accepting cryptocurrencies as a mode of fee payment across more than 30 countries.

Jupiter Meta launches fully curated NFT marketplace: Jupiter Meta has launched a fully curated NFT marketplace focusing on music, films, and gaming - to enhance users' metaverse experience. Jupiter Meta’s NFT marketplace will use its own layer 1 blockchain Rubix to facilitate these NFT transactions in a secure and fast environment. There are going to be 12 art pieces and Jupiter Meta will be minting multiple copies of each NFT which will be sold on a fixed price basis.

Asgard launches DAO bringing metaverse, Defi and NFTs on one platform: Decentralised currency reserve protocol Asgard - which is backed by multiple stablecoins like DAI, USDC and BUSD, has launched their own DAO as they plan to bring metaverse, Defi and NFTs on a single platform. Asgard’s metaverse will be based on the Norse Mythology and the way they plan to integrate all the features of the metaverse, Defi and NFTs is by the way of gamification of their NFT-based metaverse.

NFT Spotlight – Rush Gaming Universe Avatar NFTs: Just last month, Rush Gaming Universe had partnered with Polygon to help with their web3 transition. Now, Rush Gaming Universe has launched their Rush Avatar NFTs and their launch edition NFT will have 5 unique rarities and each of these rarities will develop unique superpowers in the Rush Gaming Universe over time. And the best part is, they are giving away their special launch edition NFTs to the most active players of their community for free. They will also be keeping 10% of these for future giveaways, sales and partnerships.

BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani indicted in a $2.4 billion crypto scam: Back in 2016, a platform called BitConnect was launched which allowed investors to buy their Bitconnect Coin in exchange for bitcoin from their exchange. They promised their users insane returns through their lending program - returns of up to 480% per year. By 2017, Bitconnect Coin was among the top 20 cryptocurrencies in the world reaching a peak market cap of over $2.8 billion. Suddenly shut down on 17th January 2018 and BitConnect Coin lost more than 90% of its value overnight. Now, BitConnect’s Indian origin founder Satish Kumbhani who was behind BitConnect has been indicted by the US Department of Justice on the charges of orchestrating a global Ponzi scheme.

NFT marketplace Rario in talks to raise $100 million from Dream Capital: According to an ET report, cricket NFT marketplace Rario is in advanced talks to raise $100 million from Dream11’s venture capital arm Dream Capital.

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In today’s video, we’ll take a look at how Grip is building India’s largest Alternative Investment Platform and how you can diversify your portfolio by investing in lease financing.

Sharing economy and lease investing: At this point in the 21st century, it’s possible to live completely within the sharing economy. You don’t need to own anything! You can find an apartment or a PG on Stanza Living or Zolo, somewhere close to where you work, you rent furniture and appliances from Furlenco or RentoMojo, you can get your subscription water from DrinkPrime, and then if your office is close enough, you can hop on a Yulu to get there without walking. Or if you need to travel further, you’ve got Vogo or Bounce. And of course, you’ve also got ride-hailing companies like Ola and Uber, and while you’re sitting in your cab, you’re not gonna watch a DVD or listen to a CD or a song that you bought on iTunes, you’re gonna pull out your phone and watch Netflix or listen to JioSaavn or Spotify. But if you’re a startup founder and you want to build a company to meet the needs of India’s rapidly growing sharing economy? How do these startups build up their inventory? This is where inventory financing through lease investing comes in.

How Nikhil Aggarwal ended up starting Grip: After working at Morgan Stanley and helping startup founders take their companies public, Nikhil Aggarwal decided to jump into the world of entrepreneurship and started Chalo – a bus transport technology company. But that was not enough for Nikhil, he wanted to understand mobility at a global scale. So, he handed the reins of Chalo to his co-founders and joined World Bank as a consultant. One of the biggest problems Nikhil saw in the mobility space was scalability - startups like Chalo need tons of capital in order to build fleets or inventory - without this capital, they just can’t get off the ground quickly enough to be competitive. Nikhil knew that India was full of investors looking for exciting new places to grow their wealth and this is where the lightbulb moment happens: Nikhil thought, “Why not just combine these two problems and create one solution?” With that in mind, in the summer of 2020, Nikhil launched this inventory financing, lease investing platform, along with his two co-founders, Aashish Jindal & Vivek Gulati - it’s called Grip, and it’s India’s largest alternative investment platform.

How does Grip work: Well, let’s take a look at an example: ZYPP Electric - one of India’s leading EV-as-a-Service platforms, they have a fleet of over 2,000 scooters across 10 Indian cities, but they didn’t buy all of these scooters themselves. If they had, it would have cost them close to Rs 10 crore for their entire fleet. So this is where Grip comes in. Zypp paid Grip 10% of the amount that they needed to build this fleet, so let’s say Rs 1 crore. This was a security deposit and then Grip went out and raised money from investors on Zypp’s behalf. Once they’d gotten commitments from enough investors for the amount that Zypp needed to build its fleet, Grip created a Special Purpose Vehicle, an LLP that pays for and owns the fleet - that’s why I said earlier that Zypp didn’t actually buy their fleet of electric scooters, and they don’t own it either - their investors, the ones who paid for the fleet and who make up this LLP, are the ones who own it. And for this ownership, they get fixed monthly returns up until the day that Zypp finishes paying for the fleet themselves.

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This week in Indian startup news, Ashneer Grover’s wife fired from BharatPe, Lido Learning shuts down, OkCredit lays off 35% of its workforce and Swiggy and FirstCry are planning IPOs.

In funding news, Uniphore raises $400 million to become a unicorn, Hasura raises $100 million to become a unicorn, MediBuddy raises $125 million, Facilio raises $35 million, Propelld raises $35 million, Xoxoday raises $30 million, Happilo raises $25 million, Shipsy raises $25 million, Vymo raises $22 million, NewSpace raises $21 million, Fleetx.io raises $19.4 million, DaMensch raises $16.4 million and Increff raises $12 million.

Ashneer Grover’s wife fired from BharatPe: Ashneer Grover has been vocal that he wasn’t part of any financial fraud, despite BharatPe conducting an investigation against him. Now, Ashneer has filed an arbitration plea with the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) against BharatPe board. According to media reports, through this plea Ashneer is claiming that the investigation against him is invalid as it violates the terms of his shareholder agreement. In his plea, he also added that despite his numerous objections, BharatPe has kept the review and assessment process opaque - not giving him any opportunity to present his case. While the case is now in the SIAC, in the meanwhile, on Wednesday, Ashneer’s wife Madhuri Jain Grover was fired from BharatPe over allegations of misappropriation of funds.

Lido Learning shuts down: Lido Learning, an edtech startup that offers group online classes, is shutting down their operations due to a lack of funds. According to media reports and employee accounts, Lido Learning’s founder Sahil Sheth announced that the startup is shutting down operations at a town hall on 4th February - as they didn’t have enough funds to even credit the salaries of their employees and they might get their salaries only if the startup is able to sell their assets in the coming months. It is estimated that Lido Learning has around 900-1200 employees.

OkCredit lays off 35% of its workforce: OkCredit, a digital bookkeeping solutions provider for small and medium business, has laid off between 30-35% of their employees affecting around 35-40 employees. According to media sources - OkCredit had around 140 employees before lay off and that number is around 80 now. They are now planning to focus on fintech initiatives instead of burning money on their bookkeeping platform.

Swiggy and FirstCry planning IPOs: With a bunch of IPOs already lined up, there are reports that food delivery giant Swiggy is looking to raise $800 million through an IPO early next year, while e-commerce platform for baby products FirstCry is busy looking for investment banks to help them with their IPO which could be launched in 2022 itself.

Uniphore raises $400 million to become a unicorn: Conversational AI and automation startup Uniphore has raised $400 million in a round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) at a $2.5 billion valuation – making them India’s 9th unicorn of 2022.

Hasura raises $100 million to become a unicorn: Hasura - a software platform that builds API development tools for developers has raised $100 million in a round led by Greenoaks Capital at a $1 billion valuation – making them India’s 10 unicorn of 2022.

MediBuddy raises $125 million: Healthtech startup MediBuddy has raised $125 million in a round led by Quadria Capital and Lightrock India to invest in customer awareness and strengthen their technology platform.

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This week in Indian web3 news, YUG Metaverse in partnership with dating startup Mingout hosts a date on the moon, Chingari launches In-App crypto wallet, Pooja Entertainment Buys Virtual Land In Metaverse, SuperGaming and WazirX co-founder Siddharth Menon announce launch of web3 game asset marketplace Tegro, 5ire raises $100 million and Bulliverse raises $4 million.

Chingari launches in-app crypto wallet: Short-video platform Chingari had earlier announced their move towards becoming a web3 social networking platform with the launch of their native crypto token $GARI. It has now integrated an in-app crypto wallet for their native crypto token $GARI to allow their users to send, receive and store $GARI. The platform started testing their Solana network in the beta phase last year in December with 500 community members before the final launch of the Solana network on Chingari platform last week.

Pooja Entertainment Buys Virtual Land In Metaverse: Bollywood production house Pooja Entertainment has bought virtual land as an NFT in the Cryptovoxels metaverse for 1.87 Ether. The address of this virtual land is 71 Gazelle Avenue and it is called Poojaverse. The company has built Poojaverse into a movie-theatre like experience into the metaverse where they showed the trailer of their upcoming movie ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ and also announced the date of release.

SuperGaming and WazirX co-founder Siddharth Menon announce launch of web3 game asset marketplace Tegro: Tegro will be a Web3 game ecosystem marketplace, where players can buy, trade and play with these in-game assets. In addition to Tegro marketplace, they will also provide SDKs and APIs to game developers to help them build and design web3 games. With Tegro, they plan on building a sustainable gaming economy with creative and economic opportunities for all the stakeholders.

YUG Metaverse in partnership with dating startup Mingout hosts a date on the moon: Indian dating startup Mingout has partnered with metaverse creator platform Yugverse to take two of their loyal users on a date on the moon in the metaverse. Mingout wants their users dating experience to be more accessible, fun, and immersive by using the power of the metaverse. Mingout was founded by three IIM-Calcutta graduates last year and they have already hosted more than 1,000 dates on their platform.

NFT Spotlight: MetaSpecies, which is released by MetaVoid. MetaVoid is a Delhi-based team of 3 NFT artists. First 100 pieces(The Genesis-100) are releasing on OpenSea on 27th Feb, 2022. These are non-generative pieces, which means each piece has its own identity and floor price for every piece is .1 ETH (roughly 20,000 INR). The company plans to give back 10% of the profit be to the artists in the NFT community.

5ire raises $100 million as it plans to go public: Blockchain network 5ire has raised $100 Million from GEM Global Yield. 5ire is the first and only sustainable blockchain ecosystem which has embedded UN’s SDGs (United Nations - Sustainable Development Goals) in their consensus mechanism.

Bulliverse raises $4 million: Bulliverse, an open-world metaverse platform, has raised $4 Million from OKEx Blockdream Ventures, CoinJournal and other investors. Bulliverse is building a DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) that will provide a platform for gamers and creators where they can earn tokens for playing and creating their own games in the Bulliverse metaverse. They are going to use these funds to expand their Bulliverse ecosystem and bring more gamers and creators on the platform in bid to create a truly community-owned DAO.

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This week in Indian startup news, OYO’s road to IPO clear - HC dismisses Zostel’s petition, Sharechat’s Moj acquires MX Player’s TakaTak, Cult.fit acquires Gold Gym’s India business.

In funding news, Glance raises $200 million from Jio Platforms, Altigreen raises $40 million, Kenko Health raises $12 million, RENEE Cosmetics raises $10 Million, Join Ventures raises $10 million, Healthysure raises $1.2 Million, Aulerth raises $1.1 Million, Swipe raises $2.2 Million, Runo raises $500k.

OYO’s road to IPO clear as HC dismisses Zostel’s petition: Back in 2015, OYO had entered into talks with Zo Rooms (the owner of Zostel) to acquire Zostel but after the deal fell through, the two have been logging heads in the courtroom. While Zostel says that OYO had signed a term sheet that was legally binding, OYO says otherwise and from Zostel’s perspective, OYO owes them a 7% stake in the hospitality giant as part of that deal. And the issue came to the forefront once again when OYO filed for an IPO and Zostel filed a petition with the Delhi High Court to suspend their IPO – to keep OYO from changing their ownership structure. However, in what is a big relief for OYO, the Delhi High Court has decided to dismiss Zostel’s petition.

Sharechat’s Moj acquires MX Player’s TakaTak: Sharechat’s short video app Moj has acquired MX Player’s MX TakaTak in a cash and stock deal which is estimated to be worth anywhere between $600 to $900 million by various news reports. While both Moj and MX TakaTak will be operating as separate apps for now, they two are expected to be merged in the next six months. With this acquisition, Moj and MX TakaTak which have 160 million and 150 million monthly acquire users (MAUs) respectively will together have access to 310 million monthly active users – making them one of the biggest players in the short video space.

Cult.fit acquires Gold Gym’s India business: Health and fitness startup Cult.fit has acquired Gold’s Gym’s India business for an undisclosed amount by picking up a majority stake in F2 Fun & Fitness India – making Cult.fit the master franchise partner of Gold’s Gym in India. While Cult.fit operates more than 350 owned and partner centres across the country, Gold’s Gym is the second-largest player in the fitness space with 150 gyms across 95 cities in the country. As a part of this acquisition, Cult.fit will continue to operate Gold’s Gym as a separate brand to leverage the brand’s 19 yearlong brand equity they have built-in India and also plans to scale Gold’s Gym to 200 centres in the next 24 months. Not just in India but they plan to expand Gold’s Gym across geographies like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan.

Glance raises $200 million from Jio Platforms: Glance, an InMobi-owned lockscreen content platform, has raised $200 million in a round led by Jio Platforms to build Glance into the world’s largest live content and commerce platform.

Altigreen raises $40 million: Commercial EV manufacturer Altigreen has raised $40 million in a round led by Sixth Sense Ventures, Reliance New Energy (a subsidiary of Reliance Industries), Xponentia Capital, Accurant International and Momentum Venture Capital.

Kenko Health raises $12 million: Healthtech startup Kenko Health has raised $12 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital to add new products and OPD categories like dental, mental health, at-home care and sexual health and to expand their userbase to 250,000 by the end of March 2022.

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This week in Indian web3 news, Defy launches Baskets to diversify crypto investing, Nameet Potnis launches Asset.Money, WazirX’s co-founder Siddharth Menon joins SuperGaming as advisor, Playcent acquires Polkarare and Mudrex raises $6.5 million.

Defy launches Baskets to diversify crypto investing: Defy, a social crypto exchange platform, has launched Baskets to diversify crypto investments. Defy’s Baskets are a lot like Smallcase but for cryptos - while Smallcase offers a curated portfolio of stocks for you to invest in, Defy’s Baskets offer a curated portfolio of cryptos for you to invest in. These Baskets of cryptos are curated by experts based on different investment strategies or themes like gaming, defi, metaverse, NFTs or altcoins - providing you options to diversify your portfolio and your risk while maximising your returns.

Nameet Potnis launches Asset.Money: Serial entrepreneur and former VP of global payment service provider PayU has launched Asset.Money - a platform that helps you track and manage all your NFTs from a single platform. Asset.Money also takes into account your NFTs rarity, traits and other factors to give you an estimate of what your NFT might be worth right now - they will be offering more details on this soon.

WazirX’s co-founder Siddharth Menon joins SuperGaming as advisor: WazirX’s co-founder Siddharth Menon has joined a Pune-based game development company SuperGaming as an advisor to help them with their web3 initiatives - which includes building a crypto platform and a crypto-based game. Siddharth will be bringing his experience and expertise in building WazirX to help them transition from a web2 gaming company to a web3 gaming company.

Playcent acquires Polkarare: Playcent, which is a decentralised play to earn gaming platform, has acquired an NFT marketplace Polkarare in an undisclosed deal. As a part of the deal, Polkarare’s founder Pramod Mahadik will join Playcent as a technical advisor. With this acquisition, Playcent wants to democratise the process of buying, minting and selling NFTs.

Mudrex raises $6.5 million: Crypto investment platform Mudrex has raised $6.5 million from Arkam Ventures, Tribe Capital, and Bolt by QED Investors. They will be using the funds to accelerate user acquisition and expand their presence across India, the US, Europe and Latin America.

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In this video, we take a look at why 10-minute delivery startups are taking over India's grocery space. And can these instant delivery startups generate profits?

Zepto changed the way groceries are delivered in India: In September 2021, two 19-year-old students, who were pursuing their bachelor’s degrees in computer science at Stanford, decided to drop out and start an online grocery delivery startup in India. It was a bold move, a risky move, but in less than a year’s time, this company took India’s startup ecosystem by storm by irreversibly changing the way that groceries are delivered in the country. They’ve already raised almost $160 million at the time of us filming this video, and are currently valued at $570 million. This startup’s name, of course, is Zepto, India’s biggest trendsetter in the exciting world of instant grocery delivery.

Why is every startup chasing instant delivery right now: Before 2020, and specifically before the COVID-19 pandemic, grocery shopping was an offline activity. That’s the way that the world, and in this specific case India, thought about it - you go to the grocery store, the kirana, the market, you fill up your basket or your polybag, and you bring it home. That’s how grocery shopping has been done for decades. Ola Store, Ola Foods, Flipkart Nearby and PepperTap – all failed to change this get people to switch from offline to online grocery shopping. Everything changed in 2020, when lockdowns kept people indoors for months and even after that, a lot of people were choosing not to go to crowded, indoor spaces where they were likely to contract COVID-19. And so suddenly, from a struggling industry, online grocery delivery exploded, it became one of the hottest markets to be in, to the point where two of the largest online grocery players, BigBasket and Grofers, were getting more orders than they could handle.

Can 10-minute delivery startups make profits: It seems like many of these companies, both in India and abroad, are fairly confident that they’ll be able to generate profits. Take the example of Turkey’s Getir, which started in 2015, or The Czech Republic-based Rohlik which started in 2014 - these guys have already become profitable, both of them, in 2021, and are now expanding overseas. One aspect of this lies in the way these instant grocery delivery startups operate. In fact, instant grocery delivery startups operate on margins as high as 10% compared to offline stores which operate on 1-3% margins. That’s because instant grocery delivery startups use dark stores which don’t need to be set up in premium locations with high costs.

As deliveries get faster, they get cheaper: The faster you do deliveries, the cheaper they get. That’s because once you’ve achieved the optimal distribution of dark stores in a given area, those areas do become profitable, whereas with food delivery like Zomato and Swiggy, the distance between restaurants and the end customer are wider and with the exception of cloud kitchens, outside of the startup’s control, and so you lose time, you lose money, and you lose the opportunity to be profitable.

One big idea excites VCs: In the past, VCs were hesitant to pour money into online grocery delivery startups because so much money was required. The cost of changing consumer behavior was just astronomical, and so the long-term prospects of grocery delivery startups, the likelihood of them quickly 10Xing their investor’s money, was slim. Now though, with the pandemic doing all of the work on the consumer behaviour front, the path to skyrocketing valuations, lucrative exits, and even diversification is a lot clearer for VCs, and so they’re far more interested in investing.

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In today’s video, we continue the story of how Bengaluru became India’s Silicon Valley.

Y2K Bug – a $308 billion mistake: If you were born in the 21st century, then there’s a good chance that Y2K doesn’t mean anything to you, but it was a big deal. It was the Year 2000 problem, the Millennium Bug, a $308 billion mistake caused by short-sightedness. Computer programs at the time shortened four-digit years to the last two digits. This wasn’t a problem in the 20th century. As these programs started approaching 99, people realised that there wasn’t anything after that. At the turn of the century, computer clocks would reset to 00, and this was a big problem, because United States which was the centre of the digital world back then, was heavily reliant upon computers at - industries like transportation, energy, and banking needed their digital clocks to be accurate.

Engineers in Bengaluru help prevent the Y2K crisis: The clock struck midnight. The new century began. And the world stayed the same. There was no apocalypse. And whether the world knew it or not, they had an Indian city by the name of Bangalore to thank for that. Estimates put the number of lines of code required to avoid the Y2K crisis at 180 billion - it would require roughly 1.1 million COBOL programmers, and that is where Bengaluru comes in. COBOL was still actively being taught in Indian colleges, there were tens of thousands of Indian engineers who were proficient in this language, and while American COBOL programmers were expensive, Indian ones were cheap. From $100 million in 1990, India’s IT sector grew 80X by 2001 - becoming an $8.26 billion industry.

The dotcom bubble brings jobs to Bengaluru: In March of 2000, America’s dot-com bubble burst - in the subsequent months, many prominent US-based internet companies would go bankrupt as venture capital dried up and their businesses disintegrated because of unsustainable burn rates. The survivors of this crash had a harder time raising funds from investors, and many of them came up with strategies to reduce spending on salaries and to diversify their customer bases, and one of these strategies was international expansion. And this international expansion brought tech giants like Yahoo, Google, eBay and Amazon to Bengaluru between 2000 and 2004.

Rise of internet and economic prosperity: The government of India’s 2004 broadband policy established 256 kilobit per second internet as the minimum speed. This increase in internet speed coincided with another increase that happened in India between the financial year of 2003 and the financial year of 2007: real GDP growth averaging close to 9% a year. In this time period, the number of Indian households with more than $10,000 in disposable income roughly doubled. This financial prosperity, paired with India’s increasing internet connectivity, gave rise to one of the most crucial components of any market or industry: demand.

Bengaluru’s startup ecosystem takes its baby steps: By 2003, Bengaluru’s startup ecosystem was taking its first baby steps - entrepreneurs had begun to see an opportunity in India’s increasing spending power and deepening internet penetration. Early trailblazers like ngpay – which was acquired by Flipkart started and defence startup Tonbo Imaging were founded in 2003, MuSigma – one of India’s first unicorns in 2004 and iD Fresh Food was founded in 2005 – all in Bengaluru.

VCs flock to Bengaluru: After the Financial Crisis of 2007-08 in the United States, the VCs were looking to take their money out of the US and found Bengaluru to be a perfect opportunity for growth. As the money started to pour into Bengaluru’s startup ecosystem – startups like Flipkart, Myntra, InMobi, Verse Innovation, CommonFloor and RedBus were all founded in 2007. And this was the beginning of the entrepreneurship wave in Bengaluru.

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In this video, we continue with Deepinder Goyal’s journey of building Zomato – not the Zomato we all know today but this is the story of Zomato’s origins. Before it was even called Zomato, it’s the story of Foodlet and Foodiebay.

How Deepinder Goyal met his co-founder Pankaj Chaddah: At Bain & Company, Deepinder used to play foosball with this guy at lunch breaks who would keep beating him again and again. This guy was Pankaj Chaddah. During their lunch break, Pankaj happened to look at Foodiebay’s analytics and realised that Deepinder was struggling to attract traffic to his website. As Deepinder kept looking, the number of users suddenly tripped from 3 to 10 users. He noticed that Pankaj had changed his Google Talk status to ‘go check out foodiebay.com’ – which helped people in discovering Foodiebay. This was the moment Deepinder realised that he really needed a co-founder to help him scale this startup idea and on 10th July 2008 Pankaj joined Foodiebay as Deepinder’s co-founder.

Competition and Foodiebay’s growth: By 2008, Foodiebay was starting to see a lot of competition from food websites like Hungry Bangalore, Burrp, Tasty Khana, Plan for Me, BiteQuest and A Place To Dine. This competition also helped Foodiebay to be a part of the competition story in the online food space that got Foodiebay the media attention that they desperately needed. By the end of 2008, Foodiebay had grown significantly - more than 1,400 restaurants had uploaded their menus on their website and that was just in the Delhi-NCR region alone. Over the next few years, Foodiebay started to expand to cities like Mumbai and Kolkata – while also adding new features like restaurant ratings and reviews and personalised recommendations. They had managed to do all this – while still working at Bain & Company. Foodiebay was still just a side hustle for them.

Deepinder and Pankaj quit Bain & Company to focus on Foodiebay: Once Foodiebay was making more money than the two co-founders were making from their job at Bain and Company, they decided it was time for them to shift their complete focus on Foodiebay. That was the only way they could grow Foodiebay and take it to the next level. So, in 2009, both Deepinder and Pankaj quit their jobs and became full-time entrepreneurs.

Foodiebay almost didn’t get investment from Info Edge: Now, Deepinder and Pankaj want to grow and scale Foodiebay as fast as they could. But to do that, they would need money – more money than what they were making from Foodiebay. Even when Deepinder was actively looking to invest, he had received an email from someone at Naurki.com but thinking that it was just another sales email, he ignored it. Eventually, he did open that email and he was shocked to realise that he had ignored an email from the founder of Naukri.com/Info Edge himself – he was Sanjeev Bikhchandani. He was surprised to see that Sanjeev was in fact a user of Foodiebay. So, Deepinder decided to set up a meeting with Sanjeev and within 72 hours of that meeting, Info Edge had invested $1 million into Foodiebay.

How Foodiebay became Zomato: In one of their early conversations with Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Sanjeev asked them why they had chosen the name Foodiebay. Sanjeev even raised some objections about the name – first, adding ‘Food’ in the name made their business a lot restrictive and then the big one was ‘ebay’ – this could turn out to be a legal issue if global e-commerce website Ebay noticed Foodiebay. So, Sanjeev urged them to come up with a different name. That’s when they decided to used the word ‘Tomato’ to come up with ‘Zomato’. And just like that – Foodiebay became the food delivery giant that we all know today – Zomato.

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This week in Indian startup news, BharatPe vs Ashneer Grover controversy, Navi Technologies planning an IPO, Ather Energy planning to launch a new electric scooter, and Razorpay’s first international acquisition.

In funding news, ElasticRun raises $300 million to become a unicorn, Livspace raises $180 million to become a unicorn, Xpressbees raises $300 million to become a unicorn, Airmeet raises $35 million, Mintifi raises $40 million, Xto10X raises $25 million, Bugworks Research raises $18 million, Karbon Card raises $15 million, and Sprinto raises $10 million.

BharatPe vs Ashneer Grover controversy: BharatPe has hired PwC to audit their books and there are already reports of financial fraud. Ashneer Grover on the other hand has denied all the allegations from the leaked audio clip to financial fraud. He now is asking the board to either pay him ₹4,000 crore for his 9.5% stake in the company if they want him gone or let him run the company.

Navi Technologies planning an IPO: Sachin Bansal’s latest fintech and insurtech venture Navi Technologies is gearing up for an IPO within four years of its launch. Navi Technologies provides loans and insurance to their customers and they’ve also launched their own mutual fund to offer more investment opportunities to their customers.

Ather Energy planning to launch new electric scooter: While Ola continues to face production delays, their rival Ather Energy is gearing up to up the ante as they plan to launch a new variant of their electric scooter with a bigger battery with a longer range within the next six months. Ather’s new electric scooter is expected to have a 110-115 km range – which could give Ola a run for their money.

Razorpay’s first international acquisition: Indian fintech giant Razorpay has acquired a majority stake in Curlec, a Malaysian recurring payments solution for businesses - marking their first international acquisition.

ElasticRun raises $300 million to become a unicorn: Pune-based B2B e-commerce startup ElasticRun has raised $300 million in a round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 at a $1.5 billion valuation – making them a unicorn.

Livspace raises $180 million to become a unicorn: Home decor and renovation platform Livspace has raised $180 million in a round led by KKR at a $1.2 billion valuation – making them a unicorn.

Xpressbees raises $300 million to become a unicorn: Pune-based logistics service provider Xpressbees has raised $300 million in a round led by Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth, ChrysCapital at a $1.2 billion valuation – making them India’s 8th unicorn of 2022.

Airmeet raises $35 million: Virtual events platform Airmeet has raised $35 million in a round led by Prosus Ventures and Sistema Asia Fund to add new experiences on their virtual events platform by investing in R&D and to expand their international business.

Mintifi raises $40 million: B2B lending startup Mintifi has raised $40 million in a round led by Norwest Venture Partners and Elevation Capital to expand their lending product portfolio by adding products like BNPL solutions for SMEs.

Xto10X raises $25 million: Binny Bansal’s scaling platform for startups Xto10X has raised $25 million to help develop learning programmes, software tools and operating capabilities - that will enable startups to scale their operations.

Bugworks Research raises $18 million: A clinical-stage biopharmaceutical startup Bugworks Research has raised $18 million in a round led by Lightrock India to support the development of its broad-spectrum antibacterial agent.

Karbon Card raises $15 million: Karbon Card, which offers corporate cards to businesses and startups, has raised $15 million to offer complete neobanking services to businesses.

Sprinto raises $10 million: SaaS-based compliance automation startup Sprinto has raised $10 million in a round led by Elevation Capital to open their first office in the US.

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This week in Indian web3 news, WazirX’s co-founder Nishchal Shetty to launch Shardeum blockchain, India’s first metaverse wedding NFTs, and India’s first blockchain wedding.

In funding news, Polygon raises $450 million, Colexion raises $5 million, Pillow raises $3 million, and Oneto11 raises $2.5 million.

WazirX’s co-founder Nishchal Shetty to launch Shardeum blockchain: WazirX’s co-founder Nishcal Shetty, along with US-based blockchain architect Omar Syed, are planning to launch a Layer 1 blockchain called Shardeum to solve the problem of scalability and cost facing blockchain networks like Bitcoin or Ethereum. Shardeum will be using the concept of sharding, where the network is broken up into shards. So you don’t have all of the nodes in the network handling all of the transactions, you just have some shards handling some transactions, while other shards handle other transactions.

India’s first metaverse wedding NFTs: Days before this Tamil Nadu-based couple hosted India’s first metaverse wedding - they decided to drop their 12 NFTs including the invitation and bride and groom’s virtual avatars on an NFT marketplace called BeyondLife.club. While these wedding reception invites were sold out within seconds of dropping for $10 each - one of these invites was being traded at $4,450.

India’s first blockchain wedding: After India’s first metaverse wedding reception, a couple from Pune (Shruti Nair and Anil Narasipuram) have made their wedding official on the blockchain. The couple got married on 15th November 2021 but had to opt for a court marriage due to Covid restrictions but they thought that it wasn’t enough - so, the couple decided to get a digital priest and made their marriage ‘blockchain official’ by executing an Ethereum contract - which consecrated their commitment in the form of an NFT.

TDS on cryptocurrencies could impact crypto trades: According to Zerodha’s co-founder Nithin Kamath, the 1% TDS on cryptocurrencies could mean that a trader doing 50% trades in a day would end up having 50% of his account value being blocked by the trading platform for TDS. This could severely impact crypto trades as a lot of the money could just end up being blocked leading to a downturn in the crypto trading activity overall.

Polygon raises $450 million: Polygon, the Ethereum-based scaling solution, has raised $450 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital. The interesting thing here is that this wasn’t Polygon selling equity to raise these funds - instead, they sold MATIC tokens to these investors. Polygon has 2.67 million monthly active users, who generate roughly 3 million transactions per day, more than double the volume of Ethereum. Polygon will be using these funds to help make mass adoption of Web3 a reality.

the Colexion raises $5 million: Colexion, a celebrity NFT platform, has raised $5 million from the likes of Polygon, HyperEdge Capital, Titan Ventures, Maven Capital to launch their native token $CLXN and to build their own metaverse infrastructure.

Pillow raises $3 million: DeFi investment platform Pillow has raised $3 million in a round led by Elevation Capital to add high-return generating DeFi strategies for more crypto-assets and to expand globally.

Oneto11 raises $2.5 million: Blockchain-based fantasy gaming platform Oneto11 has raised $2.5 million from the likes of Oracles Investment Group, Maximus Capital, NFT Technologies, Magnus Capital, Dutch Crypto Investors to enter new markets like the Middle East, Europe and North America.

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This week in Indian startup news, Delhi becomes India’s new startup capital, Ashneer Grover probed for financial fraud, Budget 2022: startup tax holiday extended and LTCG surcharge capped at 15%, Ola rebrands quick grocery delivery business as Ola Dash, and Curefoods acquires Maverix.

In funding news, Dealshare raises $165 million to become a unicorn, Moglix raises $250 million, Chargebee raises $250 million and Scaler Academy raises $55 million.

Delhi becomes India’s new startup capital: According to the Economic Survey 2021-22, Delhi is now the new startup capital of India - taking the title away from Bengaluru. Between April 2019 and December 2021 - while Bengaluru added 4,514 new startups, Delhi on the other hand added over 5,000 startups.

Ashneer Grover probed for financial fraud: Days after BharatPe’s Ashneer Grover went on a ‘voluntary leave’, not only did his wife Madhuri Jain Grover (who also works at BharatPe) also went on a leave and BharatPe also announced an independent audit of the company’s internal processes and systems. According to media reports, both Ashneer and his wife are being investigated for financial fraud at BharatPe. Ashneer is already facing a hard time in the media for the leaked audio clip controversy, but allegations of financial fraud could have serious consequences for not just Ashneer but for India’s startup ecosystem. Ashneer has hired a legal firm and is looking to safeguard his reputation and interests at BharatPe.

Budget 2022: Startup tax holiday extended and LTCG surcharge capped at 15%: While there wasn’t much talk about startups in general in the latest budget, there are a few positives for Indian startups. First of all, startups that were incorporated between 1st April 2016 and 31st March 2022 - were eligible for a tax holiday - meaning they don’t have to pay any tax on profits for three consecutive years out of the first ten years of their operations. Due to the whole covid situation, this period has been increased by one more year until 31st March 2023. Secondly - investors, startup founders and employees will now have to pay less tax on their startup investments as the long-term capital gain (LTCG) surcharge is now capped at 15%.

Ola rebrands quick grocery delivery business as Ola Dash: Just like Gofers rebranded themselves as Blinkit to focus on instant grocery delivery, Ola’s latest grocery delivery business called Ola Store is now renamed as Ola Dash to focus on instant grocery as well. They already have a presence in nine cities with a network of 200 dark stores – which they are now planning to increase to 500 across 20 cities in the next six months.

Curefoods acquires Maverix: Cloud kitchen startup Curefoods has acquired another cloud kitchen startup called Maverix Platforms - making Curefoods the second-largest cloud kitchen in the country with 125 kitchens across 12 cities.

Dealshare raises $165 million to become a unicorn: Social commerce platform Dealshare has raised $165 million in a round led by Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Global at a $1.4 billion valuation – making them India’s fifth unicorn of 2022.

Moglix raises $250 million: Moglix, which is a B2B marketplace for industrial products, has raised $250 million in a round led by Alpha Wave Global – more than doubling their valuation from $1 billion to $2.6 billion in just eight months.

Chargebee raises $250 million: SaaS-based subscription management platform Chargebee has raised $250 million in a round led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital – raising their valuation from $1.4 billion to $3.5 billion in nine months.

Scaler Academy raises $55 million: Upskilling platform for college students and working professionals Scaler Academy has raised $55 million in a round led by Lightrock India at a $710 million valuation.

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This week in Indian crypto news, India makes cryptocurrencies legal with a crypto tax in budget 2022, FanCraze launches NFTs for cricket fans, Hike partners with Polygon to move into web3, YouTube’s head of gaming joins Polygon Studios, Stader Labs raises $12.5 million and Flint raises $5.1 million.

India makes cryptocurrencies legal with a crypto tax in budget 2022: Indian government has introduced a 30% tax on virtual assets – cryptocurrencies and NFTs – essentially making them legal in India. This decision has brought a lot of clarity and joy among all the crypto investors and web3 enthusiasts in the country.

YouTube’s head of gaming joins Polygon Studios: YouTube’s head of gaming Ryan Wyatt is leaving YouTube to join blockchain technology company Polygon - where he will be heading Polygon Studios as its CEO. According to Polygon Studios LinkedIn description, it seems like Polygon is building a blockchain-based media and content platform and their focus seems to be gaming for now. They have already launched a $100 million fund to invest in NFT-based gaming projects.

Hike partners with Polygon to move into web3: After shutting down their messaging platform last year, Hike is now focused on building their casual play to earn gaming platform Rush. The company has now partnered with Polygon to help them transition from a web2 to a web3 company as they plan to add NFTs and launch more play to earn features for their users.

FanCraze launches NFTs for cricket fans: Cricket NFT platform FanCraze has launched digital collectables or NFTs called ‘ICC Crictos’ in partnership with the ICC. This means that cricket fans around the world will now be able to own short digital clips of their favourite cricketing moments from Yuvraj Singh’s six sixes to Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s 2011 world cup winning six. And the best part is, they will be able to buy these NFTs using fiat currencies through payment methods like credit/debit cards, wallets and UPI – making them accessible to the masses.

Stader Labs raises $12.5 million: Crypto staking management platform Stader Labs has raised $12.5 million in a round led by Three Arrows Capital – raising their valuation 9X in just three months from $50 million to $450 million.

Flint raises $5.1 million: Crypto investment platform Flint has raised $5.1 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital and Global Founders Capital to help them provide passive investment opportunities to their users in the crypto market.

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This week in Indian startup news, Ola’s electric car, Memechat turns memes into NFTs, Daler Mehndi’s metaverse concert and Boat files for Rs 2,000 crore IPO.

In funding news, Darwinbox raises $72 million to become a unicorn, Swiggy raises $700 million and StanPlus raises $20 million.

Ola’s electric car: Ola’s co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal posted a digital rendering of an electric car – hinting towards their plans to launch their own electric cars after launching their electric scooters. They have now raised $200 million at a $5 billion valuation to realise their dream of launching their own electric car.

Memechat turns memes into NFTs: Meme creating and sharing platform Memechat has launched their own NFT marketplace called The Meme Club (TMC) - allowing creators to create and sell their own memes as NFTs. After witnessing the craze of NFTs across the world, Memechat wants to replicate the same success in India through memes.

Daler Mehndi’s metaverse concert: On 26th January - India’s 73rd Republic day, Indian singer Daler Mehndi performed in a concert in the metaverse. This concert also marked the launch of Partynite - a metaverse platform launched by Hyderabad-based gaming company Gamitronics which hosted the metaverse concert.

Boat files for Rs 2,000 crore IPO: Imagine Marketing, the parent company of consumer electronics brand Boat, has filed for an IPO. They want to raise up to ₹2,000 crore through the IPO - which would value them at over $1.5 billion - which is considerably higher than their previous $300 million valuation last year. Out of ₹2,000 crore - ₹1,100 crore will be offer for sale - which means giving their investors an option to sell their shares and the remaining ₹900 crore will consist of fresh issue - which will be used to pay off their debts.

Darwinbox raises $72 million to become a unicorn: SaaS-based HRtech platform Darwinbox has raised $72 million in a round led by TCV – making them India’s fourth unicorn of 2022. The startup wants to use the fresh capital to add more products to their HR management portfolio and expand into the US market.

Swiggy raises $700 million: Food delivery giant Swiggy has raised $700 million in a round led by Invesco at a $10.7 billion valuation – making them a decacorn. Swiggy is now even bigger than Zomato in terms of valuation and they will be using the fresh capital to further expand their rapidly growing instant grocery delivery business.

StanPlus raises $20 million: Ambulance service provider StanPlus has raised $20 million in a round led by HealthQuad, Kalaari Capital, and HealthX Capital Singapore to bring down ambulance response time from 18 minutes to just 8 minutes using their ambulance fleet.

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This week in Indian startup news, EVage raises $28 million to build electric trucks, nCore Games raises $10 million to enter metaverse gaming, India gets its first metaverse wedding reception, Boat to file for IPO next week, BharatPe’s Ashneer Grover controversy, Reliance acquires Addverb Technologies, INDMoney raises $75 million and Arya.ag raises $60 million.

EVage raises $28 million to build electric trucks: Electric commercial vehicle startup EVage has raised $28 million in a round led by RedBlue Capital to help them build their flagship electric truck Model.X.

nCore Games raises $10 million to enter metaverse gaming: nCore Games, the developer of FAU-G, has raised $10 million in a round led by Animoca Brands and Galaxy Interactive to help them enter metaverse space with the launch of new Web3 and play to earn games. They are expected to launch their own NFTs and tokens in the next few months.

India gets its first metaverse wedding reception: With the pandemic forcing people to get married over Zoom, an Indian couple in Tamil Nadu will now be hosting their wedding reception on the metaverse – being the first ones to do so in India. It will be a Hogwarts-themed event that is going to be hosted by a Chennai-based startup called TardiVerse.

Boat to file for IPO next week: D2C wearable brand Boat is expected to file for an IPO next week as they plan to raise Rs 2,000 crore. This will make them the first D2C startup to go public and a profitable one at that.

BharatPe’s Ashneer Grover controversy: BharatPe’s co-founder Ashneer Grover is going on voluntary leave. The whole thing started with a leaked audio clip in which Ashneer Grover was allegedly heard abusing and threatening a Kotak Mahindra Bank employee for not getting allocation for the Nykaa IPO. While Ashneer has called the audio clip fake in a deleted tweet, he and his wife had filed a lawsuit against Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Reliance acquires Addverb Technologies: Reliance has acquired a 54% stake in a robotics startup Addverb Technologies to help them scale and automate their warehouses as they plan to strengthen their e-commerce play with JioMart across categories like grocery, fashion and lifestyle, pharma, and furniture.

INDMoney raises $75 million: Wealth management platform INDMoney has raised $75 million in a round led by Tiger Global, Steadview Capital and Dragoneer at a $640 million valuation – as they plan to offer credit cards to their users and grow their user base to 25 to 30 million in the next 12-18 months.

Arya.ag raises $60 million: Agritech startup Arya.ag has raised $60 million in a round led by Asia Impact SA at a $300 million valuation to offer insurance and logistics to farmers across the country.

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This week in Indian startup news, Pine Labs files for confidential IPO in the US, Edtech startups looking to self-regulate the edtech sector and GlobalBees acquire three more D2C brands.

In funding news, Lead School raises $100 million to become a unicorn, Refyne raises $82 million, FPL Technologies raises $75 million, and Curefoods raises $62 million.

Pine Labs files for confidential IPO in the US: Indian fintech giant Pine Labs, which offers an end-to-end payment solution for merchants, has filed for a ‘confidential’ IPO in the US - planning to raise around $500 million which would value the company anywhere between $5.5 to $7 billion. Unlike traditional IPOs, while filing a confidential IPO – a company does not need to disclose any details or their DRHP to the public until it is approved by the regulatory body.

Edtech startups looking to self-regulate the edtech sector: A few weeks back, the Indian government had issued an advisory for parents and students - cautioning them against misselling done by some edtech companies. Amid all this, 15 edtech companies which include some of India’s biggest edtech startups like Byju’s, Unacademy, Vedantu, and upGrad have come together to set up an autonomous body called ‘India EdTech Consortium’ under the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). With this, these companies want to create a self-regulatory code for the industry and adhere to a ‘common code of conduct’.

GlobalBees acquires three more D2C brands: Thrasio-style D2C house of brands unicorn GlobalBees has acquired three more D2C brands this week - including The Butternut Company (a healthy snacks brand), Mush (a sustainable clothing brand) and Strauss (a sports and fitness equipment brand). With these acquisitions, GlobalBees already has 11 brands in their portfolio. The startup plans to acquire more than 100 brands within the next three years - across categories like FMCG, sports, lifestyle and home organisation.

Lead School raises $100 million to become a unicorn: Edtech startup Lead School, which is focused on providing technology solutions to schools enabling them to conduct online classes via virtual classrooms, has raised $100 million in a round led by GSV Ventures and WestBridge Capital – making them India’s 3rd unicorn this year.

Refyne raises $82 million: Early wage access platform Refyne, which allows employees to access their salaries on-demand without waiting for the end of the month, has raised $82 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management.

FPL Technologies raises $75 million: Fintech startup FPL Technologies, which operates credit scoring platform OneScore and issues its own credit card called OneCard, has raised $75 million from QED Investors, Janchor Partners, Sequoia Capital India, Matrix Partners and Hummingbird Ventures at a $750 million valuation.

Curefoods raises $62 million: Cloud kitchen startup Curefoods has raised $62 million from Iron Pillar, Chiratae Ventures, Sixteenth Street Capital, Accel Partners and Binny Bansal (Flipkart co-founder).

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This week in Indian startup news, Tax department crackdown on crypto exchanges for tax evasion, Good Glamm Group launches influencer marketing venture ‘Good Creator Co’, Curefoods acquires five food brands and ESOPs buyback at an all-time high.

In funding news, Fractal Analytics raises $360 million, Dunzo raises $240 million and Zupee raises $72 million.

Tax department cracks down on crypto exchanges for tax evasion: Binance-owned Indian crypto exchange WazirX was investigated by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) department - alleging a tax evasion of ₹40.5 crore by the crypto exchange. The tax department has now recovered ₹49.2 crore from WazirX - which includes the unpaid GST plus interest and penalties. Following this, the tax authorities are now also investigating other crypto exchanges in the country including crypto unicorns CoinSwitch Kuber and CoinDCX, BuyUCoin and Unocoin.

ESOPs buyback at an all-time high: 2021 was the best year for Indian startups in many ways than one - Indian startups funding reached an all-time high of $39 billion - that’s more than 3X of what they raised in 2020. But the entrepreneurs weren’t the only ones who profited from the funding craze - a lot of this money even went into the pockets of the employees of these startups. Thanks to the ESOP buyback conducted by these startups worth $440 million – which is again a record for the ecosystem.

Good Glamm Group launches influencer marketing venture ‘Good Creator Co’: D2C beauty brand Good Glamm Group has acquired influencer marketing platform Winkl and video analytics platform Vidooly - to launch ‘Good Creator Co’ - their influencer marketing platform – clubbing together the products from their latest acquisitions along with MissMalini and Plixxo. This strategy will allow Good Glamm Group to earn money by to helping brands connect directly with influencers to boost the reach of their products.

Curefoods acquires five food brands: Curefoods, a cloud kitchen startup, has acquired five more food brands to add to their growing portfolio. With these acquisitions, Curefoods now has more than 20 food brands under their brand – operating across 20 cities.

Fractal Analytics raises $360 million: AI-based analytics startup Fractal Analytics has raised $360 million in a round led by TPG – making this 22-year-old company a unicorn.

Dunzo raises $240 million: Hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo has raised $240 million in a round led by Reliance Retail - valuing them at $775 million. This will allow Reliance Retail to access Dunzo’s hyperlocal delivery network for their merchants on JioMart and enable Dunzo to expand into eight new cities and strengthen their quick commerce play.

Zupee raises $72 million: Skill-based real-money gaming platform Zupee has raised $72 million in a round led by Nepean Capital – closing their series B round with $102 million and at a valuation of $600 million.

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This week in Indian startup news, Capillary Technologies files for IPO, Ola Electric disappoints customers, and MamaEarth acquires Momspresso.

In funding news, MamaEarth raises $37.5 million to become a unicorn, GlobalBees raises $111.5 million to become a unicorn, Zetwerk raises $210 million, and Jupiter raises $86 million.

Capillary Technologies files for IPO: SaaS-based customer engagement startup Capillary Technologies has filed for an IPO and they plan to raise Rs 850 crore. Out of the Rs 850 crore, Rs 650 crore will come from existing investors selling their stake – which means the primary aim of the IPO is to provide their investors with an exit.

Ola Electric Disappoints Customers: Now that Ola has finally started shipping their electric scooters after multiple delays, they are now facing new problems. This time the customers are disappointed with their Ola S1 and S1 pro as they complain about receiving defective products with scratches and dents. While some even complain of receiving scooters that do not hold up to the promise of the range offered by the startup. On the other hand, the startup is now busy setting up their EV chargers as they plan to set up 4,000 chargers by the end of 2022.

MamaEarth acquires Momspresso: Honasa Consumer, the parent company of D2C baby care brand MamaEarth, has acquired women-focused parenting platform Momspresso and its affiliate micro-influencer marketing platform Momspresso MyMoney. This acquisition is a part of MamaEarth’s strategy of leveraging content to grow their D2C brands.

MamaEarth raises $37.5 million to become a unicorn: D2C baby and mother care brand MamaEarth has raised $37.5 million in a round led by Sequoia – making them India’s 42nd unicorn of 2021.

GlobalBees raises $111.5 million to become a unicorn: Thrasio-style D2C house of brands GlobalBees has raised $111.5 million in a round led by Premji Invest at a $1.07 billion valuation – making them India’s second fasted unicorn and 43rd unicorn of 2021.

Zetwerk raises $210 million: B2B marketplace for manufacturing services Zetwerk has raised $210 million in a round led by Greenoaks Capital doubling their valuation from $1.33 billion to $2.68 billion in just four months.

Jupiter raises $86 million: Neobanking startup Jupiter has raised $86 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management, QED and Sequoia Capital at a $711 million valuation to develop and add more banking products for their customers - they plan on introducing a lending feature by April and a wider range of investment products later in the year.

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2021 has been a pretty incredible year for India’s startup ecosystem - with everything that's happened in the year let's take a look at the 10 biggest highlights of India's startup ecosystem in our 2021 Rewind video.

Younger Indian startups acquiring older companies: We witnessed this really interesting phenomenon where young startup companies were acquiring traditional businesses that’d been around for decades. For example, 5-year-old stock trading unicorn Groww acquired the mutual funds business of India Bulls, a 21-year-old company, for ₹175 Crore. We also saw India’s only online pharmacy unicorn Pharmeasy acquiring a majority stake in India's largest diagnostic solutions provider Thyrocare, which is 25 years old, in a deal worth ₹4,546 crore.

Byju's acquisition spree worth $2.5 billion: In 2021, Byju's took their acquisition spree to new heights by pouring in $2.5 billion to acquire 10 companies including the $1 billion acquisition of the offline coaching institute Aakash.

Crypto unicorns are born despite the uncertainty: Despite all the uncertainty that surrounds India's crypto industry, we saw CoinDCX and CoinSwitch becoming India's first and second crypto unicorns respectively. Another great example of the crypto revolution in India is Polygon - a layer 2 protocol for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks which began its journey in India.

Skyroot Aerospace prepares for space launch: Skyroot Aerospace, the first Indian startup to successfully test a rocket engine last year, in 2020, and this year they set another record too, becoming the first Indian startup to successfully test a cryogenic rocket engine, taking India one step closer to launching privately-built rockets into space the same way American companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are in the United States.

Byju's edtech, lawsuit and controversy: Byju's was shrouded in controversies throughout the year bringing into focus their alleged unethical practices and the $2.6 million lawsuit that was filed against Pradeep Poonia.

Ola Electric's grand EV plans for India: They announced their S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters back on India’s Independence Day, and started taking orders in October. During the first two days of this booking period, Ola received orders worth Rs 1,100 crore - that’s more than 80,000 scooters! Ola single-handedly tripled the size of India’s electric two-wheeler market, and on top of that, they started work on what was supposed to be the world’s largest electric scooter factory before Simple Energy announced that they were gonna build an even bigger one.

Superfast grocery delivery takes the front seat: Thanks to two 19-year-old Stanford dropouts building a startup called Zepto, 10-minute grocery delivery is becoming more and more commonplace in India’s metros. Following Zepto’s lead, Grofers, which has been around since 2013, rebranded themselves to Blinkit, ensuring that everyone knew they were as serious about super fast delivery as Zepto, and these kinds of high-speed deliveries are also happening now with Swiggy Instamart, too.

Mensa Brands - India's fastest unicorn: The Thrasio-style D2C house of brands - Mensa Brands became the fastest Indian startup to join the unicorn club, entering the club in just six months.

Nykaa's IPO: Nykaa's IPO was arguably the most successful startup IPO of 2021. Anyone who got an allotment in this IPO saw their investment double when Nykaa hit the stock market, and it also made Falguni Nayar, the nayika of Nykaa, India’s wealthiest self-made woman.

Zomato - the startup that kicked off the IPO craze: Zomato was the first Indian startup to IPO in 2021 and also became the first-ever Indian unicorn to IPO.

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This week in Indian startup news, Blinkit temporarily shuts down 18 locations, Urban Company sues women partners for protesting, Byju’s in talks to go public via SPAC, Snapdeal files for IPO to raise Rs 1,250 crore and Cult.fit acquires four fitness equipment brands.

In funding news, Cars24 raises $400 million, Razorpay raises $375 million, OfBusiness raises $325 million, Bizongo raises $110 million and Zepto raises $100 million.

Blinkit temporarily shuts down 18 locations: Last week, Grofers rebranded themselves as Blinkit to reflect their pivot to 10-minute grocery delivery. With the pivot to Blinkit, the startup has announced that they are temporarily shutting down operations in 18 cities where they are unable to serve their customers in 10 minutes.

Urban Company sues women partners for protesting: Urban Company, which offers home services to their customers, has filed a lawsuit against their own women gig workers for protesting against their ‘minimum guarantee plan’. After failing to remove them from the premises, the company filed a lawsuit against the protestors calling their actions ‘illegal’ and ‘unlawful’.

Byju’s in talks to go public via SPAC: According to a Bloomberg report, India’s most valuable startup Byju’s is in talks with Churchill Capital to go public via SPAC or a blank cheque company in the US at a valuation of over $45 billion. If the deal goes through, it will be the biggest SPAC deal - overtaking Singapore’s super app Grab. Byju’s is also considering listing in India after they’ve listed in the US.

Snapdeal files for IPO to raise Rs 1,250 crore: Snapdeal, an e-commerce platform now focused on tier 2 and beyond users, has filed for an IPO in a bid to raise ₹1,250 crore. Snapdeal was once a unicorn before it crashed and burned in a bid to out-compete Flipkart and Amazon - both of which are rich in cash. While Snapdeal on the other hand has failed to raise funds from investors since 2019. So going public might have been their only option to raise some cash.

Cult.fit acquires four fitness equipment brands: Health and fitness startup Cult.fit has acquired three at-home fitness equipment brands - RPM Fitness, Fitkit and Onefitplus. And also an outdoor fitness brand called Urban Terrain - which makes bicycles. These acquisitions will enable Cult.fit to strengthen their at-home fitness product offerings and also create an umbrella brand for D2C fitness brands - riding the at-home fitness trend kicked by the pandemic and the growth of D2C brands in India.

Cars24 raises $400 million: Cars24, an online platform for buying and selling used cars, has raised $400 million in a round led by Alpha Wave Global at a $3.3 billion valuation – raising their valuation almost 2X in just three months from $1.84 billion.

Razorpay raises $375 million: Payment gateway provider for SMEs and large enterprises Razorpay has raised $375 million in a round led by Lone Pine Capital, Alkeon Capital and TCV at $7.5 billion valuation – making them India’s most valuable fintech startup.

OfBusiness raises $325 million: B2B commerce platform OfBusiness, which helps businesses in procuring raw materials like steel, cement, chemicals and leather, has raised $325 million in a round led by Alpha Wave Global, Tiger Global Management and SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 at a $5 billion valuation.

Bizongo raises $110 million: B2B packaging solutions provider Bizongo has raised $110 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management at a $600 million valuation to help digitize their entire vendor ecosystem.

Zepto raises $100 million: 10-minute grocery delivery startup by two 19-year-old Stanford dropouts – Zepto has raised $100 million in a round led by Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund at a $570 million valuation.

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In today’s video, we look at how Licious turned a simple idea into a billion-dollar startup.

Abhay Hanjura’s shattered dream: When Abhay was younger, he wanted to be a soldier. He went to army school for 13 years in preparation for this and he had his whole life mapped out. But at the age of 17, less than a year before he’d be eligible to enlist, he was in a motorcycle accident and lost one of his legs. This is when he took his life into his own hands and looked for success in a corporate career. He went on to have a successful corporate career spanning decades and he also became the Vice President of an insurance broking company called Futurisk. He was on his way to becoming a CEO but Abhay still didn’t feel fulfilled, so he started looking for opportunities to start up and that’s when he discovered the meat industry which was waiting to be disrupted.

Abhay Hanjura, Vivek Gupta and the Meat Project: After failing to convince his dad, Abhay met up with his old friend and a VC Vivek Gupta. He tried to make him understand how the meat industry was a perfect market for them to start up. But coming from a vegetarian family and asked him if it was such a great idea why hadn’t no one disrupted it yet? This led Abhay to start what he called ‘The Meat Project’ to understand the market and gathered evidence to prove to Vivek that it was in fact a great idea. And while it was enough to convince Vivek, he still didn’t think that Abhay would simply leave his high-paying job to go start something from scratch. This was a key moment for both of them. Right then and there Abhay not only wrote his resignation letter but even sent it to his bosses and this inspired Vivek to do the same. And just like that, they were entrepreneurs.

The birth and almost death of Licious: Since neither of them had any experience in the meat industry, they decided to onboard their third co-founder named Joe Manavalan. He helped them understand the key issues with starting a fresh meat business and how difficult it was to create a supply chain as they needed to keep the meat between 0-4 degrees Celsius in order to keep it fresh. They zeroed in on 30 meat vendors and animal farms whose meat met their quality standards. Then, they opened a meat processing centre in Hennur, in Bengaluru and filled it with experienced butchers, and they set up a meat delivery hub in Marathahalli, bringing in a crew of delivery partners to transport this meat into their customer’s hands. Everything seemed to be coming together - Licious was all set to kick off India’s meat revolution! In August of 2015, Licious began their first day of operations… and it was a complete and utter disaster. Their supply chain collapsed under the weight of just 35 orders, and they immediately shut down operations.

Licious re-launch and initial struggles: They spent the next two weeks training everyone, intensively, ensuring that a greater emphasis was placed on timeliness, hygiene, and keeping orders between 0 and 4 degrees. And then, they re-launched. And this time, things went better. In their first full month of operations, they received 1,300 orders, after this first month, 90% of their customers came back again for more.

Making of a billion-dollar D2C fresh meat brand: Today, Licious is available in 14 cities across India - they deliver fresh meat to a million homes every month, and they’ve expanded their product portfolio, too, selling ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook products alongside their fresh meat items. Unlike most startups, pandemic even accelerated their growth – making them a unicorn and a rare D2C brand serving fresh meat to millions of happy customers in India.

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This week in Indian startup news, Log 9 Materials partners with Hero Electric for their disruptive 15-minute battery technology, Ola begins delivery of their electric scooters and Polygon acquires Mir Protocol for $400 million.

In funding news, Sharechat raises $266 million, Ninjacart raises $145 million, Uni raises $70 million and Juspay raises $60 million.

Log 9 Materials partners with Hero Electric for their disruptive 15-minute battery technology: Earlier this year, Log 9 Materials had announced that they were piloting their disruptive battery technology that lets you charge the battery in just 15 minutes. The startup has now partnered with Hero Electric – allowing the company to use Log 9’s batteries in all their electric scooters.

Ola begins delivery of their electric scooters: After multiple delays, Ola has finally started shipping out their electric scooters to the customers in Bengaluru and Chennai who have been waiting for months. However, it looks like that some of the key features like cruise control, voice commands and Bluetooth might not be available for the customers just yet and they might have to wait a little longer to have these features enabled through an OTA software update.

Polygon acquires Mir Protocol for $400 million: Indian Ethereum-based layer 2 scaling solution Polygon has now acquired another Ethereum-based scaling startup Mir in a deal worth $400 million. With the acquisition of Mir, Polygon will get access to their Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proof solution – which will allow them to verify many Ethereum transactions with just a single tiny proof without sharing any details about the transaction.

Sharechat raises $266 million: Mohalla Tech, the owner of Indian language social media platform Sharechat and short video app Moj, has raised $266 million in a round led by Alkeon Capital at a $3.7 billion valuation as they plan to strengthen their live and social commerce play.

Ninjacart raises $145 million: B2B agritech startup Ninjacart has raised $145 million in a round led by Walmart and Flipkart – making this the largest ever funding round for an agritech startup in India. This will allow Ninjacart to improve their technology and invest in upgrading its infrastructure to optimize their supply chain, while enabling Flipkart to expand their grocery delivery presence.

Uni raises $70 million: Fintech startup Uni – which offers pay-later cards like recently turned unicorn Slice, has raised $70 million in a round led by General Catalyst to help them launch four new products including a credit card.

Juspay raises $60 million: Digital payments platform Juspay has raised $60 million in a round led by Softbank’s Vision Fund II enabling them to invest in technology and product development to scale their digital payments business.

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In this video, we will try to understand why are so many used car startups becoming unicorns in India.

Financials of four used car unicorns – Spinny, Droom, CarDekho and Cars24: Firstly, Spinny is the latest used car startup to become a unicorn. Spinny sells 3,000 cars every month and each car is sold for around 4 lakh – which brings their revenue to around Rs 100 crore every month. Then we have Droom which is raking in Rs 135.5 crore in revenue in FY21. Next we have CaDekho which has more than 8X their revenues in the last five years to reach Rs 884.4 crore in FY21 and finally we have Cars24 – the used car behemoth. They roughly sold 20,000 crore in FY21 – bringing in a revenue of Rs 2,793 crore – which is 8X of what they were doing five years back.

Changing consumer behaviour and growth of used car market: The reason why these startups have been able to grow at such a breakneck speed is because they are changing the consumer behviour, they are changing the way people are buying used cars – making this experience even better than buying a new car. Which is the reason why the used car market is predicted to be double in size of the new car market by 2025. While the used car market is expected to expand from 3.8 million in FY21 to 8.2 million by 2025. On the other hand, the new car market is only going to expand from 2.6 million in FY21 to 3.9 million by 2025.

How startups are incentivising you to buy used cars: They are doing is by obsessively focusing on their customers and giving them exactly what they need. When buying a new car, a consumer has limited options from fewer models to pick from and only a handful of choices are available for you and on top of that these cars are new which means if there are any glitches in their performance – you will probably not buy a car from the same brand again. Used car startups on the other hand have changed the entire game, they are able to offer a lot of choices to their customers from different colours to different variants to different prices. And the best part is, even though these are used cars – they are giving them an experience which is similar to buying a new car and sometimes even better. They not only give you are ride in the car that you might want to buy but will also give you financing options as well as deliver the car to your home. Since the used car market has been mostly unorganised until this point, customers were thrilled to see these startups offering everything from verified cars to a superior experience.

How pandemic accelerated the sale of used cars: Then we also have the pandemic to thank – which not only stifled the growth of new car sales. Since new cars need chips and thousands of them and with the supply chain completely disrupted, people were unable to buy new cars because they are simply not being manufactured. Also, people became a little more sceptical of public places and buying a car of their own seemed like a much better option to travel. But they couldn’t buy new cars at this point, so they turned to buying used cars. It might have been a challenge but thanks to these startups and their superior customer experience more and more people are now comfortable buying used cars over new cars.

Organising the used car market: These startups are not just growing the entire used car market but also organising it as well. In 2011, only 10% of the used car market was organised and consumers weren’t sure of the quality of used cars they were getting. Now, however, it is expected that by 2025, 45% of the entire used car market would be organised. Thanks to these used car startups which are driving this change.

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This week in Indian startup news, Simple Energy to build world’s largest scooter factory, Bounce Infinity E1 - India’s first electric scooter with swappable batteries, Byju’s acquires GeoGebra and Delhivery acquires drone manufacturer Transition Robotics.

In funding news, Ola raises $139 million, Ola Electric raises $52.7 million, Bizongo raises $110 million, Pristyn Care raises $85 million to become a unicorn and AgroStar raises $70 million.

Simple Energy to build world’s largest scooter factory: EV startup Simple Energy is working on building their second electric scooter manufacturing facility at Dharampuri in Tamil Nadu with a capacity of 12.5 million units per year – which will make it the world’s largest scooter manufacturing facility leaving behind Ola’s Futurefactory which will have a capacity of 10 million at its peak.

Bounce Infinity E1 - India’s first electric scooter with swappable batteries: Bounce is the latest startup to enter the EV race in India by launching their own electric scooter named Bounce Infinity E1. Bounce Infinity E1 buyers will have the option to buy the electric scooter with or without a battery – priced at ₹68,999 and ₹45,099 respectively.

Byju’s acquires GeoGebra: India’s most valuable startup Byju’s has now made its 10th acquisition in 2021 - their latest one being Austria-based GeoGebra - which offers interactive learning tools for mathematics. The deal is estimated to be worth $100 million. With this acquisition, Byju’s will get access to their 100 million students across 195 countries and enable them to create interactive and engaging new mathematics products for their students.

Delhivery acquires drone manufacturer Transition Robotics: Indian logistics unicorn Delhivery which has recently filed for an IPO has acquired a California-based drone manufacturing startup Transition Robotics. This acquisition will give Delhivery access to all of Transition Robotics’ intellectual properties (IPs) - which essentially means all their drone technology. With India’s drone policy much more liberalised - Delhivery could be looking to use Transition Robotics’ drones for their last-mile delivery of packages.

Ola raises $139 million: Ride-Hailing unicorn Ola has raised $139 million in a fresh funding round led by Edelweiss at a $7.3 billion valuation ahead of their IPO which is expected to be filed in the first half of next year.

Ola Electric raises $52.7 million: Ola Electric has raised $52.7 million in a round led by Temasek at a $2.7 billion valuation – which is slightly lower than $3 billion in October this year.

Bizongo raises $110 million: Bizongo, a B2B startup that offers packaging solutions to e-commerce companies, has raised $110 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management at a $600 million valuation.

Pristyn Care raises $85 million to become a unicorn: Healthcare startup Pristyn Care which offers its patients complete surgery care service right from finding the right doctor to getting a diagnosis to surgery and post-surgery care, has raised around $85 million from the likes of Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global and Winter Capital.

AgroStar raises $70 million: Agritech startup Agrostar – which helps farmers increase their produce by offering the right agricultural advisory services and access to good quality agricultural inputs, has raised $70 million in a round led by Evolvence, Schroder’s Capital, Hero Enterprise and UK’s CDC.

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Link to the test assignment mentioned in the news video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w86xLBBJ7clLGOjfc-Vw-JCf4nHIypnc/view?usp=sharing

This week in Indian startup news, India’s first crypto unicorn CoinDCX is planning for IPO, Snapdeal to file for IPO, Ather Energy to set up a new manufacturing facility and CRED acquires Happay.

In funding news, Slice raises $220 million to become India’s 39th unicorn this year, Curefit raises $145 million to become India’s 40th unicorn this year and Simpl raises $40 million.

India’s first crypto unicorn CoinDCX is planning for IPO: India’s first crypto unicorn CoinDCX is planning to go public once the government’s regulations are in place. With more than 100 million crypto investors in India, everyone is waiting for the government’s regulations on cryptocurrencies. CoinDCX believes that their IPO will bring a lot of confidence in India’s crypto market.

Snapdeal to file for IPO: Indian e-commerce startup Snapdeal is planning to raise $250 million from the public at a $1.5 billion valuation. They were previously planning to raise funds at a $2.5 billion valuation but seems to have valued their startup cautiously after an unsuccessful IPO by Paytm.

Ather Energy to set up a new manufacturing facility: EV startup Ather Energy is setting up their second manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu to expand their capacity from 1.2 lakh to 4 lakh scooters per year – due to the rising demand for their electric scooters in the market. Their sales have been growing at 20% year on year due to which their first manufacturing facility is already at full capacity.

CRED acquires Happay: Fintech startup CRED, which rewards you for paying your credit card bills, has acquired corporate expense management platform Happay - in a deal estimated to be around $180 million. This acquisition will give CRED access to Happay’s 1 million users and 6,000 businesses - while allowing CRED users to get access to Happay’s expense management platform.

Slice raises $220 million to become India’s 39th unicorn this year: Fintech startup Slice, which calls itself India’s best credit card challenger has raised $220 million in a round led by Tiger Global and Insight Partners – valuing them at over $1 billion and making them India’s 39th unicorn this year.

Curefit raises $145 million to become India’s 40th unicorn this year: Curefit has raised $145 million in a round led by Zomato - valuing them at $1.25 billion and making them India's 40th unicorn this year.

Simpl raises $40 million: Buy now, pay later platform Simpl has raised $40 million in a round led by Valar Ventures and IA Ventures to help enhance their customer and merchant experience by building a loyalty program and to bring Simpl solutions to offline neighbourhood stores.

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In today’s video, we cover the story of Nykaa’s nayika – how Falguni Nayar built a profitable $13 billion startup in India.

A rewarding experience at Kotak and learnings from Uday Kotak: When Falguni Nayar joined Kotak Mahindra – it was just an NBFC. She was responsible for setting up their investment banking arm – Kotak Mahindra Capital. However, when Falguni decided to follow her husband to London, Uday Kotak didn’t want to lose one of his best employees – so he asked her to set up Kotak Mahindra’s London office from scratch and when her husband moved to New York, she followed him to the US and also established Kotak Mahindra’s New York office as well. This experience gave her an experience for a lifetime.

An itch to start up before 50: While working at Kotak, Falguni had the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs like Ronnie Screwvala – who went on to build a media and entertainment empire when the sector was in its nascent stages, which Falguni helped him take public in 2005. She also helped take PVR Cinema to IPO – a company built by Ajay Bijli, which was responsible for building India’s first multiplex cinemas. These experiences had a profound impact on her and she decided that she wanted to plunge into the world of entrepreneurship before she was 50.

Birth of Nykaa: For a large majority of India’s female population, that’s kajal and lipstick was all there was when it came to beauty, and a major reason for this was the lack of education around these products. She had a hunch that if she could somehow introduce these women to this new world of beauty, if she could educate them on these products and how to use them, then her idea would be successful. And so, in April of 2012, Nykaa was born.

Building from scratch and early challenges: When she started building Nykaa – things didn’t go easy for her. In the first three years of building Nykaa, she had lost three CTOs consecutively. On the operations side, the company was struggling to fulfil 10 orders per day, and getting them delivered on time was a pipe dream. Angry customers were calling at all hours, demanding an explanation for why their products hadn’t shown up yet. Needless to say, things were stressful at Nykaa, and the startup’s team of 7 quickly became a team of two. Falguni and her daughter would stay up until 3 AM some nights, packing boxes in between customer support calls - but these nights were important. Falguni and her daughter spent time in the trenches, they suffered, they lost sleep building the company, and so as it slowly grew.

3 C’s of Nykaa - Curation, Content and Convenience: When she started building Nykaa – things didn’t go easy for her. In the first three years of building Nykaa, she had lost three CTOs consecutively. On the operations side, the company was struggling to fulfil 10 orders per day, and getting them delivered on time was a pipe dream. Angry customers were calling at all hours, demanding an explanation for why their products hadn’t shown up yet. Needless to say, things were stressful at Nykaa, and the startup’s team of 7 quickly became a team of two. Falguni and her daughter would stay up until 3 AM some nights, packing boxes in between customer support calls - but these nights were important. Falguni and her daughter spent time in the trenches, they suffered, they lost sleep building the company, and so as it slowly grew.

From sustainable growth to IPO: he didn’t want to sacrifice equity to grow quickly if she could grow sustainably, and so that’s what she did. She was planning the startup’s IPO as early as 2017, and as we all know today, looking back, this initial public offering was arguably the most successful in Indian history.

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This week in Indian startup news, Ola Electric’s S1 and S1 Pro scooters delivery delayed, Bounce to launch their first electric scooter Bounce Infinity, Skyroot Aerospace successfully tests India’s first privately built cryogenic rocket engine and Mobikwik to delay IPO after Paytm debacle.

In funding news, NoBroker raises $210 million to become a unicorn, Spinny raises $285 million to become a unicorn, Dream Sports raises $840 million, Purplle raises $65 million and Upstox raises $25 million to become a unicorn.

Ola Electric’s S1 and S1 Pro scooters delivery delayed: Three months back in September, Ola Electric booked ₹1,100 crore worth of their electric scooter Ola S1 and S1 Pro in just two days with a promise of starting deliveries in October. It’s the end of November but the startup is yet to start shipping their scooters and they have now moved the date to 2nd December – citing shortages of chipsets and electronic components.

Bounce to launch their first electric scooter Bounce Infinity: Bounce, a dockless scooter rental startup, had announced the launch of their own electric scooter Bounce Infinity - it will now be available for booking on 2nd December. Bounce’s Infinity is expected to be a rebranded version of 22Motor’s Flow electric scooter – which you can buy with or without the battery – making them affordable. You can simply rent the batteries from Bounce later.

Skyroot Aerospace successfully tests India’s first privately built cryogenic rocket engine: Skyroot Aerospace has made the headlines once again by becoming the first Indian spacetech startup to successfully test India’s first privately built cryogenic rocket engine – which is named Dhawan 1 and will be used as an upper stage engine in their Vikram 2 rockets.

MobiKwik to delay IPO after Paytm debacle: Indian fintech startup MobiKwik was planning to raise Rs 1,900 crore in their IPO in November. However, after seeing Paytm’s disastrous IPO debut, MobiKwik is looking to delay their own IPO and they are also having a hard time getting qualified institutional investors onboard – who are valuing the startup 20-40% lower than their current valuations.

NoBroker raises $210 million to become a unicorn: NoBroker, a property buying and rental platform, has raised $210 million at a $1.01 billion valuation – making them India’s first proptech unicorn.

Spinny raises $285 million to become a unicorn: Online used car marketplace Spinny has raised a massive $285 million in a round led by Tiger Global and Abu Dhabi Growth Fund at a $1.75 billion valuation – making them India’s 37th unicorn this year.

Upstox raises $25 million to become a unicorn: Online investment platform stox has raised $25 million – which is expected to be a part of a larger round led by Tiger Global at a $3.4 billion valuation.

Dream Sports raises $840 million: Dream Sports, the parent company of fantasy gaming unicorn Dream11, has raised $840 million at an $8 billion valuation to help them expand beyond fantasy gaming and build a comprehensive sports and gaming empire.

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In today’s video, we explore how Bengaluru became India’s Silicon Valley:

Foundation of Bengaluru as Gandubhūmi or Land of Heroes: Kempe Gowda, a chieftain of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 16th century, laid the foundation of what we now know today as the city of Bengaluru, although at the time, it was called gandubhūmi or Land of Heroes. The chieftain, of course, had no idea how fitting this name would prove to be nearly half a millennium later.

Jamsetji Tata’s dream to set up a world-class university: Jamsetji Tata, the founder of the Tata group wanted to set up a world-class university in Mumbai but then Viceroy of India Lord Curzon chose Bengaluru to be the right place for this university. But Jamsetji Tata passed away before he could see IISc open in Bengaluru.

Role of HAL and ISRO in building Bengaluru as the hub of innovation: IISc played a pivotal role in attracting talent in and around Bengaluru which lead to the formation of HAL – India’s first aerospace company and ISRO being set up in Bengaluru in the 20th century. This helped develop Bengaluru into the manufacturing hub of the country and a hotbed for innovation.

Ram Krishna Baliga and India’s Silicon Valley – India’s first electronic city: A student of IISc named Ram Krishna Baliga was busy developing residential colonies for BEL when he realised that Bengaluru was the perfect place to set up India’s own electronics manufacturing hub – it had everything talent, innovation and a thriving manufacturing ecosystem. So, he started building India’s first Electronic City in Bengaluru – all but cementing Bengaluru’s place as the innovation hub of the country.

Infosys comes to Bengaluru: Until now, most of the projects and companies were driven by the government and focused on the manufacturing sector but soon Infosys became one of India’s first IT companies to set up its headquarter in Bengaluru and with the success of Infosys, more and more companies like Wipro and TCS decided to set up shop in Bengaluru to access quality talent and its thriving ecosystem.

More IT companies and more tech talent flocks to Bengaluru: Once India’s economy was liberalised in 1991, not just domestic IT companies but international tech giants like Texas Instruments, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Intel flocked to Bengaluru – bringing with them more talent and laying the foundations of Bengaluru as the Silicon Valley of India.

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This week in Indian startup news, Paytm: India’s biggest ever IPO flops on listing day, Policybazaar’s successful listing on the stock markets, Droom files for an IPO and Chalo in talks to acquire Vogo.

In funding news, Mensa Brands raises $135 million – becomes India’s fastest unicorn, Velocity raises $20 million, Wingreens Farms raises $17 million and GoKwik raises $15 million.

Paytm: India’s biggest ever IPO flops on listing day: Paytm was listed on the stock markets on 18th November at a 10% discount and their stock price fell more than 25% on day 1 making their investors lose a quarter of their wealth. The underwhelming response to Paytm’s IPO can be attributed to their inability to monetize their growing userbase as their revenues stay flat for the last four years.

Policybazaar’s successful listing on the stock markets: PB Fintech, the parent company of Policybazaar was listed on the stock markets on 15th November – making their investors 17.35% richer. Policybazaar not only owns 93.4% of the online insurance market but they are also expanding their offline presence by opening 15 stores – which they intend on taking to 100 soon to reach the majority of their users who are offline.

Droom files for an IPO: Droom, an online marketplace for selling automobiles, is the latest to file for an IPO – to raise Rs 3000 crore. However, things don’t look good for Droom, as their only listed peer CarTrade which is, in fact, a profitable company is trading at a 25% discount, while Droom is not only smaller than CarTrade but also a loss-making startup at the moment.

Chalo in talks to acquire Vogo: Chalo, an app that digitizes bus operations enabling users to track buses and book tickets online, is reportedly in talks to acquire scooter rental startup Vogo. The bad luck of mobility startups due to the pandemic has given Chalo the opportunity to buy them out at a discount, previously they acquired Shuttl and are not setting their eyes on Vogo.

Mensa Brands raises $135 million – becomes India’s fastest unicorn: Mensa Brands – a Thrasio-style house of brands, has raised $135 million – making them India’s fastest unicorn in just six months. Mensa Brands already owns 12 profitable D2C brands and are now looking to add 30 more within the next year.

Velocity raises $20 million: Revenue-based financing platform Velocity has raised $20 million in a round led by Valar Ventures to offer an alternative financing model to e-commerce companies.

Wingreens Farms raises $17 million: Healthy snacks brand Wingreens Farms has raised $17 million in a round led by Investcorp to grow its business by using these funds add more new-age food and beverage brands to its portfolio.

GoKwik raises $15 million: E-commerce enablement platform GoKwik – which helps e-commerce businesses grow by increasing conversion rates and reducing return orders, has raised $15 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital India.

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This week in Indian startup news, Nykaa’s blockbuster IPO, Paytm – India’s biggest IPO gets a lukewarm response, PharmEasy files draft papers for their IPO, Ola forays into online grocery delivery and Niki.ai to shut down.

In funding news, Good Glamm Group raises $150 million – 34th unicorn this year, Zoomcar raises $92 million, Curefit to raise $50 million from Zomato, BrightChamps raises $63 million and Wakefit raises $27 million.

Nykaa’s blockbuster IPO: Nykaa made its debut on Indian stock markets this Wednesday, doubling its investors' wealth and making Falguni Nayar India’s richest self-made billionaire. With India’s online beauty and personal care market expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, there is a lot of opportunity for the growth of Nykaa as well.

Paytm’s – India’s biggest IPO gets a lukewarm response: Unlike Zomato and Nykaa which received 38X and 82X oversubscription, Paytm’s IPO was only subscribed 1.9X. The reason for this could be Paytm’s high valuation despite not being able to monetize their growing user base – as their revenues have stayed stagnant at around Rs 3,000 crore for the last four years.

PharmEasy files draft papers for their IPO: API Holdings, the parent company of PharmEasy has filed their DRHP to raise Rs 6,250 crore through the IPO. PharmEasy started as an online pharmacy but is now offering a bunch of healthcare services to their customers – becoming a complete healthcare platform.

Ola forays into online grocery delivery: With the success of online grocery, Ola is piloting quick grocery delivery in a bid to diversify their business ahead of their IPO.

Niki.ai to shut down: According to Entrackr, Niki.ai, a personal voice assistant platform, has laid off most of their employees and shut down their operations – after failing to control their piling losses, despite growing revenues.

Good Glamm Group raises $150 million – 34th unicorn this year: The Good Glamm Group, which operates D2C beauty brand MyGlamm, has raised $150 million in fresh capital – making them India’s 34th unicorn this year.

Zoomcar raises $92 million: Self-drive rental car startup Zoomcar has raised $92 million from their investors to continue their international expansion and strengthen their customer experience through technology.

Curefit to raise $50 million from Zomato: Curefit is in the process of raising $50 million from Zomato – once the deal is finalised it could make Curefit India’s latest unicorn

BrightChamps raises $63 million: Edtech startup BrightChamps has raised $63 million in a round led by Premji Invest – valuing them at $500 million in just a year of their operations.

Wakefit raises $27 million: D2C mattress brand Wakefit has raised $27 million in a round led by Susquehanna International Group to boost their omnichannel expansion and strengthen their supply chain and logistics.

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In today’s video, we take a look at the top 10 startups from Kerala.

10 Farefirst: Founded by Muhammad Jaseel, Vishal Vijay and Yajnesh Talapady, Kannur-based Farefirst is a flight and hotel booking startup that helps you find the best deals from 100+ OTAs and airline sites so users can choose the cheapest and best ticket all in a single click.

9 Desintox: Founded by Don Paul and Sooraj Chandran, Desintox is a Thrissur-based DIPP-recognized startup that specializes in designing devices for differently-abled people. They offer products like standing wheelchairs, reclining, and electric wheelchairs, patient transfer hoist, a patient transfer device with a controller and safety switch, mobility aids, and Easy mover-the cerebral palsy walking aid.

8 Infusory Future Tech Labs: Thrissur-based Infusory Future Tech Labs is an AR/VR startup that started its journey by designing AR/VR-based products for various industries before launching their flagship product TutAR – which is a next-gen reality classroom enabling teachers to stream content through any conferencing software that supports screen sharing, record unique videos interacting with the augmented objects and easily share on social media.

7 Agrima Infotech: Founded by Nikhil Dharman, Anoop Balakrishnan, and Arun Ravi, Kochi-based Agrima Infotech is using their AI-based food recognition API to develop their app called RecipeBook – which besides providing a catalogue of over a thousand recipes, offer features like ‘Shake n make’ and ‘Snap n Cook’ where users snap or scan food items they have at hand and the app provides a list of possible dishes that can be made out of.

6 Entri: Founded by Mohammed Hisamuddin and Rahul Ramesh in 2017, Kochi-based Entri is a local language-based edtech startup that provides a tailored course and study materials for the regional competitive exams for the government job aspirants. Entri offers coaching for 65 government exams and over 135 different courses in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi.

5 Sastra Robotics: Founded by Aronin P, Akhil A & Achu Wilson in 2012, Kochi-based Sastra Robotics works on designing robotic solutions for human-like automated functions. They offer products like robot arm for testing touchscreens, interacting with 3D devices for testing, and an intelligent telepresence robot are some offerings of Sastra Robotics.

4 Dr Jackfruit: Founded by Manas Madhu, Dr Jackfruit is organising Kerala’s banana and jackfruit chips market which is usually run by small mom and pop stores by creating their own brand Beyond Snack and selling different flavoured banana and jackfruit chips to their customers.

3 Nava Design & Innovation: Founded by Charles Vijay Varghese in 2016, Kochi-based Nava Design & Innovation is a National Startup Award-winning agritech startup that has developed the world’s first coconut sap tapping robot – SAPER.

2 Genrobotics: Founded by Arun George, Nikhil NP, Rashid Bin Abdulla, and Vimal Govind MK in 2015, Thiruvananthapuram-based Genrobotics’ signature robot - ‘Bandicoot’, a pneumatic-powered and remote-controlled robot can effectively remove sewages in manholes – removing the need for inhumane occupation like manual scavenging.

1 Strava Technologies: Founded by Jancy Jose in 2014, Thiruvananthapuram-based Strava Technologies boasts of being is Kerala’s first space technology startup and the first fully women-owned Private Limited company in IT sector in the state. The company has 2 main products: ‘Cyber Monkey’ - a geospatial intelligence system and Strava Cyber Labs – which is the first cyber defence centre in Kerala.

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This week in Indian startup news, Ola’s ridehailing business turns profitable for the first time, Nykaa’s successful IPO – oversubscribed 82X, Delhivery is going public – plans to raise $1 billion through IPO and Unacademy acquires Swiflearn.

In funding news, Purplle raises $75 million, Zepto raises $60 million and Fi raises $50 million.

Ola’s ridehailing business turns profitable for the first time: Ola’s ridehailing business posted their first operating profit in a decade. During the pandemic, Ola’s revenue was down 95% which meant that they had to fire 1,400 of their employees. This was one of the reasons they were able to bring their expenses down and turn a profit despite declining revenue. The startup is also in the middle of planning their IPO which is expected to come out next year.

Nykaa’s successful IPO – oversubscribed 82X: Online beauty retailer Nykaa closed their IPO successfully with 82X oversubscription. What’s worth noting is that Nykaa is the first profitable Indian unicorn to go public, which could explain the reason behind its success.

Delhivery is going public – plans to raise $1 billion through IPO: India’s logistics giant Delhivery has filed their draft papers for IPO as they plan on raising $1 billion at a valuation of around $6 billion. What’s worth noting is that while Delivery is still a loss-making startup, they have been growing constantly on the back of the rising e-commerce in India and are now even bigger than traditional logistics giant Blue Dart.

Unacademy acquires Swiflearn: Edtech giant Unacademy has acquired Swiflearn, a live online face-to-face coaching platform for grade 1-10 students. This will allow Unacademy to strengthen their K12 coaching play as they compete with the likes of Byju’s in the segment.

Purplle raises $75 million: Online marketplace for beauty products Purplle has raised $75 million in a round led by Kedaara Capital – valuing them at $630 million to roll-out new brands and products and expand their business through acquisitions.

Zepto raises $60 million: 10-minute grocery delivery startup Zepto has raised $60 million in a round led by Glade Brook Capital to compete with the likes of Dunzo, Grofers, Swiggy and BigBasket in the quick commerce segment. They plan on expanding their grocery delivery service to four new cities in the next 30 days.

Fi raises $50 million: Neobanking startup Fi has raised $50 million in a round led by B Capital to help them build more customized investment products for their customers including – mutual fund and stock investment.

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This week in Indian startup news, Deepinder Goyal reveals the real reason why Zomato went public, Policybazaar’s IPO date set for November 1, Paytm to launch India’s biggest ever IPO on November 8, After Zostel, FHRAI wants SEBI to suspend OYO’s IPO, The ‘Pe’ Wars Continue: PhonePe vs BharatPe, and Chalo acquire Shuttl.

In funding news, Acko raises $255 million to become a unicorn, Groww raises $251 million, DeHaat raises $115 million, Porter raises $100 million, Teachmint raises $78 million and Clear raises $75 million.

Deepinder Goyal reveals the real reason why Zomato went public: In a recent interview, Deepinder Goyal revealed that the decision to go public was their only way to survive during the pandemic as their revenues were down 90% and they only had six months of cash left in the bank. They desperately needed to raise $50 million but could raise funds from their Chinese investors due to FDI rule changes and no one was willing to invest.

Policybazaar’s IPO date set for November 1: Policybazaar is set to open its IPO on November 1 as they plan to raise a total of $763 million from the market pricing their share at ₹940-₹980.

Paytm to launch India’s biggest ever IPO on November 8: India’s most valuable fintech startup Paytm is set to launch India’s biggest ever IPO on November 8. They will be raising a total of $2.4 billion at a valuation of up to $20 billion. The expected price band per share is ₹2,080 to ₹2,150.

After Zostel, FHRAI wants SEBI to suspend OYO’s IPO: The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) has also filed a complaint with SEBI to stop OYO from going public. According to their complaint, OYO shouldn’t be allowed to go public since there is an anti-competitive case against OYO which is being investigated by the CCI and they have failed to put out all the facts regarding the ongoing investigation.

The ‘Pe’ Wars Continue - PhonePe vs BharatPe: PhonePe and BharatPe have been involved in a legal battle over who owns ‘Pe’. After BharatPe launched their ‘buy now, pay later’ platform ‘Postpe’, PhonePe went ahead and filed another injunction against BharatPe and now they are in the process of filing a lawsuit.

Chalo acquires Shuttl: Chalo, a platform that helps bus operators offer digital bus tickets and accept digital payments, has acquired a bus aggregator for office-goers Shuttl – in an all-cash deal. This acquisition will give Chalo access to thousands of their busses and help them expand their presence in the country and also expand globally.

Acko raises $255 million to become a unicorn: Online insurance startup Acko has raised $255 million in a fresh round at a $1.1 billion valuation – making them India’s 33rd unicorn this year. They will be using this investment to build more health insurance products for their 70 million customers.

Groww raises $251 million: Online investment platform Groww has raised $251 million in a round led by Iconiq Growth – raising their valuation from $1 billion to $3 billion in just six months.

DeHaat raises $115 million: Full-stack agritech startup DeHaat has raised $115 million from Sofina and Lightrock India to add more value-added services to their portfolio and replicate their success across major agricultural clusters in the next 12-15 months.

Porter raises $100 million: Intra-city logistics provider Porter has raised $100 million from Global Management and Vitruvian Partners to expand their presence from 13 to 35 cities by 2023.

Teachmint raises $78 million: Edtech startup Teachmint that helps teachers digitise their classrooms has raised $78 million in a round led by Rocketship.vc and Vulcan Capital.

Clear raises $75 million: Clear (previously known as ClearTax), an online platform that helps individuals and small businesses in filing their income tax returns, has raised $75 million led by Kora Capital to expand their international business.

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In today’s video, we take a look at 10 tools that every startup founder needs to know about while building their business.

BrowserStack: BrowserStack is a cloud-based app and website testing platform that it enables you to test your website or app on more than 3,000 physical desktop browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices via the cloud, so that you can make sure your platform is functioning smoothly for all of your users. BrowserStack is currently being used by more than 50,000 customers across the world.

Taskade: Taskade is a real-time organization and collaboration platform for remote teams that essentially provides a unified workspace where you can communicate with your team, collaborate, and coordinate on projects. Taskade is minimalistic, simple, and intuitive - you can jump in and start getting things done faster and smarter, right away.

Chargebee: Chargebee is a SaaS-based subscription and billing management tool that helps SaaSpreneurs to create customised subscription plans based on the size of their customer-base, and also takes care of international payments for them too, through partnerships with payment gateways in various countries.

Calendly: Calendly is super useful if you’re someone who has a lot of meetings or appointments. All you have to do is sync your Google calendar with Calendly so that it can access your schedule, set the days and times of the week you’re available for meetings, and you’re done. When someone wants to meet with you, you just send them your Calendly link, and they can pick the time that works best for them.

Dyte: Dyte is an Indian audio & video software development kit provider. Basically, what Dyte allows you to do is create branded, customised live video and audio for your startup.

Darwinbox: Darwinbox is an all-in-one HR management software that takes care of everything from hiring and recruitment to onboarding to performance management to managing their payroll. It gives you a complete overview of your organisation’s workforce and solutions to track and manage everything from their salaries to giving timely feedbacks to evaluating their progress and performance.

Square Space: Square Space is a website builder platform that offers a no-code solution where you can pick from thousands of website templates, and then use the platform’s in-built customisation tools to make the website fit your startup. Square Space also has integrations with hundreds of different platforms to set up things like payments, marketing tools, schedule appointments, and social media integrations.

MailChimp: MailChimp is an all-in-one email marketing tool that lets you create your own automated email campaigns from a single platform. They’ve got hundreds of email templates for things like a newsletter sign up, a website sign up, sending a discount code to a customer on their birthday, or reminding them to buy an item that they left in their cart but didn’t purchase.

Slack: Slack is an all-in-one business communications app that facilitates the setup of multiple communications channels for different teams across a startup or large company. You could have a marketing channel, a sales channel, a product development channel, all under the roof of one organisation, which means that teams can focus on having the conversations that matter within their department, but if they need to collaborate with other departments or drop into a channel to see what’s going on, they can do that.

Canva: Canva is a graphic design app for people who aren’t great at using professional designing tools like Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop. By using Canva, anyone can design stuff using their thousands of templates without hiring professional graphic designers.

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This week in Indian startup news, Chingari on blockchain - launches its own NFT marketplace and crypto token, Ola’s top executives leave as they plan to re-enter grocery delivery, SEBI approves Nykaa and PolicyBazaar’s IPO and Good Glamm Group acquires ScoopWhoop.

In funding news, PharmEasy raises nearly $350 million, CRED raises $251 million, SUN Mobility raises $50 million and CredAble raises $30 million.

Chingari on blockchain - launches its own NFT marketplace and crypto token: Short-video platform Chingari has launched their own NFT marketplace and crypto token called ‘$GARI’ – which is built on the Solana blockchain. This is will allow all the content on Chingari to be turned into an NFT – allowing the creators to earn money by selling their NFTs using their own crypto token ‘$GARI’.

Ola’s top executives leave as they plan to re-enter grocery delivery: Ola is restructuring their senior management as two of their top executives leave the company and they plan to further diversify their business to re-enter the grocery delivery business in a bid to strengthen their revenues.

SEBI approves Nykaa and PolicyBazaar’s IPO: SEBI has approved Nykaa and PolicyBazaar’s IPO and Nykaa is planning raise around Rs 5,300 crore as they go public by the end of this month.

Good Glamm Group acquires ScoopWhoop: Good Glamm Group, which owns D2C beauty care brand MyGlamm, has acquired a new age digital media company ScoopWhoop. This acquisition will strengthen the Good Glamm Group’s content-to-commerce strategy – ScoopWhoop is a popular digital media platform that has more than 100 million users and their content gets 1.5 billion impressions every month.

PharmEasy raises nearly $350 million: Online pharmacy unicorn PharmEasy has raised close to $350 million from their investors as they gear up for their upcoming IPO.

CRED raises $251 million: Fintech giant CRED has raised $251 million from Tiger Global Management and Falcon Edge Capital – bumping their valuation up to $4.01 billion from $2.2 billion a few months back.

SUN Mobility raises $50 million: SUN Mobility, an electric vehicle infrastructure provider, has raised $50 million from dutch energy and commodities trading company Vitol to expand the number of battery swapping stations from 65 to 500 by the end of 2022.

CredAble raises $30 million: CredAble, a fintech startup focused on supply chain financing, has raised $30 million in a round led by Plutus Management and Oaks Asset Management.

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In today’s video, we take a look at the top 10 Indian AI startups building innovative solutions for the world.

10 Staqu Technologies: Founded by Anurag Saini, Atul Rai, Chetan Rexwal and Pankaj Kumar Sharma in 2015, Staqu Technologies is using their AI-powered flagship product called JARVIS (Joint AI Research For Video Instances and Streams) to monitor and identify criminals through CCTV cameras.

9 TartanSense: Founded by Jaisimha Rao in 2015, TartanSense is an agritech startup that’s building AI-powered robots. Their flagship product is their precision spraying robot for farmers called BrijBot. While running through their farms autonomously, BrijBot uses cameras to capture images of the crops and accesses each of them individually using computer vision to see if they need to be sprayed with pesticides.

8 Signzy: Founded by Ankit Ratan, Ankur Pandey and Arpit Ratan in 2015, Signzy is helping banks and financial institutions to offer a smooth and secure digital onboarding for their customers. One of the ways they do this is through their video KYC – which enables users to simply upload their documents and images and Signzy’s APIs do the work of extracting information from those documents.

7 Mad Street Den: Founded by husband-wife duo Anand Chandrasekaran (a neuroscientist) and Ashwini Asokan (product designer), along with Costa Colbert in 2013, Mad Street Den is an experience management startup. Their flagship product Vue.ai monitors a customer’s behaviour on a website to recommend the products they might like.

6 Safe Security: Founded by Rahul Tyagi, Saket Modi and Vidit Baxi in 2012, Safe Security started its journey as Lucideus in IIT Bombay to help businesses predict cyberattacks and provide them actionable insights to protect themselves before it happens. They are doing this through their SAFE (Security Assessment Framework for Enterprises) Platform.

5 Yellow.ai: Founded by Anik Das, Jaya Kishore Reddy, Raghu Ravinutala and Rashid Khan in 2016, Yellow.ai (formerly known as Yellow Messenger) helps businesses automate their customer experience by offering chatbots and voicebots.

4 Niramai: Founded by Geetha Manjunath along with Nidhi Mathur in 2016, Niramai offers a revolutionary non-invasive, non-touch and radiation-free thermal screening device that uses their proprietary AI technology to detect early-stage breast cancer. Once, their device takes a thermal image of a woman’s breast – this image is analysed by their AI-powered diagnostic engine called Thermalytix which detects any abnormalities early on.

3 Emotix: Founded by Chintan Raikar, Prashant Iyengar and Sneh Vaswani in 2014, Emotix launched their first personal robot called Miko in 2017 and their latest Miko 2 was launched in 2019. They have built a personal robot for kids which is capable of understanding the child’s mood, behaviour and interests to engage them in educational conversations while creating a personal bond – as it can remember the child’s face, name and voice.

2 FarEye: Founded by Gaurav Srivastava, Gautam Kumar, Kushal Nahata in 2013, FarEye has built a portfolio of SaaS-based products that are helping e-commerce and logistics companies to manage their supply chain and logistics from a single platform. They are helping companies make crucial real-time decisions like how many drivers are in an area, identify the best option, provide the drivers with the most time-efficient route and also optimise the deliveries by bundling multiple orders from one area.

1 GreyOrange: Founded by Akash Gupta and Samay Kohli in Gurugram in 2011, GreyOrange’s robots are making warehouses more efficient and less labour intensive. But at the center of their robots is their AI-enabled brain called GreyMatter which helps them connect and communicate with each other at all times.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Dream11 suspends operation in Karnataka after an FIR, Women partners of Urban Company protest against ‘unfair work practices’, Zostel asks SEBI to suspend OYO’s IPO, BharatPe-Centrum gets small finance bank license from RBI, Swiggy to test social commerce with Swiggy Bazaar, MobiKwik’s IPO approved and becomes a unicorn, Unacademy’s Graphy acquires Spayee for $25 million and Bounce acquires Twenty Two Motors.

In funding news, CarDekho raises $250 million to become a unicorn, Hubilo raises $125 million, Open raises $100 million and Fraazo raises $50 million.

Dream11 suspends operation in Karnataka after an FIR: Last week, apart from Dream11 all other fantasy gaming platforms had suspended their operations in Karnataka after the state’s ban on games of chance. After an FIR was filed against Dream11’s founders, even Dream11 has now stopped operations in Karnataka.

Women partners of Urban Company protest against ‘unfair work practices’: More than 100 women beauticians working with Urban Company went on protest against the startup due to ‘unfair work practices’. After hearing out their complaints against high commissions charged by the startup and high penalty for not completing their mandated 30 jobs, Urban Company has slashed their commissions to 25% for high ticket orders and reduced the penalty by half to Rs 1,500.

Zostel asks SEBI to suspend OYO’s IPO: After Oyo filed for IPO, Zostel has written to SEBI – requesting the regulator to stop their IPO. According to Zostel, since Oravel’s capital structure is not yet final, so Oravel’s filing of the DRHP under these circumstances is illegal.

BharatPe-Centrum gets small finance bank license from RBI: Four months back, BharatPe-Centrum consortium had received an ‘in-principle’ approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up a small finance bank. Their joint venture has now been granted the final license by the RBI – this is the first time RBI has granted a banking license in the last six years.

Swiggy to test social commerce with Swiggy Bazaar: According to media reports, Swiggy is looking to enter the growing social commerce space with the launch of Swiggy Bazaar in the coming months – which is expected to pilot in Bengaluru and Gurugram.

MobiKwik’s IPO approved and becomes a unicorn: SEBI has approved MobiKwik’s Rs 1,900 crore IPO and the fintech startup also turned after their secondary funding round led by Mathew Cyriac (former Blackstone India head).

Unacademy’s Graphy acquires Spayee for $25 million: Unacademy’s Graphy has acquired a SaaS-based platform Spayee that allows creators to build and sell their online courses in a deal worth $25 million.

Bounce acquires Twenty Two Motors: Dockless scooter rental startup Bounce has acquired EV startup Twenty Two Motors – to enter the EV space. This acquisition will help Bounce to launch their own electric scooters – which are expected to launch by November.

CarDekho raises $250 million to become a unicorn: Online used car marketplace CarDekho has raised $250 million in a round led by LeapFrog Investments – making them a unicorn at a $1.2 billion valuation.

Hubilo raises $125 million: Virtual and hybrid events platform Hubilo has raised $125 million in a round led by Alkeon Capital.

Open raises $100 million: Open, a neobanking platform for SMEs and startups, has raised $100 million in a round led by Temasek to add more banking products to their portfolio and expand to global markets.

Fraazo raises $50 million: Fraazo, a D2C platform for fresh vegetables and fruits, has raised $50 million in a round led by WestBridge Capital to help them expand their business to new geographies

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This week in Indian Startup News, Fantasy gaming apps shut down operations in Karnataka, Slice to offer 3-day work week to attract talent, Paytm acquires CreditMate, Ola acquires GeoSpoc, and Good Glamm Group acquires The Moms Co.

In funding news, Licious raises $52 million to become India’s first D2C unicorn, CoinSwitch Kuber raises $260 million to become India’s 2nd crypto unicorn, Rebel Foods raises $175 million to become a unicorn, Byju’s raises around $300 million, Ola Electric raises $200 million and Chalo raises $40 million.

Fantasy gaming apps shut down operations in Karnataka: Karnataka’s bill banning ‘games of chance’ disguised as ‘games of skill’ came into effect this Tuesday. Since then, fantasy gaming platforms like MPL, Paytm First Games, RummyCircle, My11Circle and Nazara’s HalaPlay have blocked access for their users in Karnataka. According to experts, this could impact 10% of Karnataka’s online transactions. However, Dream11 still seems to be operational.

Slice to offer 3-day work week to attract talent: In what seems like a hiring war between Indian startups and IT giants for top talent, startups are trying out different ways to attract more engineers. In a different approach, fintech startup Slice is offering a 3-day work-week to their employees – providing them the flexibility to work on their personal projects. They plan on hiring 1,000 employees under this program over the next five years.

Paytm acquires CreditMate: IPO-bound fintech giant Paytm has acquired a 100% stake in CreditMate’s parent company Urja Money. This acquisition will help Paytm strengthen their lending business – bringing the entire loan cycle products under one roof.

Ola acquires GeoSpoc: Cab aggregator Ola has acquired geospatial services provider GeoSpoc to help them build the next generation of location and geospatial technologies – real-time HD and 3D maps with high accuracy.

Good Glamm Group acquires The Moms Co: The Good Glamm Group, previously known as MyGlamm, has acquired D2C mom and babycare brand The Moms Co – in a deal which is estimated to be worth ₹500 crore. This acquisition will strengthen the Good Glamm Group’s position in the skincare category.

Licious raises $52 million to become India’s first D2C unicorn: D2C fresh meat brand Licious has raised $52 million in a round led by IIFL – making them India’s first D2C unicorn.

CoinSwitch Kuber raises $260 million to become India’s 2nd crypto unicorn: Crypto trading startup CoinSwitch Kuber has raised $260 million from Coinbase Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz at a valuation of $1.9 billion – making them India’s second crypto unicorn.

Rebel Foods raises $175 million to become a unicorn: Cloud kitchen startup Rebel Foods has raised $175 million in a round led by Qatar Investment Authority to expand their international presence and explore acquisition opportunities to bring more food brands under their portfolio.

Byju’s raises around $300 million: Edtech decacorn Byju’s has raised around $300 million to continue their international expansion through acquisitions.

Ola Electric raises $200 million: EV startup Ola Electric has raised $200 million from Falcon Edge Capital to help them accelerate the development of other electric vehicles – electric motorcycle, mass-market scooter and electric car.

Chalo raises $40 million: Chalo, a startup that is digitizing bus operations and experience, has raised $40 million from Lightrock India and Filter Capital to expand their presence in India and foray into the international markets.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Lava International files for IPO, OYO’s legal tussle with Zostel ahead of IPO plans, SEBI eases superior voting rights rules for founders, Swiggy spins off Supr Daily as founders exit, Reliance in talks to buy stake in InMobi’s Glance and DotPe acquires Rista.

In funding news, Meesho raises $570 million, OfBusiness raises $200 million, Delhivery raises $125 million, Vedantu raises $100 million to become a unicorn and CredAvenue raises $90 million.

Lava International files for IPO: With Indian markets at an all-time high and a positive outlook on IPOs, Indian mobile manufacturer Lava International has also filed for an IPO to raise Rs 500 crore. While their market share has been declining ever since Chinese smartphone makers entered the Indian market, they still hold a significant 20% market share in India’s declining feature phone market.

OYO’s legal tussle with Zostel ahead of IPO plans: OYO’s legal tussle with Zostel over an acquisition deal that never went through could impede their IPO plans. Back in 2015, OYO had signed a deal with Zostel to acquire their hotel business Zo Rooms in exchange for up to 7% stake in OYO. However, OYO called off the deal in 2017. While OYO maintains that it was a ‘non-binding’ agreement, Zostel disagrees and has taken them to court seeking their 7% stake in OYO.

SEBI eases superior voting rights rules for founders: India’s startup ecosystem is driven by the millions of dollars pumped in by the VCs every year. While it’s great for the growth of a startup, founders eventually end up losing control of their own startups as their stake in the startup gets diluted. In order to keep this from happening, SEBI had introduced superior voting rights in 2019. Previously, only promoters/founders who had a net worth of Rs 500 crore could get SR shares but now that limit has been doubled to Rs 1,000 crore.

Swiggy spins off Supr Daily as founders exit: Swiggy-owned subscription-based grocery platform Supr Daily’s founders have decided to leave the startup and it will now be headed by Swiggy’s new co-founder Phani Kishan. The grocery delivery giant has also decided to spin-off Supr Daily into a separate entity under their parent company Bundl Technologies to tap the rising demand of online grocery delivery.

Reliance in talks to buy stake in InMobi’s Glance: According to multiple media reports Reliance is now in talks to acquire a stake InMobi’s Glance in a deal which is expected to be worth around $300 million.

DotPe acquires Rista: DotPe, a startup that is helping offline stores come online by offering them digital storefront and helping them accept online payments, has acquired a POS (Point of Sale) software provider Rista in an all-cash deal.

Meesho raises $570 million: Social e-commerce unicorn Meesho has raised a massive $570 million round from Fidelity and B Capital at a $4.9 billion valuation as they plan to reach 100 million monthly transacting users by December 2022.

OfBusiness raises $200 million: B2B commerce and lending unicorn OfBusiness has raised $200 million in a round from Tiger Global Management at a $3 billion valuation to strengthen their raw material supply chain and financing business.

Delhivery raises $125 million: Logistics and delivery giant Delhivery has raised $125 million from Lee Fixel’s Addition ahead of their expected IPO.

Vedantu raises $100 million to become a unicorn: Edtech startup Vedantu has raised $100 million from ABC World Asia – making them India’s 27th unicorn this year and 5th edtech unicorn after Byju’s, Unacademy, upGrad and Eruditus.

CredAvenue raises $90 million: CredAvenue, an enterprise debt marketplace, has raised $90 million in their series A round led by Sequoia Capital – making it India’s largest series A funding and valuing the one-year-old startup at $410 million.

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In today’s video, we take a look at the top 10 Indian D2C startup brands.

10 Vahdam India: Founded by Bala Sarda in 2015, Vahdam India is a premium tea brand coming out of India – offering more than 100 signature tea blends. They started selling their tea in the US and Europe – that’s where the majority of their revenues come from. In FY20, Vahdam India sold teas worth $10 million to 2 million customers across 100 countries.

9 Bewakoof: Founded by Prabhkiran Singh and Siddharth Munot in 2012, Bewakoof is a D2C fashion brand that sells T-Shirts and other fashion accessories like pants, backpacks and mobile covers with quirky messages and designs through their online platform. To date, they have sold their products to more than 6 million customers.

8 Mamaearth: Founded by Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh in 2016, Mamaearth is a D2C babycare brand that sells toxin-free babycare products. Today, they have expanded their toxin-free product portfolio to enter the adult personal care market as well. In FY21, Mamaearth’s revenue grew 5X to reach ₹500 crore.

7 Licious: Founded by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta in 2015, Licious is a D2C fresh meat brand that controls their entire supply chain to deliver fresh meat to their customers. From just 1,300 orders in their first month, Licious has now scaled to 1 million orders every month. In FY20, they raked in ₹180 crore and their revenue for FY21 has already crossed ₹600 crore in the first six months.

6 Wakefit: Founded by Ankit Garg and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Wakefit is a D2C mattress brand that made its name by selling premium mattresses at affordable prices. Despite the pandemic, their revenues have grown 2X from ₹199 crore in FY20 to ₹410 crore in FY21 – while also staying profitable.

5 HealthKart: Founded by Sameer Maheshwari and Prashant Tandon in 2011, HealthKart is online health and fitness supplements brand that sells health and nutrition supplement products under their own brands like MuscleBlaze, TrueBasics, Incredio, HealthViva and Nouriza. In FY20, HealthKart earned ₹353.2 crore in revenue and they also have adopted an omnichannel approach by opening up 93 physical stores across 37 cities.

4 Rebel Foods: Founded Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee in 2011, Rebel Foods started as a small restaurant business named Faasos. The duo turned their restaurant business into cloud kitchen business after realising more than 75% of their orders were coming online. Today, they have 10 brands under the Rebel Foods brands with more than 320 cloud kitchens across the country.

3 Boat Lifestyle: Founded by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta in 2016, Boat is a D2C consumer electronic brand that sells everything from charging cables to Bluetooth speakers to earphones to home studios. Today, Boat sells more than 15,000 units every day. In FY20, Boat raked in ₹701 crore in revenue – making a profit of ₹49 crore.

2 Lenskart: Founded by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi in 2010, Lenskart is a D2C eyewear brand that sells more than 8 million eyewear to their customers through their online platform and more than 750 physical stores across the country.

1 Nykaa: Founded by Falguni Nayyar in 2012, IPO-bound omnichannel beauty and cosmetics retailer Nykaa sells their own private label brands like Nykaa Naturals, Nykaa Cosmetics, Kay Beauty, Nykd by Nykaa, 20 Dresses and Pipa Bella through their online platform. Nykaa is one of those rare profitable unicorns – which managed to generate a revenue of ₹2,441 crore while pocketing ₹62 crore in profits.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Vinata Aeromobility to introduce their hybrid flying car, Freshworks successful IPO makes 500 employees crorepatis, OYO expected to file for IPO next week, Agnikul Cosmos signs a deal with ISRO to test their rockets, Karnataka bans ‘games of chance’, Dream11 turns profitable, Ola sells electric scooters worth Rs 1,100 crore in two days, Infra.Market acquires RDC Concrete and Byju’s acquires Tynker.

In funding news, Cars24 raises $450 million, Medikabazaar raises $75 million and ZestMoney raises $50 million.

Vinata Aeromobility to introduce their hybrid flying car: Vinata Aeromobility is all set to launch their autonomous hybrid flying car – which is said to be Asia’s first – at the Helitech Expo in London on 5th October. They will be starting the trials of their hybrid-electric car by 2023 and expect commercial flights by 2025.

Freshworks successful IPO makes 500 employees crorepatis: Freshworks has raised $1.03 billion in their IPO at a $10.13 billion valuation – making them India’s first SaaS startup to go public in the US. In the process, more than 500 of their employees have turned crorepatis.

OYO expected to file for IPO next week: Indian hotel chain startup OYO is expected to file for IPO as soon as next week. While the pandemic has been hard for them, they have already turned profitable at an operational level and are planning to raise $1.2 billion in the IPO.

Agnikul Cosmos signs a deal with ISRO to test their rockets: After Skyroot Aerospace, Agnikul Cosmos has signed an agreement with ISRO to test their rocket systems at ISRO facilities.

Karnataka bans ‘games of chance’: Karnataka has passed a bill banning ‘games of chance’. While that doesn’t seem like a big deal – what might be troubling for some online gaming platforms is the fact that Karnataka’s Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai has said that the government will act against operators and abettors who run ‘games of chance’ disguised as ‘games of skill’.

Dream11 turns profitable: India’s most valuable gaming startup Dream11 has turned their finances around and joined the league of profitable startups like Zerodha, Nykaa, OfBusiness and Boat.

Ola sells electric scooters worth Rs 1,100 crore in two days: Ola Electric managed to sell electric scooters Ola S1 and S1 Pro worth ₹1,100 crore in two days – concluding their first sale.

Infra.Market acquires RDC Concrete: Marketplace for procuring construction materials Infra.Market has acquired RDC Concrete – which is the largest independent ready mixed concrete company in India – for $100 million.

Byju’s acquires Tynker: Edtech giant Byju’s has acquired US-based coding platform Tynker – making it their 9th acquisition this year.

Cars24 raises $450 million: Used car marketplace Cars24 has raised $450 million in a round led by DST Global, Falcon Edge Capital, Softbank Vision Fund 2 at a $1.84 billion valuation.

Medikabazaar raises $75 million: B2B online marketplace for procuring hospital supplies Medikabazaar has raised $75 million in a round led by CDC Group, Creaegis Limited, CIF, HealthQuad Fund.

ZestMoney raises $50 million: Buy now pay later (BNPL) platform ZestMoney has raised $50 million from Australia’s Zip to strengthen their product suite by launching new insurance and savings products and add more merchants on their platform.

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In today’s video, we take a look at the top 10 Indian startups that are founded by the Paytm Mafia.

10 Raise Financial Services: Founded by former Paytm Money CEO Pravin Jadhav in 2021, Raise Financial Services is a fintech startup building products across multiple verticals like financing, insurance, investment, payments and wealth management.

9 Daalchini Technologies: Founded by Prerna Kalra and Vidya Bhushan in 2017, Daalchini Technologies is building a network of IoT-enabled vending machines offering homemade fresh food and packaged food products across office spaces, educational institutes, hospitals, co-living spaces and residential complexes.

8 Unnati: Founded by former Paytm executives Amit Sinha and Ashok Prasad in 2010, Unnati is an agritech startup that is helping farmers increase their income by offering them everything from access to working capital, affordable agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizers and advisory services.

7 ClearDekho: Founded by Saurabh Dayal and Shivi Singh in 2016, ClearDekho is an omnichannel eyewear retailer that provides affordable eyewear for people living in tier 2, tier 3 and tier 4 cities. Today, ClearDekho has sold more than 300,000 eyeglasses through their network of 100 offline stores across the country.

6 Junio: Founded by Ankit Gera and Shankar Nath in 2020, Junio is a fintech startup that offers a smart card for kids – which works just like a debit card and can be used for both online and offline transactions. Since launching the Junio card earlier this year, it is being used by more than 100,000 users.

5 Pocket FM: Founded by Prateek Dixit, Nishanth Srinivas, and Rohan Nayak (Former Product Manager at Paytm) in 2018, Pocket FM is an audio streaming platform that is being used by more than 20 million users to listen to audiobooks and podcasts in seven Indian languages.

4 Skeps: Founded by Mayank Tewari, Prerit Srivastava and Tushar Srivastava in 2018, Skeps is a fintech startup that builds POS (point of sale) financing solutions for merchants and lenders.

3 Park+: Founded by Paytm’s former VP Amit Lakhotia in 2019, Park+ is enabling people to discover and book parking spots online before even leaving their homes. Today, Park+ has expanded their offerings to include more services for vehicle owners like paying their challans, Fastag recharge, buying insurance and even booking car wash service.

2 Indiagold: Founded by two former Paytm SVPs Deepak Abbot and Nitin Misra in 2020, Indiagold is helping Indians to store their gold in a secure locker and also offering affordable low-interest loan against that gold.

1 SimSim: Founded by Amit Bagaria, Kunal Suri and Saurabh Vashishtha in 2018, SimSim was launched in 2019 to offer a social commerce platform – where influencers can try out and review products in their local languages from local businesses and the customers can simply buy the products directly from their app. Before being acquired by YouTube earlier in 2021, SimSim had managed to onboard more than 5 million users.

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This week in Indian Startup News, BuyUCoin launches SIPs for crypto assets, SBI bans crypto traders from using their UPI platform, Skyroot Aerospace signs an agreement with ISRO to test their rockets, Ola Electric’s flagship Ola S1 electric scooters sell like hotcakes, Ola’s FutureFactory to be run entirely by women, Pravaig Dynamics to host PiCon to showcase their EV prototype and technology, Freshworks to raise $912 million in IPO, Zenoti acquires SuperSalon and PharmEasy acquires Aknamed ahead of IPO.

In funding news, Mobile Premier League’s latest funding makes them a unicorn, Apna raises $100 million to become India’s fastest unicorn, BetterPlace raises $24 million and Eupheus Learning raises $10 million.

SBI bans crypto traders from using their UPI platform: India’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) has banned crypto investors from using their UPI platform – spelling bad news for crypto startups in India.

BuyUCoin launches SIPs for crypto assets: Crypto trading platform has introduced Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) for crypto assets much like mutual funds – enabling investors to invest in bundled crypto assets on a weekly or monthly basis.

Skyroot Aerospace signs an agreement with ISRO to test their rockets: Indian spacetech startup Skroot Aerospace has officially signed an agreement with ISRO – giving them access to ISRO’s facilities and expertise to test out their rocket systems.

Ola Electric’s flagship Ola S1 electric scooters sell like hotcakes: Ola started selling their electric scooters Ola S1 and S1 Pro on 15th September and sold out more than 80,000 units worth Rs 600 crore on the first. They have now sold more electric scooters than the number of electric scooters that were sold throughout the year 2020.

Ola’s FutureFactory to be run entirely by women: Ola Electric’s FutureFactory – which is going to be the world’s largest two-wheeler factory will be completely run by women. Once the factory reaches its peak production by March 2022, it will be employing 10,000 women.

Pravaig Dynamics to host PiCon to showcase their EV prototype and technology: Pravaig Dynamics to host PiCon between 24-25 September in Bengaluru where they will be showcasing their own EV prototypes and technologies.

Freshworks to raise $912 million in IPO: Indian SaaS startup Freshworks is looking to raise as much as $912 million in their IPO at a valuation of around $9 billion.

Zenoti acquires SuperSalon: Zenoti - a SaaS-based startup that offers software to spas and salons to manage their operations, has acquired a US-based salon management software provider SuperSalon.

PharmEasy acquires Aknamed ahead of IPO: Online pharmacy unicorn PharmEasy has acquired a cloud-based hospital supply chain management platform Aknamed in a deal estimated to be worth $180-190 million.

Mobile Premier League’s latest funding makes them a unicorn: Mobile Premier League (MPL) has raised an undisclosed amount of funds at a $2.3 billion valuation – making them India’s second gaming unicorn after Dream11.

Apna raises $100 million to become India’s fastest unicorn: Apna, a professional networking platform for blue and grey collar workers, has raised $100 million from Tiger Global Management – making them India’s fastest unicorn in just 21 months.

BetterPlace raises $24 million: Blue-collar workforce management platform BetterPlace has raised $24 million in a round led by CX Partners and Jungle Ventures to help them strengthen their technology platform and add new products.

Eupheus Learning raises $10 million: Edtech startup Eupheus Learning has raised $10 million from Lightrock India to enter into new markets and make some acquisitions.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Account Aggregator Framework launched, Udaan files anti-trust complaint against world’s largest biscuit manufacturer Parle, Snapdeal planning an IPO, Ultraviolette Automotive to launch their flagship electric motorcycle F77 in 2022, Ola’s electric scooter Ola S1 bookings postponed, Byju’s acquires Gradeup and Notion acquires Hyderabad-based Automate.io.

In funding news, Byju’s raises $150 million, Delhivery raises $76.4 million, Leap Finance raises $55 million, HomeLane raises $50 million and Vahdam India raises ₹174 crore.

Notion acquires Hyderabad-based Automate.io: San Francisco-based unicorn Notion, which enables users to manage their workflow and collaborate with other users, has acquired a Hyderabad-based SaaS startup Automate.io.

Account Aggregator Framework launched: The highly anticipated Account Aggregator framework was launched on 2nd September to make data sharing among banks and other financial institutions simple and secure – to boost financial inclusion in the country. At launch, eight Indian banks and four account aggregators are already live on AA framework.

Udaan files anti-trust complaint against world’s largest biscuit manufacturer Parle: B2B e-commerce unicorn Udaan has filed a complaint with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against the world’s largest biscuit manufacturer Parle for anti-competitive behaviour. According to Udaan, that Parle is using its dominating position in the market by refusing to supply their products to them without giving any ‘objective justification’.

Snapdeal planning an IPO: After a rollercoaster of a journey since 2010, Snapdeal might be finally going public. According to media reports, Snapdeal has started talks for their IPO and they are planning to raise $400 million at a $2.5 billion valuation.

Ultraviolette Automotive to launch their flagship electric motorcycle F77 in 2022: EV startup Ultraviolette Automotive will be launching their flagship F77 next year and to ensure that they are setting up a manufacturing facility spread over 70,000 square feet in Bengaluru. Once completed, this facility will be able to pump out 120,000 electric motorcycles every year.

Ola’s electric scooter Ola S1 bookings postponed: Ola Electric had planned to start online booking of their flagship Ola S1 electric scooters on 8th September but that date has now been postponed to 15th September after they were unable to fix the glitches on their website.

Byju’s acquires Gradeup: Edtech giant Byju’s has acquired test preparation startup Gradeup – making it their 8th acquisition this year. They have collectively spent more than $2 billion on acquisitions this year and will be rebranding Gradeup as Byju’s Exam Prep to cater to the exam preparation segment.

Byju’s raises $150 million: Edtech behemoth Byju’s has raised another $150 million round led by Asmaan Ventures – to fund all their latest acquisitions.

Delhivery raises $76.4 million: Logistics startup Delhivery has raised $76.4 million in a round led by Lee Fixel’s Addition ahead of their coming IPO – which is expected in the next 6-9 months.

Leap Finance raises $55 million: Leap Finance, a startup that offers financing to Indian students who want to study abroad, has raised $55 million in a fresh round led by Owl Ventures.

HomeLane raises $50 million: Home décor and interior design startup HomeLane has raised $50 million in a round led by IIFL, Oman India Joint Investment Fund and Stride Ventures.

Vahdam India raises ₹174 crore: D2C tea brand Vahdam India has raised ₹174 crore from IIFL to help them expand their online and offline distribution, enter new markets and add new superfood product categories on their platform.

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In today’s video, we take a look at the top 10 Indian hardware startups building products for India and the world.

10 Openapp: Founded by Gotama Gowda, Siddesh Keluskar and Rajshekhar Jenne in 2014, Openapp builds smart IoT-enabled locks for their customers. Right now, their smart locks are being used across more than 500,000 and it is India’s smart lock maker.

9 AjnaLens: Founded by Abhijit Patil, Abhishek Tomar, Gaurav Godbole, and Pankaj Raut in 2014, AjnaLens builds AI-powered mixed reality glasses. They launched their first product AjnaBolt for the Indian military in 2020 before launching their enterprise product AjnaX earlier this year.

#8 DrinkPrime: Founded by Manas Hota and Vijender Reddy in 2016, DrinkPrime began its journey as WaterWala in 2014 with the goal of bringing structure to India’s disorganised drinking water space by providing 20L waters cans on demand. Today, they have built their own smart water purifier which is being used by 25,000 of their customers to get clean drinking water for a monthly subscription.

7 Makers Hive: Founded by Harsha Reddy Ponguleti, Pranav Vempati and Suren Marumamula in 2018, Makers Hive’s flagship product, KalArm, is India’s first fully functional bionic hand, which only costs between ₹3.5-4 lakh which is about a tenth of the cost of similar products outside of India.

6 Atomberg Technologies: Founded by Manoj Meena and Sibabrata Das in 2012, Atomberg Technologies used their prototype energy-efficient motor to manufacture energy-efficient ceiling fans for Indian consumers. Since the launch of their energy-efficient ceiling fans in 2015, Atomberg Technologies has sold more than 1 million units.

5 Smartron: Founded by Mahesh Lingareddy, Rohit Rathi and Narsi Reddy Posham in 2014, Smartron manufactures everything from laptops, smartphones and electric bikes. However, they plan on launching their own home automation products in the future – which will be powered by their own AI-powered ecosystem called TronX.

4 Emotix: Founded by Chintan Raikar, Prashant Iyengar and Sneh Vaswani in 2014, Emotix builds an AI-powered personal robot for kids called Miko. The latest version of these personal robots is called Miko 2 – which uses AI and computer vision to engage with children in educational conversations. The startup has successfully sold their products across more than 140 countries.

3 GOQii: Founded by serial entrepreneur Vishal Gondal in 2014, GOQii sells wearable fitness devices that can track vital health statistics like oxygen levels, blood pressure and heart rate. Today, they are already the second-largest wristband wearables company in India, behind only Xiaomi. While they manufacture their products in China, the startup has now committed to moving their manufacturing to India.

2 Boat: Founded by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta in 2016, Boat started their journey by selling charging cables, before moving to products like earphones, speakers and smart-watches. In just five years of their launch, Boat has managed to build the world’s largest wearable brand out of India – while raking in ₹701 crore in revenue and making ₹49 crore profit in the process in FY20.

1 GreyOrange: Founded by Akash Gupta and Samay Kohli in 2011, GreyOrange manufactures smart robots that are used by companies around the world to increase efficiency and productivity in their warehouses. While GreyOrange is an Indian startup, the majority of their revenue comes from outside India, making them a perfect example of a hardware startup building from India for the world. They are also planning to go public soon by taking the SPAC route in the US.

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This week in Indian Startup News, ReNew Power lists in the US via SPAC, Freshworks files for IPO in the US, Zerodha gets approval to launch mutual fund, Indian startup develops plant-based smart air purifier, 16 Indian startups feature in Y Combinator’s S21 batch, Tesla gets approval for four electric car models in India and Scaler Academy acquires Coding Elements.

In funding news, Skit raises $23 million, Digit Insurance raises ₹121 crore and Indiagold raises $12 million.

ReNew Power lists in the US via SPAC: India’s largest renewable energy company (in terms of operational capacity – 5 GW) listed on NASDAQ on 24th August after merging with SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) RMG Acquisition Corporation II (RMG II).

Freshworks files for IPO in the US: Indian SaaS giant Freshworks has filed for an IPO in the US as it plans to raise $100 million.

Zerodha gets approval to launch mutual fund: India’s largest stockbroking platform Zerodha has secured an in-principle license from Sebi to set up an AMC and launch their own mutual funds.

Indian startup develops plant-based smart air purifier: Indian startup Urban Air Laboratory has developed a plant-based smart air purifier that can improve the air quality of a room within just 20 minutes. Their smart air purifier is called ‘Ubreathe Life’ and it works by simply amplifying the bio-filtration process that takes place in plants to release Oxygen at a quicker pace.

16 Indian startups feature in Y Combinator’s S21 batch: Out of 377 startups in Y Combinator’s S21 batch, 16 were from India. Some of the interesting startups include Rivia.AI, Ivy Homes, Marketfeed, Gobillion and Stack.

Tesla gets approval for four electric car models in India: EV giant Tesla has received the approval to launch four electric car models in India but it might be a while before you could see Tesla’s electric cars in India as Elon Musk feels that import duties for electric cars is too high in India and they are in talks with the government to get some relief.

Scaler Academy acquires Coding Elements: Edtech startup Scaler Academy, which offers online computer science courses for students and professionals to secure better jobs, has acquired online coding platform Coding Elements in an all-cash deal worth $1 million to expand their course portfolio and reach new users.

Skit raises $23 million: Conversational AI startup Skit (previously known as Vernacular AI) has raised $23 million in a round led by WestBridge Capital.

Digit Insurance raises $16.5 million: Online insurance startup Digit Insurance has raised $16.5 million in a round led by TVS Shriram Growth Fund.

Indiagold raises $12 million: Gold-based lending startup Indiagold has raised $12 million in a round led by PayU and Alpha Wave Incubation.

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In today’s video, we take a look at the top 10 Indian startups that went international.

10 FreshToHome: Founded by Mathew Joseph and Shan Kadavil in 2015, FreshToHome is an online platform that delivers fresh meat. They are now delivering more than 1.5 million orders every month across 28 Indian cities. In 2019, they even expanded internationally to UAE and now plan to make their way to Saudi Arabia as well.

9 Cult.Fit: Founded by Ankit Nagori and Mukesh Bansal in 2016, Cult.Fit had managed to open more than 200 fitness centers across India by 2019. In 2020, after the pandemic swept the world, Cult.Fit was forced to shut down some of their centers but that gave them the opportunity to go international by offering online classes to their users in the US.

8 Moglix: Founded by Rahul Garg in 2015, Moglix is a B2B e-commerce platform that enables businesses to buy equipment and supplies like industrial power tools, chemicals and metals. Apart from operating in India, they also export their products to over 54 countries.

7 Cars24: Founded by Gajendra Jangid, and Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal and Vikram Chopra in 2015, Cars24 is a used car marketplace that lets you sell your car through their online auction platform to one of their 10,000 channel partners. Today, they are selling more than 15,000 cars every month. In 2021, they expanded their reach to countries like Australia and the UAE.

6 Urban Company: Founded by Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Raghav Chandra and Varun Khaitan in 2014, Urban Company is essentially the Uber or Ola for home service professionals. Today, Urban Company has more than 35,000 professionals offering services to 5 million customers across 35 cities in India. They started their international expansion in 2018 to reach UAE, Abu Dhabi, Australia, Singapore.

5 Lenskart: Founded by Amit Chaudhary, Peyush Bansal and Sumeet Kapahi in 2010, Lenskart is an omnichannel eyewear retailer that has expanded their offline presence to more than 750 stores across India. They first went international by opening their first store in Singapore in 2019 and today they have more than 25 stores in the country and are among the top three players.

4 Ola Cabs: Founded by Ankit Bhati and Bhavish Aggarwal in 2010, Ola Cabs is one of India’s leading cab aggregators with more than 1.5 million driver-partners completing over 1 billion rides every year. The startup went global in 2018 by launching in Australia and New Zealand and the UK in 2019.

3 Oyo: Founded by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013, Oyo became the world’s fastest-growing hotel chain after it managed to get over 43,000 hotels under its brand across 80 countries in just six years. The hospitality startup had to shut down operations in multiple countries and had to fire hundreds of employees during the pandemic to make their business sustainable.

2 Paytm: Founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010, Paytm is gearing up for India’s largest-ever IPO. While Paytm is a well-known digital payments startup in India, they also have operations across countries like Canada, Japan and Bangladesh. They have raised $4.4 billion from the likes of SoftBank, Alibaba and SAIF Partners for their international ambitions.

1 Byju’s: Founded by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath in 2011, Byju’s is the world’s most valuable edtech startup. The edtech giant has been acquiring startups at an astronomical pace and not all of that acquisition was restricted to India. They acquired Osmo, Epic and WhiteHat Jr to build Byju’s Future School to launch in countries like the US, Australia, the UK, Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico.

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This week in Indian Startup News, CRED and BharatPe foray into P2P lending, Ola and Ola Electric IPO Plan 2022, Police gets three weeks to probe Ashok Saxena’s Paytm claims, NSE prohibits stock trading platforms from selling digital gold, CarTrade IPO – stock lists at a discount and Delhivery acquires Spoton Logistics.

In funding news, Zetwerk raises $150 million to become a unicorn, Khatabook raises $100 million and Curefoods raises $13 million.

CRED and BharatPe foray into P2P lending: CRED has launched their P2P lending service called CRED Mint that will allow their users to lend to other users at an interest rate of up to 9% per annum in partnership with LiquiLoans. On the other hand, BharatPe has launched their P2P lending product 12% Club – which is aimed at allowing individual users to lend directly to their merchant partners at an interest rate of up to 12% per annum.

Ola’s electric car and IPO plans: Indian cab aggregator Ola has announced that they will IPO in 2022 and Bhavish Aggarwal also announced his plans to launch Ola’s electric car in 2023. CarTrade IPO – stock lists at a discount: After a successful IPO, CarTrade’s stock was listed on both NSE and BSE at a 1% discount and has continued to fall since.

NSE prohibits stock trading platforms from selling digital gold: NSE has directed stockbroking platforms from buying and selling digital gold as it violates SEBI’s rules. This decision will affect stockbroking platforms like Upstox, Paytm Money and Groww - they have until 10th September to comply with NSE’s notice.

Police gets three weeks to probe Ashok Saxena’s Paytm claims: When the police failed to file Ashok Kumar Saxena’s complaint against Paytm, he went to Delhi’s district court and the court has now given the Police three weeks to probe his claims and file a report.

Delhivery acquires Spoton Logistics: Logistics unicorn Delhivery has acquired Spoton Logistics to help them strengthen their logistics delivery network and get in new customers ahead of Delhivery’s IPO which is expected next year.

Zetwerk raises $150 million to become a unicorn: B2B manufacturing marketplace Zetwerk has raised $150 million led by D1 Capital Partners at a $1.33 billion valuation – making them India’s latest unicorn.

Khatabook raises $100 million: Digital bookkeeping platform Khatabook has raised $100 million at a $600 million valuation from Tribe Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures to help small businesses to digitize their business operations.

Curefoods raises $13 million: Cloud kitchen startup Curefoods has raised $13 million led by Iron Pillar to expand the presence of their cloud kitchens to more cities across the country.

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In today’s video, we talk about the top 10 biggest Indian startup acquisitions.

10 TaxiForSure: Founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Raghunandan G in 2011, TaxiForSure was one of the earliest players in the online cab aggregation space in India, apart from Ola. To compete with Uber in India, Ola had acquired TaxiForSure in a deal worth $200 million.

9 Simplilearn: Started by Krishna Kumar in 2007 as a blog, Simplilearn was turned into a startup in 2010. Today, Simplilearn is a profitable edtech startup offering more than 40 courses on its platform and has trained over 2 million professionals. Earlier in 2021, Blackstone acquired a majority stake in Smiplilearn in a deal worth $250 million.

8 Myntra: Founded by Ashutosh Lawania, Mukesh Bansal, Raveen Sastry, Sankar Bora and Vineet Saxena in 2007, Myntra was just an online platform selling personalised gift items which ventured into fashion products in 2011. After witnessing rapid growth, Myntra was acquired by Flipkart in a deal worth $280 million in 2014.

7 WhiteHat Jr: Founded by Karan Bajaj in 2018, WhiteHat Jr offers live one-on-one online personalised coding classes to its students. Their unique teaching approach, combined with their aggressive marketing helped them reach a revenue runrate of $150 million in just 18 months. In 2020, Byju’s acquired WhiteHat Jr in an all-cash deal worth $300 million.

6 PlaySimple Games: Founded by Preeti Reddy, Siddhanth Jain, Siddharth Jain, and Suraj Nalin in 2014, PlaySimple Games makes simple word games like Word Trip, Crossword Jam, Word Bingo and Word Bliss. After building a profitable gaming business with just $4.5 million in investment, PlaySimple Games was acquired by Modern Times Group (MTG) in a deal worth $360 million.

5 FreeCharge: Founded by Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon in 2010, FreeCharge offered an online platform for users to recharge their phones. By 2015, FreeCharge was doing more than 1 million transactions every month. That is when Snapdeal had acquired FreeCharge for $400 million – making it one of India’s largest acquisitions at the time.

4 Great Learning: Founded by Arjun Nair, Hari Nair and Mohan Lakhamraju in 2013, Great Learning offers upskilling courses to help working professionals accelerate their career growth. The founders bootstrapped their startup to profitability and reached a revenue runrate of $100 million before it was acquired by India’s most valuable edtech startup Byju’s in a deal worth $600 million in 2021.

3 BigBasket: Founded by Abhinay Choudhari, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, VS Ramesh and VS Sudhakar in 2011, BigBasket is India’s most valuable online grocery delivery startup serving millions of users across more than 30 cities. Earlier this year in 2021, Tata Digital acquired a 64% stake in the startup for $1.3 billion.

2 GoIbibo: Founded by Ashish Kashyap in 2007, GoIbibo started as a social networking platform before pivoting to an online travel booking platform in 2009. By 2015, GoIbibo was ranked among the top 3 online travel platforms in the country. Then in 2016, MakeMyTrip acquired GoIbibo in a deal worth $1.8 billion.

1 Flipkart: Founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007, Flipkart started its journey as a small online bookstore before becoming India’s e-commerce behemoth. By 2018, Flipkart was raking in $4.5 billion in revenue. In Flipkart, Walmart found a perfect opportunity to enter India’s booming e-commerce market and acquired them in a massive deal worth $16 billion.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Former Paytm director claiming to be the co-founder of Paytm wants to stall their IPO, Ola’s electric scooter S1 launched, Simple Energy launches world’s longest-range electric scooter Simple One, Grofers’ 10-minute express delivery reaches 10 cities, Dream Sports acquires Rolocule Games and Polygon acquires Hermez Network for $250 million.

In funding news, Postman raises $225 million, Rapido raises $52 million, UpScalio raises $42.5 million and Smallcase raises $40 million.

Ola’s electric scooter S1 launched: Ola’s much anticipated electric scooter S1 and S1 Pro are finally launched and they come with a range of 121 km and 181 km per charge. Ola’s electric scooter can be charged 50% in just 18 minutes and they have priced Ola’s S1 at Rs 99,999 and S1 Pro at Rs 1.29 lakh.

Simple Energy launches the world’s longest-range electric scooter Simple One: Alongside Ola, Simple Energy also launched their own electric scooter called Simple One – with a range of 236 km/charge, it claims to be the world’s longest-range electric scooter. They have also priced it competitively with their counterparts Ola Electric and Ather Energy at Rs 1.10 lakh.

Former Paytm director claiming to be the co-founder of Paytm wants to stall their IPO: Ashok Kumar Saxena, who claims to be a co-founder of Paytm and served as the director of the company from 2000 to 2004, has said that he was wrongfully removed from the fintech startup. Now, he doesn’t just want to get the shares in the IPO-bound Paytm but also wants to be recognised as the co-founder. He is urging SEBI to stall Paytm’s IPO until things are cleared up.

Ixigo files for IPO: Online travel booking platform Ixigo is set to go public as they have filed for a Rs 1,600 crore IPO. Despite the travel industry being stuck by the pandemic, Ixigo managed to turn a profit of $1 million on the revenue of $18.5 million.

Grofers’ 10-minute express delivery reaches 10 cities: Online grocery delivery startup Grofers’ has expanded its express delivery service to 10 cities and they plan on bringing down their average delivery time from 15 to just 10 minutes.

Dream Sports acquires Rolocule Games: Dream Sports, the parent company of fantasy gaming startup unicorn Dream11, has acquired mobile games developer Rolocule Games to expand their portfolio of companies. Post-acquisition, Rolocule Games will be called Dream Game Studio and will continue to be headed by its founder Rohit Gupta.

Polygon acquires Hermez Network for $250 million: In a first of its kind deal, Indian crypto startup Polygon has acquired another Ethereum-based crypto startup Hermez Network in a deal worth $250 million. For the first time ever, two blockchain networks – Polygon and Hermez Network will be merging together.

Postman raises $225 million: Postman, a SaaS startup that helps developers to build APIs, has raised $225 million in a round led by Insight Partners at a valuation of $5.6 billion – making them India’s most valuable SaaS startup.

Rapido raises $52 million: Bike taxi aggregator Rapido has raised $52 million led by WestBridge to expand their market share in the bike-sharing space and grow their three-wheeler and hyperlocal delivery business.

UpScalio raises $42.5 million: Thrasio-style startup UpScalio, which helps digital-first brands to scale their business, has raised $42.5 million in a round led by Presight Capital.

Smallcase raises $40 million: Smallcase, a fintech startup that helps users to invest in stocks, has raised $40 million in a round led by Faering Capital.

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This week in Indian Startup News, CarTrade IPO closes with 20X subscription, Oyo is planning an IPO, CCI vs Amazon and Flipkart, Zomato to shut down US business, Swiggy partners with Reliance BP Mobility to transition to EVs, Bounce partners with Chara to locally manufacture EV motors and Whatfix acquires Nittio Learn.

In funding news, Dream11’s parent launches a $250 million fund, Eruditus raises $650 million to become a unicorn, VerSe Innovation raises $450 million, upGrad raises $185 million to become a unicorn and CoinDCX raises $90 million to become India’s first crypto unicorn.

CarTrade IPO closes with 20X subscription: After a successful IPO listing of Zomato, India’s only profitable online used car marketplace CarTrade has closed their IPO with a 20X subscription.

Oyo is planning an IPO: According to a recent report by MOneycontrol, Oyo has onboarded three investment banks JP Morgan, Kotak Mahindra Capital and Citi Bank as they plan to go public and intend to raise upwards of $1.2 billion through the IPO.

Swiggy partners with Reliance BP Mobility to transition to EVs: Swiggy’s partnership with Reliance BP Mobility will enable them to use Reliance BP Mobility’s battery swapping stations for their own electric two-wheelers.

Bounce partners with Chara to locally manufacture EV motors: Scooter rental startup Bounce has partnered with Chara to locally manufacture EV motors as they plan to transition their entire fleet to electric.

Whatfix acquires Nittio Learn: Whatfix, a SaaS platform that simplifies the onboarding of employees, has acquired a learning management system provider Nittio Learn to expand their presence in Southeast Asia and speed up the process of training by using Nittio Learn’s personalised learning platform.

Dream11’s parent launches a $250 million fund: Dream Sports, the parent company of Dream11, has launched a $250 million fund to invest in startups across sports, gaming and fitness technology.

Eruditus raises $650 million to become a unicorn: Upskilling platform Eruditus has raised $650 million from Accel and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a $3.2 billion valuation – making them the third most valuable edtech startup in the country.

VerSe Innovation raises $450 million: VerSe Innovation, the parent company of news aggregator platform Dailyhunt and short-video app Josh, has raised $450 million to help grow their short video platform.

upGrad raises $185 million to become a unicorn: Edtech startup upGrad has raised $185 million from Temasek Holdings, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and IIFL to join the coveted unicorn club.

CoinDCX raises $90 million to become India’s first crypto unicorn: Crypto trading platform CoinDCX has raised $90 million in series C led by B Capital to become India’s first and only crypto unicorn.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Karan Bajaj quits WhiteHat Jr, e-RUPI explained, Food delivery partners protest against exploitation from Zomato and Swiggy on Twitter, Zomato’s grocery delivery and Zomato Pro Plus, CarTrade IPO date, Policybazaar files for IPO, Nykaa files for IPO and UpGrad acquires KnowledgeHut.

In funding news, Unacademy raises $440 million, BharatPe raises $370 million to become a unicorn, OfBusiness raises $160 million to become a unicorn, Infra.Market raises $125 million and MindTickle raises $100 million to become a unicorn.

Karan Bajaj quits WhiteHat Jr: After selling WhiteHat Jr to Byju’s in a massive $300 million all-cash deal last year, Karan Bajaj has decided to quit the startup as he plans on taking a sabbatical before starting some public service work.

e-RUPI explained: e-RUPI is a digital prepaid voucher that can be used by the beneficiary to avail a specific service without the need of an app, internet connection or even a bank account. This is going to be primarily be used by the government to ensure that the money allocated to a beneficiary not only reaches them but is also used for the purpose it was intended.

Food delivery partners protest against exploitation from Zomato and Swiggy on Twitter: According to the latest report by ET, food delivery partners have taken to Twitter to raise their voices against the exploitation by Swiggy and Zomato. Their complaints include lack of compensation for rising petrol prices, absence of first-mile pay, lack of long-distance return bonus and daily earnings cap.

Zomato’s grocery delivery and Zomato Pro Plus: After stopping grocery delivery services, Zomato has restarted grocery delivery on their platform after their investment in Grofers and they have also introduced Zomato Pro Plus - offering services like free delivery to their customers.

CarTrade IPO date: Online marketplace for used cars CarTrade’s IPO is all set to go live on 9th August. This profitable startup is planning to raise $400 million during the IPO.

Policybazaar files for IPO: PB Fintech, the parent company of Policybazaar and Paisabazaar, has filed their DRHP and are planning to raise $800 million through the IPO.

Nykaa files for IPO: Nykaa has filed for an IPO and they are planning to be the first profitable unicorn to go public. They are looking to raise $540 million at an expected valuation of $5-$5.5 billion.

UpGrad acquires KnowledgeHut: Professional upskilling platform UpGrad has acquired another professional certification course provider KnowledgeHut to strengthen their upskilling and reskilling portfolio.

Unacademy raises $440 million: Edtech unicorn Unacademy has raised $440 million in a round led by Temasek Holdings.

BharatPe raises $370 million to become a unicorn: Digital payments and lending startup BharatPe has raised $370 million in a round led by Tiger Global – turning them into a unicorn.

OfBusiness raises $160 million to become a unicorn: B2B e-commerce and financing platform OfBusiness has raised $160 million in a round led by SoftBank – turning them into a unicorn.

Infra.Market raises $125 million: B2B marketplace for construction materials Infra.Market has raised $125 million as its valuation climbs to $2.5 billion.

MindTickle raises $100 million to become a unicorn: SaaS startup MindTickle has raised $100 million to be the third Indian startup to turn unicorn this week.

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In today’s video, we take a look at the top 10 Indian startups that are founded by the Flipkart Mafia (former Flipkart employees).

10 Suki: Founded by former Flipkart CPO Puni Soni, along with Karthik Rajan and Anshu Sharma in 2017, Suki is an AI-powered voice assistant that helps doctors in performing administrative tasks so that they are free to engage with their patients in a more effective manner and provide the care they need.

9 OkCredit: Founded by Harsh Pokharna, Gaurav Kumar and Aditya Prasad in 2017, OkCredit is a digital ledger that enables merchants and shopkeepers to keep track of the credit history of their customers. Today, OkCredit has more than 23 million SMBs using their digital ledger.

8 Vogo: Founded by Anand Ayyadurai, Sanchit Mittal and Padmanabhan Balakrishnan in 2016, Vogo is a dockless scooter rental startup that is providing an affordable, accessible and convenient mode of transportation to its users. Today, Vogo scooters have completed more than 10 million rides.

7 Slice: Founded by Rajan Bajaj and Deepak Malhotra in 2016, Slice launched their flagship ‘super card’ in 2019 – which is essentially a credit card for millennials but has no annual charges, no joining fees and no hidden charges. Today, they have more than 350,000 customers and plan to reach 1 million users by the end of FY22.

6 Spinny: Founded by Mohit Gupta (Assistant Director of Delivery Operations at Flipkart), Niraj Singh and Ramanshu Mahaur in 2015, Spinny is an online retailer for used cars. Just like e-commerce platforms are able to deliver smartphones and clothes to you the next day, Spinny is able to do that with cars – thanks to Mohit Gupta’s experience of handling same-day and next day deliveries at Flipkart.

5 Navi Technologies: Founded by Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal, along with Ankit Agarwal in 2018, Navi Technologies is trying to revolutionize India’s BFSI industry. And they are doing it quickly by acquiring companies across these industries. They have already launched their lending and insurance products and are in process of launching their mutual fund as well.

4 Groww: Founded by four Flipsters Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Ishan Bansal and Neeraj Singh started working on Groww in 2016 and launched their investment platform a year later - offering everything from mutual funds, stocks and gold. Today, they have more than 1.5 million users on their platform and have also achieved rare unicorn status.

3 Cure.Fit: Founded by Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori in 2016, Cure.Fit has built a network of more than 130 fitness centres. While the pandemic has pushed them to pivot to digital offerings, they have been able to afford that thanks to their investors who have poured in $480 million into the startup.

2 PhonePe: Founded by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer in 2016, PhonePe is a UPI-based digital payments startup that was acquired by Flipkart even before they launched. Today, PhonePe is a leader in the UPI payments space and is valued at $5.5 billion.

1 Udaan: Founded by Amod Malviya (former CTO at Flipkart), Sujeet Kumar (former Operations at Flipkart), Vaibhav Gupta (former Products, Business Finance and Analytics at Flipkart) in 2016, Udaan is one of the largest B2B online marketplaces for traders, wholesalers and retailers - offering a catalogue of 500,000 products.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Grofers’ 15-minute express delivery, Zomato’s successful IPO, Ola could launch a used car marketplace, Byju’s acquires Great Learning and Toppr for $750 million, Unacademy acquires Rheo TV and Unacademy offers stock options to teachers.

In funding news, GupShup raises $240 million, Droom raises $200 million to become a unicorn and Sharechat raises $145 million.

Grofers’ 15-minute express delivery: Online grocery startup Grofers announced that they had fulfilled more than 7,000 deliveries in Gurugram in just under 15 minutes on a single day – marking their entry into the express delivery segment.

Zomato’s successful IPO and listing: After a successful IPO which was subscribed 38 times, Zomato’s stock was listed on the stock markets at a 50% premium – raising their valuation to a massive $13.5 billion and ranking them among the top 50 most valuable publicly traded companies in India.

Ola could launch a used car marketplace: There have been reports that Indian ridehailing startup Ola could go for an IPO next year and looks like they are planning to enter the online used car retailing business to boost their revenues ahead of the IPO.

Byju’s acquires Great Learning and Toppr for $750 million: World’s most valuable edtech startup Byju’s has acquired two Indian edtech startups, Great Learning and Toppr, worth a whopping $750 million expand into the professional upskilling market and to strengthen their exam preparation vertical.

Unacademy acquires Rheo TV: Edtech unicorn Unacademy has acquired live game streaming platform Rheo TV and as a part of the deal, Rheo TV founders will be joining their team at Relevel.

Unacademy offers stock options to teachers: In a first of its kind move, Unacademy has decided to announce stock options for the teachers on their platform. More than 300 of their teachers are already eligible for the grant and they plan on allocating Teacher Stock Options or TSOPs worth $40 million in the coming years.

GupShup raises $240 million: GupShup has raised an additional $240 million – taking their total series F funding to $340 million.

Droom raises $200 million to become a unicorn: Online marketplace for automobile Droom has raised $200 million at a billion-dollar valuation – making them the 16 Indian unicorns this year.

Sharechat raises $145 million: Mohalla Tech, the owner of Sharechat and Moj, has raised $145 million at a $2.88 billion valuation.

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This week in Indian startup news, Ola’s electric scooter becomes the most pre-booked scooter in the world, PolicyBazaar IPO, New drone rules 2021, Blackstone acquires Simplilearn for $250 million, Byju’s acquires Epic for $500 million and Youtube acquires video commerce startup SimSim.

In funding news, Swiggy raises $1.25 billion, Lenskart raises $220 million, GlobalBees raises $150 million, Spinny raises $108 million, Delhivery raises $100 million, Healthify raises $75 million and BlackBuck raises $67 million to become a unicorn.

Ola’s electric scooter becomes the most pre-booked scooter in the world: Ola is close to launching its electric scooter and they have drummed up a lot of interest to make the launch as successful as possible. Ola has already started taking pre-booking orders from its customers and these orders touched 100,000 within the first 24 hours – making their electric scooter the most pre-booked scooter in the world. Ola’s electric scooter is expected to be called Ola Series S and could have two variants named Ola S1 and Ola S1 Pro – their price is expected to fall between Rs 80,000-Rs 1,00,00.

PolicyBazaar IPO: PolicyBazaar’s board has already approved the IPO and the startup is expected to go public any time before the end of this year. They are planning to raise $873 million through the IPO at a valuation of up to $5 billion.

New drone rules 2021: The government has announced new draft drone rules 2021, three months after they announced the draft ‘Unmanned Aircraft System Rules 2021’. Under the new rules, the government has made it considerably easier for people to own and operate drones by bringing down the number of forms required from 25 to just 6, removing the need for approvals like unique authorisation number, unique prototype identification number, certificate of conformance, certificate of maintenance, import clearance, and operator permit.

Blackstone acquires Simplilearn for $250 million: Blackstone has acquired online certification platform Simplilearn for $250 million – making it the second big Indian startup acquisition this year after PlaySimple Games.

Byju’s acquires Epic for $500 million: Byju’s has acquired a digital reading platform for kids Epic in a deal worth $500 million as they eye aggressive US expansion.

Youtube acquires video commerce startup SimSim: YouTube has acquired SimSim as it plans to leverage the power of growing vernacular users to drive e-commerce through their platform.

Swiggy raises $1.25 billion: Online food delivery unicorn Swiggy raises $1.25 million from Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Prosus Ventures.

Lenskart raises $220 million: Omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart has raised $220 million from Temasek and Falcon Edge Capital to expand into Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

GlobalBees raises $150 million: Thrasio-style GlobalBees has raised $150 million led by FirstCry to buy DTC brands with an annual revenue runrate between $1-$20 million.

Spinny raises $108 million: Online used car retailer Spinny has raised $108 million from Tiger Global Management to expand its presence from 8 to 20 cities by the end of this year.

Delhivery raises $100 million: E-commerce logistics unicorn has raised $100 million from FedEx Express ahead of its IPO plans.

Healthify raises $75 million: Health and fitness startup HealthifyMe has raised $75 million from LeapFrog and Khosla Ventures to expand across the Southeast Asian market.

BlackBuck raises $67 million to become a unicorn: Online trucking platform BlackBuck has raised $67 million from Tribe Capital, IFC Emerging Asia Fund and VEF to become India’s latest unicorn.

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In today’s episode, we take a look at the top 10 Indian social media startups building for Bharat.

10 Leher: Founded by Vikas Malpani and Atul Jaju in 2018, Leher allows you to host live audio and video discussions with your club members who share the same interests. Despite being early to the live audio scene, Leher didn’t get as much attention as its counterpart Clubhouse. However, their platform now has more than 150,000 users without the help of any investors.

9 Lokal App: Founded by Jani Pasha and Vipul Chaudhary in 2018, Lokal is a hyperlocal news sharing platform that started offering news in Jani’s hometown Kodad in his native language Telugu. They have since expanded their reach by enabling more than 7 million users to access news in their own language.

8 Pocket FM: Founded by Prateek Dixit, Nishanth S, and Rohan Nayak in 2018, Pocket FM is an Indian language audio streaming platform that only managed to get 10,000 users in the first 18 months of their launch. However, they continued to build their content library by partnering with content creators. Now, it has skyrocketed to 20 million users.

7 BulBul TV: Founded by Sachin Bhatia, Sanjay Yadav, and Atit Jain in 2018, BulBul is an online live video shopping platform that lets influencers sell products directly to their followers by answering their queries live in their own language.

6 TrulyMadly: Founded by Hitesh Dhingra, Rahul Kumar, and Sachin Bhatia in 2013, TrulyMadly started as an online dating platform. However, despite raising $5.7 million in 2015, TrulyMadly was unable to find much success in India’s dating world. The startup was about to shut down after all the founders jumped ship in 2018. But things changed for TrulyMadly when one of their founding team members Snehil Khanor stepped up and decided to build TrulyMadly from scratch after pivoting towards marriage and finding long-term partners.

5 Kutumb: Founded in 2020, Kutumb is enabling Indian language users to build interest-based communities - serving as a platform for sharing news, member updates, and encouraging discussions. Unlike WhatsApp groups, where the number of members is limited to just 256, Kutumb’s communities can be scaled to 10 million members offering an experience much like Reddit but for Indian language users.

4 Bombinate Technologies (Vokal and Koo): Founded by Aprameya Radhakrishnan and Mayank Bidawatka, Bombinate Technologies first launched Vokal in 2018, which is an Indian language knowledge-sharing platform – also referred to as the Indian version of Quora. After the success of Vokal, they launched Koo App in 2020 – which is a vernacular microblogging platform. Also, termed as the Indian version of Twitter.

3 Apna: Founded by Nirmit Parikh in 2019, Apna is a professional networking platform for blue-collar workers. Apna is enabling these blue-collar workers to upskill, network and find jobs – much like what LinkedIn is doing for the white-collar professionals.

2 Meesho: Meesho’s journey started in 2015 when Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal launched a location-based fashion discovery platform FashNear. While their initial idea failed within a couple of months, they realized an even bigger opportunity in helping these retailers create their own digital storefronts, enabling digital transactions and handling their logistics.

1 Mohalla Tech (Sharechat and Moj): Founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Singh, and Farid Ahsan, Mohalla Tech launched Sharechat in 2015 - which is one of India’s most popular vernacular social media platforms. Today, they have more than 160 million monthly active users on their platform. They also launched a short-video app called Moj in 2020 after the ban of TikTok which has also garnered more than 120 million monthly active users.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Zomato's successful IPO, Paytm IPO - India's biggest IPO, MobiKwik files for IPO, Meesho ghost orders and Swiggy pilots direct ordering product for restaurants. In funding news, Flipkart raises $3.6 billion, Ola raises $500 million, DealShare raises $144 million, Inshorts raises $60 million and Pratilipi raises $48 million.

Zomato's successful IPO: Zomato became the first Indian unicorn to launch their IPO and it has been hugely successful with their IPO being oversubscribed 38.25 times.

Paytm IPO - India's biggest IPO: Following Zomato, India’s second most valuable startup Paytm has also filed for an IPO. They plan on raising a total of $2.2 billion through the IPO.

MobiKwik files for IPO: MobiKwik is another Indian startup to file for IPO. According to their DRHP, MobiKwik will raise $255 million in the IPO - $201 million will be raised through primary shares and the remaining $54 million through secondary shares.

Meesho ghost orders: According to an Entrackr story, a lot of people have been getting ghost orders from Meesho that they never ordered. Looks like a bunch of rogue resellers have been using Meesho’s platform to send packages to unsuspecting customers in the hopes of getting some of them accepted. These resellers can do this because they simply don’t have a downside or penalty of high reject rates but can get a huge commission if these orders are accepted by the customers.

Swiggy pilots direct ordering product for restaurants: A lot of restaurants have been frustrated with food delivery startups like Zomato and Swiggy charging as high as 25% commission, which is why they have started the #OrderDirect campaign – asking their customers to order directly from their own website or app. Swiggy is trying to capitalize on this opportunity by launching its own Swiggy Direct product to help restaurants build their own storefront and enable direct ordering at significantly lower charges.

Flipkart raises $3.6 billion: E-commerce giant Flipkart has raised $3.6 billion at a valuation of $37.6 billion ahead of their IPO as they plan on strengthening their operations across grocery, fashion and last-mile delivery.

Ola raises $500 million: Ridehailing unicorn Ola has raised $500 million in a round led by Temasek and Plum Wood Investment (an affiliate of Warburg Pincus) and Ola Electric also gets a $100 million debt to help them wrap up phase 1 of their Futurefactory.

DealShare raises $144 million: Social e-commerce startup DealShare has raised $144 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management at a $455 million valuation.

Inshorts raises $60 million: News aggregator platform Inshorts has raised $60 million in a round led by Vy Capital.

Pratilipi raises $48 million: Pratilipi, which is an online self-publishing platform for Indian language writers, has raised $48 million led by Krafton (owner of Battlegrounds Mobile India).

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10 Kaaya Tech: Founded by husband-wife duo Harshavardhan Kikkeri and Shwetha Harsha in 2016 from Mysuru, Kaaya Tech is working on wireless motion tracking and capturing suit called HoloSuit that makes virtual reality experiences more immersive and productive. Their suits come with haptic feedback and dozens of sensors.

9 Kidvento: Mysuru-based edtech startup Kidvento was founded by Nikhil Bhaskar and Sumanth Prabhu in 2017. They partner with schools to offer what is essentially a curriculum in a box – things like textbooks, workbooks, tests, teacher manuals and lesson planners. Apart from that they also provide their partner schools with a robust online platform, where teachers can host live classes and post videos, collect assignments, interact with parents and students.

8 MicroDegree: Founded by Gaurav Kamath, Manikanta Nair and Rakesh Kothari in 2019, Mangaluru-based MicroDegree is an edtech startup that is teaching kids how to code through online courses but in their native language – Kannada.

7 UDMA Technologies: Udupi-based fintech startup UDMA Technologies began its journey in 2016 with a digital wallet called the Use Anytime Anywhere wallet. UDMA Technologies’ UAA Wallet compresses authentication data into a single encrypted SMS message, thereby circumnavigating the internet entirely.

6 Nirnal: Founded by Niranjan Karagi in 2016, Belgavi-based Nirnal is a water filtration startup that offers products like portable bottle filter that can fit into a standard water bottle at just Rs 30 – providing access to affordable clean drinking water. So far, they have sold over 2 lakh units in more than 15 countries.

5 SenseGiz: Founded by Abhishek Latthe and Apurva Shetty in 2013, SenseGiz is a Belagavi-based IoT startup that is known for its wearable armbands called SAFR. It is a sleep and fitness tracker and can also be used as a safety device which notifies family members in the event of an emergency or accident.

4 AI-Bharata: Founded by Vinayaka and Vivek Jyothi and Sahana Mallappanahally Shivaswamy in 2019, Sanduru-based AI-Bharata is an AI startup that has built a system called MYAIRA, which uses AI and ML to detect and differentiate between 15 different lung and chest disorders including pneumonia and COVID-19.

3 Freshboxx: Founded by Archana Saxena, Pavan Patil, Praveen Narappanavar and Rohankumar Kulkarni in 2015, Hubballi-based Freshboxx delivers fresh fruits & vegetables directly from farms to their customers. They have also onboarded 150 retail partners including Big Bazaar, More, Nilgiris, and Reliance.

2 Skykrafts Aerospace: Founded in 2015 by Srinivasulu Reddy G, Hubballi-based Skykrafts Aerospace is a drone startup that has created drones for a number of different use cases. They’ve built an agriculture spraying drone, an award-winning cardboard drone intended for DIY tinkering, a more generic drone for enterprise and government use-cases, and an open-source blockchain-based UAV Traffic Management system called SKYWARE.

1 PublicNext: Founded by Manjunath Rao and Vishal Sheth in 2017, Hubballi-based PublicNext is a hyper-local social media news app that empowers its users to take on the role of news creators by reporting on the things that are happening in their neighbourhood or district, posting job opportunities, and sharing their opinions on social issues, in Kannada.

Sankalp Semiconductor: Founded by Vivek Pawar in 2005, Hubballi-based Sankalp Semiconductor is currently one of the largest independent analog and mixed-signal semiconductor design service companies in India. They were acquired by HCL in 2019.

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Alice Besomi is the VP of Investments and known as the queen of SaaS at Jungle Ventures. They have invested in a lot of startups in India working in SaaS, consumer technology, fintech and SME tech, including Moglix (one of India’s latest unicorns), along with Livspace, LeapFinance, CityMall, Turtlemint, among many others.

In this video, Alice and Prithvi discuss all things SaaS – talking about interesting SaaS business ideas to understanding key metrics while building a SaaS startup to what are the investors looking for when investing in a SaaS startup.

Introduction

SaaS - Building from India for the World

Interesting SaaS business ideas

Key metrics to understand when building a SaaS startup

How VCs value an early-stage SaaS startup

Drawbacks of Indian SaaS startups and how to revamp

Growth of India and Southeast Asia as the land of SaaS

Understanding vertical/horizontal SaaS and the CRM market

When building a SaaS business: go local or global?

Scalability or Profitability?

SaaS business models

Disruptive SaaS ideas

Future of SaaS

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This week in Indian Startup News, Zomato IPO date and Paytm IPO update, CCI could probe Zomato and Swiggy for anti-competitive behaviour, Ather Energy’s plans to compete with Ola Electric, Flipkart’s foray into social commerce, MPL to enter the US market and PlaySimple gets acquired for a whopping $360 million. In funding news, Pine Labs closes $600 million round, Digit Insurance raises $200 million, Licious raises $192 million and Furlenco raises $140 million.

Zomato IPO date and Paytm IPO update: Zomato’s IPO is all set to launch on July 14th – offering shares worth Rs 9,375 crore ($1.25 billion) for sale – valuing the food delivery giant at around $9 billion. However, since Zomato is a loss-making company – retail investors will only have access to 10% of these shares. Also, Paytm is expected to file for IPO later this month.

CCI could probe Zomato and Swiggy for Anti-Competitive behaviour: National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) has asked the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to probe Zomato and Swiggy for anti-competitive behaviour – accusing them of deep discounting and data masking.

Ather Energy’s plans to compete with Ola Electric: While Ola Electric is busy doubling down on their electric scooter manufacturing facility, their competitor Ather Energy is also ramping up the capacity of their manufacturing facility from 110,000 to 500,000 units by the end of 2022. They have already set aside $87 million for their factory and are also expanding their charging network from 140 to 500 by the end of this year.

Flipkart’s foray into social commerce: E-commerce behemoth Flipkart has launched its own social e-commerce platform Shopsy to empower 25 million entrepreneurs by enabling them to set up their own businesses by 2023.

MPL to enter the US market: After a successful run in India and foray in Indonesia, Mobile Premier League (MPL) is now expanding into the US to replicate their success through their paid games and competitions.

PlaySimple gets acquired for a whopping $360 million: Swedish gaming firm Modern Times Group (MTG) has acquired Indian mobile gaming startup PlaySimple in a deal worth a whopping $360 million – making it one of the biggest exits in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Pine Labs closes $600 million round: Digital payments and commerce platform Pine Labs has raised $600 million in a round led by Fidelity and BlackRock as they look to IPO in the next 18 months.

Digit Insurance raises $200 million: Insurtech startup Digit Insurance has raised $200 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital India and IIFL Alternate Asset Managers at a valuation of $3.5 billion.

Licious raises $192 million: Fresh meat and seafood delivery startup Licious has raised $192 million in a round led by Temasek and Multiples Private Equity.

Furlenco raises $140 million: Online furniture rental startup Furlenco has raised $140 million in a round led by Zinnia Global Fund.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Online pharmacy startup PharmEasy acquires 25-year-old Thyrocare, Update on Ola’s electric scooter and Futurefactory, PolicyBazaar IPO and expansion into offline insurance space, Shuttl to shut down, and Lenskart’s expansion and their new startup fund.

In funding news, PharmEasy raises $300 million, Acko in talks to raise $200 million, Fourth Partner Energy raises $125 million, Grofers raises $120 million and Classplus raises $65 million.

Online pharmacy startup PharmEasy acquires 25-year-old Thyrocare: India’s only pharmacy unicorn PharmEasy’s parent company API Holdings has signed a deal to acquire 66.1% stake in a 25-year-old diagnostics company Thyrocare for a whopping $613 million. This deal is huge for the Indian startup ecosystem, considering this is the first time ever that an Indian unicorn startup has acquired a publicly listed company.

Update on Ola’s electric scooter and Futurefactory: Ola’s electric scooter manufacturing facility called Futurefactory is nearing the completion of its first phase – which means they will be able to start rolling out 2 million of Ola’s electric scooters soon every year soon. While not much is known about Ola’s electric scooters yet, they are expected to offer a range of 150 km.

PolicyBazaar IPO and expansion into offline insurance space: PolicyBazaar’s parent company Etech Aces Marketing and Consulting is planning to file for IPO as soon as this month and the company could go public by the end of this year. They are expected to raise $400-500 million at a $4-5 billion valuation. The insurtech startup has also forayed into offline insurance space by setting up 15 stores and they plan on increasing the number to 100 in the coming months. This move is critical for their business because despite being the leader in India’s online insurance space, more than 90% of the insurances are still sold offline.

Shuttl to shut down? App-based on-demand bus service for daily office commuters Shuttl was doing over 100,000 rides every day before the pandemic. However, with the offices shut down and employees largely working from homes, their business has been at a standstill for the last year. Shuttl has already let go of most of their employees and they are now planning to sell whatever is left of the company to a larger player.

Lenskart’s expansion and their new startup fund: Omnichannel eyewear unicorn Lenskart which already has more than 750 stores is now planning to add 300 more stores to strengthen their offline presence. The startup has also set up a ‘Vision Fund’ – which will be used to invest in smaller startups in the eyewear tech space.

PharmEasy raises $300 million: Online pharmacy unicorn startup PharmEasy has raised $300 million from their existing investors to help them fund the acquisition of Thyrocare.

Acko in talks to raise $200 million: Online insurance startup Acko is in talks with the likes of General Atlantic, Warburg Pincus, Multiples Alternate Asset Management and TPG to raise $200 million. If the deal comes through, Acko will end up being a unicorn.

Fourth Partner Energy raises $125 million: Solar energy startup Fourth Partner Energy has raised $125 million in fresh capital from Norway’s state-owned Norfund and TPG.

Grofers raises $120 million: Grofers has raised $120 million from food delivery giant Zomato and Tiger Global Management. Zomato is seeking CCI’s permission to acquire a 9.3% stake in the startup.

Classplus raises $65 million: Edtech startup Classplus has raised $65 million from Tiger Global Management to help offline tutors set up their online business.

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10 Wakefit: Founded by Chaitanya Ramalingegowda and Ankit Garg in 2015, Wakefit started selling mattresses online and were already making a profit within six months of operations. Today, this D2C mattress startup is selling 1,500 mattresses to their 500,000 customers every day – raking in a revenue of $26.5 million and making a profit of $1.3 million in FY20.

9 Lenskart: Founded by Peyush Bansal in 2010, Lenskart offers an omnichannel platform for selling eyewear and lenses through their online platform and offline stores. The company has been investing heavily in setting up new physical stores – taking the number of offline stores to over 750. This is why the startup took a decade to reach profitability. In FY20, Lenskart made a revenue of $130 million with a profit of $2.4 million.

8 Cashfree: Cashfree is a digital payments gateway platform that offers more than 100 payment methods to over 50,000 businesses around the world with a team of just 130 employees. Their ability to stay lean has not only enabled them to scale but also remain profitable from the get-go. Their profit increased 14X from just $190,000 in FY18 to $2.6 million in FY20.

7 BrowserStack: India’s most valuable SaaS startup BrowserStack enables developers to test their apps remotely using their cross-browser testing platform that has more than 2,000 devices and is being used by over 50,000 businesses across the world. The company has been profitable since day one. In FY20, BrowserStack raked in a profit of $3.8 million.

6 Aye Finance: SME lending startup Aye Finance has been profitable for the last three consecutive years and has disbursed loans worth more than $538 million to more than 200,000 small businesses. Aye Finance’s profits have increased to $5.3 million in FY20.

5 Lendingkart: Founded in 2014, Lendingkart has disbursed loans worth $741 million to more than 100,000 small businesses. This fintech startup first achieved profitability in FY19 and their profits stand at $5.6 million in FY20.

4 OfBusiness: B2B e-commerce and lending startup OfBusiness uses purchase financing – providing businesses with a loan that they can use to purchase raw materials from their e-commerce platform. Once their profits from the interest started coming in, OfBusiness started making money and they are now on their way to becoming a unicorn. Their profits jumped 73X from just $150,000 in FY18 to a healthy $80 million in FY20.

3 CarTrade: Founded in 2009, CarTrade is the only profitable online used car marketplace. This decade-old startup has already filed for an IPO and is expected to hit the stock markets soon. The company significantly decreased its losses from $20 million in FY16 to just $2 million in FY17. They first turned profitable in FY18 and they did this through internal restructuring, key acquisitions and cost-cutting measures. Today (FY20), they are making a healthy profit of $11.5 million.

2 Boat Lifestyle: Indian consumer technology startup Boat started in 2016 by selling charging cables and were able to hit profitability within the first year. Next, they launched more products like earphones, headphones and smartwatches with quality and affordability in mind to target value-minded Indian consumers. This strategy only accelerated their growth. Boat’s profit’s increased by 30X from just $225,000 to $6.6 million in FY20.

1 Zerodha: India’s largest stockbroking platform Zerodha has managed to change the entire stock trading industry single-handedly and they did it without even raising any external funding or marketing their product. Today, Zerodha charges just Rs 20 (or 0.03% as commission – whichever is lower) from their customer for every intraday trade. Thanks to that, Zerodha earned a solid $135 million in profits in FY21.

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This week in Indian Startup News, BharatPe and Centrum get RBI’s nod to acquire PMC Bank, Impact on new ecommerce rules on Amazon and Flipkart, Cars24 starts home delivery of cars and expands globally, Grofers’ co-founder Saurabh Kumar exits, Uncademy’s Graphy announces Rs 100 crore fund for creators and KKR acquires Fogg Deodrant maker Vini Cosmetics.

In funding news, Byju’s raises $50 million, RenewBuy raises $45 million, GoMechanic raises $42 million, Kutumb raises $26 million and Progcap raises $25 million.

Impact on new ecommerce rules on Amazon and Flipkart: Indian government has proposed changes to the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules 2020 as they plan to further curb cheating and unfair trade practices. E-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart are particularly confused about the clause which says that Flash sales on e-commerce platforms are banned.

BharatPe and Centrum get RBI’s nod to acquire PMC Bank: RBI has approved the take over of PMC Bank by BharatPe and Centrum – also giving them an in-principal approval to set up a small finance bank before the merger. This could bring relief to PMC Bank customers who have been unable to access their money since 2019.

Cars24 starts home delivery of cars and expands globally: Cars24 will soon start delivering used cars to their customers’ homes with 7 days no questions asked return policy – taking their ecommerce experience to a new level. They have also set aside $100 million for their international expansion.

Grofers’ co-founder Saurabh Kumar exits: Grofers’ co-founder Saurabh Kumar is hanging his boots after building the online grocery platform for over 8 years as he looks at new opportunities.

Unacademy’s Graphy announces Rs 100 crore fund for creators: Graphy has launched a Rs 100 crore fund (Graphy Creator Grant) to help content creators to launch their own courses, build an audience and start earning money for the course of the next two years.

KKR acquires Fogg Deodrants maker Vini Cosmetics: Private equity firm KKR is acquiring a majority stake in Fogg Deodrants maker Vini Cosmetics for $625 million to help them their ecommerce sales channel and build new products for the emerging markets.

Byju’s raises $50 million: Byju’s has raised $50 million in a round led by IIFL – taking their total funding for this year to over $850 million as they explore more acquisition opportunities and eye global expansion.

RenewBuy raises $45 million: D2C insurtech startup RenewBuy has raised $45 million in a round led by Apis Partners to bring insurance to remote parts of the country.

GoMechanic raises $42 million: Car servicing startup GoMechanic has raised $42 million from Tiger Global Management to expand their operation from 35 to 100 cities as they aim to service 10 million cars by the end of 2021.

Kutumb raises $26 million: A community-building platform for Bharat users Kutumb has raised $26 million led by Tiger Global Management.

Progcap raises $25 million: Retail financing startup Progcap has raised $25 million from Tiger Global Management.

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Since 2014, Paytm’s revenue has increased 15X to reach $435 million in FY21. But how did Paytm make so much money? What is Vijay Shekhar Sharma's business and revenue model that helped them get close to half a billion dollars in revenue? In this video, we answer all these questions – explaining Paytm’s ingenious business model in detail, what are their different revenue channels and how does all this money make its way to Paytm’s bank account.

Paytm Wallet: Paytm Wallet was probably one of the most convenient ways to make online transactions before UPI but that it is also one of the most ingenious ways that Paytm makes money. When you add money to your Paytm Wallet, it doesn’t get into Paytm’s account, instead, it ends up in an escrow account with Paytm’s partner bank, and while it’s there, it earns interest for Paytm. This interest is revenue, and it’s one of the reasons why Paytm tries so hard to get people to use Paytm Wallet - every rupee that people deposit makes them money. But if you decide to withdraw that money? In that case, Paytm will charge a 5% transaction fee – which again adds to their revenues.

Commissions - Bookings: When Paytm was started back in 2010, it was an online platform that helped you recharge your mobile phones, DTH and making your bill payments (electricity, water or gas). Today, they have added a lot more services like online flight bookings, train bookings, hotel bookings or even movies. Every time you make these transactions Paytm takes a commission of around 2-3% - enabling them to make more money.

Commissions - E-Commerce: Let’s not forget Paytm Mall, while it failed to become as big as Amazon or Flipkart, it still helps Paytm generate some revenue. When sellers want to sell on Paytm Mall, they need to pay for a couple of things. First, they have to pay a commission on every sale they make through Paytm Mall – which varies from product category to product category. Apart from that, they also have to pay Paytm some logistics fees for handling the delivery and then a 2.7% transaction fees for using Paytm’s payment gateway.

Payment Gateway Solutions - Transaction Fees: Every merchant needs to use a payment gateway to be able to accept money from their customers. This payment gateway provides multiple ways for them to accept money – through debit/credit cards, UPI, netbanking or Paytm Wallet. However, using it is not free. Paytm or even any other payment provider charges a certain fee based on the mode of payment. Paytm charges a fixed 1.99% fee for using their gateway for Credit Cards, Netbanking, and Debit Cards.

Financial Services: Paytm partners with banks and NBFCs to help their customers get access to loans. By doing this, since Paytm brings more customers to these banks and NBFCs – Paytm ends up charging a higher interest rate from their customers than what is offered by these banks and NBFCs. In a way, Paytm again takes a small cut. Then you’ve got the ability to buy stocks, mutual funds, gold, and insurance, and Paytm takes a cut of all of these transactions to increase their revenue.

Advertisement and Gaming: For advertising, Paytm sells exposure. Companies that want your eyes on their products pay Paytm to promote those products to their 150 million users. Then we’ve got gaming - Paytm is following a similar model to Dream11 where players pay an entry fee to play games like Rummy, Fantasy Cricket and Fantasy Football, and a portion of that fee goes into the prize pool while the remaining portion of that fee goes Paytm’s pocket.

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This week in Indian Startup News, India’s largest crypto trading platform WazirX gets tangled in a money-laundering probe, India’s first official drone delivery trial begins, PhonePe’s acquisition deal with Indus OS turns into a lawsuit, CultFit acquires Tread to foray into at-home fitness hardware and InMobi’s Glance acquires Shop101 to launch live commerce.

In funding news, Byju’s raises $350 million to become India’s most valuable startup, BrowserStack raises $200 million to become India’s most valuable SaaS startup, Vianai Systems raises $140 million, Apna.co raises $70 million and FamPay raises $38 million.

India’s largest crypto trading platform WazirX gets tangled in a money-laundering probe: India’s financial investigation agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a notice to WazirX and its directors Nischal Shetty and Sameer Mhatre – seeking an explanation for crypto transactions worth $400 million. ED has accused them of not carrying out proper KYC which led to Chinese nationals operating illegal online betting apps to launder money through their platform by buying cryptocurrencies.

India’s first official drone delivery trial begins: A consortium led by Throttle Aerospace Systems became the first to officially start drone delivery trials to deliver medicines in partnership with Narayana Health.

PhonePe’s acquisition deal with Indus OS turns into a lawsuit: PhonePe was trying to acquire Indus OS for $60 million to strengthen their mini app store Switch but the deal soon turned into a lawsuit between PhonePe and Indus OS’s investor Affle on the difference of valuations. PhonePe has also filed a complaint against another Indus OS investor Ventureast to Sebi for deceiving them and side dealing with Affle to scuttle the deal.

CultFit acquires Tread to foray into at-home fitness hardware: Health and fitness startup CultFit has acquired at-home smart fitness bike maker Tread to give their customers a more comprehensive fitness and training experience at home.

InMobi’s Glance acquires Shop101 to launch live commerce: Glance has acquired social e-ecommerce startup Shop101. The startup will be leveraging its short video platform Roposo along with Shop101’s e-commerce capabilities to launch celebrity and influencer-led live commerce on their platform.

Byju’s raises $350 million to become India’s most valuable startup: Edtech giant Byju’s has raised $350 million in fresh capital from UBS Group, Zoom founder Eric Yuan, Abu Dhabi’s ADQ, Blackstone and Phoenix Rising at a $16.5 billion valuation – leaving behind Paytm to make it India’s most valuable startup.

BrowserStack raises $200 million - India’s most valuable SaaS startup: App and website testing platform BrowserStack has raised $200 million led by BOND Capital at a $4 billion valuation to accelerate their growth via acquisitions.

Vianai Systems raises $140 million: Infosys’ former CEO Vishal Sikka’s new venture Vianai Systems has raised $140 million in fresh capital in a round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.

Apna.co raises $70 million: Professional networking and job search platform for blue-collar workers Apna has raised $70 million in a round led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global Management at a valuation of $570 million.

FamPay raises $38 million: Fintech startup FamPay has raised $38 million in a round led by Elevation Capital to build India’s first neobank for teenagers. They will use the capital to expand their user base and add more products to their suite.

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10 Urban Company: Urban Company is India’s largest homes services marketplace. The company has a network of more than 35,000 home service professionals. They have also expanded beyond India to countries UAE, Australia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. This rapid global expansion has caused their losses to almost doubled from $10 million in FY19 to $18 million in FY20.

9 CRED: CRED is a fintech startup that rewards its users for paying their credit card bills on time. The company is trying to fundamentally change the behaviour of its consumers in order to build a community of high trust individuals. This is why CRED had to spend a lot to get customers on their platform through expensive ads – leading to a minuscule operating revenue of $71,200, while expense stood at $51.8 million.

8 Delhivery: Logistics startup Delhivery is planning to go public in the coming months – which is why they have managed to cut down their losses significantly but it still remains considerably higher. Their losses rose to a high of $256 million in FY19 before coming down to just $38 million in FY20.

7 Udaan: Udaan is a B2B marketplace for retailers to buy products directly from the manufacturers. Focusing on rapid growth and building their all-India logistics – Udaan ended up raking up some pretty huge losses. Their losses rose by 3X from $112 million in FY19 to $333 million in FY20.

6 Ola Cabs: Ola Cabs has not only established its ride-hailing business in India but has also expanded internationally to countries like Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The company has been continuously improving its unit economics while also cutting down on losses in hopes of going public. They managed to cut down their loss from $436 million to $373 million between FY18 to FY19.

5 Swiggy: Indian food delivery unicorn Swiggy has long been engaged in a battle with its rival Zomato by offering huge discounts and cashbacks to acquire new customers. That combined with poor unit economics has caused their losses to grow. They ended the FY20 with a revenue of $368 million but a loss of $499 million.

4 Zomato: Zomato recently filed for an IPO is yet to achieve profitability either. The company claims to have achieved positive unit economics – which is a step towards profitability but according to their IPO filing, the company is expected to continue to be making losses for a while. In the first three-quarters of FY21, Zomato has already lost $93 million.

3 Dream11: Dream11 is India’s only gaming startup to turn unicorn and it is also a leader in the country’s fantasy gaming segment. They’ve had to spend a lot on the advertisement to make fantasy gaming popular among the masses – at a time when it was being looked at as gambling. As a result of which, Dream11’s losses for FY19 stood at $19 million.

2 OYO: Oyo Rooms is India’s hospitality unicorn that had expanded rapidly to international destinations before shrinking operations due to the pandemic. Their unpreceded rate of expansion demanded investment before they could make any money. This is why Oyo Rooms’ losses grew 6X from just $50 million in FY18 to $336 million in FY19.

1 Paytm: India’s most valuable fintech startup Paytm has been in the headlines for its heavy losses but they are now gearing up to file for an IPO – in fact, it could be India’s largest IPO ever. While Paytm has managed to cut down its losses significantly by 42% from $389 million in FY20 to just $232 million, they are still a long way from profitability.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Lenskart to establish the world’s largest automated eyewear manufacturing facility, PhonePe vs BharatPe – a fight for ‘Pe’, Zomato’s fleet to become 100% electric by 2030, Koo goes to Nigeria after Twitter gets banned, Paytm IPO confirmed, Tata Digital acquires 1mg, BoAt in talks to acquire Tagg Digital, Masai School acquires Design Shift Academy and BharatPe acquires Payback India.

In funding news, Flipkart is in talks to raise $3 billion, Swiggy to raise up to $500 million from Softbank, CarDekho in talks to raise $150 million, Whatfix raises $90 million, Zenoti raises $80 million and Refyne raises $16 million.

Lenskart to establish the world’s largest automated eyewear manufacturing facility: Lenskart has announced that it is building India’s first and the world’s largest automated eyewear manufacturing facility that will be able to serve 100 million eye sights every year.

PhonePe vs BharatPe – a fight for ‘Pe’: Back in 2019, PhonePe had filed a lawsuit against BharatPe for infringing on their copyright ‘Pe’ and using their goodwill to gain customers. They had also filed for an injunction plea to stop BharatPe from using their trademarked ‘Pe’. While their injunction plea was quashed by the Delhi High Court, PhonePe is now preparing to go to trial.

Zomato’s fleet to become 100% electric by 2030: IPO-bound food delivery startup Zomato has announced that it has joined a climate initiative called EV100. They are now committed to transition their entire fleet to electric by 2030.

Koo goes to Nigeria after Twitter gets banned: After Twitter was banned in Nigeria for deleting their president’s tweet, Koo decided to launch in the country. The Indian microblogging platform is now working to add local languages to open the platform to local language users in Nigeria.

Paytm IPO confirmed: India’s most valuable startup Paytm is all set for its IPO after it was approved by the board. Paytm will be raising $3 billion in the IPO – making it the country’s biggest IPO ever.

Tata Digital acquires 1mg: Tata Digital has confirmed the acquisition of online pharmacy startup 1mg – as they look to strengthen their digital ecosystem.

BoAt in talks to acquire Tagg Digital: Consumer electronics startup BoAt is reportedly in talks to acquire Tagg Digital to strengthen their position in the wearables segment.

Masai School acquires Design Shift Academy: Edtech startup Masai School, which offers online courses on web and android development, has acquired Design Shift Academy – which offers courses on UI/UX design.

BharatPe acquires Payback India: Digital payments and lending startup BharatPe has acquired Payback India (which offers a multi-brand loyalty program for its merchant partners)

Flipkart in talks to raise $3 billion: Walmart-owned ecommerce giant Flipkart is in talks with a host of invests including SodftBank to raise $3 billion at a massive $40 billion valuation.

Swiggy to raise up to $500 million from Softbank: SoftBank is seeking the CCI approval to invest up to $500 million in online food delivery unicorn Swiggy – to help build their war chest ahead of Zomato’s IPO.

CarDekho in talks to raise $150 million: CarDekho, an online marketplace for used cars, is in talks to raise up to $150 million at a billion-dollar valuation.

Whatfix raises $90 million: Whatfix has raised $90 million from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a $600 million valuation to make it easier for companies to onboard new users and employees.

Zenoti raises $80 million: Zenoti, a SaaS platform for managing spas and salons, has raised $80 million from TPG.

Tata Digital to invest up to $75 million in CureFit: Tata Digital has signed an agreement to invest up to $75 million in health and fitness startup CureFit.

India’s first earned salary access platform Refyne has raised $16 million from DST Global and RTP Global.

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This week in Indian Startup News, WazirX launches India’s first NFT marketplace, RBI clarifies that crypto trading isn’t banned, Delhi allows online delivery of alcohol, Nykaa’s IPO plans, Dunzo to deliver medicine using drones, Infra.Market acquires Equiphunt, Byju’s acquires HashLearn and xto10x acquires Dockabl.

In funding news, Delhivery raises $277 million, Urban Company raises $255 million, OfBusiness in talks to raise up to $150 million and Mensa Brands raises $50 million.

WazirX launches India’s first NFT marketplace: India’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform WazirX has launched India’s first NFT marketplace- enabling artists to sell NFTs on their platform using their own cryptocurrency.

RBI clarifies that crypto trading isn’t banned: Some good news for the cryptocurrency investors as RBI has released a new circular clarifying that banks cannot cite their 2018 circular which banned crypto trading as it was quashed by the Supreme Court last year. However, they still want banks to be cautious.

Delhi allows online delivery of alcohol: Delhi government has allowed online delivery of alcohol from apps and websites but it might still be a while before it becomes reality and online delivery startups like Swiggy, Zomato and Dunzo start delivering alcohol in the city.

Nykaa’s IPO plans: Falguni Nayyar led omnichannel beauty retailer Nykaa is expected to IPO this year – raising anywhere between $500-700 million at a $4.5 billion valuation.

Dunzo to deliver medicine using drones: Dunzo has partnered with the Telangana government for their ambitious ‘Medicine from the sky’ project to help them deliver medicine to remote parts of the state using drones.

Infra.Market acquires Equiphunt: A marketplace for real estate companies to procure construction materials Infra.Market has acquired a majority stake in a contruction equipment rental startup Equiphunt for $10 million.

Byju’s acquires HashLearn: Byju’s has acquired a subscription-based on-demand tutoring platform HashLearn to strengthen its position in the test-preparation segment.

xto10x acquires Dockabl: Binny Bansal’s xto10x which helps startups in scaling their business efficiently has acquired an HR-Tech startup Dockabl to offer a performance management tool to track and enhance the productivity of employees.

Delhivery raises $277 million: Logistics startup Delhivery has raised $277 million in a round led by Fidelity and GIC at a $3 billion valuation and it is expected to go public this year.

Urban Company raises $255 million: On-demand home services startup Urban Company has raised $255 million from Prosus Ventures, Dragoneer Investment Group and Wellington Management.

OfBusiness in talks to raise up to $150 million: OfBusiness is in talks with SoftBank to raise up to $150 million at a $1.2 billion valuation – making it a unicorn.

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Ram Divedi is an investor, a professor of Economic Warfare and co-founder of Pravaig Dynamics, which is an Indian EV startup building one of the country’s first premium electric car – Extinction Mark I.

In this podcast, Ram and Prithvi discuss the importance of building a professional network and how it can be used for securing your dream job, raising funds for your startup or even finding your co-founders.

00:00 Introduction

05:08 How having a good network helps

09:18 Importance of building a network for someone building a startup

11:11 What not to do when building a network

13:14 Mental tool on how to think about a networking

17:02 Networking and Social Media

19:15 How to add value to your network when you are starting out and have no expertise

26:10 Benefits of being young and having no network

30:42 Finding a balance between seeking help and being helpful

33:10 Benefits of reading

37:10 Building a network across countries

39:11 Personal Branding

52:30 A Network is for life

54:00 Creating value and prioritizing networking

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This week in Indian Startup News, Bellatrix Aerospace becomes the first Indian private company to develop and test a hall effect thruster, Zetwerk forays into aerospace and defense, Paytm could launch India’s biggest IPO ever, RBI orders all mobile wallets to become interoperable, Pharmeasy acquires Medlife, upGrad acquires Impartus, Tata in talks to acquire CureFit, PolicyBazaaar fined $33,000 for sending misleading SMS, WhatsApp is suing the Indian government over privacy rights violation and Twitter vs Indian government.

In funding news, Oyo is looking to raise $600 million in debt, Zeta raises $250 million to become a unicorn, FarEye raises $100 million, Locus in talks to raise $60 million, InVideo in talks to raise $40 million and Koo raises $30 million.

Bellatrix Aerospace becomes the first Indian private company to develop and test a hall effect thruster: Bellatrix Aerospace, the startup that wants to build a space taxi for satellites, has successfully tested India’s first privately developed hall effect thruster – which is an electric propulsion system for microsatellites weighting 50-500 kg.

Zetwerk forays into aerospace and defense: Online B2B marketplace for manufacturing products Zetwerk has set up a facility to start manufacturing aerospace and defense products.

Paytm could launch India’s biggest IPO ever: Paytm is planning to launch India’s biggest IPO ever this November – could raise $3 billion at a valuation of up to $30 billion.

RBI orders all mobile wallets to become interoperable: RBI has ordered all mobile wallet operators like PhonePe, Paytm and Google Pay to make their mobile wallets interoperable by 1st April 2022. You will be able to transfer money across mobile wallets using UPI.

Pharmeasy acquires Medlife: Pharmeasy has acquired Medlife and discontinued Medlife – onboarding all their customers on its own platform making it India’s largest healthcare delivery platform.

upGrad acquires Impartus: Edtech startup upGrad has acquired video-based learning solutions provider Impartus and they will be rebranding it as upGrad Campus.

Tata in talks to acquire CureFit: Tata is looking to acquire health and fitness startup CureFit as it plans its Super App.

PolicyBazaaar fined $33,000 for sending misleading SMS: PolicyBazaar was fined $33,000 for sending misleading SMS to its customers regarding the increase in insurance premium prices.

WhatsApp is suing the Indian government over privacy rights violation: WhatsApp is suing the Indian government over the new IT rules which asks them to identify the ‘first originator of information’ – which is seen as a violation of privacy rights by the tech giant.

Twitter vs Indian government: After Twitter labelled a tweet from a BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra as ‘manipulated media’, Delhi Police was sent to Twitter’s offices in Delhi and Gurgaon to hand them the notice of the inquiry.

Oyo is looking to raise $600 million in debt: Oyo looks to be in trouble as the hospitality giant is looking to get a loan worth $600 million for investors.

Zeta raises $250 million to become a unicorn: Banking tech startup Zeta has raised $250 million led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 – making it India’s latest unicorn.

FarEye raises $100 million: FarEye has raised $100 million in a round led by TCV and Dragoneer Investment Group.

Locus in talks to raise $60 million: Locus is in talks to raise $60 million from Singapore government’s GIC.

InVideo in talks to raise $40 million: Online video editing platform InVideo is in talks to raise $40 million.

Koo raises $30 million: Indian version of Twitter for regional language users Koo has raised $30 million led by Tiger Global Management as the Indian government’s relationship with American social media giants like WhatsApp and Twitter turns sour.

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Shreyaan Daga was just 15 years old when he started an edtech startup called Online Live Learning (OLL) – which is a marketplace for teachers to offer live courses to students on everything from graphic designing to yoga to guitar to astrology to astronomy. In this video, Shreyaan talks about discovering his passion, starting up as a young entrepreneur and building a profitable edtech startup.

Introduction

From selling paintings in 4th grade to lending money in 7th grade

Journey of self-discovery and entrepreneurship

Turning pandemic into an opportunity

Moving from free courses to a paid business model

Shreyaan on the importance of learning

Future of Online Live Learning

From selling paintings in 4th grade to lending money in 7th grade: Before Shreyaans even started his latest venture Online Live Learning, he had been on a path to entrepreneurship since he was 10 years old. He started selling paintings online to his friends and family when he was in 4th grade. It grew into an online marketplace for paintings when his friends using the platform to sell their paintings as well. Later in 7th grade, he started lending money to his schoolmates at high-interest rates and he even learnt about investing in the stock market on his own.

Journey of self-discovery and entrepreneurship: Fascinated by the story of Gautam Buddha, Shreyaan went on his own journey of self-discovery when he decided to leave everything he owned behind. He got on his bicycle and started donating everything he owned until he was left with just his bicycle, which he gave to a kid on the street. Fortunately, he was discovered by his friend and was taken home. But this experience made him realise that instead of focusing on materialistic things, people should focus on dreaming big and spending their lives in the pursuit of those dreams. The only way he thought we can do that is through education. That’s why he decided to start Online Live Learning.

Turning pandemic into an opportunity: He discussed the idea for Online Live Learning with his parents and hired a team of IIM graduates to help him build the platform. During the pandemic, teachers were finding it hard to make money, students had a lot of time on their hand and schools were still figuring things out. That’s when Shreyaan launched Online Live Learning to help teachers make some money through courses and provide a platform for students to continue their learning.

Moving from free courses to a paid business model: Initially, they were offering the courses for free but with their initial investment of Rs 2 lakh running out, they realised that it wasn’t a sustainable model and people don’t really value free courses. So, they started charging money for the classes and started building a stable revenue source. Their growth has been organic from the beginning but things started to slow down when schools were opening up once again.

Shreyaan on the importance of learning and dreaming big: He believes that the first time we are introduced to a subject, it’s called awareness. But learning happens when you start connecting and applying those concepts in the real world.

Future of Online Live Learning: Their platform is already offering courses ranging across multiple fields ranging from graphic designing to astronomy to astrology to machine learning. But he and his team want to build Online Live Learning into a school for the world where students can learn any skill they chose. They now have an ambitious goal of getting 1 billion students on their platform by 2025.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Ola launches EV category in London, Simple Energy to launch their Ather 450X killer - Mark 2, PUBG starts pre-registrations, Made in India cryptocurrency Polygon makes it among the global top 20, Emeritus acquires iD Tech and PhonePe looking to acquire Indus OS.

In funding news, Pine Labs raises $285 million, Moglix raises $120 million, Lenskart raises $95 million, GOAT Brand Labs in talks to raise $20 million, Agnikul Cosmos raises $11 million and another space tech startup Skyroot Aerospace raises $11 million.

Ola launches EV category in London: Ola has launched the EV category for their customers in London – allowing them to book electric vehicles exclusively. The company claims to have onboarded 700 drivers already and they are hoping to get more drivers soon as they are not going to charge any commission from their drivers for the first three months.

Simple Energy to launch their Ather 450X killer - Mark 2: Simple Energy is launching its electric scooter Mark 2 on 15th August (Independence Day). With a range of 240 km and a top speed of 100 km/hr, Mark 2 is priced at Rs 1.1 lakh – making it a perfect competitor to Ather 450X.

PUBG starts pre-registrations: After months of wait and trying to launch PUBG India, the game is finally back as Battlegrounds Mobile India. While the official launch date is yet to be announced, the game has started pre-registrations.

Made in India cryptocurrency Polygon makes it among the global top 20: Polygon (formerly known as Matic Network) has a market capitalization of $13 billion – making it the 15th largest cryptocurrency in the world. Its market cap has grown 10X since February.

Emeritus acquires iD Tech: Edtech startup Emeritus has acquired iD Tech for $200 million as it looks to enter K12 learning and eyes the US market – pitting them against Byju’s Future School.

PhonePe looking to acquire Indus OS: PhonePe is in advanced talks to acquire Indus OS for $60 million as it looks to strengthen its mini-app store ‘Switch’ and eyes its own super app.

Pine Labs raises $285 million: Digital commerce and payments platform Pine Labs has raised $285 million from the likes of Marshall Wace, Baron Capital Group, Duro Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures & Ward Ferry Management at a valuation of $3 billion.

Moglix raises $120 million: B2B ecommerce startup Moglix has raised $120 million led by Falcon Edge Capital and Harvard Management Company – making it India’s 12th unicorn this year.

Lenskart raises $95 million: Omnichannel eyewear brand Lenskart has raised $95 million from KKR as it plans to expand abroad and strengthen its VR technology.

GOAT Brand Labs in talks to raise $20 million: GOAT Brand Labs is expected to raise $20 million from Tiger Global, Mayfield Fund and Flipkart’s venture fund.

Agnikul Cosmos raises $11 million: Space tech startup Agnikul Cosmos has raised $11 million led by Mayfield India as it gears up to become India’s first private company to launch satellites in space next year.

Skyroot Aerospace raises $11 million: Space tech startup Skyroot Aerospace has raised $11 million led by Greenko Group founders Anil Kumar Chalamalasetty and Mahesh Kolli for the development of their Vikram rocket.

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In this episode of Backstage with Millionaires, we take a look at the top 10 defence startups in India making India aatmanirbhar in defence technology.

10 Big Bang Boom Solutions: Founded by R. Shivaraman and Praveen Dwarkanath in 2018, Big Bang Boom Solutions is among one of the youngest defence startups in India. The company is working on multiple technologies for the defence sector. Its flagship product which is called a 360 Advanced Battle Interface is focused on enhancing the visual capabilities of T-Series tanks used by the Indian armed forces.

9 Sagar Defence Engineering: Founded by Nikunj Parashar and Mridul Babbar in 2016, Sagar Defence Engineering has some ambitious goals. Sagar Defence Engineering has developed a product called ‘Genesis – Boat in a Box’. It is an AI-enabled device that can be programmed to carry out smart and specific tasks that are not safe for humans like cleaning oil spills, surveying marine borders and providing flood relief.

8 Optimized Electrotech: Founded by Anil Yekkala, Dharin Shah, Kuldeep Saxena, Purvi Shah, and Sandeep Shah in 2017, Optimized Electrotech is an electro-optics startup that is making security and surveillance systems for India’s defence forces. The company has developed a range of products that use high-resolution sensors and cameras to capture detailed images at low lighting conditions or even in complete darkness.

7 Dimension NXG (AjnaLens): Founded by Pankaj Raut, Abhijit Patil and Abhishek Tomar in 2014, Dimension NXG (AjnaLens) is an augmented reality (AR) startup that has launched – AjnaBolt, which is India’s first AI-powered mixed reality glasses for defence.

6 Vinveli: Founded by Gokul Anandayuvarj, Essaki Durai and Yuan Qu in 2014, Vinveli is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) startup. They have two versions of their flagship made in India drone named Vero. They can not only carry and fire explosives but also provide food to the soldiers on the battlefield.

5 IdeaForge: Founded by IIT graduates Ankit Mehta, Ashish Bhat, Rahul Singh, Vipul Joshi, and Amardeep Singh in 2010, IdeaForge claims to be India’s largest drone manufacturer for defence, homeland security and industrial applications. Unlike Vinveli, whose drones are capable of firing grenades and carrying ammunition, IdeaForge’s drones are specifically built for surveillance purposes.

4 EyeROV: Founded by Johns T Mathai and Kannappa Palaniappan in 2016, EyeROV is an underwater drone startup that has developed India’s first commercial underwater drone called EyeROV Tuna. ROV stands for Remotely Operated Vehicle. Underwater inspections carried out by human divers can only go up to 30-40m and there are also risk to their lives due to high underwater currents, poor visibility and wild marine creatures.

3 Cron Systems (Cron AI): Founded by Tushar Chhabra, Tommy Katzenellenbogen, and Saurav Agarwala in 2015, CRON Systems (Cron AI) is an IoT-based startup that is developing security solutions that are being deployed at Indian borders to detect any intruders and protect the troops.

2 Axio Biosolutions: Founded by Leo Mavely in 2008, Axio Biosolutions has developed India’s first FDA approved wound care product – Axiostat. Axiostat is a haemostatic dressing that is now used by the soldiers on the battlefield to control the bleeding from gunshot wounds or blast injuries that would otherwise be fatal.

1 Tonbo Imaging: Founded by Arvind Lakshmikumar, Ankit Kumar, Sudeep George and Cecilia D'Souza in 2012, Tonbo Imaging builds advanced imaging and sensor systems for the defence industry. Tonbo Imaging’s flagship product is called STAR (See-through armour) which is a combination of multiple 3 day and 3 night vision sensors (with a field of vision of 120 degrees each) creating an imaging system that can help any armoured vehicle to get a 360-degree view.

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This week in Indian startup news, CarTrade gears up for an IPO, Ziffyhomes is in trouble – might shut down soon, Oyo announces four-day work week, Zerodha says no to work calls after 6 P.M., Groww to acquire Indiabulls' mutual fund business and FuelBuddy acquires MyPetrolPump.

In funding news, Flipkart is in talks to raise $1 billion, Acko looking to raise $200 million, Grofers could get $100 million from Zomato, Mamaearth in talks to raise up to $80 million, Rapido raises $43.4 million and Cron AI raises $4 million.

CarTrade gears up for an IPO: CarTrade, an online platform for selling used cars, is expected to file for IPO this month – which would make it the first online classified company to go public in the country. The startup was founded in 2009 by Vinay Sanghi and over the years it has expanded its offerings to become a one-stop-shop providing everything from loans and insurance. They are also among the few startups that are actually profitable.

Ziffyhomes is in trouble – might shut down soon: According to a report by Entrackr, Ziffyhomes is in the final stages of shutting down its operations. At the moment, their website and app are non-functional and their customer care number isn’t working either. While the company’s co-founder Saurabh Kumar has said that they are scaling down their operations but not shutting down altogether. However, things are looking pretty grim for Ziffyhomes.

Oyo announces four-day work week: OYO is moving towards a four-day work week to ease their employees' mental stress and they are also implementing a “no questions asked flexible infinite paid leave” policy.

Zerodha says no to work calls and chats after 6 P.M.: Online stock trading unicorn Zerodha’s founder Nithin Kamath took to Twitter to announce that they have “killed all work-related chats post 6 P.M. and holidays”.

Groww to acquire Indiabulls’ mutual fund business: Online investment platform Groww has signed a deal with Indiabulls to acquire their mutual fund business for Rs 175 crore. This will allow Groww to create its own mutual fund products and use its network of 15 million users to grow the business.

FuelBuddy acquires MyPetrolPump: On-demand fuel delivery startup FuelBuddy has acquired another online fuel delivery platform MyPetrolPump as it looks to expand into new geographies.

Flipkart is in talks to raise $1 billion: E-commerce behemoth Flipkart is looking to raise $1 billion at a $30 billion valuation ahead of its expected IPO via SPAC.

Acko looking to raise $200 million: Online insurance platform Acko is in the market looking for a $200 million investment.

Grofers could get $100 million from Zomato: Online grocery delivery startup Grofers could get a $100 million investment from food delivery giant Zomato as it looks to expand into grocery.

Mamaearth in talks to raise up to $80 million: Direct to consumer personal care brand Mamaearth is in talks with Sofina to secure anywhere between $60-80 million in a new funding round.

Rapido raises $43.6 million: Bike taxi aggregator Rapido has raised $43.6 million in a round led by WestBridge Capital.

Cron AI raises $4 million: Deeptech startup Cron AI has raised $4 million in a round led by VenturEast and Kitaki Ventures.

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Pradeep Poonia is a software developer, who was sued by WhiteHat Jr for Rs 20 crore ($2.7 million) for defamation and copyright infringement. He is the guy who created the YouTube channel called ‘WhiteHat Sr’ and started questioning WhiteHat Jr’s marketing tactics and business model when no one was listening. After speaking out against WhiteHat Jr, his 16 videos, two YouTube channels, two Reddit accounts, one Twitter handle, three articles on LinkedIn and Quora accounts were either removed or temporarily disabled.

In this video, Pradeep Poonia talks about his journey in fighting the Rs 20 crore ($2.7 million) lawsuit filed by WhiteHat Jr and Karan Bajaj against him, how it bought a positive change, India’s edtech space and his plans for the future.

WhiteHat Jr withdraws the lawsuit against Pradeep: It came as a surprise to Pradeep and his team but he is glad that some sense prevailed in the end and WhiteHat Jr decided to withdraw the lawsuit. He is also grateful to everyone who supported him in his journey, especially everyone on Reddit, Telegram and LinkedIn.

Impact of Pradeep’s fight against WhiteHat Jr: At the time when Pradeep was the only one criticizing WhiteHat Jr and didn’t have a lot of support but now a lot of people are not just supporting him but also coming out and sharing their own stories and feedback on WhiteHat Jr’s business and marketing practices openly. The company has also stopped using FOMO to drive growth, due to which their sales have also gone down significantly.

Benefits of Pradeep speaking out against WhiteHat Jr: Initially, the company was aggressively quashing dissenting views and taking down posts and accounts across social media platforms. Now, however, parents, students and even their employees are able to openly share their views without the fear of their account being suspended.

Talking about India’s edtech space: The pandemic has been a perfect opportunity for edtech startups to grow rapidly and because they have been so focused on growth that a number of problems have cropped up like in the case of Vedantu, their own sales team had been taking advantage of the ‘any time refund’ policy to get more people to sign up to grow the numbers and claiming the refund later. This means their growth isn’t what it looks like from the outside and that is the case with most edtech startups that are too focused on growth at all costs.

Possible solutions to edtech problems: Some suggestions from Pradeep include opening a dialogue with all the involved stakeholders like parents, students, entrepreneurs, teachers and startups to better understand the needs of each other. He also believes that it is time for the government to step in and create their own edtech platforms that can help reach the sections of society that are not served by these startups and also there needs to be a balanced approach when regulating the industry in order to leave room for innovation while keeping things in check.

Focus on the solution, not the problem: More and more edtech startups are trying to get into the coaching market but the problem is that we still have more students that want to get into premier colleges like IITs and IIMs but there aren’t enough good colleges. So, rather than preparing everyone for IITs and IIMs, it’s time to create better schools and colleges.

What’s next for Pradeep Poonia: While Pradeep is still preparing for his UPSC exams, he is also working on some ideas on how to teach computer science concepts to kids in a more effective manner. Now that he is free of the lawsuit, he will be focusing on a bunch of ideas that come his way.

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This week in Indian Startup News, WhiteHat Jr withdraws defamation case against Pradeep Poonia, Government approves experimental drone deliveries, Private banks looking to ban crypto transactions again, PUBG’s return to India, Swiggy’s four-day workweek and Ola’s international expansion plans. In funding news, Byju’s in talks to raise $150 million, Teachmint raises $16.5 million & Nivesh raises $1.6 million.

Introduction

Government approves experimental drone deliveries

WhiteHat Jr withdraws defamation case against Pradeep Poonia

Private banks looking to ban crypto transactions again

PUBG’s return to India

Swiggy’s four-day workweek

Ola’s international expansion plans

Byju’s in talks to raise $150 million

Teachmint raises $16.5 million

Nivesh raises $1.6 million

WhiteHat Jr withdraws the defamation case against Pradeep Poonia: After months of slugging it out in court, Pradeep Poonia has got some relief after WhiteHat Jr finally withdrew their defamation case against him. Pradeep Poonia has been a vocal critic of WhiteHat Jr for a long time and has been crucial in unveiling some of the companies alleged questionable marketing and business practices.

Government approves experimental drone deliveries: The government has approved experimental drone flights for 20 consortiums including Swiggy, Dunzo, ShopX and Asteria Aerospace. They will be testing the drone for deliveries for the next year and the government will be updating the drone rules based on results.

Private banks looking to ban crypto transactions again: Top Indian private banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Induslnd Bank have allegedly been ordered by the RBI to ban cryptocurrency transactions.

PUBG’s return to India: PUBG has announced the launch of Battlegrounds Mobile India (previously known as PUBG Mobile India). While the date of the launch has not been revealed, it is expected to open pre-registration for the game in May or June.

Swiggy’s four-day workweek: Amidst the rising number of COVID19 cases in India, Swiggy has decided to make work more flexible for their users in the month of May by allowing for a four-day workweek and the employees can choose the days they want to work.

Ola’s international expansion plans: Ola Electric has hired Wayne Burgess as their new head of design, a guy who has worked with leading car companies like Bentley, Aston Martin and Jaguar, to help Ola Electric design their electric scooters and also electric four-wheelers in the future. Furthermore, the company is planning to enter European markets like France, Italy, and Germany in FY22.

Byju’s in talks to raise $150 million: Byju’s is in talks with the UBS Group to raise up to $150 million at a valuation of $16.5 billion – which would make it India’s most valuable startup.

Teachmint raises $16.5 million: Edtech startup Teachmint has raised $16.5 million in a round led by Learn Capital to get more teachers on their platform and explore acquisition opportunities.

Nivesh raises $1.6 million: Wealth management startup Nivesh has raised $1.6 million in a round led by Indian Angel Network Fund to add new insurance and credit products.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Ola to set up the world’s largest two-wheeler EV charging network, Tvasta builds India’s first 3D printed house, Zomato files for IPO, Indian startups fight against COVID19, CCI approves BigBasket-Tata deal, Lenskart acquihires DailyJoy and Instamojo acquihires Showman.

In funding news, OneWeb raises $550 million, Urban Company raises $190 million, upGrad raises $120 million, Stanza Living raises over $100 million, ElasticRun raises $75 million, Bizongo raises $51 million and LEAD School raises $30 million.

Ola to set up world’s largest two-wheeler EV charging network: Ola is setting up the world’s largest two-wheeler EV charging network – Hypercharger Network. Their Hypercharger Network will consist of 100,000 charging points across 400 cities – expected to be completed in the next five years at an estimated cost of $2 billion. You will only be able to charge Ola’s electric scooters at their hypercharger network and they will be able to charge the electric scooters up to 50% in just 18minutes – giving a range of 75 km.

Tvasta builds India’s first 3D printed house: Tvasta, a startup by three IIT Madras alumni, has built India’s first 3D printed house. This is a 1 BHK house with a built-up area of 600 square feet. It demonstrates the ability of 3D printing in bringing down the time of building houses from 4-5 months to just 5 days but also reducing the cost by 20-30%.

Zomato files for IPO: Indian food delivery startup Zomato has filed for the IPO – on track to becoming the first Indian unicorn to go for IPO. Through the IPO, Zomato will be raising $1.1 billion - $1 billion in fresh offering and $100 million coming from Info Edge selling their shares.

Indian startups fight against COVID19: A bunch of Indian startups are working to fight the second wave of COVID19 – Delhivery is flying chargers to bring Oxygen concentrators into India, dating app TrulyMadly is using their matchmaking algorithm to match plasma donors with patients, NoBroker is organizing doorstep vaccination drives and MapmyIndia is installing free GPS devices in vehicles that are suppling essential medical equipment.

CCI approves BigBasket-Tata deal: CCI has approved the acquisition of BigBasket by Tata Digital – as Tata looks to build their own Super App.

Lenskart acquihires DailyJoy: Lenskart has acquihired Hyderabad-based grocery delivery startup DailyJoy to strengthen their Hyderabad tech centre.

Instamojo acquihires Showman: Instamojo has acquihired vernacular content startup Showman to strengthen its tech and product capabilities.

OneWeb raises $550 million: Satellite internet company OneWeb has raised $550 million from Eutelsat Communications after launching 36 more satellites into space. The company now has 182 out of 648 satellites in space for their constellation.

Urban Company raises $190 million: On-demand home services provider Urban Company has raised $190 million at a $2 billion valuation – making it India’s 11th unicorn this year.

upGrad raises $120 million: Edtech startup upGrad has raised $120 million from Singapore’s Temasek in their first external funding round.

Stanza Living raises over $100 million: Student housing startup Stanza Living has raised more than $100 million in a round led by Falcon Edge.

ElasticRun raises $75 million: ElstaicRun has raised $75 million in a round led by Avataar Ventures and Prosus Ventures to help neighbourhood stores in securing working capital and inventory.

Bizongo raises $51 million: B2B platform for packaging products Bizongo has raised $51 million in their Series C round to expand into the Southeast Asian markets.

LEAD School raises $30 million: Edtech startup LEAD School has raised $30 million in a round led by GSV Ventures and WestBridge Capital.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Dream11 explores IPO in the US, NPCI looks to ban all gaming transactions on UPI under Rs 50, LIC picks Paytm to handle their digital payments, Paytm expands ESOP pool to $604 million and MPL acquires GamingMonk.

In funding news, SoftBank in talks to invest up to $500 million in Swiggy, Licious in talks to raise up to $200 million, GoMechanic in talks to raise $100 million, Razorpay raises $160 million, Druva raises $147 million, Chargebee raises $125 million, Pristyn Care raises $53 million and M1xchange raises $10 million.

Dream11 explores IPO in the US: Indian gaming giant Dream11’s parent company Dream Sports is looking to go public in the US by raising around $1.5 billion at a valuation of $6 billion. With Harsh Jain (co-founder of Dream11) being the board member of a newly minted SPAC focused on taking Indian companies public in the US could hint at a Dream11 taking a SPAC route to IPO.

NPCI looks to ban all gaming transactions on UPI under Rs 50: National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is set to ban all gaming transactions below Rs 50 through its UPI platform. A large part of the exponential rise in the UPI transactions is attributed to low-value gaming transactions which clog the banking systems leading to delayed and failed payments.

LIC picks Paytm to handle their digital payments: One of India’s largest insurance companies Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has picked Paytm to handle their growing digital payments.

Paytm expands ESOP pool to $604 million: India’s most valuable fintech startup Paytm has added nearly $62 million to their ESOP pool – expanding it to $604 million and making it the largest among Indian startups.

MPL acquires GamingMonk: Mobile Premier League (MPL) has acquired esports gaming platform GamingMonk to strengthen their newly launched platform Esports Arena in order to take esports to the masses.

SoftBank in talks to invest up to $500 million in Swiggy: Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank is in talks with Swiggy to invest up to $500 million.

Licious in talks to raise up to $200 million: Online meat delivery startup Licious is in talks with multiple investors to secure up to $200 million at an $800 million valuation.

GoMechanic in talks to raise $100 million: Car servicing startup GoMechanic is in talks with Tiger Global to raise $100 million in fresh capital.

Razorpay raises $160 million: Fintech startup Razorpay has raised $160 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital India and Singapore’s GIC to accelerate growth in the Southeast Asian market.

Druva raises $147 million: Cloud data protection startup Druva has raised $147 million at a $2 billion valuation.

Chargebee raises $125 million: Subscription and billion management platform Chargebee has raised $125 million to become India’s 10th unicorn of the year at a valuation of $1.4 billion.

Pristyn Care raises $53 million: Healthcare startup Pristyn Care, which operates a chain of multispecialty clinics specializing in surgeries, has raised $53 million in a round led by Tiger Global to expand into new surgery specialities and foray into new geographies.

M1xchange raises $10 million: Invoice discounting marketplace M1xchange has raised $10 million in a round led by Amazon to expand in more cities and reach more businesses.

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Suumit Shah is the CEO and co-founder of Dukaan, an app that helps small businesses by taking their stores online. Prior to starting his own journey as an entrepreneur, Suumit was the Social Media Manager for Housing and TinyOwl.

Entrepreneurship: I don’t know what it means but it sounds cool – Back in college, Suumit was designing websites and learned that he could make money on the internet. While he didn’t know what entrepreneurship meant, it sounded cool and he was already on track to being an entrepreneur without knowing it.

From being a social media manager to becoming an entrepreneur: Suumit started working for Housing and TinyOwl, where he was managing their social media – enabling them to rank their websites on search engines by focusing on search engine optimization (SEO). After this experience, Suumit decided to start his own digital marketing agency where he was doing the same but at scale for a lot more companies. He found it hard to scale his services company and that’s when he decided to create a product that would help the companies to use their product suite to execute different aspects of digital marketing campaigns on their own.

Key learnings from first entrepreneurship experience: In a service-based business, the best way to scale is by creating a product and monetizing it. That is exactly what Suumit did when he was unable to scale his digital marketing agency Rankz.

Story of Dukaan: A text from Jockey during the pandemic changed the course of both Suumit and Subhash’s lives when they realised the need for digitising local stores and helping them continue their business. Within a week of launch, the Dukaan app was already trending on Google Playstore. Feedbacks and requests from the customers kept coming in, which further helped them improve their product and today the Dukaan app has been downloaded more than 4 million times.

Dukaan vs Khatabook: Things got a little out of hand for a while when Dukaan had a legal tussle with Khatabook in regards to copyright issues and source code which led to Dukaan app being removed from the Play Store for 50 days. But things have now been resolved and both Dukaan and Khatabook are busy scaling their businesses.

Dukaan overview: A user first create his/her store using Dukaan app, they can then share the link of their store – which contain all their inventory and catalogue, to their existing customers and they are good to go. Now Dukaan is also enabling the store owners to expand and scale by providing simple marketing tools as well.

Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: The best way to learn to keep trying things. What you learn today might help you build something a couple of years down the line. If you have an idea, go and try it out – you will either learn or you will succeed. It’s much better than killing your startup at the ideation phase, which is the most common problem.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Minus Zero’s attempt at building India’s first fully autonomous electric car, Upstox data breach, Pradeep Poonia vs WhiteHat Jr, Flipkart partners with Adani Group to strengthen supply chain and data capabilities, Flipkart acquires Cleartrip, Pine Labs acquires Fave and Nykaa acquires Pipa Bella.

In funding news, Zeta in talks to raise $250 million, DealShare raises $100 million, CarTrade raises $25 million, WeWork India raises $26.5 million, Miko raises $6.6 million and Beldara raises $7.4 million.

Minus Zero’s attempt at building India’s first fully autonomous electric car: Indian EV startup Minus Zero is trying to build India’s first level 5 fully autonomous electric car. They have successfully tested their technology by retrofitting an e-rickshaw. Their level 5 fully autonomous electric car should be ready by the late 2023.

Upstox data breach: India’s second largest discount broker Upstox has witnessed a data breach in their system leading to personal data of 2.5 million users being leaked on the dark web. The company has acknowledged the situation – saying that the financial data of their customers is secure and that they have strengthened the security on their servers.

Pradeep Poonia vs WhiteHat Jr: Pradeep Poonia has decided to file a lawsuit against Byju’s while he continues to defend himself in the defamation case. The next hearing for the case us scheduled for 25th May.

Flipkart partners with Adani Group: Flipkart has partnered with the Adani Group to strengthen its supply chain by building a fulfillment centre in Mumbai and to strengthen their data capabilities by building a data centre in Chennai.

Flipkart acquires Cleartrip: Flipkart has acquired Cleartrip in a deal which is expected to be worth $40 million – which is a discount for Flipkart as the entire hospitality and travel industry has been hit by the pandemic and this will strengthen Flipkart’s ticketing business.

Pine Labs acquires Fave: Pine Labs has acquired Malaysia-based payments and discovery platform Fave as the company looks to strengthen its own loyalty program across India and also expand its consumer-based business in the Southasian markets.

Nykaa acquires Pipa Bella: Nykaa has acquired online jewelry platform Pipa Bella as the company looks to expand its jewelry business ahead of its IPO. This acquisition will give them access to more than 1,500 jewelry styles while offering them the option to design their own jewelry.

Zeta in talks to raise $250 million: Fintech startup Zeta is in talks to raise $250 million in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 – which could make value Bhavin Turakhia’s latest venture a unicorn.

DealShare raises $100 million: Social ecommerce startup DealShare has raised $100 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management.

CarTrade raises $25 million: Online marketplace for buying and selling used cars CarTrade has raised $25 million – pushing the startup closer to being a unicorn at a valuation of $967 million.

WeWork India raises $26.5 million: Coworking space provider WeWork India has raised $26.5 million in a mix of equity and debt funding to focus on profitability.

Miko raises $6.6 million: Robotics startup Miko has raised $6.6 million in a round led by IvyCap Ventures to further invest in product development.

Beldara raises $7.4 million: B2B ecommerce marketplace platform Beldara has raised $7.4 million from Hindustan Media Ventures as the company looks to promote their agro B2B product – Farm 2 Guide.

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In this podcast interview, Caleb sits down with Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan (Founders of Ultraviolette Automotive) to talk about their journey of becoming entrepreneurs, building Ultraviolette Automotive from scratch, struggles they encountered along the way and what the future holds for Ultraviolette.

Ultraviolette Automotive was founded by Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan in 2015. They started the company with the vision of building India’s high-performance electric motorcycle – F77. After years of hard work, the team at Ultraviolette is ready with their first motorcycle the Ultraviolette F77 and it is now available for pre-order.

Early Childhood: Narayan and Niraj have been friends since the age of 10. While, Niraj started coding at the age of 9-10, Niraj’s interest in playing with Legos drew him towards building and designing stuff at an early age.

College Days: Coincidentally, the two of them even ended up in the same college. They started tinkering with ideas and building robots and cool gadgets. They took their interests further by participating in a lot of competitions and winning around 30-40 of them.

Going their separate ways: After college, Narayan decided to go deeper into learning designing automotive stuff, while Niraj went on to join Yahoo. But both of them continued to indulge in their creative endeavors on the side.

Niraj quits his job to startup in the hyperlocal space: Along with a bunch of friends, Niraj decided to start his entrepreneurial journey by jumping into the hyperlocal space. They were building a platform that would connect people who had shared interests in their area. But they failed to monetize the platform and decided to wrap up the project.

Narayan and Niraj come together to build Ultraviolette Automotove – The two friends came together and decided to re-ignite their interests and started exploring opportunities in the rapidly growing EV space. And Ultraviolette Automotive was born.

Exploring opportunities in the EV space: At the time, While they were trying to figure out what they will build - they experimented with everything from smart wearables to batteries to last-mile electric mobility vehicle.

Rejected by hundreds of investors: Investors had stayed away from investing in hardware startups as they demanded a lot of capital but had a low success rate. But the founders believed in their vision and moved ahead.

Advice to entrepreneurs looking to raise their first funding round: Believe in your product and remain open minded. Evolve and polish your idea and product over time before presenting it to the investors.

Ultraviolette gets seed funding to work on Ultraviolette F77: After hundreds of rejections – Ultraviolette found the perfect seed investor in the form of Speciale Invest.

Hiring the right people: Equipped with capital, Ultraviolette was ready to move from building prototypes to building complete versions of their electric motorcycle – F77. But they needed to find the right people who would help them grow and get to the next level.

Importance of capital while building an innovative EV startup: The founders soon realized that while building an innovative product, they would continuously need to raise funds and be creative with spending their capital at the same time.

Turning challenges into innovations: The team was using their expertise to bring down the cost of the parts by ten-fold while keeping the quality intact in order to stay away from raising capital as long as possible.

Key milestones: Ultraviolette was able to create batteries that were way beyond the normal batteries available in the market as they needed their batteries to pack more power in a restricted space.

Future of Ultraviolette: The company is looking to scale production and distribute their electric motorcycle F77 to all parts of the country and also exploring options to sell overseas.

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This week in Indian Startup News, WazirX announces NFT marketplace for India, Starlink India rollout in trouble, PolicyBazaar IPO, MFine launches tool to monitor oxygen saturation levels using smartphone, Byju’s acquires Aakash and goes international with Byju’s Future School.

In funding news, Swiggy raises $800 million, six startups turn unicorn in a week – Meesho raises $300 million, CRED raises $215 million, PharmEasy raises $350 million, Groww raises $83 million, ShareChat raises $502 million and Gupshup raises $100 million.

WazirX launches NFT marketplace for India: Crypto trading platform WazirX has launched one of India’s first Non-Fungible Token (NFT) marketplaces – enabling users to buy and sell digital assets like artworks, in-game avatars, virtual property, video files, audio files and even tweets.

Starlink India rollout in trouble: Broadband India Forum has asked TRAI and ISRO to stop Elon Musk’s Starlink to take pre-orders in the country as they have failed to comply with the guidelines, don’t have their ground stations in the country and they don’t even have the required authorisation.

PolicyBazaar IPO: After Zomato and MobiKwik – online insurance aggregator platform Policybazaar is expected to file for IPO next month in Mumbai which could value the company at $3.5 billion.

MFine launches tool to monitor oxygen saturation levels using smartphone: Healthtech startup MFine has launched an app-based tool that can monitor your oxygen saturation levels without the need for any additional device.

Byju’s acquires Aakash and goes international with Byju’s Future School: Byju’s has announced the acquisition of Aakash Educational Services in a deal that is pegged at nearly $1 billion. Apart from that Byju’s has announced their global expansion plans with the launch of Byju’s Future School across in the US, UK, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico – starting with coding and math classes.

Swiggy raises $800 million: Swiggy has raised $800 million at nearly $5 billion valuation from Falcon Edge Capital, Amansa Capital, Think Investments, Carmignac and Goldman Sachs.

Meesho raises $300 million: Social commerce startup Meesho has raised $300 million at a $2.1 billion valuation led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 – turning it into a unicorn.

CRED raises $215 million: Kunal Shah’s CRED has raised $215 million in their series D round led by Falcon Edge Capital and Coatue Management – pushing their valuation from $800 million to $2.2 billion within three months.

PharmEasy raises $350 million: PharmEasy has raised $350 million led by Prosus Ventures and TPG Growth at a $1.5 billion valuation as the company looks to onboard more pharmacies on their platform.

Groww raises $83 million: Online investment platform has raised $83 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management at valuation of more than $1 billion.

ShareChat raises $502 million: Indian language social media platform ShareChat has raised $502 million in round led by Tiger Global Management valuing the company at $2.1 billion.

Gupshup raises $100 million: Conversational messaging platform Gupshup is the last startup to become a unicorn this week after raising $100 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management.

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This week in Indian Startup News, MobiKwik’s potential data breach, WhiteHat Jr to offer space education, InMobi plans an IPO in the US, Pine Labs to IPO in 2022, Two Delhivery co-founders exit ahead of IPO, Nazara’s successful IPO, NPCI issues guidelines for implementing 30% cap on UPI transactions, Amazon acquires Perpule and Byju’s is in talks to acquire online reading platform Epic.

In funding news, Byju’s raises $460 million, FirstCry raises $315 million, Uniphore raises $140 million, DotPe raises $27.5 million, HealthPlix raises $13.5 million and Chingari raises $13 million.

MobiKwik’s potential data breach: According to multiple media reports and independent cybersecurity experts – MobiKwik’s data has been breached leaving personal data of their 100 million users exposed. While the company has denied the reports of any data breach on their servers, RBI has asked them to conduct a forensic report.

WhiteHat Jr to offer space education: WhiteHat Jr has partnered with satellite company EnduroSat which will give them access to two satellites in space and help their students to learn more about space technology.

InMobi plans an IPO in the US: India’s first unicorn and a mobile advertising platform InMobi is all reportedly all set to launch their IPO in the next three months. They might raise as much as $1 billion through the IPO - valuing the company at $13-15 billion.

Pine Labs to IPO in 2022: Pine Labs is expected to IPO in 2022 in the US – valuing the company at $5 billion.

Two Delhivery co-founders exit ahead of IPO: Two of Delhivery’s co-founders’ Mohit Tandon and Bhavesh Maglani have reportedly left the company ahead of their IPO.

Nazara’s successful IPO: Nazara shares were issued at Rs 1,101 but they hit a 80% premium at the time of listing.

NPCI issues guidelines for implementing 30% cap on UPI transactions: The 30% cap on overall UPI transactions came into effect starting this year but the UPI apps like PhonePe, Google Pay and Amazon Pay have until the end of 2022 to comply. When any UPI app hits 30% limit, they will be asked by the NPCI to stop onboarding any new customers in a bid to bring down their number of transactions to keep them within the 30% limit.

Amazon acquires Perpule: E-commerce giant Amazon has acquired Perpule for $14.7 million as they plan to strengthen their presence in India’s offline commerce space which generates 95% of the sales by helping them get online using their latest acquisition.

Byju’s is in talks to acquire online reading platform Epic: India’s most valuab;e edtech startup Byju’s is reportedly in talks to acquire Epic as the company plans to expand its overseas presence in the US.

Byju’s raises $460 million: Byju’s has raised a massive $460 million in their ongoing series F round from MC Global Edtech Investment Holdings at an expected valuation of $13 billion.

FirstCry raises $315 million: Omnichannel retailer for baby products has reportedly raised $315 million as they plan to expand their presence in the Middle East.

Uniphore raises $140 million: Conversational AI startup Uniphore has raised $140 million from Sorenson Capital Partners to help them focus on video-based AI applications.

DotPe raises $27.5 million: DotPe has raised $27.5 million from PayU at a $90 million valuation to help offline businesses to sell online.

HealthPlix raises $13.5 million: HealthPlix has raised $13.5 million in series B round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners to onboard 50,000 doctors on their platform.

Chingari raises $13 million: Chingari has raised $13 million from OnMobile for a 10% stake to enhance its content portfolio and expand its user base.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Zomato and MobiKwik to file for IPO soon, New SPAC to take Indian startup public in the US, Paytm’s NUE plans, Y Combinator features 43 Indian startups in W21 batch and Khatabook acquires Biz Analyst.

In funding news, Dream11 raises $400 million, ClearTax in talks to raise $100 million, KreditBee closes $145 million round, Moglix in talks to raise $70-$100 million, Purplle raises $45 million, Public App raises $41 million, Velocity raises $10.3 million and FloBiz raises $10 million.

Zomato and MobiKwik to file for IPO soon: After Nazara Technologies, Zomato is planning to file for IPO next month and is expected to raise around $650 million at a $7-10 billion valuation. Also, MobiKwik is looking to file for IPO in May at a billion-dollar valuation.

New SPAC to take Indian startup public in the US: Elevation Capital and Think Investments have formed a new SPAC called Think Elevation Capital to take Indian startups public in the US.

Paytm’s NUE plans: Paytm has launched its New Umbrella Entity (NUE) named Foster Payment Network which is in the final stages of submitting their bid for the NUE license. While Paytm and its three entities will hold the majority stake – companies like PolicyBazaar, Induslnd Bank, Ola, Electronic Payments Services, Centrum Finance, Suryoday Small Finance Bank and Think360.ai will also be joining their consortium.

Y Combinator features 43 Indian startups in the W21 batch: Out of 350 startups from 43 nations featured in Y Combinator’s W21 batch – with 43 startups India is the second most represented country.

Here are all the 43 Indian startups: QuestBook, Leap Club, CashBook, GimBooks, BusinessOnBot, ZOKO, Prescribe, Chatwoot, Weekday, Fountain9, Dyte, YourQuote, Fifthtry, Voosh, Kodo, Krab, Bueno Finance, Betterhalf, Pensil, AcadPal, Pragmatic Leaders, Splitsub, Zingbus, Tilt, FanPlay, GroMo, BimaPlan, BimaPe, Zealth, Codingal, Unschool, Flux Auto, SigNoz, Pitbit.ai, Invoid, Redcliffe Lifesciences, Veera Health, Snazzy, BeWell Digital, Jeevam Health, Triomics.

Khatabook acquires Biz Analyst: Khatabook has acquired SaaS-based business management platform Biz Analyst in a $10 million deal to monetize their 40 million users.

Dream11 raises $400 million: Dream11 has raised $400 million in their latest secondary funding led by TCV, D1 Capital Partners and Falcon Edge at a valuation of $5 billion.

ClearTax in talks to raise $100 million: ClearTax is in talks to raise $100 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management at an expected valuation of $750-$850 million.

KreditBee closes $145 million round: Digital lending startup KreditBee has closed its series C round at $145 million – raising $75 million in the latest tranche led by NewQuest Capital Partners and Motilal Oswal Private Equity.

Moglix in talks to raise $70-$100 million: B2B industrial goods marketplace Moglix is in talks to raise $70-$100 million in a round led by Falcon Edge Capital and it could make them India’s second B2B ecommerce unicorn.

Purplle raises $45 million: Online beauty commerce startup Purplle has raised $45 million led by Sequoia Capital India and Verlinvest – while giving a 22X return to IvyCap Ventures that made a partial exit.

Public App raises $41 million: Public App, owned by Inshorts, has raised $41 million led by A91 Partners – doubling their valuation from $125 million to $250 million in just six months.

Velocity raises $10.3 million: Fintech startup Velocity that offers credit to online businesses based on their revenues has raised $10.3 million in seed funding led by Valar Ventures.

FloBiz raises $10 million: FloBiz, a startup that helps offline businesses to digitize their billing and accounting has raised $10 million in series A round led by Elevation Capital.

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This week in Indian Startup News, Nazara Technologies becomes India’s first company to IPO, Log 9 Materials launches EVs with their Rapid Charging Battery, Oyo shuts down some coliving and coworking business, Zomato enters dietary supplement market, Tata’s acquisition bid for BigBasket and Square Yards acquires PropVR.

In funding news, PolicyBazaaar raises $75 million, MyGlamm raises $24 million, Leap Finance raises $17 million, OZiva raises $12 million and YAP raises $10 million.

Huge funding rounds in the making, CRED expected to raise $200 million, Delhivery could raise up to $150 million ahead of IPO and Stanza Living in talks to raise $120 million.

Nazara Technologies becomes India’s first company to IPO: Nazara Technologies finally launched its IPO on 17th March – making it the first Indian company ever to go public. The company has transformed itself from a telecom gaming subscription company to a full-fledged gaming company with fingers in every major segment from esports to gamified learning.

Log 9 Materials launches EVs with their Rapid Charging Battery: Log 9 Materials has announced the launch of their electric scooters and three-wheelers that come with their disruptive Rapid Charging Battery packs.

Oyo shuts down some coliving and coworking business: In a bid to focus on its core business, Oyo is checking out of its loss-making ventures – by shutting down some coliving and house rental business (Oyo Life) and some coworking spaces.

Zomato enters the dietary supplement market: Indian foodtech unicorn Zomato is looking to diversify by launching its own brand of dietary supplements ahead of its expected IPO this year.

Tata’s acquisition bid for BigBasket: Tata Digital is finally seeking approval of CCI to acquire 64% of BigBasket.

Square Yards acquires PropVR: Real estate startup Square Yards has acquired AI-based PropVR to turn 2D floor plans into interactive 3D walkthroughs in minutes.

PolicyBazaaar raises $75 million: PolicyBazaar has raised $75 million in a round led by Falcon Edge Capital.

MyGlamm raises $24 million: MyGlamm has raised $24 million in series C round led by Ascent Capital, Amazon and Wipro Consumer.

Leap Finance raises $17 million: Leap Finance has raised $17 million series C led by Jungle Ventures.

OZiva raises $12 million: OZiva has raised $12 million in series B led by Jungle Ventures.

YAP raises $10 million: YAP has raised $10 million in series B led by Flourish Ventures and Omidyar Network.

CRED expected to raise $200 million: CRED is expected to raise $200 million in fresh funding at a $2 billion valuation – that would make it India’s fastest unicorn.

Delhivery could raise up to $150 million ahead of IPO: Delhivery is reportedly in talks to raise up to $1450 million ahead of its IPO.

Stanza Living in talks to raise $120 million: Stanza Living is in final talks to secure a $120 million funding – doubling its valuation from $300 million to $600 million.

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Zostel vs Oyo: Zostel and Oyo have been engaged in a legal battle for more than 3 years. When Oyo refused to acquire Zostel back in 2016, Zostel believed that they had signed a binding agreement but Oyo considered it to be a non-binding agreement. Zostel believes Oyo owes them a 7% stake in the company for transferring their business as part of the deal. The tribunal has finally come to a decision that is still a little vague. The tribunal has said that Zostel is entitled to costs in the cause without putting any monetary value but it also said that ‘definitive agreements have yet to be executed’.

CCI asks MakeMyTrip to relist Oyo rivals Treebo and FabHotels on its platform: Back in 2018, Oyo had signed a commercial agreement with MakeMyTrip and soon Oyo’s rivals Treebo and FabHotels were delisted from MakeMyTrip. In 2019, FHRAI had filed a complaint against MakeMyTrip for stifling competition by not letting Treebo and FabHotels use MakeMyTrip’s platform. While the probe is still underway, CCI has asked MakeMyTrip to relist both Treebo and FabHotels providing them interim relief.

Paytm’s new app turns smartphones into POS machines: Paytm has launched a Smart POS app that can turn any NFC-enabled android smartphone into a POS machine. In order to process payments using their Smart POS app, customers simply need to tap their credit/debit cards at the back of a merchants’ smartphone.

Acquisitions: Tata is reportedly in talks with an online search engine for local businesses Just Dial for an acquisition or a strategic alliance. Logistics technology startup FarEye has acquired another logistics technology startup PY Technologies to scale customer implementation and incubate new ideas. VerSe Innovation, the parent company of dailyhunt and Josh, has acquired photo-sharing platform Vebbler to boost the camera and social capabilities of its short video app Josh and build a comprehensive product platform for Indian language users.

Turtlemint raises $46 million: Turtlemint has raised $46 million in series D from Jungle Ventures, GGV Capital, American Family Ventures, Mass Mutual Ventures, SIG, Sequoia Capital India, Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Dream Incubator and Trifecta Capital.

NODWIN Gaming raises $22.5 million: NODWIN Gaming, a subsidiary of IPO-bound Nazara Technologies, has raised $22.5 million from PUBG Mobile developer Krafton. Ecom Express raises $20 million: Ecom Express has raised $20 million from the CDC Group.

Quizizz raises $12.5 million: Quizizz has raised $12.5 million from Eight Roads Ventures, GSV Ventures, Rocketship.vc, Nexus Venture Partners and Prime Venture Partners. Riscovry raises $5 million: Riskcovry has raised $5 million from Omidyar Network India, Pentathalon Ventures, DMI Sparkle Fund, Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund, Varanium Capital and Better Capital.

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Nexus Power: Founded by twin sisters Nishita and Nikita Baliarsingh in 2019, Nexus Power is building bio-organic and biodegradable batteries for electric vehicles. Initially, Nishita and Nikita wanted to actually build EVs, but after doing some research, they realized that India’s EV space was still a really tough market to get into and they started creating batteries that could replace Lithium and were good for the environment.

Little Black Book (LBB): Founded by Suchita Salwan in 2011, LBB started as a Tumblr blog and has now evolved into a discovery-led commerce platform. Suchita started building a small team of employees, freelancers, and interns, who would scour Delhi searching for interesting places that people could visit. They later started building their own website and app after Dhruv Mathur joined LBB as a co-founder in 2015.

YourStory: Founded by Shradha Sharma in 2008, YourStory started as a platform that would tell stories of entrepreneurs who are not superstars yet but have the spark, drive and hope. After failing to raise funds from investors for her media and news startup, Sharadha Sharma bootstrapped YourStory for seven years before investors eventually realized the potential of her venture.

Myelin Foundry: Founded by Aditi Olemann, Ganesh Suryanarayanan and Gopichand Katragadda in 2019, Myelin Foundry’s flagship service called Fovea Stream is able to leverage the power of artificial intelligence and deep learning to upscale videos that viewers are watching on OTT platforms up to 4K, irrespective of the video’s original quality or network bandwidth limitations.

Doubtnut: Founded by husband-wife duo Aditya Shankar and Tanushree Nagori in 2016, Doubtnut provides its users with instant video solutions to doubts in a number of different educational categories like math, physics, chemistry, and biology. Students just plug in their question or even take a photograph of it and Doubtnut provides a solution to that question.

SmartVizX: Founded by another husband-wife duo Gautam and Tithi Tewari in 2015, SmartVizX is a virtual reality startup that is changing the way architects communicate. Their flagship product Trezi is India’s first VR-based design communication and collaboration product. SmartVizX’s customers can use Trezi to seamlessly review, modify, and experience a project design with clients and colleagues.

ZestMoney: Founded by Ashish Anantharaman, Lizzie Chapman, and Priya Sharma in 2015, ZestMoney is a fintech startup that partners with NBFCs and banks to offer EMI option to customers who do not have access to credit cards and can’t afford to pay for products out of their pockets in full.

Rivigo: In 2014, Deep Garg and Geet Kalra set out to make the profession of truckers more humane and address the growing need of truck drivers in the country by starting Rivigo. The company’s innovative relay trucking model not only helps its drivers to go home to their families every day but also makes deliveries for their customers much faster. Today, Rivigo has become a unicorn and has raised more than $280 million.

MobiKwik: Founded by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku in 2008, MobiKwik is a digital payments startup that was started before FreeCharge, Paytm and PhonePe. Initially, MobiKwik was a prepaid mobile recharge service but it has now expanded its portfolio to include a host of financial services.

Nykaa: Founded by Falguni Nayyar in 2012, sells beauty, wellness, and fashion products for both men and women using an omnichannel channel approach: through their website and 70 offline stores across India.

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This week in Indian Startup News, New Umbrella Entity Licenses to strengthen digital payments ecosystem, Paytm processes 1.2 billion transactions and Flipkart expands grocery service and explores IPO via SPAC route.

In acquisition news, Flipkart in talks to acquire Cleartrip, Delhivery acquires Primaseller and Reliance acquires majority stake in skyTran.

In funding news, Groww in talks to raise $100 million, PolicyBazaar raises $45 million, Cashify raises $15 million, Apna.co raises $12.5 million, Euler Motors raises $4 million, The ePlane Company raises $1 million and Clairco raises $577,000.

New Umbrella Entity Licenses to strengthen digital payments ecosystem: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is doling out New Umbrella Entity (NUE) licenses as the central bank is looking to create a consortium of companies that could compete with the NPCI and create better digital payments systems and technologies that will be compatible with NPCI’s Rupay and UPI to turn India into a cashless and digital economy. Companies like Reliance, Tata Group, Amazon, Paytm and Ola have formed their own consortiums to apply for the NUE licenses.

SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink is available for pre-booking in India for $99: SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink is now available for pre-booking in India for $99. While the internet service will only be available in India by 2022. Starlink currently offers speed in the 50-150 Mbps range but it will be increased to 300 Mbps soon.

Paytm processes 1.2 billion transactions: India’s most valuable unicorn Paytm claims to have emerged as the leading mobile payments provider by volume – processing more than 1.2 billion transactions last month. While PhonePe and Google Pay lead the UPI payments, Paytm claims the top spot in the consolidated mobile payments space.

Flipkart expands grocery service and explore IPO via SPAC route: Flipkart has expanded its grocery delivery service to more than 50 cities and is also looking to take the SPAC route to IPO in the US.

Flipkart in talks to acquire Cleartrip: Flipkart is in talks with online travel agency Cleartrip for an acquisition as the ecommerce giant looks to expand its product offering.

Delhivery acquires Primaseller: Logistics unicorn Delhivery has acquired a SaaS-based platform Primaseller that provides an omnichannel inventory management software

Reliance acquires majority stake in skyTran: Reliance has doubled its stake in the US-based skyTran from 26.3% to 54.46% for $26.76 million.

Groww in talks to raise $100 million: Online investment platform Groww is in talks with Tiger Global Management to raise $100 million at a valuation of about $1 billion.

PolicyBazaar raises $45 million: Online policy aggregator PolicyBazaar has raised $45 million through secondary share sale from Bay Capital, IIFL Wealth, White Oak Global Advisors and Cyrus Poonawalla Group.

Cashify raises $15 million: Online platform for selling used smartphones Cashify has raised $15 million from Olympus Capital Asia.

Apna.co raises $12.5 million: Professional networking platform for blue-collar workers Apna.co has raised $12.5 million Sequoia Capital India, Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed India and Rocketship.vc

Euler Motors raises $4 million: EV startup Euler Motors which is gearing up to launch its first electric cargo three-wheeler has raised Rs 30 crore ($4 million) as a part of its ongoing series A round led by Inventus India and Jetty Ventures.

The ePlane Company raises $1 million: The ePlane company has raised $1 million from Speciale Invest, Naval Ravikant, Java Capital, FirstCheque.vc, and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s CIIE incubator.

Clairco raises $577,000: Air purification startup Clairco has raised Rs 4.2 crore ($577,000) from Anicut Angel Fund, Max Group and AngelList.

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This week in Indian Startup News, BigBasket vs dailybasket, Earth Energy EV launches three EVs, Flipkart to deploy 25,000 EVs by 2030, CCI investigates Google Pay for antitrust claims and layoffs at Ninjacart and Bounce and acquisitions by Dailyhunt, DeHaat & Vedantu.

In funding news, Zomato raises $250 million, Innovaceer raises $105 million to become a unicorn, Infra.Market raises $100 million and Hubilo raises $23.5 million.

BigBasket vs dailybasket: BigBasket believes it owns the word ‘basket’ and now it wants dailybasket to stop using ‘basket’ and also hand over their domain to BigBasket. According to BigBasket, dailybasket, which is a small online grocery platform operational in Coimbatore, is trying to use the brand and goodwill of BigBasket to lure its customers into thinking that they are associated with BigBasket.

Earth Energy EV launches three EVs: Earth Energy EV has launched three electric vehicles – Glyde+ (smart electric scooter), Evolve Z (bike) and Evolve R (smart cruiser). All these electric vehicles are now available for pre-booking. The company claims that their electric cruiser Evolve R comes with fast charging capabilities but it can only be used at their dealerships.

Flipkart to deploy 25,000 EVs by 2030: Indian e-commerce giant has decided to add 25,000 electric vehicles to its delivery fleet by 2030 and they have already partnered with three manufacturers – Hero Electric, Mahindra Electric and Piaggio.

CCI investigates Google Pay for antitrust claims: Back in November 2020, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had ordered a probe against Google Pay to check if Google was using its dominance to gain an unfair advantage over its competitors in India’s digital payments space. While the probe was ordered last year, formal investigations have started in January of this year.

Layoffs at Ninjacart and Bounce: Ninjacart and Bounce have fired 200 employees each.

Acquisitions by Dailyhunt, DeHaat and Vedantu: Dailyhunt’s parent VerSe Innovation has acquired AI-based startup Cognirel Technologies, DeHaat has acquired FarmGuide and Vedantu has acquired InstaSolv.

Zomato raises $250 million: Zomato has raised $250 million from Kora, Fidelity, Tiger Global Management, Bow Wave and Dragoneer.

Innovaceer raises $105 million to become a unicorn: Healthcare focused SaaS startup Innovaceer has raised $105 million from Tiger Global Management, OMERS Growth Equity, Steadview Capital, Dragoneer, B Capital Group, Mubadala Capital and M12.

Infra.Market raises $100 million: Infra.Market has raised $100 million from Tiger Global Management, Foundamental, Accel Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Evolvence India Fund, and Sistema Asia Fund.

Hubilo raises $23.5 million: Hubilo has raised $23.5 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners, U.K.’s Balderton Capital, John W. Thompson and Chris Schagen.

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Origins of Just Buy Live: Founded by Bharat Balachandran and Sahil Sani in 2015, Just Buy Live was simply a B2B e-commerce startup that was helping small retailers to get their products directly from the manufacturers and stock their shops by removing distributors from the equation. After putting in a personal investment of $5 million and a year of developing their own website and an app and setting up the logistics, Just Buy Live was open for business in 2016.

From 0 to 25,000 in 25 days: Just Buy Live was disrupting the unorganized B2B market and investors were excited to get in business with them. They had quickly raised $20 million from Alpha Capital and they used this money to advertise during the IPL to tell everyone about their business and were able to onboard 25,000 retailers in just 25 days.

Just Buy Live Business Model: This young startup was completely disrupting the offline unorganized B2B market by replacing the distributors and directly connecting these small retailers with large manufacturers. Unlike the distributors who came in once in a while to deliver products, shopkeepers could now order any quantity of products from a single bottle of Thumbs Up to an entire pallet. To top it up, they had also partnered with a financial services company Religare to offer 30-day loans to the retailers who couldn’t afford to pay for the products right away. Everything was working well and by the end of 2016, Just Buy Live had managed to onboard 70,000 retailers on their platform.

The downfall of Just Buy Live: First crack in Just Buy Live’s business model appeared when a lot of small shopkeepers were unable to pay their loans in time due to the demonetization and the company had to put up the money to pay for their loans, which added to their cash burn. The company decided to offset this loss by adding bigger retailers who could help them break even. But their need for onboarding retailers at breakneck speed meant that they had to spend even more money to expand their sales team. By August of 2017, the company was running low on funds.

A hope of $100 million disappears: There were reports that Just Buy Live was raising a massive $100 million round from Ali Cloud Investments which would solve all of their funding problems and give them the boost they needed to continue to grow. However, that funding never really came and Just Buy Live was in no position to sustain itself. Soon after the funding news, instead of growing, Just Buy Live was closing down rapidly by scaling down its operations and in about nine months they had closed down operations in all 40 cities and let go of all their employees. Just Buy Live had failed.

Learnings for entrepreneurs from Just Buy Live’s failure: As an entrepreneur, you need to create a product that is irreplaceable. In Just Buy Live’s case, all the stakeholders had comfortably went back to the old ways of doing things, which meant that they clearly didn’t create enough value for their customers. Second, be smart with spending. It is clear that Just Buy Live didn’t have a sustainable business model as the company could not survive without the need for external funding. As an entrepreneur, you need to create sustainable and profitable businesses. Thirdly, you shouldn’t rush ahead if you can’t afford to.

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This week in Indian Startup News, SoftBank cuts ties with Oyo in Latin America, MapmyIndia partners with ISRO to take on Google Maps, Tesla to set up an EV manufacturing unit in Karnataka, Glance could buy TikTok India, ReNew Power looks to IPO through SPAC and Byju’s & Unacademy’s acquisition spree.

In funding news, KreditBee raises $75 million, Shiprocket raises $27 million and Zolve raises $15 million.

SoftBank cuts ties with Oyo in Latin America: Last year in September, SoftBank had partnered with Oyo in Latin America to manage 1,000 hotels. It had also invested $75 million (Rs 545 crore) in Oyo Latam -Oyo’s Latin American unit. In less than six months, SoftBank has decided to end its joint venture in Latin America and it would no longer invest in Oyo in the region. As a result, Oyo will end up laying off most of its staff in the region.

MapmyIndia partners with ISRO to take on Google Maps: MapmyIndia, a company that offers digital mapping solutions, has partnered with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to build a fully indigenous mapping portal and geospatial services for India.

Tesla to set up an EV manufacturing unit in Karnataka: Karnataka’s Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has said that Tesla will set up an electric car manufacturing in India.

Glance could buy TikTok India: Bloomberg report claims that ByteDance is in talks with Glance (the company that owns short video app Roposo). The deal could get complicated due to India and China’s relationship. If talks progress, the Indian government might ask the company to keep user data and technology of TikTok within the country.

ReNew Power looks to IPO through SPAC: One of India’s largest renewable energy company ReNew Power is looking to go public in the US. They are in talks with RMG Acquisition for a merger which will allow them to go public at a valuation of $4 billion (Rs 29,000 crore).

Byju’s & Unacademy’s acquisition spree: Edtech unicorn Unacademy has acquired a majority stake in TapChief, which is an online platform that enables professional to interact with experts and work with businesses. This is Unacademy’s seventh acquisition in 12 months. Even Byju's has acquired four startups and could also end up buying edtech platform Toppr in a $150 million deal.

KreditBee raises $75 million: KreditBee has raised $75 million from PremjiInvest, Mirae Asset Venture, Alpine Capital and Arkam Ventures in their series C round.

Shiprocket raises $27 million: Ecommerce logistics aggregator Shiprocket has raised $27 million from Tribe Capital, March Capital, DST Global’s Rahul Mehta and Bertelsmann India Investments.

Zolve raises $15 million: Neobanking startup Zolve has raised $15 million from Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Blume Ventures, Founders Collective, Kunal Shah (CRED), Ashish Gupta (Former MD of Helion Venture Partners), Gregg Kidd (Co-founder of GlobaliD), Rahul Mehta (MD of DST Global) and Rahul Kishore (Senior MD of Coatue Capital).

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Growing up as an Indian in France: Ram’s family moved to France when he was young and he ended up studying economic warfare. He is currently a professor of economic warfare in France but at the same time, he is a jack of all trades at Pravaig as well.

How Ram met Siddhartha and got involved with Pravaig: Ram met Siddhartha back in 2014 at a corporate meeting and discovered that both of them owned the same laptops, which was not a very popular laptop and they both geeked out on that which led Siddhartha to also talk about his own company called Pravaig. After working on a few projects together, Siddhartha decided to bring Ram onto the team to help them grow once they started to get out of stealth mode.

Building Pravaig cars with ‘No Jugaad’ approach: When building their electric cars, the company decided to follow a ‘no jugaad’ approach, which meant that instead of using any workarounds they focused on using the best products, materials and processes to build their cars from the ground up.

Extinction Mk1 features: They wanted to make a car which would be the best way to move around the city, which is why they focused more on the interior of the car. This car offers the best audio system and enough space and comfort to let the riders do everything from fixing their makeup, finishing their work or even sleeping comfortably while on the road.

Who will be their customers?: For Pravaig, their customers are the people who spend most of their time on the roads while visiting different locations around the city for business. For those people, Pravaig wanted to provide them with an ‘office on wheel’.

Is the Extinction Mk1 made in India?: While the car is completely manufactured in India and the company is also building their battery inhouse, they do import a few parts from different parts of the world.

Pravaig is not a startup: Unlike most startups that are started by first-time founders, Pravaig has an experienced team that comes from different backgrounds from energy to investment. Since they already had investors supporting them, it was easier for them to get investment for R&D and to develop their car. However, things are not so easy for most first time founders as investors are hesitant to invest in a product that might take years to come to the market.

Strong Pravaig branding: Their strong branding and messaging is intentional as they wanted to bring their name out there and get their target customers excited about their cars, while at the same time create an Indian brand with international appeal.

What sets Extinction Mk2’s interior apart: Unlike most cars in which the driver's seat is the best seat, Extinction Mk2 is built for the passengers.

If you want to find out more about Pravaig Dynamics and Ram Divedi, here are the links you can check out: Pravaig’s website: https://pravaig.com Register for a ride: https://www.defy.city Ram’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramadivedi

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Did you envision Extinction Mk1 and Extinction Mk2 from the start?: When Dhawal and Siddhartha started, they wanted to build cars which would be good for offroading, it was just a hobby at the time. They tried to experiment by modifying Maruti Gypsy and Jeep but these cars were quite slow and uncomfortable for their taste.

Abiogenisis – Pravaig’s first prototype and their hobby turns serious: After their failed experiment, the duo tried to create a car from the scratch, which led to the creation of their first prototype – Abiogenisis. Once they realized that building car was not that difficult, they decided to go all in. What was just a hobby had now turned into a full-time project to create an improved mobility solution.

Protodonata – Pravaig’s third prototype: After creating a nice offroading car – Abiogenisis and then a racing car Protocell, they wanted to test their limits and went one step ahead to create a 200kg low slung race car which was designed test the aerodynamics – Protodonata.

Offroad testing continues with T-Rex: After testing the aerodynamics with the Protodonata, they wanted to test the reliability, which again led them to create another offroading car T-Rex. They build it on the FIA T1 regulations, which meant that this vehicle was durable and reliable – it was capable of surviving a fall from a cliff.

Key learnings from prototypes that paved the way for Extinction Mk1 and Extinction Mk2: After designing and building six prototypes. The duo was ready to use the learnings to finally create what we now know – the Extinction Mk1. They are testing Extinction Mk1 in order to prepare for their production model which will be the Extinction Mk2.

Creation of Extinction Mk1: This was their first electric car, which meant that a lot of things had to be done just right if they had any hope of creating a class-leading EV. They used their experience to build Extinction Mk1 with good aerodynamics, efficiency, reliability and making them comfortable.

5 Star NCAP safety rating: Keeping the focus on safety, Extinction Mk1 and also Extinction Mk2 are going to be one of the few Indian cars that will be getting the 5 star NCAP ratings, making them one of the safest in the country and also the world.

Getting to the production model – Extinction Mk2: Unlike Mk1 which is designed to test the limits, Extinction Mk2 is designed for comfort, which means this electric car will be different from Mk1. The production model will have four doors, higher ground clearance, awesome audio system, and you will be able to do everything from taking a nap to working comfortably inside the vehicle.

How much of Pravaig’s Electric car is made in India?: More than 80% of Pravaig Extinction Mk1 and Mk2 will be build in India including the battery packs but a few parts are still sourced from outside of India including China.

If you want to find out more about Pravaig Dynamics and Dhawal Khullar, here are the links you can check out: Pravaig’s website: https://pravaig.com Dhawal’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhawal-khullar-84b12417

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Why was Pravaig Dynamics started: Pravaig started their journey of making electric cars back in 2011. At first they just wanted to make a good enough electric car as there weren’t any good electric cars in India and the world at large. Setting China aside, there weren’t any good electric cars in the market apart from Tesla’s Roadster or Nissan’s Leaf.

Key challenges Pravaig wants to solve – Resources (Money), Sovereignty (Ownership) and Time: Any car that a consumer owns costs money and they are spending money every year on its servicing to paying their EMIs, all the while the value of their car is decreasing. People spend over 90 minutes on average on the roads, which is a large portion of our lives. Now as more and more cars and also other devices adopting technology, consumers have little to no control/ ownership over their own data and how it is used.

How Pravaig is doing things differently to address these challenges: Interestingly, over the course of its lifetime, a car is used merely 4% of the time and rest of the time it is just sitting in your garage. Which is why Pravaig decided to take ownership out of the equation. Customers can ride their cars without owning them, which would save their customers time and money while providing comfort on the road.

Pravaig’s electric mobility solution and their partnership with fleet operators: Unlike most electric vehicle startups that are selling directly to the customers, Pravaig is partnering with fleet operators who will be operating their cars and provide mobility service to the end customers. They might even partner with service providers like Ola and Uber.

What’s stopping electric vehicles to take-off in India: There are actually a lot of electric mobility solutions available in India across various regions like modified e-rikshaws in parts of north India. In fact, Reva was one of the pioneers in the electric vehicles space in India. The reasons why the electric vehicles haven’t taken-off in India is the fragmented markets – every region, class and section of the country has unique needs and lack of reliable and trusted electric vehicle makers.

Is Pravaig really India’s answer to Tesla?: Unlike Tesla which is focused on building electric cars and accelerating EV adoption, Pravaig is more focused on solving the challenges around data and providing more control to the users. While an electric car is their first product, we can see them venturing into different niches where they can leverage data and artificial intelligence to create an open ecosystem.

Future of Pravaig: Pravaig is not just an EV startup but is looking to use its expertise to enter the RoboTaxi and autonomous vehicles market in the future at large.

Future of cars - AI and data: Siddhartha believes that in the future users will have a lot more control over their cars. They will be able to chose everything from their energy provider, charging provider and the increasing role of AI.

If you want to find out more about Pravaig Dynamics and Siddhartha Bagri, here are the links you can check out: Pravaig’s website: https://pravaig.com Register for a ride: https://www.defy.city Siddhartha’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sid_bagri

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Subhash’s journey starts in a small village in Bihar: Subhash Choudhary comes from a poor family in Bihar, his father passed away when he was just 3 years old and his mother worked as a tailor to support his education until he cleared his 12th. At the age of 17, he moved to Mumbai, learnt the basics of computer hardware and secured a job at Zenith Infotech.

He learns Digital Marketing and starts a side hustle: When he saw the company fire a large part of its workforce, he realised how insecure his job was. He decided to take his destiny into his own hands by learning digital marketing and starts his own side hustle which starts earning more money than his full-time job.

Subhash meets Suumit on Facebook and learns about entrepreneurship: During that time, he is connected with Suumit Shah on Facebook and they both share a common interest in building products, which brings the two closer. Suumit had a keen interest in the Indian startup ecosystem and the two end up going to a number of startup events and learn more about entrepreneurship.

They start their entrepreneurial journey together: Suumit and Subhash decide to put their skills together and start a digital marketing agency to help small businesses and startups to grow their business using the internet. The two end up building two successful businesses Risemetric and Rankz.

Pandemic pushed them to help their local shop owners and Dukaan is born: Coming from a shopkeeper's family, Suumit realised hardships local store owners were facing during the lockdown as their business was offline and was forced to shut down. That's when they decided to build a product that would help these small local stores in their neighbourhood to go online and continue their business and that's how Dukaan app was born. Within a month, they had managed to take nearly 1 million stores online without even raising any funds.

How the Dukaan app was transformed by using input from their customers: While building Dukaan, the input and feedback they received from their early customers was crucial in transforming their product from a simple platform for taking orders online to building a more comprehensive product where store owners could keep track of their orders, receive and send a notification to their customers on WhatsApp and add new categories.

Their investors showed confidence even amidst the controversy with Khatabook: Their investors continued to back them despite their initial friction with Khatabook which was later resolved.

Things to keep in mind when building the core team at a startup: It's important to build a team that believes in the vision and is committed to the idea. That's how Dukaan created a small team of 12 people that helped them scale to more than 2 million customers in such a short time. Subhash believes that people can learn the skills if they are passionate about the product that they are building. The guy who built Dukaan's android app was his first-ever android app.

If you enjoyed this video and would like to learn more about Subhash Choudhary and his journey, you can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhashchy Twitter: https://twitter.com/subhashchy

Follow Backstage with Millionaires to remain updated with our latest developments. Discord: https://discord.gg/XySGGhXKep LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/backstagewithmillionaires/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/bwmillionaires/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backstagewithmillionaires/

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4 upGrad: It was started by Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, Ravijot Chugh, and Ronnie Screwvala, in March of 2015. Company focuses on higher education and upskilling and they were valued at $1.2 billion last year.

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