What’s a newsmaker in the context of startups and tech? Is it an outspoken founder or investor who was among the headlines over allegations and controversies, or is it someone who creates phenomena with their statements and thoughts?

Over the past month, we have recounted the personalities that found themselves among controversies and success stories of the year — from public listings to startups that turned profitable and from founder exits to shutdowns in the Indian startup ecosystem, While these were some of the bigger stories of 2023, we believe newsmakers are those who drove themes and trends that remained prominent throughout the year.

There were founders and leaders who earned prominence for other reasons too, such as Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal or Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma for turning around their large businesses to some extent.

Or even founders of Honasa (Mamaearth), Zaggle, ideaForge and others that successfully navigated public markets for public listings. Plus, major VC ecosystem developments such as Omidyar Network’s exit from India or Peak XV Partners rebranding from Sequoia Capital also garnered plenty of attention.

But in our recap, we have chosen eight newsmakers who had a more profound influence on Indian tech. As part of Inc42’s 2023 In Review series, we are looking at these founders, CEOs and tech leaders who shaped the discourse and sparked off debates this year.

From Ola Electric founder Bhavish Aggarwal who launched a new company this year to join the generative AI revolution to Tim Cook, who turned into something of a global ambassador for the Make-In-India movement. And from Isha Ambani carrying the torch forward for Reliance’s retail legacy, to Narayana Murthy’s comments that stirred up the work-life balance debate all over again — these are the personalities that drove conversations throughout 2023.

Bhavish Aggarwal: Dominating EVs & Eyeing Generative AI

Last year, the Ola Electric founder found himself in the thick of social media disputes with competitors in the automobile industry, but this year, Aggarwal’s focus turned to pumping up Ola Electric’s two-wheeler sales figures and announcing the launch of the next generation of EV two-wheelers by the end of 2024. There are also plans for an electric car in 2025.

With Aggarwal leading the marketing push on his personal social media channels, Ola’s EV business has seen tremendous growth — nearly 50% higher monthly sales in November 2023 as compared to September 2023.

And with Ola’s growth, the overall adoption for EV two-wheelers has also picked up for other players — sales nearly doubled in November as compared to June 2023.

The Aggarwal-led company also put its IPO plans into full throttle by converting into a public company, after raising INR 3,200 Cr in a year when mega rounds were a rare occurrence. The pre-IPO filings are expected to come in December and there will be a lot of eyes on what Ola and Aggarwal expect from the public markets.

And while most of the focus has been on Ola Electric, Ola Cabs also introduced plenty of changes from ONDC integration to the Ola Prime Plus tier. But Ola Electric is clearly the biggest motivation for Aggarwal currently.

Of course, towards the end of the year, some of his focus turned to generative AI. At a time when the global gen AI fight seems to be centred around big tech giants, Aggarwal’s third venture Krutrim is looking to disrupt the space with an AI-centric cloud infrastructure, developing AI models for Indian languages and more.

Here’s a deep dive into Krutrim’s plans, and what we are more interested in seeing is whether Aggarwal changes the game in AI just as Ola did for EVs and mobility.

Isha Ambani: Revamping Reliance’s Retail Legacy

Reliance is one of the biggest newsmakers in tech every year for everything that Reliance Jio does, but this time around it’s the retail business that has taken centre stage with Isha Ambani leading the line.

Last year, Isha was elevated to chairman and managing director of Reliance Retail and the company’s moves this year signal a change towards digital-first brands, tech-driven platforms and a new-age omnichannel approach.

This year, the retail major forayed into the BPC market with Tira, and Reliance Retail’s digital and new commerce revenue surged to INR 50,000 Cr in FY23, a fifth of the overall revenue. Reliance Retail also raised over INR 15,000 Cr (nearly $2 Bn) from sovereign funds to press the accelerator on the digital commerce businesses, and acquire brands or exclusive rights to international labels.

While Mukesh Ambani and Akash Ambani helm Reliance Industries and Reliance Jio, Isha’s focus has squarely been on Tira and AJIO (fashion), along with JioMart. The revenue contribution just shows how key these platforms will be for long-term growth for Reliance’s retail business.

But that’s not all — the newly-created Jio Financial Services (JFS) has brought Isha on board as a director, and with JFS’ plans to increase credit penetration in the retail market, we could see some interesting developments between Reliance Retail and JFS in the year ahead.

Narayana Murthy: Wading Into The Work-Life Balance Debate

Narayana Murthy is no stranger to being among the headlines, but this year, the Infosys cofounder and former CEO jumped into a hot debate that has polarised the tech ecosystem.

The Padma Shri awardee argued that work productivity in India is one of the lowest in the world and urged youngsters to volunteer to work 70 hours a week. But this caused a lot of furore among certain sections of those who follow Murthy, even as many other entrepreneurs advocated for the same.

To be fair, the work-life balance debate has been a hot topic of discussion pretty much every year. In 2022, Bombay Shaving Company founder Shantanu Deshpande urged startup employees to put in 18 hours every day, which raised concerns about the pressures of working in a startup, work culture and employee happiness.

But Murthy’s comments have been particularly criticised as he cited his own experience with founding Infosys and working long hours as an example. Many pointed out that given his ownership of the company, his motivation was not unnatural, but most entry-level employees have personal goals and commitments that do not justify long working hours. Others also pointed out the low salaries paid by IT giants such as Infosys to entry-level and mid-tier talent.

Besides this Murthy was caught in a deepfake campaign where a video featuring his likeness and voice was used to promote a stock trading platform. The veteran entrepreneur was one of several celebrities seen in AI-generated fake videos this year.

But it doesn’t end there: Murthy also took a stance against government subsidies for infrastructure, saying “nothing should be given for free”. He is believed to have suggested that those availing government subsidies should be made to contribute back to the betterment of society in some form or the other.

His comments, made at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2023 in December, are particularly ironic given that so much of Indian tech today revolves around digital public infrastructure, which is essentially a free service for users, subsidised by government and policy push.

Rahul Yadav: Return Of The ‘Bad-Boy’ Entrepreneur

While Ashneer Grover continues to cause controversies with each statement, the biggest founder-related governance issues this year have come from Broker Network and its founder Rahul Yadav.

As we recounted in our original and deep investigation into Yadav’s latest venture, Broker Network burnt over INR 280 Cr in less than 18 months, and the founder is alleged to have built a web to syphon off funds from the company.

The biggest surprise with Broker Network is that Info Edge invested INR 280 Cr in the company after being convinced by Yadav that the Housing.com ouster and the Intelligent Interfaces’ no-show are behind him.

Essentially, even one of the most experienced investors in India — led by Sanjeev Bikhchandani, one of the most reputed entrepreneurs in the country — was swayed by a pitch, which eventually turned out too good to be true. Investors have tightened up their due diligence processes for potential investments a lot in the past two years and Info Edge’s bruising experience is only likely to increase their scrutiny into founders and potential bets.

Today, Yadav is dealing with multiple cases. The Economic Offences Wing has registered an FIR against him and is looking into the bigger complaint by Info Edge. Even former employees have filed FIRs against Yadav for furnishing bad cheques. Will 2024 see Yadav being prosecuted and charged for the Broker Network saga?

Rajeev Chandrasekhar: Cementing India’s Place In Global Tech 

Few policymakers and legislators in India wade into tech debates as frequently as Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who as Minister of State (MoS) for Information Technology, is second in command after Ashwini Vaishnaw, the union minister for IT.

But Chandrasekhar has been nearly omnipresent when it comes to speaking about the government’s stand on everything from AI regulations in light of the generative AI revolution, or net neutrality given the battle between telcos and over-the-top (OTT) service providers over network fees.

As per reports, Chandrasekhar, during a meeting with his Dutch counterpart Alexandra van Huffelen, is said to have pushed for a greater role for India in swiftly putting in place global regulations for emerging tech.

The MoS for IT also pushed for greater manufacturing in India by tech giants across sectors — particularly focussing on how Apple has managed to expand its manufacturing footprint in India (more on this later). In addition to electronics manufacturing, Chandrasekhar is said to have liaised with Elon Musk-led EV giant Tesla to bring EV manufacturing to India and procure components locally.

With India looking to carve out a bigger piece of the global tech manufacturing pie in light of the China+1 movement, Chandrasekhar has emerged as the face of India’s tech policy in many ways.

Robin Raina: Eyeing An IPO For A Bankrupt Business 

There are CEOs that seem to grow into mature leaders as their companies head to the public markets, and there are the likes of Robin Raina, whose outlandishness never seems to wane.

The Ebix, Inc. and Ebix Cash CEO has had to face many tough questions in light of the company’s INR 6,000 Cr IPO plans in India, particularly related to the sorry state of its financials and its high indebtedness.

Raina joined Ebix way back in 1997 and quickly rose up the ranks, but the company’s operations have been under a cloud in the past year, especially after the Hindenburg Research report that questioned a lot of the company’s claims. Despite this, Raina has looked to stay in the limelight with his penchant for the high life — particularly, the glamour shots with his Ferrari and other luxury vehicles.

Ebix’s lenders have unsuccessfully chased the company for funds, but Raina took home a $1.8 Mn bonus in September 2023 even as the business was coming close to bankruptcy. In December 2023, Ebix Inc filed for bankruptcy in the US, after defaulting on a $617 Mn loan and several covenants associated with this debt.

The entire episode shows us the severity of corporate governance lapses in some companies, even those that aspire to raise money from public markets. And there’s also a question of how regulators approved the IPO plans for a company that has so many red flags in its leadership.

Sam Altman: The Posterboy Of Generative AI

Fired and back again in five days. Few founders and CEOs can boast of having survived such drama as Sam Altman did with OpenAI in late 2023, after being thrown out of his own company. His dismissal and subsequent reinstatement set off shock waves across the global tech ecosystem, sparking off a debate about the power struggle between a founder and a company’s board.

Altman, considered by many as the face of generative AI, has been in the news all year long — largely because generative AI itself has grabbed headlines and the attention of the world. There were reports about a DDoS attack on OpenAI in early November as well as the company’s close ties with Microsoft, its lead investor.

In the Indian context, however, controversies around Altman started much before the boardroom shenanigans at OpenAI.

Altman’s visit to India and his public appearance attracted the who’s who of the Indian tech ecosystem. But when he was asked whether Indian companies could compete with OpenAI, his answer did not please many. He called it a “totally impossible” endeavour, but later clarified that he was simply responding to a question about trying to compete with OpenAI valued at over $25 Bn+ using just $10 Mn.

Of course, all this was forgotten by the time Altman was sacked by the company’s board and then brought back swiftly, If anything, his reinstatement only seems to reinforce the notion that Altman is not only the most influential person at OpenAI, but arguably also in generative AI.

The rise of OpenAI has fuelled the generative AI revolution with a slew of startups now looking at building LLMs and models for specific needs. Case in point: Indian AI startups Bhavish Aggarwal’s Krutrim or Lightspeed-backed Sarvam AI. Plus, companies across sectors are adopting ChatGPT and generative AI en masse for their operations.

Tim Cook: Making India The Apple Of His Eye

He’s the CEO of the world’s most valuable company, and one could argue that no CEO has backed India in as big a way as Apple’s Tim Cook did this year.

In contrast to the visit of Jeff Bezos in 2020, Cook’s tour of India saw Apple launch its first own-brand retail stores in Mumbai and Delhi. But this was a relatively minor development when seen in the context of Apple’s larger plans for India.

Firstly, the tech giant expanded its manufacturing base in India and is eyeing making more than just iPhones in the country. Given the fact that accessories such as chargers and wireless earphones (Airpods) sell in larger quantities than smartphones, it could be argued that this represents the biggest push for global electronics exports from India.

Apple’s lead in India has since been followed by the likes of Google, which said it would manufacture Pixel smartphones in India from 2024.

Some of the goodwill earned by Apple has been tarnished with allegations around anti-competitive practices by its App Store, as well as the alleged hacking of iPhones of some elected officials. But these were minor blips in the Apple story.

Cook and Apple’s India plans underscore the wider China+1 movement in the tech industry, as many major players are looking to diversify their manufacturing bases away from China and to India and other geographies.

Of course, Apple being the largest company in the world by market cap, seems to dominate all discussion around the Make-In-India success story, but going forward the efforts of the company would be to boost local manufacturing of smaller electronics and components for its devices, so that it has to rely on fewer imports when assembling and making products in India.

The post 8 Newsmakers Of 2023: The People Behind The Biggest Indian Tech Stories Of The Year appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Ecommerce took centre stage on the 13th day of the Parliament’s Winter Session as the government answered a slew of questions regarding regulation, competition, ONDC and ecommerce exports.

Responding to a question, the Minister of State (MoS) for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash on Wednesday (December 20) said that the ONDC network was now live in 500 towns and cities across the country. 

“The geographic coverage of ONDC is determined both by the capability of its Network participants and the independent business decisions of merchants onboarded by the Network participants,” he added.

Parkash’s comments were part of a written response to a question by Lok Sabha member Ravikumar D on whether ecommerce regulations extended to the state-backed ONDC. 

“All existing laws and regulations of India, related to ecommerce apply to ONDC and the Network Participants on [the] ONDC network,” Parkash said.

The government also added that ONDC was also taking ‘comprehensive’ steps to ensure trust, fairness and transparency on the network, including fairness in search and discovery, payment mechanisms, KYC requirements, reviews and ratings, and enforcement, among other factors.

During the session, Parkash also pointed out that the government has so far not undertaken any studies to address competition-related issues identified by the 172nd report of the Rajya Sabha on the promotion and regulation of ecommerce in India. 

The minister added that the government had filed an ‘Action Taken’ report in response to the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce on the matter.

Incidentally, the government had then decided not to take any recommendations on the aspect of competition.

The standing committee had recommended changes related to the current regulatory regime encompassing ecommerce, the Competition Act of 2002, abuse of dominant position by big players as well as mergers and acquisitions. The committee had also recommended that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs take ‘concerted efforts’ to finalise and enact the Competition Amendment Bill ‘at the earliest’.

The government, in its action-taken report, noted that the amendment bill would already include most of the recommendations made by the standing committee in terms of competition and address gaps in the current regulatory regime. 

DGFT Collaborating With Ecommerce Cos: MoS Commerce & Industry

On the question of whether the government has tied up with any startup or private players for ecommerce exports, MoS Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel said that efforts were being taken to promote ecommerce exports in partnership with various stakeholders.

“… outreach events are being held in the districts under Districts as Export Hubs initiative with [a] focus on promoting ecommerce exports of the identified goods from the districts in collaboration with various stakeholders,” said Patel in a written response.

According to Patel, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) is collaborating with various ecommerce platforms to promote ecommerce exports from the country. 

“The core objective of this collaboration is to leverage ecommerce platforms operating in other countries to support local exporters, manufacturers, and MSMEs in India in reaching potential international buyers,” the MoS added.

The post ONDC Live In 500 Towns & Cities; All Ecommerce Rules Apply To The Network: MoS Commerce appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“Returns on capital in India have sucked historically.” That’s how Tiger Global partner Scott Schleifer characterised the India experience for the hedge fund giant back in February. It may sound harsh, but that’s something a lot of Indian VC firms came to terms with, in 2023. 

There’s little doubt that 2023 has been one of the toughest years for Indian startup VCs and the investor ecosystem. The past 12 months have seen partner exits, venture capital firms pulling out of India, rebranding and separation of VC structures and new fund managers coming into the picture. 

If 2022 saw startups go through instability, then 2023 was all about churn in the investor ecosystem. Sequoia Capital India’s rebranding to Peak XV Partners and separation from the US entity was the biggest story in the first half, overshadowed by the exit of Omidyar Network from India. 

Between these two big developments, a slew of partner-level departures at the likes of Orios Venture Partners, Venture Highway, Lightbox, Rebright, Lightrock India and Together Fund made it a tough year for VCs in general. 

The slowdown in investments in the past nearly 24 months and the troubles in various portfolio companies — ranging from corporate governance issues to revenue slowdown — have together created a perfect storm for VCs and fund managers. 

The headwinds have not impacted India operations alone. Sequoia US partner Michael Moritz quit the firm in July this year after 38 years, and Prosus & Naspers CEO Bob Van Dijk also stepped down from the investment major. 

And where there are departures, there are also new partners and fund managers taking over. Marquee firms such as Peak XV, Fireside Ventures, Venture Highway, Matrix Partners and Blume Ventures are some of the VC firms that named new managing directors and partners this past year. 

These new fund managers not only have to turn around the India investment story but also lead their firms into 2024 where many expect the volatile market conditions to stabilise. 

But before we get to the outlook for the next year, it’s important to look back at 2023 and understand what makes it the year of VC rejigs. 

Churn At Indian VCs In 2023

Perhaps the most noticeable trend among VC firms this year has been a slew of partner exits for reasons ranging from increasing pressure from limited partners, governance issues in portfolios, revenue and business slowdown as well as internal tensions between partners and fund managers. 

Kushal Agrawal, partner and CFO of Lightrock India resigned, marking the latest departure in a series of exits at the firm. The primary reason for Agrawal’s departure reportedly stems from internal differences regarding the operational direction of the fund.

Most recently, SoftBank India saw significant exit as India operating partner Vikas Agnihotri exited the firm. Agnihotri’s exit comes after SoftBank sold a stake in PB Fintech and Zomato, completely exiting the latter.

This is also the reason cited for the break-up at the top of Lightbox, one of the most active venture capital firms in the country. Partners Siddharth Talwar, Prashant Mehta and Jeremy Wenokur are leaving the Mumbai-based VC. 

Lightbox cofounders Talwar and Sandeep Murthy are likely to separate the fund’s portfolio and part ways due to differing views on what strategies the firm should pursue. The departing trio is looking to set up a separate fund comprising some Lightbox portfolio companies.

In the case of Orios VP, another Mumbai-based VC firm, Rajeev Suri and Anup Jain stepped away. Reports claimed the duo were unhappy with the carry-sharing arrangements. 

Both Orios and Lightbox have seen key investments falter due to market changes and competitive dynamics. 

Orios wrote off its investment in GoMechanic after the company’s well-documented revenue misreported problem. Pharmeasy, another Orios portfolio company, has seen a major devaluation in the past year and has struggled to raise new funds.

Lightbox is dealing with problems at Dunzo, one of its earliest bets. Dunzo is caught in a severe cash crunch and is unable to pay salaries to employees or vendors. Once a hyperlocal sensation, Dunzo is now looking at a bleak and uncertain future.

“Investors didn’t realise the amount of risk and liability that they are subject to because they trusted a lot of founders. And in most cases, founders were not aware and perhaps not as competent as they needed to be,” Prime Venture Partners’ managing partner Sanjay Swamy told Inc42 in July.

LP Pressure Grows On Existing Funds

The split at Orios exposed one hidden facet of the VC game. While on paper, many fund managers may be partners, their share of the carry (profits from investments) and the performance bonuses vary.

Founding partners get the bulk of the carry, while managing partners and other partners get a smaller share. Discord between these two classes of decision makers can directly increase the risk profile of the firm for any limited partner.

As we have written in the past, many limited partners were unhappy with a slew of portfolio problems at many of the biggest VC firms in India. 

LPs typically evaluate the overall fund performance, so partners whose investments have not worked out can potentially hide behind managers and partners who have led the more profitable investments. 

Another facet exposed by the problems at VC firms is the influence of limited partners (typically larger institutional investors and high net-worth individuals). The LP-fund manager relationship goes both ways. 

When raising funds, partners are more likely to approach LPs who have backed them in the past. In other cases, LPs want partners to break away and start new funds that fit the current market thesis better. 

LP pressure has increased in the past year or so as new areas of focus have emerged. The emergence of generative AI and other next-gen segments has compelled many LPs to look at funds and firms that have built their thesis around these areas. Some VC partners have completely stepped away from investing.

Brij Singh Bhasin, general partner at the early-stage venture capital firm Rebright Partners, stepped down to launch Snow Mountain AI, a generative AI-focussed startup. And if experienced VCs are not immune to the allure of new opportunities that emerged in 2023, can LPs be far behind?

“Increasingly, the startup LP network has started to recognise that emerging fund managers are some of the biggest value creators in the market,” Ankur Pahwa, founder and managing partner of PeerCapital, told Inc42 earlier this year, pointing to how many early-stage VC funds have come up in the past year.

He added that LPs want to see fund managers with very clear guardrails in terms of their stage and sector focus. No longer are limited partners swayed by momentum or opportunistic investing, which was the case in 2021 when startup funding peaked. After that peak, LPs have rationalised their expectations and streamlined their focus on VC funds as an asset class. 

New Leaders Take The Helm

If partners left firms in pursuit of new opportunities, in other cases, VC firms rejigged their leadership to fortify themselves for the new market realities. 

Several seasoned executives were promoted to partner and cofounder roles at firms such as Peak XV, Fireside Ventures, Matrix Partners and others. 

Early stage consumer-focussed Fireside Venture promoted partners Kannan Sitaram, Vinay Singh, and Dipanjan Basu to cofounder positions, while Matrix Partners India elevated principals Aakash Kumar, Pranay Desai, and Sudipto Sannigrahi to the role of MDs. 

Soon after Sequoia Capital India’s rebranding to Peak XV Partners and separation from the US firm, the firm promoted Rohit Agarwal to the position of managing director. 

Priya Mohan took over from Venture Highway founder Samir Sood and was named as the managing partner. Venture Highway is currently raising its third fund, which is being led by Mohan and cofounder Neeraj Arora.

Most recently, Orios Venture Partners appointed Sukhmani Bedi as a partner after the departure of Suri and Jain. Bedi, a three-time startup founder, has been with the firm since March 2022 and was formerly handling portfolio management at Orios. 

The Need To Evolve: VC Outlook For 2024

It is not just VC firms that are rejigging their leadership. Even private equity firms such as TVS Capital Funds prepared themselves for the new realities of the market. The Chennai-based firm appointed Naveen Unni, a former McKinsey & Co exec, as the managing partner.  

Unni’s appointment coincides with the fact that TVS is preparing to see many of its bets mature into exits by mid to late 2024. Ola Electric has filed its pre-IPO prospectus, while another TVS portfolio company Digit Insurance is also on course for a public listing in 2024. 

In an interview with Inc42 earlier this year, TVS Capital’s Gopal Srinivasan mentioned how the firm’s core focus areas have evolved over the years. He hinted at the fact that other firms also need to grow and mature with the market. 

“Everything that’s happening in India, from the public digital infrastructure to regulatory push from the RBI and IRDAI is enabling digital businesses. When people are not afraid to go digital for financial services, it creates a huge market for businesses. And, of course, urbanisation in many parts of India is creating a lot of new behaviours,” Srinivasan said at the time. 

Despite the challenges of the past year and in light of the somewhat negative sentiment of firms such as Tiger Global, there is a streak of optimism too. Many fund managers and partners have told us throughout the year that these pains are temporary. 

For instance, Surya Mantha, managing partner at Capria Ventures (formerly Unitus Ventures), believes that the momentum is with India when you look at the global macroeconomic factors affecting China and the US. 

“Several factors underpin our view that India is ready to step up: the young population, the digital public infrastructure that not only enables hundreds of millions to participate in the country’s economic life but also enables business innovation, a large and growing consumer economy as well as relatively stable macroeconomic conditions,” Mantha told Inc42 in June this year.

This view is echoed by the likes of Bejul Somaia, partner at Lightspeed Ventures, who tweeted that the India story is just beginning, as well as Naganand Doraswamy, managing partner and founder of Ideaspring Capital. 

Even though Doraswamy agreed that historic returns have not been great, he believes this is a very early stage in the India story to be counting the chickens. 

[With inputs from Nikhil Subramaniam]

The post Not Easy Being A VC In 2023: Partner Exits, Fund Splits Hurt Investors appeared first on Inc42 Media.

SoftBank India has seen a significant exit as Vikas Agnihotri, an operating partner who worked closely with Paytm ahead of its IPO in 2021, has exited the investment fund. 

According to an ET report, Agnihotri left SoftBank in September. It needs to be clarified if he has taken up a new role yet.

Agnihotri’s LinkedIn profile also shows he was associated with SoftBank until September this year.

The Mumbai-based executive worked with Google till February 2020, where he was the managing director for sales in India. Agnihotri joined SoftBank after this as its first operating partner to work with the investor’s portfolio firms in India. 

At Google, he is also believed to have worked closely with Rajan Anandan, now the MD of Peak XV Partners. Before his brief stint at Google, Agnihotri was the CEO of Religare Macquarie Private Wealth Management.

He is also a member of the boards of several major companies in SoftBank’s India portfolio, including FirstCry, GlobalBees and InMobi. However, sources cited by ET noted that Agnihotri is expected to transition out of his board roles in the coming months. He resigned from eyewear giant Lenskart’s board in September, around the same time as his exit from SoftBank.

Inc42 has reached out to Agnihotri and SoftBank on the development and the story will be updated upon receiving their responses. 

Agnihotri’s exit comes as the storied Japanese tech investor has been booking profits by selling its stake in listed Indian tech startups. This month alone, SoftBank sold a stake in PB Fintech and Zomato, completely exiting the latter.

Sumer Juneja, the firm’s managing partner and head for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said in August that the Japanese conglomerate made more than $5.5 Bn in exits from its India portfolio since it began operations in November 2018 in Mumbai. He added that the late stage investor realised $1.5 Bn from exits in the past 12 to 18 months. 

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The year 2023 turned out to be much better for initial public offerings (IPOs) in the Indian equities market on the back of the bullish sentiment in the broader market. Despite macroeconomic headwinds and global geopolitical tensions, the domestic IPO market saw a revival this year after the lull of 2022. The public issues of new-age tech startups also saw a sharp improvement in demand in 2023 compared to a listless 2022. 

But before we delve deeper into the IPOs of new-age tech stocks, let’s take a quick look at the overall IPO landscape. 

As per the BSE data, 92 companies took the IPO route in 2023 till mid-November as against 90 companies doing so in the entire 2022. The number of IPOs further crossed the 100 mark by the beginning of December this year. Interestingly, the number of SME IPOs in 2023 was more than the mainboard public listings.

While the sluggishness of the previous year continued in the first half of 2023, the situation turned on its head in the second half of 2023.

• Data collated by IIFL Securities suggest that out of the 48 mainboard listings in the first 11 months, 39 took place between July and November. 
• Against the intended fundraising of INR 44,159 Cr across the 48 companies, the total subscription interest received across categories – qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), high net-worth individuals (HNIs) and retail investors – was to the tune of INR 14.29 Lakh Cr, as per the report by IIFL Securities.
• Tata Technologies’ public issue, the first IPO by the Tata Group in two decades, saw very high demand, receiving 70X subscriptions and bids worth INR 1.56 Lakh Cr. The other superstar IPOs of the season included Mankind Pharma, Gandhar Oil, and JSW Infrastructure. 

In the startup ecosystem, a total of five new-age tech companies – ideaForge, Mamaearth, Yatra, Zaggle, and Yudiz – went public in 2023, with one listing on the SME platform and the rest on the mainboard. 

Overall, the cumulative size of these five startups’ IPOs stood at over INR 3,600 Cr as against a little over INR 5,500 Cr in 2022 and around INR 50,000 Cr in 2021.

It is pertinent to note that the year 2021 saw 11 new-age tech startups going for IPOs amid the funding boom and buoyancy in global stock markets post the pandemic, while only three such companies went public in 2022 – Delhivery and Tracxn Technologies on the mainboard and DroneAcharya on SME platform.

Despite at least 10 startups either filing DRHPs or announcing IPO plans, they didn’t make any progress last year as the market remained tumultuous. Even this year, many of them continued to defer their IPO plans. However, experts suggest that the number of new-age tech IPOs will rise in 2024 despite the startups continuing to be cautious about the timing of going public.

8 Startup IPO Predictions For 2024

According to a recently published EY report on Q3 2023 IPO data, the surge in activity in the Indian IPO landscape is driven by strong economic activity and positive domestic and foreign investor sentiments. This momentum is expected to continue well into the 2024 second half. 

Now let’s take a deeper look at the key trends expected in the Indian new-age tech IPO market next year. 

Bull Market Effect: Rising Number Of Tech Startups To Head For IPOs In 2024

Indian markets have been touching new all-time highs post the victory of the BJP in the recently-held Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The dovish commentary of the US Fed this month further aided the rally. All these factors are expected to result in an increase in the number of new-age tech startups opting for IPOs in the coming year.

Deepak Shenoy, founder and CEO of Capitalmind, said that the current market is a bull market. This will result in the success of IPOs and lead to more such public issues in the next year. According to him, the chances of a big fall in the markets in the near term seem very low, despite the ongoing geopolitical tensions, high-interest rates in the US, and other macroeconomic uncertainties. This will encourage companies to take the IPO route.

Coming to new-age tech IPOs in 2024, they can be divided into three distinct categories: 

• IPOs of companies which have already filed their draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI;
• Companies which earlier filed their DRHPs but either withdrew or did not get listed due to uncertain market situation;
• Companies which began working aggressively on their IPO plans this year.

Navi Technologies, GoDigit, PayMate, Portea, EbixCash, and OYO, which has pre-filed its IPO papers with SEBI confidentially, are in the first category. These startups’ IPO size is cumulatively around INR 20,250 Cr. 

It is pertinent to note that following the bankruptcy filing by Nasdaq-listed Ebix, the IPO of EbixCash now seems unlikely.

There are also not-so-prominent names like Travel Boutique Online, or TBO Tek, and agri-drone company AITMC Ventures which filed their DRHPs in 2023.

Mobikwik, Capillary Technologies, ixigo, and Snapdeal fall in the second bucket. Among these tech startups, fintech unicorn Mobikwik has reportedly restarted its IPO plans. Though there is no update on the IPO timelines for the rest, these companies were looking for the market condition to improve before their listings, hence 2024 could be a potential target for them to go public.

In the third category would be Zomato’s rival Swiggy, which has started its IPO preparations and recently hired investment bankers. Prosus-owned PayU and Peak XV Partners-backed Awfis are also said to be looking to soon file their draft IPO papers, while drone startup Garuda Aerospace is eyeing a mid-2024 listing.

Besides, emobility startup Ola Electric is also working on a 2024 IPO.

Swiggy, Ola Electric To Be The Most Awaited IPOs 

Overall, at least 10 tech startups are expected to get listed next year. However, the IPOs of Swiggy and Ola Electric have already started creating buzz and would be the most watched out IPOs among the startups.

After picking a substantial share in the domestic two-wheeler EV market, Bhavish Aggarwal has decided to take Ola Electric public. 

It is pertinent to note that the IPO plans for Aggarwal’s ride-hailing business Ola Cabs have been put on hold since 2022.

Coming back to Ola Electric, while the startup has made a name for itself in the two-wheeler EV market, it continues to burn cash and is loss making. Despite this, the startup is said to be looking at a market capitalisation of $10 Bn for the IPO.

On the other hand, Swiggy’s listing will make Zomato’s biggest competitor trade on the public bourses and give another option to investors looking to bet on the food delivery and quick commerce space.

Swiggy’s IPO is being deemed the biggest IPO by an internet company next year, with an issue size of $1 Bn (INR 8,300 Cr). 

Mid-sized IPOs To Be The Theme Of The Year

Amid the slowdown in the global markets, the last two years saw an increase in the number of SME IPOs in India. While the mainboard IPOs did see a rise, the companies opted to go for smaller size for their public issues. 

Highlighting this trend, Capitalmind’s Shenoy said that while the IPO market looks brilliant right now, the demand is not high when compared to what the market witnessed in 2021.

“Technically, while we are eloquent about the current IPO situation, this is a dip in the ocean in comparison to what was earlier,” he said, adding that the size of Paytm’s IPO was much higher than many other recent IPOs combined together. 

It must be noted that Paytm’s IPO in 2021 was for over 18,000 Cr, while last year insurance company Life Insurance Company (LIC) went public with an IPO of over INR 21,000 Cr. However, both these companies saw muted listings and their share prices have remained under pressure after listing. This is also one of the reasons why companies don’t want to go for big IPOs.

Market experts believe that there is not enough investor appetite for big public issues. Hence, 2024 will mostly see companies going for more mid- and small-sized IPOs. 

Elections To Decide The Timelines Of IPOs

With India going for general elections in 2024, experts believe that a lot of companies would wait for the election results before firming up timelines of their IPOs.

According to Lightspeed MD Anuj Bhargava, while Mamaearth’s public listing and its performance after that on the bourses will encourage a lot of other companies to take the IPO route, the general elections will play a major role in deciding the timeline of these IPOs.

The likes of OYO, Swiggy, and also FirstCry are said to be looking to list on the bourses after the results of the general elections are out. 

It is also pertinent to note that Lightspeed is a major backer of IPO-bound OYO.

“Generally, people are a little bit cautious and wait for big political events to take shape. When you have something this substantial coming up, I think people normally like to wait and see the outcome before they make big decisions and IPOs are normally very big decisions… Investors also wait on the sidelines,” Bhargava said while explaining the rationale of the companies.

If the current government continues, as is the expectation and has been priced in right now, the current policies and regulations will continue. However, if a new government is to come, investors would want to see the new policies before they start investing in India, he added.

Fundamentals To Decide The Success Of IPOs

The slump in the share prices of the 11 new-age tech startups, which went public in 2021 despite most of them being loss-making, in 2022 shifted the focus on the fundamentals of companies.

For instance, Paytm, which made a muted debut on the bourses and listed at INR 1,955 on the BSE, saw its valuation nosedive nearly 68% in 2022. Similarly, Zomato, which had a market cap of over INR 1 Lakh Cr after its listing in July 2021, lost over 60% of its market value by the end of 2022.

This rout made other new-age tech companies looking to go public put their IPOs plans on hold and focus on improving their bottom lines first.

The rally in Zomato shares in 2023 on the back of it reporting back-to-back profitable quarters further highlighted how investors are looking for profitability. Like Zomato, Paytm and PB Fintech also saw a change in investor sentiment with the improvements in their bottom lines. 

“Businesses today need to have strong growth, profitability or at least a clear path to profitability… it doesn’t matter which sectors they belong to… Profitability today is the biggest ask from the public market investors,” Lightspeed’s Bhargava said.

Startups, even those not mulling to go public anytime soon, have realised what the markets want, and the last few quarters have seen them chasing profitability. Consequently, many startups also reported their first profitable months and quarters recently, although it came at the expense of mass layoffs and other restructuring efforts in many cases.

• OYO claimed to have achieved its first-ever profitable quarter in Q2 FY24, with a projected profit of INR 16 Cr. But in pursuit of turning profitable, OYO carried out multiple restructuring exercises in the last one year, and laid off around 600 employees, as per Inc42’s layoff tracker.
• ixigo also turned profitable in FY23 after a loss-making FY22. 
• Fintech unicorns MobiKwik and PayMate narrowed their net losses in FY23. Meanwhile, MobiKwik claimed to have been profitable in the first two quarters of FY24.

Speaking to Inc42 right after Mamaearth’s listing, Prashanth Tapse, research analyst, senior VP (research) at Mehta Equities, said there was no chance of more new-age, loss-making businesses entering the Indian market anytime soon.

Companies To Seek Reasonable Valuations

The listing of Nykaa, Paytm, Zomato, and a few others at staggering valuations and the subsequent wealth erosion last year has resulted in investors closely scrutinising the valuations of companies going for public listing. As a result, new-age tech companies are expected to go for reasonable valuations while pricing their shares during the IPO.

Speaking on the issue after Mamaearth’s listing, Tapse said that this is a market where companies should create value for shareholders and not for themselves.

Interestingly, there were speculations in 2022 that Mamaearth would seek a valuation of around $3 Bn for its IPO. However, the D2C unicorn put its IPO on hold amid subdued market conditions. Subsequently, it listed at a much lower valuation of $1.2 Bn in 2023. However, many experts termed even this valuation higher considering the market condition.

As such, experts believe that companies aiming to get lofty valuations will struggle in the IPO market.

Startups To Shun Overseas Listing Plans

One trend which has emerged clearly over the last few years is Indian startups looking to list on the exchanges in the country rather than going for overseas listing. 

In 2021, Freshworks listed on Nasdaq, while Yatra listed on the exchange in 2016. MakeMyTrip too made its debut on Nasdaq in 2010. 

However, this trend has seen a clear reversal. Recently, Yatra got its second listing in the Indian stock exchanges after Nasdaq. During its listing process on the Indian exchanges this year, Yatra hinted that it might take the decision to delist from the US stock market depending on several factors. 

Meanwhile, PhonePe, which has also been mulling an IPO (likely in 2025), shifted its domicile to India from Singapore. As per reports, Groww and Razorpay are also likely to shift their base to India. While the decision of the fintech companies to move to India could be guided by regulatory concerns, several other factors like lower corporate tax rate, zero taxes on capital gains, and the Indian government’s efforts to ease compliances are also said to be promoting reverse flipping and encouraging startups to list in the home country.

Besides, the Centre is also looking to make it easier for startups to list in India. Efforts are on to create a framework to offer exemptions to startups to list on the exchanges at GIFT IFSC so that they can tap global investors from India. 

Commenting on this, Bhargava said, “We would want all leading Indian companies to list in India and give domestic investors the ability to be part of their growth and value creation journey… the valuations and the investor following the tech companies will get in India are far superior to their prospects in other listing locations.”

As a result, no major Indian startups, except Zoomcar, which is eyeing a US listing through SPAC deal, are expected to go for overseas listing next year.

HNIs, Retail Investors To Drive Up IPO Subscriptions 

Data suggests that there is increasing demand for Indian IPOs from HNIs and QIBs.

As per experts, SEBI’s decision to divide the non-institutional investor (NII) category into two – INR 2-10 Lakh and INR 10 Lakh and above – has given a big boost to IPO subscriptions. 

In 2021, SEBI proposed that one-third of the HNI portion in all IPOs be reserved for investors belonging to the sub-category of INR 2-INR 10 Lakh, while the remaining part within the HNI category will be for applications of above INR 10 Lakh. The new rules came into effect from April 1, 2022.

As a result, to increase their gains, HNIs have started increasing the number of applications in both categories and are even applying in the name of their family members for IPOs, as per market watchers. 

Speaking on the matter, Mukesh Kochar, national head of wealth at AUM Capital, said that the listing of a number of recent IPOs at a steep premium to their issue price has made public issues attractive for investors looking for short-term capital gains. This trend is expected to continue next year and push up IPO subscriptions.

Here’s a table depicting the subscriptions for the new-age tech companies that went for IPOs in 2023:

Speaking on HNIs increasing their exposure in the Indian stock market, Bhargava highlighted that HNIs tend to diversify their holdings across geographies given various political and regulatory uncertainties and said that some of them are coming to India by choice and some by default.

“You see an Indian market that offers many growth opportunities. You see a very deep and liquid market, you see a stable government. You see high-quality entrepreneurs and businesses being formed… That’s when the HNIs think this is where I should put my money in next,” he added. 

On the other hand, retail investors have also started increasing their exposure to the Indian stock market. From the comfort of trading online, even on mobile phones, to an increase in the number of household brands going public (like Zomato, Paytm, Mamaearth), a number of factors have played a role in increasing the participation of retail investors in the market. 

Some experts also opined that a lot of time, retail investors get carried away by the buzz and end up applying for all IPOs rather than doing a quality or valuation check. Nonetheless, the increasing appetite of retail investors has provided a major boost to the new-age tech IPOs.

Besides direct investments, retail investors are also increasing their investments in mutual funds, which has led to higher IPO subscriptions.

“In the past, a majority of IPOs would be subscribed by foreign investors. Today, it’s the domestic institutions that subscribe to a large part of the offerings. And behind the domestic institutions are the domestic retailer investors that are putting in money via SIPs into mutual funds,” said Bhargava.

Considering the factors mentioned above, it seems that 2024 will be the year of IPOs of new-age tech startups. It will be interesting to see if 2024 turns out to be another 2021 or even better in terms of startup IPOs.

The post 8 Startup IPO Predictions For 2024 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Tech giant Meta and the government’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) announced a partnership to enable and educate small businesses to build conversational buyer and seller experiences on WhatsApp.

While Meta will bring its ecosystem of business and technical solution providers to the table, ONDC will allow these solution providers to become seller apps, thus bringing the businesses they service onto the ONDC network and helping them drive commerce.

In a statement, the companies said they would digitally upskill 5 Lakh MSMEs over the next five years via the Meta Small Business Academy, which offers certifications to empower entrepreneurs and marketers to gain digital marketing skills to grow on the Meta apps.

Speaking on the partnership, T Koshy, MD and CEO of ONDC, said, “Our partnership with Meta will not only digitally upskill these businesses but will also enable them to connect with a customer base far and wide. We are confident that our collaborative efforts will pave the way for millions of small businesses by providing them with the right impetus for growth.”

As part of the partnership, Meta will also support Sahayak, ONDC’s WhatsApp chatbot, in enhancing the services offered on the bot as the single point of seller communication and customer communication for ONDC.

Sandhya Devanathan, VP of Meta in India, said, “Meta has been a frontrunner in partnering with the government and the industry to advance digital inclusion, especially for MSMEs across India. Our partnership with ONDC builds on supporting the government’s vision for Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and furthering our ongoing commitment to skilling small businesses and aiding this rapid digital transformation and growth story in the country.”

The development comes as ONDC has been partnering with multiple companies to enhance the services it offers to network partners. Last month, Ola Cabs was said to be in talks with ONDC to offer last-mile delivery services to sellers on the platform.

The government’s digital commerce network also recently launched the ONDC Official Guide App to help and support the user community like sellers, buyers, logistics providers and network participants. The app is available on Google Play Store with language support in English, Hindi and 10 other Indian languages.

Since its launch in September 2021, ONDC has come leaps and bounds ahead of where it was a year ago. As per a RedSeer report from earlier this month, the digital commerce network is poised to potentially generate $250-300 Bn in ecommerce GMV by 2030.

However, recent comments from Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh indicated that ONDC still had some kinks to iron out. Speaking at an event, Singh said it is important to address the liability issues to provide satisfactory services to the consumers.

“If I order through an app of a bank through Amazon and buy it from a seller located elsewhere and I get the wrong phone, then who is liable? So the issue of liability… I keep telling Mr T Koshy (ONDC CEO) that you have to address the issue of liability otherwise this thing is not going to work,” Singh said.

The post ONDC Teams Up With Meta To Bring Small Businesses On The Network appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Angel investment networking platform We Founder Circle’s (WFC) GIFT City Fund has raised $10 Mn (around INR 83 Cr) and onboarded more than 250 investors.

The GIFT City Fund, called  WFC Global Angels Fund, has a target corpus of $30 Mn, with a green shoe option of $30 Mn.

WFC Global Angels Fund, a cross-border fund based in Gujarat’s GIFT, is one of the two funds launched by the Mumbai-based angel network last year to back early-stage startups in India. 

WFC’s other fund is Invstt Trust, with a target corpus of INR 200 Cr (roughly $24 Mn) and a green shoe option of up to INR 200 Cr.

The sector-agnostic GIFT City fund has so far invested in six startups – Nintee, Zivy, Pixxel, Trading Leagues, Piersight, and Aistra Labs. 

The fund’s average cheque sizes range from $50,000-$1.5 Mn and aims to close at least up to 10 deals by the end of the current fiscal year.

The GIFT City fund leverages innovative financial structures and compliance strategies to facilitate fast and convenient cross-border investments, WFC said in a statement.

“We aim to complete onboarding of at least 300+ investors with a signed contribution of $15 Million+ by March 2024. In a relatively short span, we have forged partnerships with leading incubators, accelerators, and other startup funds,” said WFC’s cofounder Gaurav VK Singhvi. 

The strategy of being sector-agnostic in early-stage startups suggests a focus on diversification and a willingness to explore opportunities across various industries. This approach is aligned with the principle of spreading risk and capturing potential high-growth opportunities, the statement added.

Founded by Singhvi, Bhawna Bhatnagar, Deo Saurabh and Neeraj Tyagi in 2020, WFC has over 12,000 investor base with over 120 investments made since inception. The network counts companies like Stylework, Vidyakul, Settle, Blusmart Mobility, Microfinance.ai, etc as its portfolio. 

The development comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that new forms of capital and digital technology will play an important role in the development of GIFT City. 

For the past few years, most of the VC, PE or angel networking platforms have been floating funds to back early-stage startups, also paving the way for overseas investors for investment opportunities in India.

For instance, earlier this year, PE firm Airavat Capital also announced the launch of a global technology fund called Airavat Global Technology Fund R (AGTF R). The fund is aimed at offering Indian HNIs and investors the opportunity to leverage Indian technology ecosystem insight to capitalise on the growth potential of top listed technology companies worldwide, the statement added.

The post We Founder Circle’s GIFT City Fund Raises $10 Mn, Onboards 250+ Investors appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The investment landscape in the country is going through a shift never seen before, with more and more women founders and investors winning themselves a bigger share in the high-octane arena of the Indian startup space. 

Be it Swati Nangalia Mehra of Sixth Sense Ventures, who directly ventured into the world of investing, or the founders-turned-investors Ghazal Alagh and Vineeta Singh, many of these trailblazing women have made their mark in the homegrown startup ecosystem. This is notwithstanding other veterans such as Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Rekha Menon who have already set examples for many in the past. 

Many of these women investors bring years of experience to the table and have today emerged as role models for the country’s youth. However, things were not the same a few years ago, the founder of She Capital Anisha Singh told Inc42.

“It was hard explaining to people that women are successful as entrepreneurs. Now that we have given mega returns to our investors, they’re excited… and understand that women are great business persons,” she added. 

As sharp as a knife, these new-age women investors have their eyes on the stars and feet on the ground, and they are charging through with great perseverance. With numerous successful exits, Indian women investors are creating templates that will be followed by many in the years to come. 

However, more importantly, women founders and investors possess something really important when it comes to building an enterprise and the world of investing.

“They will call a spade a spade and tell you things exactly as they are and not how they can be,” opines the cofounder and CFO of B2B building material marketplace OfBusiness Ruchi Kalra on what makes women great investors. 

We, at Inc42, have collated some of the names that are making waves in the startup investment world. These are the names of the women that aim to build an equitable world of tomorrow and are leaving no stone unturned in their quest.

If you are a women investor or want to nominate a women investor in the startup ecosystem, nominate us at editor@inc42.com. This is a running list, and we would love to add more women who are changing the investing landscape in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Note: This is not an exhaustive list or ranking of any kind. We have placed investors in alphabetical order. 

Here Are The 41 Women Investors Spearheading The Startup Investment Game In India

The investment landscape in the country is going through a shift never seen before with more and more women founders and investors winning themselves a bigger share in the high-octane arena of the Indian startup space.

Be it Swati Nangalia Mehra of Sixth Sense Ventures, who directly ventured into the world of investing, or the founders-turned-investors Ghazal Alagh and Vineeta Singh, many of these trailblazing women have made their mark in the homegrown startup ecosystem. This is notwithstanding other veterans such as Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Rekha Menon who have already set examples for many in the past.

Many of these women investors bring years of experience to the table and have today emerged as role models for the country’s youth. However, things were not the same a few years ago, the founder of She Capital Anisha Singh told Inc42.

“It was hard explaining to people that women are successful as entrepreneurs. Now that we have given mega returns to our investors, they’re excited… and understand that women are great business persons,” she added.

As sharp as a knife, these new-age women investors have their eyes on the stars and feet on the ground, and they are charging through with great perseverance. With numerous successful exits, Indian women investors are creating templates that will be followed by many in the years to come.

However, more importantly, women founders and investors possess something really important when it comes to building an enterprise and the world of investing.

“They will call a spade a spade and tell you things exactly as they are and not how they can be,” opines the cofounder and CFO of B2B building material marketplace OfBusiness Ruchi Kalra on what makes women great investors.

We at Inc42, have collated some of the names that are making waves in the startup investment world. These are the names of the women who aim to build an equitable world of tomorrow and are leaving no stone unturned in their quest.

If you are a women investor or want to nominate a women investor in the startup ecosystem, nominate us at editor@inc42.com. This is a running list, and we would love to add more women who are changing the investing landscape in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Note: This is not an exhaustive list or ranking of any kind. We have placed investors in alphabetical order. 

Here Are The 41 Women Investors Spearheading The Startup Investment Game In India

1. Aarti Gupta

Aarti Gupta is the chief investment officer (CIO) of VC firm DBR Ventures. She heads the family office of DM Gupta and is the national head of the FICCI FLO Startup Cell.

In 2022 alone, she participated in investment deals for edtech startup SpeakIn and health tech startup Medyseva.

Earlier, she was a senior chairperson of the FICCI FLO Kanpur Chapter. She holds a PhD from IIT Kanpur and completed her postgraduation in economics from Northwestern University.

Aarti started her investment journey five years ago in 2017. So far, she has invested in four tech-driven startups operating in sectors such as health tech, edtech, foodtech and waste management.

Aarti believes in shoring up startup founders by helping them build their ventures and raise funds. Additionally, she is passionate about spreading financial literacy among professionals and homemakers.

2. Anisha Singh

Anisha Singh is the founder of women-focused VC firm She Capital. She founded the VC firm in 2020 to stimulate more women founders to enter India’s startup ecosystem. Some of the portfolio companies of the VC firm are Samosa Singh, Spark Studio, Elev8 Sportz, and Nova Nova.

Earlier, she founded ecommerce platform MyDala and also headed B2B startup Kinis Software as its CEO. She has also worked as a manager with Centra Software.

She is mostly seen talking about women’s empowerment and supporting women-focussed businesses and startups.

3. Alia Bhatt

Bollywood superstar Alia Bhatt has also donned the hat of an investor and has quite an interesting portfolio. One of her prominent investments was in beauty ecommerce marketplace Nykaa. Her investment grew more than 10X within months to INR 54 Cr when Nykaa got listed on the Indian bourses.

Bhatt’s portfolio also includes Mumbai-based personal styling platform Style Cracker and Kanpur-based biomaterial startup Phool.

Besides investing in other startups, Alia Bhatt has also set up her startup, Ed-a-Mamma, which operates in the kidswear category.

4. Anjali Bansal

Founder and chairperson of Avaana Capital Anjali Bansal has been actively investing in Indian startups. In 2022, Avaana funded four Indian startups — BambooBox, Gold Setu, and Groyyo, according to the Inc42 funding report.

In addition to the aforementioned startups, Anjali has invested in various startups – Delhivery, Urban Company, Darwinbox, and Nykaa, to name a few.

Currently, Bansal is a member of the ONDC steering committee. She is also on the board of various Indian companies such as Tata Power, Nestle India, and Piramal Enterprises. She has also worked with TPG Growth, Spencer Stuart, McKinsey, and Dena Bank

5. Anjali Sosale

Anjali Sosale, partner at Waterbridge Ventures, plays a pivotal role in shaping the success of early stage technology companies for the VC firm. With a special focus on consumer tech, ecommerce, and marketplaces, Sosale wants to enable the next wave of rural Indian internet users

She is an active investor in startups such as BigFatPhoenix, BimaKavach, BitClass, CBREX, Downtown Club, EloElo, and Yellow Metal. 

Waterbridge Ventures specialises in early-stage technology investments, providing $250K to $3 Mn to seed to Pre-Series A stage companies.

With a portfolio comprising 31 investments and collaborating with over 70 founders, Waterbridge takes a lead role in funding rounds and remains dedicated to supporting its portfolio companies throughout their growth journey, extending investments until Series C. 

6. Ankita Vashistha

Ankita Vashistha is the founder of Saha Fund and StrongHer Ventures, which backs female-led early-stage startups operating in the fintech, health tech, consumer tech, and Web 3.0 segments.

She is currently associated with multiple names such as MySpaces, Tholons Capital, NASSCOM,  Aureos Capital, and Abraaj Group. In her more than 10 years of professional journey, she has worked with tech ventures, private equity and VCs across the UK, the US, and Asia.

She is currently an active investor in Indian Angel Network. Her startup portfolio comprises startups such as Licious, Uniphore, Fitternity, LoveLocal, Zumata, and Insta Health.

She got her master’s degree from the Cranfield School of Management, Stanford University, and is an alumna of Ramaiah Institute of Technology.   

7. Archana Jahagirdar 

Archana Jahagirdar is the founder and managing partner of Rukam Capital, which invests in early-stage consumer products and services companies. 

Earlier, she headed companies like Textron, Angelworks and Espace Corporate and worked as a journalist with media organisations such as Business Standard, The Times of India, Zee News, Outlook, and India Today.

In the last few years, Archana has made more than 10 investments in startups like Yoho, Sleepy Owl Coffee, Anveya, Pilgrim, The Indus Valley, and GoDESi, among others. She completed her masters in English literature from St Stephen’s College.

8. Archana Priyadarshini

Archana Priyadarshini is a founder of Forward Slash Capital, which backs pre-seed to pre-Series A stage tech startups. In 2022, she invested in four startups – Broomees, CogniSaaS, Ekank Technologies, and Threado.

Over the years, she has participated in more than 25 startup deals, which include Metastable Materials, Exprto Live, and VAMA, to name a few.

At the moment, she is working as a general partner at PointOne Capital. She has also worked with companies such as Wells Fargo, Bootcamp Fitness Studio, IBM and CGEY. She has done her B.Tech in chemical engineering from IIT Kanpur

9. Bala C Deshpande

Bala C Deshpande is the founder partner of Megadelta Capital, which is an India-focussed mid-market growth fund. It typically invests $15 Mn to 25 Mn of growth equity in startups across sectors such as consumer, healthcare, and enterprise tech.

Megadelta Capital’s portfolio includes startups such as ecommerce unicorn Firstcry and health tech startup GOQII, among others.

Deshpande has nearly two decades of experience in investment advisory. She started her investing career with ICICI Venture in 2001. Later, she joined global VC firm NEA to set up their India platform where she headed the practice for ten years and helped NEA US in investing and backing startups in the mid-market space.

10. Bharati Jacob 

Bharati Jacob is the founder and managing partner of Seedfund, which invests in startups operating in diverse industries. She holds more than 24 years of experience in venture investing, marketing, and financial services.

Earlier, she worked with venture capital firm Infinity Venture Fund, investment bank Lazard, and aviation company Northwest Airlines.

An XLRI graduate, Jacob completed her MBA in marketing from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

11. Bhawna Bhatnagar 

Bhawna Bhatnagar is the cofounder of We Founder Circle (WFC), which invests in pre-seed to pre-series A-stage startups.

So far, she has invested in edtech OLL and F&B direct-to-consumer (D2C) startup Bored Beverages. Besides, she has also participated in six startup deals, including ParkMate, ParkMate, Quizy, and Commaful.

Prior to founding WFC, she worked with leading companies such as ByteDance, Cheetah Mobile and India Today.

After completing her bachelor’s in biochemistry from Delhi University in 2009, she went to the Indian Institute of Mass Communication and then earned her master’s degree in East Asian studies from Delhi University in 2014.

12. Debjani Ghosh 

Debjani Ghosh is currently the president of NASSCOM, an industry body representing the IT-BPM space. In her career of nearly three decades, she has worked with Intel Corporation and Yes Bank.

She has also been on Cisco’s India Advisory Board and served as an advisor to the FICCI S&T/Innovation Committee.

An MBA from S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Debjani completed her graduation in political science from Osmania University. 

13. Deepika Padukone 

With five startups in her portfolio, Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone has recently worn the investor’s hat. She began her entrepreneurial journey by founding 82°E in 2021.

82°E, which is led by Padukone and Jigar Shah, got $7.5 Mn funding from DSG Consumer Partners and IDEO Ventures, along with multiple ultra-HNIs and Padukone’s family office, Ka Enterprises.

Ka Enterprises mainly backs consumer and consumer-tech companies across the globe. Its portfolio companies include Epigamia, Furlenco, Blu Smart, Bellatrix, Playshifu, Atomberg, Front Row, Mokobara, Supertails, and Nua. 

14. Ghazal Alagh

Mamaearth’s cofounder Ghazal Alagh is an active angel investor. In 2022, she backed 14 startups, including Humpy Farms, unScript AI, and Wishlink. Her startup portfolio also comprises companies like BlissClub, HumpyFarm and Uvi Health.

Before founding Mamaearth, she set up a fitness platform dietexpert.in, which shuttered its operations in 2013.  She has a BCA degree from Panjab University and holds certifications in visual arts from New York Academy

15. Ishani Chanana

Ishani Channa, partner investments at Sarcha Advisors, plays a pivotal role in managing family office investments and shaping capital allocation strategies across a diverse spectrum of assets, encompassing equity, debt, and alternative investment opportunities, with a significant focus on startups.

With investments in over 50 startups, including notable names like BluSmart, Josh Talks, STAGE, TrulyMadly, Prescinto, and The New Shop, and active participation in 20+ follow-on rounds, Ishani has been instrumental in nurturing entrepreneurial talent and fostering innovation.

In addition to her role at Sarcha Advisors, Chanana is an angel investor and has stakes in startups like JumpingMinds, BatX Energies, Yatrikart, Newmi, and Jobsgaar.

Prior to her current role, Ishani spent nearly four years at a hedge fund within Edelweiss Financial Services, where she honed her skills in buy-side research. Her work involved in-depth analysis of Indian-listed companies across diverse sectors, making valuable contributions to investment decisions within the fund.

Chanana holds a master’s degree in finance from Warwick Business School. Her investment track record includes successful exits and the ability to attract substantial investments from renowned investors to her portfolio companies, underscoring the prudence of her investment choices

16. Kanika Mayar 

Kanika Mayar is a partner of Vertex Ventures, which infuses money in seed to Series B-stage startups operating in Southeast Asia and India. Vertex’s portfolio companies include Grab, Patsnap, 17Live, Nium, FirstCry, Licious, AsianParent, Validus, and Warung Pintar, among others.

So far, Kanika has participated in four startup deals – Chatty Bao, Proactive For Her, Onato and Karkhana.io. She has also worked with leading companies such as IFC, TechnoServe, Goldman Sachs, and Ernst & Young.

A graduate of economics from the prestigious Lady Shree Ram College, Kanika completed her MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.

If you are a women investor or want to nominate a women investor in the startup ecosystem, nominate us at editor@inc42.com. This is a running list (and not a definitive one), and we would love to add more names who are changing the investing landscape in the Indian startup ecosystem. 

17. Namita Thapar

Namita Thapar is the executive director of India Business for Emcure, a pharmaceutical company. Thapar rose to fame after she joined the TV Show ‘Shark Tank India’ as one of the sharks.

So far, Thapar has participated in 11 startup deals, including Medulance, Ubreathe, Snitch, JhaJi Store, and TagZ Foods, among others.

She recently invested in ePharmacy when the startup bagged an investment of INR 2 Cr from multiple investors on Shark Tank India.

A chartered accountant from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Namita holds an MBA degree from the Fuqua School of Business.   

18. Nandini Mansinghka

Nandini Mansinghka is the co-promoter and CEO at Mumbai Angels Network. She is also a founder investor at Digibooster, a content marketplace. Over the years, she has participated in more than 55 startup deals.

Founded in 2006, Mumbai Angels Network invests in early-stage startups in India. The network backs a slew of startups such as Adsparx, Adonmo, and BabyChakra, among others.

After her graduation (BCom) from the University of Calcutta, she completed her CFA from the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India

19. Nruthya Madappa 

Nruthya Madappa assumed the role of partner at the early-stage VC firm 3one4 Capital earlier this year, where her primary responsibility is to enhance and fortify the firm’s portfolio.

Her journey at the venture capital firm began in 2020 when she joined as a principal and took charge of growth and capital development.

Demonstrating exceptional leadership and strategic acumen, she swiftly progressed to the position of director for the growth and capital vertical in the subsequent year.

20. Padmaja Ruparel

Padmaja Ruparel is one of the cofounders of the Indian Angel Network. She is also recognised as a key player in the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem.

So far, she has participated in over 16 startup deals, which include names like Phool, Nivesh, Sirona Hygiene, goStops, and Dhruva Space, among others.

Last year, Indian Angel Network launched the IAN Alpha Fund, a SEBI-registered category II venture capital fund, worth INR 1,000 Cr.

So far, Indian Angel Network has invested in over 180 startups. Some of its portfolio companies are Zypp Electric, Crest, Huddle, Elctrifuel, Indium Finance, and Sirona Hyginene, among others.

Before starting her journey in the Indian startup ecosystem, Ruparel worked as the head of corporate communications at the UK-based Xansa.

21. Paula Mariwala

Paula Mariwala has been an early-stage investor for the past 15 years, and is a founding partner of Mumbai-based Aureolis Ventures, and the founder of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs India.

A Stanford alumna, Paula invests in early-stage startups and has been a key investor in Tapchief, Tread, Browntape, Thinklabs, RedBus, and Carwale, among others. In terms of sectors, she has been actively investing in segments like technology, sustainability, social impact, women empowerment, and education.

Paula is a member of the governing council of the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer, IIT Delhi. She is also on the board of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Stanford University.

22. Pearl Agarwal

Pearl Agarwal is a prolific angel investor, with investments in 16 startups across sectors such as web3, fintech, edtech, gaming, and SaaS. Some of her notable investments include InFeedo, BluSmart Mobility, GroMo, Trell, and Redwing Labs.

Pearl is also the founder and MD of Delhi-based VC firm Eximius Ventures, which has its investments in startups such as Eka.Care, Jar, iTribe, Fego, Zorro, KalaGato, Oyela, Flux, Stan, Fleek, and Skydo.

Before becoming a full-time investor, Pearl worked at Merril Lynch. Pearl has also worked in the private equity sector with names like UTIMCO and Global Infrastructure Partners.

She is also the cofounder of DotReview, a platform where first-time investors can learn about startup funding.

23. Pooja Mehta

Pooja Mehta is the chief investment officer (CIO) at JITO Angel Network (JAN), a platform which connects angel investors with startups. She has expertise in evaluating startups, managing angel investment deals, and administering investment operations.

In the last two years, she has participated in 30 startup deals – KloudMate, Nexus Power, and NewsReach India.

Under her leadership, the JAN network has grown to over 350 members, with an investment of INR 100 Cr in various startups. Pooja is also the CIO at the JITO Incubation & Innovation Foundation.

A seasoned management professional with an MBA degree in finance, Pooja’s skillset ranges from business development, market research, and management to building business strategies and financial analysis

24. Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra, in her capacity as the COO and managing partner at CIIE.CO, assumes a pivotal role in the startup ecosystem, particularly focussing on digitisation, deeptech, climate tech, and financial inclusion.

With a dedicated commitment to empowering women entrepreneurs, she takes the lead in spearheading accelerator and incubation programmes.

These initiatives are designed to enhance skills, promote technology adoption, establish a robust online presence, drive customer engagement, and facilitate strategic partnerships.

Chopra has significantly influenced over 1,200 startups through various CIIE.CO programmes. Notable startups under her guidance include Razorpay, which turned into a unicorn in 2020.

25. Raakhe Kapoor Tandon

Raakhe Kapoor Tandon runs a family office – The Three Sisters: Institutional Office – with two of her sisters, Radha and Roshini Rana Kapoor. Raakhe, Radha and Roshini are the daughters of Rana Kapoor, the founder and MD of Yes Bank.

Under the family office, Raakhe founded ART Capital (India), an investment vehicle. The Three Sisters also has its investments in Delhi-based Awfis Space Solution, a real estate tech startup.

A Wharton alumna, Raakhe has founded two more ventures under ART Capital – ART Housing Finance (India) and Rural Agri Ventures India.

While ART Housing Finance provides long-term mortgage finance to retail customers, Rural Agri Ventures is an incubation/project development firm focussed on agritech startups. 

26. Rema Subramanian

Rema Subramanian is the co-founder and managing partner at Ankur Capital Fund, which backs early-stage startups in the agritech, fintech, health tech, and edtech segments.

She is currently working as an advisor consultant at DY Works. Earlier, she has worked with various Indian companies such as Dasra, ADTS, Element K India, Zee Interactive Learning, Ion Exchange, Datamatics and JK (Raymonds).

So far, Rema has participated in more than four startup investment deals. These names include SportVot, Josh Talks, MyCaptain, and Banyan Environmental Innovations.

A cost accountant from ICFAI, Rema has worked across education and IT/ITES, taking young companies from scratch to midsize ventures.

27. Ritu Verma

Ritu Verma, the cofounder of Ankur Capital, has backed several startups over the years. Some of the companies in her portfolio include names like CropIn, ERC, HealthSutra, Big Haat, Niramai, Tessol, Suma Agro, and Karma Healthcare.

In 2022, Verma took part in more than 13 startup investment deals, including D-Nome, IBISA, Vegrow, Wasabi, and Offgrid Energy Labs, among others.

At present, she is acting as a board observer in various Indian companies such as BigHaat India, String Bio, AgricxLab and Niramai. She is also on the board of Tessol, Health Sutra and CropIn.

Earlier, she worked with Truven, Philips and Unilever. She has a PhD in physics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from INSEAD.

 28. Ruchi Kalra 

Ruchi Kalra helms the financial affairs at one of the few profitable new-age tech startups in the country. The CFO of B2B building material marketplace OfBusiness also helped found the startup back in 2016 and has not looked back since then.
An alumna of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Kalra studied chemical engineering and then went on to work at Evalueserve for a couple of years. Afterwards, Kalra enrolled at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and completed her MBA.

Immediately after that, Kalra landed a job at McKinsey & Company and was entrusted with overseeing the insurance and retail banking sector. After nine years working at the consulting firm, Kalra took the plunge into the world of entrepreneurship and helped found OfBusiness.

Not stopping there, she has helped scale the business to new heights while she has also continued investing in multiple other businesses as an angel investor. She has so far invested in as many as 10 startups, as an angel, including seafood marketplace Captain Fresh, tyre marketplace TyrePlex, women-led lifestyle brand FableStreet, and B2B pharmacy marketplace Saveo, among others.

29. Seema Chaturvedi

Seema Chaturvedi, the Founder and Managing Partner of Achieving Women Equity (AWE) Funds, boasts an impressive 25-year track record in capital markets and financial management. Her primary mission is to drive gender equity in entrepreneurship.

A staunch advocate for entrepreneurship with a specific focus on women’s empowerment, Chaturvedi aims to empower 30 Mn women in India by 2030 through AWE Funds.

She also chairs TiE Global’s prominent initiative, the Project All India Roadshow for Women’s Economic Empowerment through Entrepreneurship (AIRSWEEE), securing funding from the US Department of State for six consecutive rounds.

Earlier this year, AWE Funds announced the first close of its maiden fund in India – the Achieving Women Entrepreneurs Early Growth Fund I – at $15 Mn. While promoting gender equity and climate action as a strategy, the fund aims to invest in scalable innovations in sectors such as climate tech, agritech, health tech, edtech and fintech.

30. Shagun Tiwary

Shagun Tiwary is a senior principal at Verlinvest, a Belgium-based investment firm. She is equipped with 12 years of work experience and has invested in companies across consumer and healthcare services such as Dr Lal PathLabs, Indira IVF, Epigamia, and Veeba.

Prior to joining Verlinvest, she worked at TA Associates and Nomura in Mumbai, where she focussed on growth equity investment and capital market transactions. She holds a master’s degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.

Verlinvest is largely involved in late stage venture capital funding and mid-market private equity. Typically, the firm invests between $20 Mn and $200 Mn in startups, depending on the stage they are in.

31. Shanti Mohan 

Shanti Mohan is the founder of LetsVenture, a Bengaluru-based investor network that allows angels and HNIs to invest in startups. She has also founded trica, a platform that allows people to invest in startups and private equity.

In the last few years, she participated in more than 10 startup deals, which include Minko, Simply Services, Bimaplan, and Aulerth.

With LetsVenture, Shanti has invested in startups such as Absolute Foods, Agnikul, BharatX, CityMall, Dukaan, Trell, Yulu, Blusmart, and The ePlane Company, among others. Her personal portfolio comprises Siply, Minko, and Bimaplan.

Shanti is an active angel investor and part of the SEBI advisory AIF committee. She is also active with the RBI Council on startup funding. Further, Shanti is part of the startup committees of several states in India.

32. Shrishti Sahu

The founder of Hustle Hard Ventures, Shrishti Sahu, has been actively supporting Indian startups and has so far backed 30 startups, including Plum, Kutumb, Rupifi, Chingari, 10Club, Leap Club, Eeki Foods, GrowthSchool, Accacia, Descrypt, and Gold Setu, among others.

Sahu shared that she writes off cheques between INR 3 Lakh and INR 25 Lakh for homegrown startups.

Currently, she is a managing partner and angel investor at Swadharma Source Ventures. She has also worked with multiple companies like Emoha Eldercare, Facebook, Lumis Partners, Aqaya Source Foundation, and Aqaya. She completed her graduation from the University of Warwick.

33. Shruthi Cauvery Iyer

Caha Capital founder Shruthi Iyer is an active angel investor, who is overseeing two early-stage startups’ expansion strategies. She administers Wharton Alumni Angels (South Asia) and HBS Alumni Angels.

Earlier, she worked with international companies such as Agate Medical Investment LP, PT Perintius,  International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Eastern Energy Resources. She is one of the cofounders of the ecommerce startup Blend8.

She did her MBA from the Wharton School and completed her B.Tech from Visveswaraya Technological University, Karnataka.  

34. Sowmya Suryanarayanan

Sowmya heads the impact and ESG functions at Aavishkaar Capital – an impact fund manager that invests in impact enterprises across India, South and South East Asia and East Africa. She is responsible for delivering significant impact, gender and ESG value across Aavishkaar’s various impact funds and portfolio companies.

At Aavishkaar, Sowmya has helped invest in sectors such as agritech, financial inclusion, and essential services. Some of the portfolio companies of Aavishkaar Capital include Nalanda Learning Systems, GoBolt, Milk Mantra, and Seven Ocean, among others.

35. Surabhi Washishth

Surabhi Washishth, the founding partner of Paradigm Shift Capital, has been actively supporting the Indian startup ecosystem.

So far, she has investments in 20 startups, including Ixana, Zeda, Landeed, Praan, 10XAR, Samudai and Arcana Network. In her personal capacity, she writes cheques between $250K and $300K for startups.

At present, she is acting as a ‘Global Shaper’ with the World Economic Forum. She has also worked with multiple companies such as WeWork India, Headout, Target, AOL, and ING Life, among others. She has a B.Com degree from Christ University, Bengaluru. 

36. Swapna Gupta 

A prolific investor, Swapna Gupta is currently a partner at Avaana Capital, a climate-focused VC firm. Before joining Avaana Capital, Swapna spent more than seven years at Qualcomm Ventures, where she led India investments.

She is an investor and board observer in multiple Indian startups, including Locus, Shadowfax, Ninjacart, Zuddl, FabHotels, MoveInSync, Reverie, Stellapps, and attune, among others.

Swapna also launched Qualcomm Women Entrepreneurs India Network (Qwein), a networking, learning, and mentoring programme for deeptech, and early-stage female entrepreneurs in India.

Swapna has recently been recognised by GCV among the Top 50 emerging leaders in the corporate venture community. Surprisingly, she is the only Indian on the list. She is also part of the prestigious Global Kauffman fellows programme.

37. Swati Nangalia Mehra 

Swati Mehra’s tryst with investments began long ago. One of her first jobs was to oversee investment research in the consumer space. The job came in handy when she decided to take the plunge into the world of investing. 

In 2014, she helped cofound Sixth Sense Ventures, the country’s first domestic and consumer-focussed venture fund. Since then, the firm has invested in a host of new and emerging D2C brands that have created a niche for themselves.

Nangalia Mehra has helmed the venture fund, which has invested in a slew of emerging brands, including homegrown beer brand Bira91, men’s grooming and personal care brand Bombay Shaving Company, and gaming and entertainment platform Smaaash. She also has stakes in CarterX, Pariksha, and ProcMart. 

38. Tarana Lalwani

Tarana Lalwani is a founding partner of InnoVen Triple Blue Capital, which has backed multiple startups such as Zetwerk, Chaayos, Ather, slice, and Bounce.

As an angel investor, Lalwani bets on startups working in the consumer, consumertech, health tech, fintech, and SaaS sectors. She also holds expertise in pre-seed to Series D funding rounds via equity and debt instruments.

Presently, she is an advisor at Aureolis Ventures and a senior director at InnoVen Capital India. Earlier, she worked with companies like Anand Rathi Securities, Kae Capital, SeedFund, Edvance Learning, Webaroo, Radian Group, and Morgan Stanley.

She is also on the advisory board of Oscar Foundation and CII. Not only this, Tarana is currently part of the venture capital and private equity committee of IMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India).

She holds an MBA degree from Columbia Business School and a bachelor’s degree from La Salle University. 

39. Vani Kola 

Vani Kola is the founder and managing director of the early-stage VC firm Kalaari Capital. She has led over 30 investments at Kalaari. Some of the prominent names include Dream11, Myntra, Cure.fit, and Snapdeal.

Vani is currently on the board of CXXO. She has also worked with Certus Software and RightWorks. She likes mentoring first-time entrepreneurs and ushering them into becoming seasoned business leaders. So far, she has participated in over 63 startup deals. Some of these names include Climbes, Bombay Play, Zocket, StanPlus and Zluri, among others.

After graduating from Osmania University, she completed her master’s degree from Arizona State University.

40. Varsha Tagare

Varsha Tagare is the managing director at Qualcomm Ventures where she manages a $150 Mn fund dedicated to India and cross-border digital enterprise investments.

Prior to joining Qualcomm Ventures, Tagare served as an investment director at Intel Capital, responsible for global equity investments in mobile technology.

At Qualcomm Ventures, she has led and managed investments in Capillary Technologies, Ideaforge, MapMyIndia, among others. 

41. Vineeta Singh

Widely popular for being featured on Shark Tank India, Vineeta Singh is the CEO and cofounder of beauty and personal care brand SUGAR Cosmetics. Singh is an alumna of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Singh is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of FAB BAG, a beauty and grooming subscription startup. Since appearing on Shark Tank India, Singh has shot to fame and has invested in a slew of Indian startups featured on the show.

As an angel investor, Vineeta Singh has participated in multiple fundraisers. Some of her bets include Padcare Labs, JhaJi Store, Snitch, and Josh Talks, among others.

Note: The information has been collected from available public resources and websites.

If you are a women investor or want to nominate a women investor in the startup ecosystem, nominate us at editor@inc42.com. This is a running list (and not a definitive one), and we would love to add more names who are changing the investing landscape in the Indian startup ecosystem. 

Last updated on December 19, 2023 | The list has been updated to include three more women investors. 

The post Meet The 41 Women Torchbearers Of India’s Startup Investment Space appeared first on Inc42 Media.

OTT communication apps breathed a sigh of relief as the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Monday (December 18) tabled the much-awaited Telecommunications Bill, 2023 in Parliament. 

Introduced in Lok Sabha as a finance bill, meaning no compulsion for approval by Rajya Sabha, the bill seeks to replace the decades-old and archaic Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933, and the Telegraph Wires (Unlawful Possession).

The proposed legislation elucidated a new definition for the word ‘telecommunication’ while retaining powers for the sector regulator TRAI. 

“…telecommunication means transmission, emission or reception of any messages, by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems, whether or not such messages have been subjected to rearrangement, computation or other processes by any means in the course of their transmission, emission or reception,” read the new definition.

The biggest takeaway of the bill was that the Centre kept over-the-top (OTT) communication apps outside the ambit of the new bill and skipped the mention of such platforms altogether. 

The move brought a major relief for OTT communication apps as previous drafts of the Bill extended the scope of the definition of telecommunications services beyond telcos to OTT communication apps such as Meta-owned WhatsApp, Signal, Skype, Telegram and others. 

On the other hand, the move deals a major blow to telecom operators, who, previously, actively batted to bring such apps under the regulatory ambit. Telecom operators had also pitched the TRAI to direct platforms, consuming higher bandwidth, to foot network costs to level the playing field between the two. 

With this development, the Centre has effectively ruled in favour of Indian startups that made a beeline for the government warning against any such proposal citing violation of net neutrality rules. The move also quells fears of Indian startups about additional compliance mandates, adverse regulations, onslaught of telcos and interception of messages by authorities. 

The new draft also skips the mention of specialised communication services such as machine-to-machine communication, in-flight and maritime connectivity, which were present in the previous iteration. 

The Finer Print

The bill also proposes mandatory biometric identification of customers by telecom companies before issuing SIM cards. Alongside, experts have flagged a provision in the new draft, which mandates seeking authorisation for establishing, operating, maintaining or expanding telecommunication networks and for even possessing radio equipment.

Medianama’s Nikhil Pahwa opined that this provision could be used for mandating permission to offer online services. 

“Online services will require authorisation: Check last tweet (on messaging), & apply auth clause… to email, cloud, streaming, SaaS…anything. You’ll need Indian govts permission to start your biz. Meet @DoT_India’s Telecom Bill red tape,” said Pahwa. 

The Telecommunication Bill, 2023 also grants the Centre the power to intercept ‘any message or class of messages’ in the interest of public safety and during public emergencies. This has not gone down well with critics who have said that the same rule could be extended to online services and could lead to a surveillance state. 

Pahwa also raised concerns over the bill that also gives the Centre the power to take over the ‘control and management’ or suspend the operation of any ‘telecommunication services, or any telecommunication network or part thereof, connected with such telecommunication services’ in the national interest. 

However, the new bill recognises satellite communication, which sets the stage for the allocation of satellite spectrum to private players through administrative processes. Simply put, this charts out a licensing regime for the satcom licence applicants rather than assignment through an auction process. 

The new draft also renames the Universal Service Obligation Fund as ‘Digital Bharat Nidhi’ and allows the use of the fund for research and development.

“The Central Government may by rules provide for measures for protection of users…  including measures such as: (a) the prior consent of users for receiving certain specified messages…; (b) the preparation and maintenance of one or more registers, to be called as “Do Not Disturb” register, to ensure that users do not receive specified messages or class of specified messages without prior consent; or (c) the mechanism to enable users to report any malware or specified messages received in contravention of this section,” the new draft added. 

Mixed Response To Telecom Bill

Meanwhile, the industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) termed the bill ‘progressive’ and lauded the provisions for administrative assignment of spectrum for Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellites (GMPCS).

“IAMAI hails the Bill as progressive especially since internet companies have been decisively kept out of the ambit of the final version of the Bill… The time-tested distinction between telecom spectrum controlling entities (which are regulated) and spectrum using companies should be maintained as it has been the basis that has allowed innovation and deeper penetration of the internet in India,” the industry body said. 

IAMAI represents more than 600 Indian digital startups and global big tech giants such as Google, Meta, Paytm, Infibeam Avenues, and PhonePe, among others. 

Chiming in, telecom body COAI’s director general Lt. Gen. Dr SP Kochhar also welcomed the new bill and termed provisions of the draft ‘progressive’ and enabler of ease of doing business.

Meanwhile, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) slammed the bill and cited new and ‘some same old, glaring’ concerns. Flagging the definition of telecom services as ambiguous, the IFF said that the terminology was much shorter and did not amply make clear that internet services such as messaging would not come under its ambit.

“We stand against the introduction of the 2023 Telecom Bill in the Parliament, which continues the pattern of excessive centralisation & control with the xecutive. We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again, this bill needs to go… And be replaced with a rights-centric version,” the IFF added. 

With reactions expected to trickle in from more quarters, it remains to be seen whether further changes will be made in the new draft. That said, Indian startups and big tech giants appear to have avoided a major pitfall even as Indian startups continue to tread on the regulatory tightrope. 

The post Centre Tables Telecommunication Bill, 2023: IAMAI Lauds The Move While Others Spew Fire appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Hyderabad Auto and Taxi Drivers Association has launched a ride-hailing app, Yaary, which is built on the Open Network for Digital Commerce’s (ONDC) protocols, to take on the likes of Ola and Uber. 

The association has already onboarded more than 20,000 auto and taxi drivers on Yaary and aims to launch similar mobility apps across other cities through collaboration with other city associations of drivers, Moneycontrol reported Yarry as saying in a statement.

Similar to Bengaluru’s Namma Yatri, ONDC-backed Yaary also promises to not levy any commission for drivers on its platform, the publication reported.

“It (Yaary) has been developed with the core belief that the drivers who power the ride-hailing ecosystem deserve the utmost respect, support, and fair compensation. The platform is designed to prioritise the welfare of drivers, ultimately providing top-tier experience & reliability to passengers,” Yaary cofounder and CEO Hari Prasadh was cited as saying. 

Founded by Prasadh, Madhan Balasubramanian and Paritosh Verma, Yaary has been developed to the standards specified by ONDC. 

ONDC CEO and MD T Koshy said that Yaary will be  a highly cost-effective and rewarding service for both service providers and customers in Hyderabad. 

The development comes months after ONDC was reported to be preparing for the full launch of its cab-hailing pilot programme in Kolkata, in partnership with the West Bengal government’s Yatri Sathi app, as it has received a good response.

Prior to that, the network onboarded the Bengaluru-based auto-rickshaw booking app Namma Yatri. However, Bengaluru’s Auto Rickshaw Drivers Union has now reportedly severed its ties with Namma Yatri.

The development comes at a time when the ride-hailing space in the country is seeing increasing competition. Recently, bike and auto hailing app Rapido launched a cab booking service to take on Ola and Uber. 

However, there is also a lot of dissatisfaction among drivers over the high commissions charged by the app aggregators. On the other hand, riders often face issues of cancellations by drivers. This has resulted in multiple unions of drivers and state governments launching or planning to launch new apps.

Last week, Karnataka transport minister Ramalinga Reddy said the state government plans to launch a ride-hailing app to take on Ola and Uber.

The post Hyderabad Auto & Taxi Drivers Association Launches Ride-Hailing App Yarry On ONDC Protocol appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After a troublesome 2022, when the Meta stock hit a low of $90, the company has bounced back strongly, surging as much as 271% on the US stock exchange this year, as of December 15. 

While the tech giant saw a revival on the back of stronger-than-expected financial results for the company’s second quarter of 2023, the exceptional performance of the company was anchored in various tailwinds, including a suitable growth environment in the home country, improving market sentiment, and aggressive cost-cutting, just to count a few.

However, in stark contrast, the company’s India stay was not very comfortable during the year, as it had its fair share of fires to douse on the regulatory front. 

While regulatory bottlenecks were one of the recurring peeves for Meta’s operations in the country, the social media major was time and again cornered by Indian courts and law enforcement agencies for failing to keep a check on notorious elements, such as deepfakes and misinformation, doing rounds on the platform.

During the year, Indian authorities also unearthed an alleged INR 10,000 tax fraud involving Facebook sellers. Meanwhile, weak global cues forced Meta to cut corners, resulting in an undisclosed number of mass layoffs at its India office. 

Amid all this, the company also grabbed headlines after some of its shareholders mounted an offensive for its alleged bias in India operations. 

Notwithstanding the challenges, 2023 also turned out to be the year during which Meta kicked into motion a full-scale monetisation plan with Meta verified and a slew of offerings for merchants. The Indian arm continued to rake in hefty revenues while the ad business saw considerable growth in the country. 

However, despite gaining a huge response at the outset, its much-touted new launch ‘Threads’ turned out to be a dud. For the uninitiated, Threads is Meta’s answer to X and is focussed on textual conversations, rather than visual media. 

As we approach the end of 2023, let’s steal a glance at the journey of the social media juggernaut in India this year.

Meta’s Sabre-Rattling With The Govt Continued In 2023

The Mark Zuckerberg-led company found itself roiling in a bevy of regulatory challenges throughout the year. As the Centre undertook a flurry of reforms in the form of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act and the new IT Rules, Meta found itself burdened with additional compliance requirements and mandates.

The adverse regulations also made the company liable for hefty fines and opened Meta to potential lawsuits if users’ grievances went unresolved. With little wriggle room under the new laws, the fear of losing safe harbour protections sent alarm bells ringing for the social media behemoth. 

“While the exact impact of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act is yet to be seen, there might be some implications on the storage and transfer of data of Indian subjects.  This might have more of an implication for Meta as their tech implementation might have to significantly change,” identity verification platform IDfy’s chief executive officer (CEO) Ashok Hariharan told Inc42.

What also proved to be a major headache for the company were the large number of content take-down requests by the Indian government. The country emerged as the second biggest source of government requests to Meta in the first half of 2023, second only to the US. 

Between January and June 2023, Indian authorities issued 70,612 requests, of which 63,586 were legal process requests while the remaining were ‘emergency disclosure requests’. 

Curiously, Meta’s worst hit arm in India appeared to be WhatsApp, which found itself at the centre of many regulations. A Competition Commission of India (CCI ) probe into WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy case continued to be in limbo. 

As if these issues were not enough, generative AI became a cause of concern for Meta. The deepfake controversy, involving actor Rashmika Mandanna, saw Facebook at the centre of enforcement action as authorities issued notices to the company to act on synthetic content and reveal information about the origins of the post. 

A Long List Of Troubles For Meta India

Amid a tussle with government authorities, Meta also found itself in the middle of other controversies that grabbed negative headlines throughout the year. 

A case in point is the consultation paper floated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which explored the idea of bringing OTT communication apps under the regulatory ambit and selective banning of such apps. 

The aftermath triggered a full-blown war with telcos and startups as telecom operators pitched for a revenue-sharing framework with OTT platforms based on network traffic as a parameter. The proposed move directly strikes at the heart of Meta as it consumes a major chunk of telecom bandwidth domestically. 

Making matters worse was the surge in pesky job calls to WhatsApp’s India users from international mobile numbers. The controversy made the government crack its whip on Meta yet again. Subsequently, 66,000 WhatsApp accounts and 8 Lakh payment wallets were deactivated.

WhatsApp also continued to face outages in the country. Meanwhile, one of the major issues that shook Meta in India came from an unlikely place – its own shareholders. Some of the company’s stakeholders moved a proposal to probe alleged biases in Meta’s India operations and sought an assessment of the same. 

While the proposal was eventually vetoed, this added a new dimension to the already reported allegations that Meta favoured the ruling party. 

Meta’s Sob Story Of Leadership Exodus & Layoffs 

One of the biggest issues that gripped Meta India during the year was layoffs, as the company reportedly fired 400-450 employees in the country.

Even senior executives were not spared by the company as part of its restructuring drive. The company’s director of marketing, Avinash Pant, and director and head of media partnerships, Saket Jha Saurabh, were unceremoniously shown the exits as part of the exercise.

Curiously, just before the layoffs commenced, director and head of partnerships, Manish Chopra, put in his papers.

Meta Ramps Up India Push

Amid all these, the company undertook a slew of new launches in the country as it began to vociferously monetise its offerings. Following the footsteps of its peer X (formerly Twitter), Meta began rolling out its ‘Meta Verified’ service in India in June 2023 to build alternative revenue streams in the country.

It also announced a slew of business-focussed features on WhatsApp to tap into the B2B ecosystem.

On the financial front, Meta India continued to witness healthy growth, although the economic downturn slowed down the momentum. The Indian arm of social media major, Facebook India Online Services, recorded a net profit of INR 352 Cr in FY23, up 19% year-on-year (YoY), against gross advertisement revenue of INR 18,308 Cr, up 13% YoY.

To fuel its operations and build goodwill with the Centre, the company also announced several partnerships and accelerator initiatives with the government to mentor Indian startups, especially in emerging areas such as mixed and extended reality.

Meta In 2024: Gazing Into The Crystal Ball

With more digital laws expected to be promulgated in India in 2024, the company could be headed down a rough road as it looks to balance growth with regulations.

“If GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) repercussions are anything to go by, India and Indian laws might have similar implications for Meta.  A case in point being the DPDP Act which, just like GDPR, has a requirement on the use of data from minors. Given that there are roughly 500 Mn Indians below the age of 18, it opens up a lot of exposure for Meta if they’re not compliant with the new law,” added IDfy’s Ashok Hariharan.

Meanwhile, emerging challenges such as GenAI could put a spanner in the works for the company even as compliance demands surge from authorities.

Notwithstanding this, India continues to be one of the biggest markets for Meta globally, accounting for more than 1 Bn users across three apps — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. 

Walking on a regulatory tightrope in India, Meta’s India journey so far this year has been both bitter and sweet. Now, with global headwinds expected to ease and consumption likely to surge next year, Meta could put its Indian ambitions in full throttle in 2024. 

The post On A Regulatory Tightrope: Here Is How Meta India’s Odyssey Unfolded In 2023 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

As we edge closer to 2024, Indian startups are navigating through a transformational era marked by a global funding slowdown. The path to success isn’t about riding the wave — it’s about creating your own.

With a firm gaze on the horizon, here’s a pragmatic strategy for Indian entrepreneurs aiming to chart a course to triumph in the coming year.

Embrace Pragmatic Innovation

Innovation is the cornerstone of a startup’s ethos, but in 2024, it’s imperative that this innovation is pragmatic. Innovate with purpose and clarity to address genuine market gaps.

Startups that tailor their innovation to solve concrete problems will stand out to investors and build a dedicated user base.

Strategise For Sustainability

In an era of cautious capital, the startups that demonstrate sustainable growth and prudent financial stewardship will attract the right kind of attention.

Plan with an eye on long-term viability — profitability isn’t just an objective; it’s a necessity for securing investment and ensuring survival.

Data-Driven Decisions

With market volatility, data remains the most reliable source of truth. Let 2024 be the year where every strategic move is backed by solid data — focusing on metrics that directly correlate with your business health and customer satisfaction.

Lean Operations, Maximum Impact

Lean is in. Efficient, nimble operations that maximise output while minimising waste will be the gold standard in 2024.

Embrace technologies and methodologies that enhance productivity and ensure that every resource is optimised.

Foster a Resilient Culture

Culture will dictate resilience. Invest in building a team that’s flexible, innovative, and deeply connected to your startup’s mission.

A resilient culture attracts talent, fosters innovation, and sustains you through economic headwinds.

Your 2024 Roadmap: A 5-Point Checklist

• Define Your Value Proposition: Sharpen the articulation of what sets your startup apart. Your value proposition should resonate with your audience and clearly communicate the unique benefits of your product or service.
• Prioritise Profitable Growth: Craft a business model that balances growth with profitability. This should involve optimising your cost structure and focusing on revenue streams that promise long-term returns.
• Cultivate Data-Driven Culture: Foster a culture where decisions are made on insights derived from data, not intuition. Ensure that your team understands and utilises data to drive the startup forward.
• Adapt to Market Dynamics: Stay agile and be prepared to pivot strategies as market conditions change. Adaptability will be crucial in responding to new opportunities and challenges.
• Invest in Talent: Align your hiring strategy with your growth ambitions. Look for individuals who are not just skilled but also adaptable and capable of thriving in a dynamic startup environment.

In Conclusion

The upcoming year presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities for Indian startups. The startups that will rise to the top in 2024 will be those that have ingrained a culture of innovation, strategic sustainability, and operational agility into their DNA. 

The future belongs to those who can navigate the complexities of the market with a flexible, data-driven approach, delivering value that resonates with customers and sustains the business through every cycle.

The post Unlocking Startup Success In 2024: Strategies, Statistics, And Plannings appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Indian new-age tech stocks witnessed a revival this week, helped by the bull run in the broader market.

Thirteen out of the 19 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage gained in a range of 1% to 15% this week. Tracxn Technologies emerged as the biggest gainer, with its shares rising 14.8% during the week.

Yudiz, Yatra, Nazara Technologies, RateGain, Zaggle, and Zomato were among the other stocks which witnessed a northbound movement. Meanwhile, RateGain has now almost touched $1 Bn in market capitalisation following this week’s surge of almost 7%.

On the other hand, Paytm continued its slump, falling over 7% this week. Delhivery also declined a little over 7%, while PB Fintech and Fino Payments Bank fell over 3% each this week.

ideaForge and MapmyIndia declined 0.6% and 1.3%, respectively.

In the broader market, benchmark indices Sensex gained 2.4% to end the week at 71,483.75 while Nifty50 rose 2.3% to 21,456.65.

Prashanth Tapse, senior VP (research) at Mehta Equities, said, “There is a lot of enthusiasm amongst the investors, especially foreign investors, who are pumping in funds into domestic equities over the past few weeks post the state election results. Political stability and hopes of continuation of reforms going ahead, coupled with the US Fed’s dovish stance on rates, falling bond yields and sliding crude oil prices, has improved the sentiment.” 

However, Tapse believes that the benchmark indices could consolidate in the near term as they are in the overbought zone on the technical charts. 

Dr. Joseph Thomas, head of research at Emkay Wealth Management, also said that some consolidation around the current levels is expected in the near term. 

Now, let’s take a look at the performance of some of the major new-age tech stocks this week.

The total market capitalisation of the 19 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage stood at $38.48 Bn at the end of this week as against $38.35 Bn last week.

SoftBank Dumps PB Fintech Shares

After selling stakes in Zomato last week and Delhivery last month, SoftBank offloaded a significant portion of its remaining stake in the fintech major PB Fintech.

SoftBank’s SVF Python II (Cayman) Limited offloaded 2.53% of its stake, involving 1.14 Cr shares, in PB Fintech in multiple block deals worth a cumulative INR 913.7 Cr.

While many institutional investors, including Societe Generale, HDFC Mutual Fund, Goldman Sachs (Singapore) Pte, and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited, lapped up the offloaded shares, shares of PB Fintech fell 2.3% on Friday to end the session at INR 789.45 on the BSE.

Meanwhile, the company on Thursday informed the exchanges that Income Tax (IT) officials ‘visited’ the offices of its subsidiary Paisabazaar earlier this week. PB Fintech noted that the business operations of Paisabazaar continue as usual and have not been impacted due to the survey proceedings.

Overall, PB Fintech fell 3.6% this week.

Largely helped by its improving bottom line, shares of the Policybazaar and Paisabazaar parent have gained over 22% in the last six months.

Paytm Continues To Fall

Paytm’s decision to scale down its loan disbursement business, largely affecting the BNPL or postpaid loan vertical, continues to weigh heavily on the fintech giant’s market performance.

After slumping a massive 25% last week, the stock fell almost 7.1% this week. 

Shares of Paytm ended the week at INR 605.85 on the BSE. The stock had last touched the INR 600 level or below towards the end of March this year. 

On the back of its improving outlook and bottom line, Paytm shares had gained a massive 86% this year till October. However, they are now trading only 14% higher year to date following the recent slide.

Rupak De, senior technical analyst at LKP Securities, said that Paytm seems to have reached its support level at INR 590. 

“Now, if Paytm holds above INR 590, then there is a possibility of some recovery towards INR 650-INR 700,” he said, adding that the stock might fall towards INR 500 if it slips below the support level.

Delhivery Trading At A Six-Month Low

Shares of the logistics unicorn started witnessing a significant slump in early October, days after it announced the allotment of some ESOPs. Since then, the stock has been on a downtrend. 

The company’s Q2 FY24 financial results also failed to add any major boost to the falling share prices. SoftBank selling its 1.83 Cr shares in November further added to the woes.

After a little over 7% fall this week, Delhivery shares have touched their lowest level since June 9. The stock ended the week at INR 357.6 on the BSE. In September, shares of Delhivery were trading around INR 440.

LKP Securities’ De said that Delhivery looks very weak on technical charts. It has support at INR 345 and a reversal is only possible above INR 376, he said.

The post Broader Market Bull Run Lifts Up New-Age Tech Stocks This Week, RateGain Nears $1 Bn M-Cap appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After the funding peak of 2021, when valuations of dozens of startups skyrocketed far away from their actual revenue, it seemed that a profitable startup was rarer than a unicorn.

But the sobering reality of the past two years has given unicorns and soonicorns of India a lot to think about. And primarily, their thoughts turned to one big question: How do we get to profitability?

Several startups have managed to answer this question in FY23 and even the likes of Zomato have turned the course around. What explains this new phase for Indian startups and tech giants?

We’ll look to get the answer about the profitable startup brigade in India, but after a brief detour into these top stories from this past week:

• Omidyar Hits The Eject Button: Omidyar Network, one of the oldest active VC firms in India, is exiting the market. Did the firm’s legal problems with regulators force its hand?
• Groww’s Super App Year: Groww thinks like a D2C company and looks at problems from a consumer-first perspective, says cofounder Harsh Jain as he gives us a peek into how the fintech giant is looking beyond investment tech
• Decoding CRED’s 2023: This was a big year for CRED — embracing the platform life with multiple new and revamped products, and proving that financially too, it is on the right track with its FY23 numbers

Startups Don The Profitability Hat

When we last looked at the financial state of Indian unicorns in March this year, as many as 55 out of 74 Indian unicorns who had released their FY22 numbers were in losses. Their combined loss of $5.9 Bn in FY22 was almost double their cumulative loss in FY21.

While losses are not new in any way, the fact that investor sentiment was turning sour meant that startups had to focus on generating cash from their business rather than relying on VC funding to expand and grow. In other words, VC money was used to widen the top of the funnel, but when the tap is turned off startups have to find a way to get more revenue from the users they have acquired.

“VCs have always wanted startups to monetise and generate free cash flow, but the reality of the market was such that startups needed scale to make this possible. They relied on funding to grow their cache of users and are now looking to capitalise on this base,” Naganand Doraswamy, founder of early-stage VC firm Ideaspring Capital, told us.

Doraswamy, who founded Ideaspring in 2016, claims that this is how tech has grown in the Silicon Valley ecosystem, too. He pointed out that India is going through the phase, which Silicon Valley saw in the late 90s when a few startups emerged and are now tech giants after three decades.

The Profitable Startup Brigade

Other investors believe that if anything, India is maturing faster and profitability is part of the maturity curve. Even younger startups are turning profitable faster because they are focussing on profits and not scale, says the cofounder of a Mumbai-based micro VC firm.

But a lot of this has to do with the sector and segment that the startup operates in. It’s not possible to eke out profits in ecommerce in the first two or three years, but in fintech or enterprise tech, this is very much a possibility.

B2B models are better suited to churn out profitable startups, especially if factors like customer segmentation and product-market fit are right. And this is particularly true for startups that are targeting small businesses, where the TAM is still high and untapped.

B2C startups still need to spend to acquire users but those which did this in the past two years are reaping the rewards. Take Groww for instance, which turned profitable on a base of 6.5 Mn+ users. In a conversation with Inc42, Groww claims that profitability is an outcome of its product, other B2C companies still have to focus sharply on their revenue modelling and reducing customer acquisition costs.

Who Gets The Credit?

But who is to be credited for this change in the outlook among startups? Is it just that investors wanted startups to focus on profits, or to put it differently, would this change have been possible without the global economic slowdown, tight liquidity and the funding winter?

As investors tightened their purse strings, realisation struck that they needed to focus on their bottom lines to extend their runways and get fresh funding. This resulted in the start of restructuring exercises across startups through layoffs and cutbacks.

The fact is that a clear and short path to profitability is a condition for growth capital in 2023, so perhaps this phase would not have come without market conditions. There’s been a flurry of claims by startups around profitability, which is meant to perhaps act as a lure for investors. Startups have relied on vastly different terminologies and parameters for profitability — from profit after tax to EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA to profit as of a single month or the most recent quarter.

“We know many of the larger investors are also stipulating milestone-based tranches for investing in startups. Most startups that have raised large rounds this year have to have demonstrated their path to profitability or the potential for an exit in the next couple of years,” the Mumbai-based investor added.

Exits are, of course, on the cards for many investors with IPOs plans being revived in 2024 and 2025. Listed companies face the most visible pressure from investors to show profits and in Zomato’s case, the profitability has come after a decade of fine-tuning the revenue structure and charging customers directly per order. The rationalising of costs associated with Blinkit’s quick commerce model has also helped Zomato in a major way.

Zomato’s two profitable quarters show that the company has capitalised on the revenue momentum in FY24 and seems poised to become a profit-making machine.

Will The Tide Turn? 

Of course, it’s too early to say whether the profitability streak of FY23 will continue in 2024 and 2025. Like many have pointed out, the profits are in many cases a result of startups slowing down expansion of operations and user base. The focus has instead shifted to maximising revenue. Will Indian startups be back to their loss-making ways if and when they have to scale both revenue and users?

“It’s very much possible that startups go back to their old ways, but one thing is that those which need VC money will know that investor confidence can shift on a dime and if you don’t show the results there are a lot of questions, like in the case of BYJU’s today,” according to a Bengaluru-based edtech cofounder and CEO.

There’s also a feeling among startups that profits are possible without raising mega rounds, especially because talent costs have been rationalised. In addition, startups are replicating the business strategies that are working — Zomato and Swiggy’s platform fees and commission changes this year, for example.

One potential issue for startups that just focus on profits is that they might find their profits stagnating in the long run. “It’s a tricky balance. This year is about profits, but perhaps next year many companies will reinvest this profit into growing and expanding. And then the market will be asking questions about how long before they hit profits again,” the founder quoted above observed.

Profitability is also on the agenda for startups looking to get listed in 2024 and 2025. Showing profits before the listing is a recipe for a successful IPO, and it’s a motivation for the likes of OYO, Swiggy, PayU among others.

Startups go through cycles all the time. This year, startups are in the midst of a market that demands they show profits, but perhaps this expectation will change next year. And if so, will startups forget some of the hard lessons that brought them to profits in the first place?

In Focus: 2023 In Review 

Our wrap of the year continues with a flurry of stories on everything from the most controversial stories and personalities of the year to taking a look at the state of layoffs in the ecosystem.

• Swiggy vs Zomato: While Zomato has grown into a profitable entity, has it managed to outperform Swiggy among consumers in 2023? Here are the results of our survey of the consumer sentiments for these two food delivery giants
• Layoffs Outlook For 2024: After 35,000+ job cuts in 2022 and 2023, will the forthcoming year bring a positive change when it comes to startup layoffs and cutbacks?
• Startups Caught In Controversies: From boardroom battles at BharatPe to founders deceived at a startup event to financial mismanagement at VC-backed first, here’s what brought startups to the headlines for the wrong reasons
• Founders Start Up Again: More than 30 CXOs, including founders, have switched their tracks to float new ventures or join other companies in pursuit of new opportunities. What explains this transition?

Sunday Roundup: Startup Funding, Tech Stocks & More

• Funding Galore: Bright sparks for startup funding this week, with over $527 Mn raised by Indian startups across 21 deals
• Krutrim AI: Bhavish Aggarwal’s latest venture Krutrim has unveiled new large language models and a chatbot, claiming to be “India’s first full-stack AI”
• Alma Better: From a cash crunch to layoffs and opaque performance reviews, upskilling startup Alma Better’s story has gone from promising to problematic
• Grok In India: Elon Musk’s OpenAI and ChatGPT challenger Grok is now available in India for X Premium+ users

• SoftBank’s Sell Streak: Japanese major SoftBank offloaded 2.53% of its stake in Policybazaar this week after its exit from Zomato

We’ll be back next week with another roundup as we close the curtains on 2023.

Don’t forget to stay tuned to our social media channels during this time of the year. Join Inc42 on Instagram, X/Twitter and LinkedIn for the latest news as it happens.

The post Startups In Their Profitability Era appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Minister of State (MoS) for Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Saturday (December 16) said that the Centre plans to fund and support artificial intelligence (AI) startups in the country. 

Modelled on the lines of a similar framework for the semiconductor industry, Chandrasekhar said that funding and incentives will be rolled out to scale the burgeoning ecosystem. 

“AI compute (part of India AI Mission) will have two segments – one led by the private sector, similar to the design of the semiconductor ecosystem with incentivised investments. The other segment involves indigenously developed public sector capacity for AI emerging from C-DAC, which will be available to the Indian ecosystem,” Chandrasekhar said while speaking at an event in Bengaluru.

The government will also deploy ‘financial resources’ to build foundational AI models, large language models (LLMs), and various use cases for the emerging technology. He also said that the Centre would explore synergies between AI and semiconductor industries in areas such as development of AI chips. 

The minister said that the Centre is focussed on building a close knit ecosystem of academia, industry and startups to push the AI space in India. Chandrasekhar also called for nurturing AI talent in the country to fuel the demand from the booming AI space.

Meanwhile, he also called for formulating a global framework to regulate AI, saying that the emerging technology, over the course of next six to nine months, may take shape in a way that the world ‘may not anticipate or fully understand’.

“We need a global framework urgently because, in the next six to nine months, AI will take shape and evolve in a way that we may not anticipate or fully understand… Therefore, we need to establish this framework quickly, with a granular set of principles and rules that all countries can follow,” added Chandrasekhar.

He also termed AI as a ‘significant bolt’ to the ‘already galloping’ Indian digital economy. The MoS said that AI can propel India’s digital economy and foster growth in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and governance. 

On the rising menace of GenAI-powered deepfakes, misinformation, and disinformation, the minister reiterated that the Centre has proactively taken steps to address challenges on the digital front.

“Deepfakes are a classic example because misinformation and patently false information are diseases that social media has spread, causing harm, especially in democratic countries. It creates divisions, incitements, and fake narratives. Misinformation has been a problem in social media; now imagine misinformation powered by AI,” the minister added.

The move to fund homegrown AI startups comes at a time when generative AI has become a buzzword among Indian entrepreneurs. From Google’s Bard to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the GenAI space has caught the imagination of people across the globe in the recent past. The adoption of the emerging technology is further expected to soar as businesses and consumers deploy and use applications such as text, image, audio and video, among others. 

This has spawned a host of new Indian startups in the domains. As per Inc42 data, India is home to more than 70 GenAI startups that have raised capital in excess of $440 Mn between 2019 and Q3 2023. 

Inc42 also estimates the homegrown GenAI market to grow to a market size of $17 Bn by 2030 from $1.1 Bn in 2023.

The post Centre To Support, Fund Indian AI Startups: MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In the past couple of decades, there has been a huge shift in the food lifestyle patterns in India. In recent years particularly, there has been a huge rise in the demand for organic food and products. 

There have been many drivers behind this development. The biggest one is that the country’s food and beverage industry, especially in the category of organic food, has experienced gradual growth in the past few years.

Organic food is pricier and the growth in the income levels of the middle class of India has enabled the population segment to shift in lifestyle. More Indians can now afford organic food and can make a cautious decision to choose such ingredients and food items. 

Tech startups and tech companies in India have been working to spread awareness about food and lifestyle change in India and promote organic food. They are further pushing the growth of the organic food industry and making it reach out to a larger chunk of the population.

Spreading Awareness For Adoption of Organic Food

Tech startups who track the country’s income and expenditure trends can understand the food industry’s pulse as a whole. They plan their communication and marketing tactics in a way to target the correct audience for the correct product or service. 

The primary way to reach out to the audiences is through targeted online advertisements on various social media and other means. The communication reaches the handheld devices of the particular user and is considered the most effective means. 

These companies also involve influencers for better and more effective outreach. The main aim of such communications is to break the myths surrounding organic food and spread better awareness.

Communicating Benefits Of Organic And Doing It On Right Time

The major reason for the non-adoption of organic food by the masses is due to the myths and disbelief associated with it. A major part of the population is not aware of the exact benefits of organic foods and this is where communication plays an important role. 

The lack of knowledge forces people to assume certain things about the organic food industry and thus are pushed away from adopting the lifestyle. More than communicating the benefits of organic foods, it is also important to communicate them at the right time. In this case, the right time is when people are making a shift in their lifestyle. Internet trends of users play an important role in tracking their preferences. 

When a user is making a shift in behavioural patterns and making lifestyle-related changes like starting to exercise, joining a gym or shifting to a new diet regime. 

This is the optimum time to communicate about the benefits of organic foods as at this time, the audience would be more receptive and the communication would be the most effective.

Informing Them From Where To Purchase

Other than communicating about the benefits of organic foods, it is also important to talk about the right sources from which such products can be purchased. Nowadays, there are numerous sellers of organic food items and there have been cases, where some sellers sold non-organic products, claiming them to be organic. 

Such incidents hamper the trust of the consumers and they develop a dislike for the whole segment of foods. It is highly important to verify the right and certified sellers of such products and promote them to the right audience. 

Consumer trust must be developed and this is what the new age tech startups are focusing on. Only the right sellers are promoted on various platforms, after a thorough background check and verification.

Delivering Organic Food In Less Than 20 Minutes

In recent times, food and grocery delivery startups and apps have upped the ante and there is now a cut-throat competition to fulfil such deliveries in as short time as possible. This has a positive impact on the organic food industry as these startups and food delivery apps also list the organic products in their offering. 

People wanting to buy organic foods can do it in a few clicks and get the products delivered within a few minutes to their doorstep, without any hassle.

Solutions For Pertaining Issues Related To Food, Health, Environment Sustainability

Tech startups are solving many problems at once by promoting organic foods. They are helping people overcome the issues related to chemical and fertiliser-infused foods by spreading much-needed awareness. 

Such foods cause long-lasting health issues and are a root cause of developing several complications within the human body. Other than that, the use of organic foods is very beneficial for the environment as the use of no chemicals does not impact the soil, water or air and gives a chance for the land to sustain itself for the next crop. 

It is a step ahead in the direction of environmental sustainability, something which is being promoted on international forums.

Using Technology To Reach Tier 3 Cities And Towns

A lifestyle change can only be considered complete and absolute for the whole population, when there is a vast outreach and people at the remotest level are impacted. This is why it is important to reach out to the people in Tier 2 and 3 cities. 

Technology plays a vital role in creating this outreach and communicating the benefits of organic food and creating both job and consumer opportunities at that level.

The post Disrupting The Plate: How Tech Startups Are Revolutionising Organic Food Distribution In India appeared first on Inc42 Media.

It has been a year of oxymorons for the Indian startup land and its incumbent. While the year was mostly bogged down in the extended wave of an unforgiving funding dry spell (aka the infamous funding winter), it also saw a spring of Indian founders rolling out their second or even third ventures.

It is imperative to mention that the year so far has seen more than 30 CXOs, including founders, switch their tracks to join other companies, float new ventures or assume new roles within existing companies. 

While many stepped down under mysterious circumstances or took an exit after their ventures were acquired or for various other reasons, the zeal of Indian founders to start afresh cannot be ignored.  

Interestingly, the trend of entrepreneurs not sticking to one particular venture in the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem is not new but became more evident with examples like Ola cofounder Ankit Bhati quitting the ride-hailing giant to focus on his SaaS venture Amnic.

The past few years have also seen eminent entrepreneurs like Kunal Shah (Freecharge to CRED), Jitendra Gupta (Citrus Pay to Jupiter), Anant Goel (Milkbasket to Sorted), et al. raise funds to start their new ventures.

However, one may ask if this trend is having any particular impact on the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem, especially investors. 

According to industry experts, investors tend to have more confidence in second and third-time founders, making them preferred choices for investment. And there is a simple explanation for this  — such entrepreneurs are already well-versed in the industry cycles and the rules of the game.

As far as the realm of the Indian startup ecosystem is concerned, such founders are more likely to succeed, without relying much on vanity metrics like valuations, and mentor new breeds of entrepreneurs entering the domain.

As we inch towards embracing new hopes for the Indian startup ecosystem with the year 2024 in sight, let’s steal a glance at some of these founders who started up again.

8 Founders Who Started Up Again In 2023

Dineout’s Cofounder Vivek Kapoor Marked His Healthtech Foray

This year, Dineout cofounder Vivek Kapoor left Swiggy to join Delhi-based healthcare financing startup AyushPay as its cofounder and chief business officer. 

The transition was also triggered by his desire to make a meaningful contribution to the Indian healthtech sector. Notably, he was AyushPay’s angel investor for a considerable period and had actively mentored the AyushPay team.

AyushPay (formerly known as DoctCo), a healthcare solutions provider, announced his appointment in July.

Founded in 2021 by Nimith Aggarwal and Col Hemraj, AyushPay provides financing and payment solutions to patients to make healthcare accessible and affordable. 

Kapoor became part of Swiggy’s leadership team after Dineout’s acquisition by Times Internet last year at a valuation of $150 Mn-$200 Mn. 

Anshuman Kumar Left Teachmint For The Love Of His Dating App

In a bid to focus on his new venture Duolop, a dating and relationship management app, Teachmint’s cofounder and CTO Anshuman Kumar quit the edtech startup in March.

“I am stepping into a new role as the founder of Duolop, a dynamic and innovative Indian app revolutionising how couples connect and grow together,” Kumar announced about his exit in a LinkedIn post.

Duolop is an app for couples, both married and unmarried, which aims to simplify the complexities of managing a relationship. It offers a private chat feature where couples can send messages, images and videos to each other and help them plan dates.

The app has already been launched on the Google Play and Apple Stores.

Founded in 2020 by Kumar, Mihir Gupta, Payoj Jain and Divyansh Bordia, Teachmint helps teachers and schools digitise their classrooms. The startup counts Lightspeed India, Rocketship.vc and Better Capital as among its marquee investors.

In November 2022, Teachmint laid off 45 employees or around 5% of its workforce. The startup’s net loss skyrocketed 24X to INR 131.70 Cr in FY22 from INR 5.52 Cr in FY21, while its operating revenue stood at INR 77.45 Lakh.

Zolostay’s Akhil Sikri Set Sail For A New Expedition

Akhil Sikri, cofounder of Zolostays, stepped away from his operational role at the coliving startup to pursue his new entrepreneurial venture.

In August, Sikri, along with his fellow directors Ketan Kapoor and Ayon Dutta, floated Quick Response Financial Technologies Pvt. 

The Bengaluru-based Quick Response engages in activities encompassing computer programming, consultancy and related services.

As per Sikri’s LinkedIn profile, he transitioned out of his active role at Zolostays in March. However, he continued to retain his position on the company’s board. His LinkedIn bio lists him as the cofounder of an upcoming, unnamed project.

Launched in 2015 by Sikri, along with Isha Choudhry, Nikhil Sikri and Sneha Choudhry, Zolostays offers affordable paying guest accommodations, service apartments and independent flats to students and working professionals via its AI-powered app.

The startup competes with the likes of Isthara and Stanza Living, among others.

On A New Adventure, GoMechanic’s Cofounders Deny To Throw In The Towel

Automobile after-sale services startup GoMechanic’s cofounders Rishabh Karwa and Nitin Rana stepped down from their roles after admitting to financial misreporting.

The story began in January this year, when GoMechanic cofounder Amit Bhasin, who continues to be associated with the startup as per his LinkedIn profile, admitted to committing “errors in judgement” regarding financial reporting while trying to pursue growth. 

While the dust is far from settled on the GoMechanic front, Karwa and Rana joined the list of founders starting up again.

Both of them are now working on two separate and unnamed new startups. 

Not much details are known about Rana’s new startup, except that his latest venture focusses on “Building Travel & Hospitality Product for Indian Subcontinent and World”.

However, Karwa has been quite vocal about starting anew, posting about the journey of building a new product and startup. His social media posts about Figma plugins and projects indicate some degree of progress. As per his LinkedIn profile, he is “building for local businesses”.

Both Karwa and Rana have not publicly announced raising any funds for their new startups till now. Now, it remains to be seen if the controversies around GoMechanic change anything for their new ventures. 

Polygon’s Cofounder Is Now The Captain Of Two New Ventures

In October, Polygon cofounder Jaynti Kanani resigned from his position at the blockchain scaling platform to focus on his new opportunities.

As per Kanani’s LinkedIn profile, he has cofounded two new startups – Mozak and Morphic. 

While Morphic is developing a platform designed to assist creators, filmmakers, and animators in producing high-quality content using AI technology, not many details are available for Mozak except that it is a Web3 platform. 

“After kickstarting Polygon in 2017, around six months back, I decided to step back from the day-to-day grind,” Kanani said in a post on X while announcing his decision to quit.

His LinkedIn profile shows that he served as the cofounder of Polygon until March 2023. 

Kanani is said to have stepped down from Polygon around the same time when the company undertook mass layoffs earlier this year. In February, the blockchain scalability platform culled 20% of its workforce as part of a restructuring exercise amid the ongoing crypto winter.

ShareChat’s Cofounders Quit To Incorporate A Robotics Startup

After quitting their first venture ShareChat in January, cofounders Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan established their second venture, General Autonomy, in May this year.

In November, the cofounders raised $3 Mn in seed funding from venture capital firms India Quotient and Elevation Capital for the robotics startup, General Autonomy.

Before leaving ShareChat, Singh also served as its CTO, while Ahsan held the COO’s role. The third ShareChat founder, Ankush Sachdeva, continues to be the CEO of the social media unicorn.

The cofounders’ exit coincided with ShareChat’s parent firm, Mohalla Tech, laying off 20% of its workforce or 500 individuals earlier in the year.

Founded in 2015, parent Mohalla Tech positions ShareChat as an Indic language social media platform. In 2022, it acquired Times Internet-owned social short-video platform MX TakaTak for over $600 Mn to foray into the competing short-video social space. 

Mohalla Tech’s loss jumped 38.17% year-on-year to INR 4,064.31 Cr in FY23, while operating revenue grew 62% to INR 540.21 Cr.

The post 8 Indian Startup Founders Who Started Up Again In 2023 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In a landscape teeming with buzzwords like disruption, innovation and scalability, the stark reality of numbers often tells a different story. While 87 leading new-age tech companies in India have released their FY23 financials, the performance figures offer a cautionary tale. 

Despite a cumulative operating revenue of a staggering INR 1.97 Lakh Cr, 60 of these companies reported a combined loss of INR 38,933.6 Cr in FY23. In contrast, the rest managed to eke out a collective profit of INR 5,675 Cr. The divide becomes more intriguing considering that 19 of these companies are listed. 

We are over eight months into FY24, but a majority of Indian startups are yet to release their financial numbers for FY23, leaving many to wonder what lies beneath the surface. In the ongoing fiscal year, Inc42’s Indian Startup Financials Tracker FY23 aims to be your eyes and ears, updating you on the financial performance of startups.

It’s important to note that FY23 was far from smooth sailing for the Indian startup ecosystem. Faced with dwindling funding, startups resorted to mass layoffs. In addition, various Indian startups adopted restructuring measures, including elimination of some business units and reductions in marketing budgets, to navigate the downturn.

While the capital crunch was painful and humbling, it also pushed startups to control their expenditure and focus on profitability. As such, FY23 financials are more than numbers. They reveal how Indian tech companies navigated the funding winter and showed resilience while continuing to push for growth. Now, let’s delve deeper into the financial performance of Indian startups.

Editor’s Note: This list is not a ranking of any kind, we have placed companies alphabetically. This is a running list; we will be updating it periodically.

Inside The FY23 Financials Of Indian Startups

Note: All amount in INR Cr

Acko’s FY23 Loss Jumps To INR 739 Cr

Bengaluru-based fintech unicorn Acko saw its operating revenue rise 32% to INR 1,758.6 Cr in FY23 as compared to INR 1,334.4 Cr in the previous year. Loss jumped over 50% to INR 738.5 Cr during the year under review as against INR 482.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Earlier this year, the startup received the licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to commence life insurance business.

Read: Acko Earned INR 1,759 Cr By Selling Insurance In FY23

Apna’s Revenue Jumps 3X

Tiger Global-backed professional networking platform Apna’s revenue from operations surged nearly 3X to INR 180.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 63.8 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

The startup incurred a loss of INR 120.3 Cr in FY23, an increase of 7% from INR 112.5 Cr in FY22.  The Nirmit Parikh-led startup’s total expenses also rose 73% to INR 308.4 Cr in FY23 from INR 178.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Read: Tiger Global-Backed Apna’s FY23 Revenue Nearly Triples To INR 188 Cr

Atlan’s Profit Takes A Hit

Data collaboration software startup Atlan reported a profit after tax (PAT) of INR 7.74 Cr in FY23, a decline of 18.70% from INR 9.52 Cr in FY22.

The Salesforce-funded startup’s operating revenue rose 189.78% to INR 93.83 Cr from INR 32.38 Cr in FY22

Total expenses jumped 203.45% to INR 85.53 Cr in FY23 from INR 28.19 Cr in FY22.

Read: SaaS Startup Atlan’s Profit Slips 19% To INR 7.74 Cr In FY23

Ather Energy’s Revenue Quadruple In FY23

Bengaluru-based two-wheeler electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Ather Energy’s operating revenue jumped 4.3X to INR 1,783.6 Cr in FY23 from INR 408.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Despite this, the Hero MotoCorp-backed startup’s net loss surged over 150% to INR 864.5 Cr from INR 344.1 Cr in FY22. 

The two-wheeler EV manufacturer’s total expenses more than tripled to INR 2,670.6 Cr from INR 757.9 Cr in FY22

Read: Ather Energy’s Loss Shoots Up 2.5X To INR 865 Cr IN FY23

BankBazaar’s Loss Falls 15% To INR 37 Cr

Fintech startup BankBazaar’s net loss narrowed over 15% to INR 36.71 Cr in FY23 from INR 43.23 Cr in the fiscal year ended March 2022. The startup’s operating revenue stood at INR 158.69 Cr in FY23, up from INR 95.52 Cr in FY22.  

Eight Roads-backed BankBazaar’s total expenditure zoomed 40% YoY to INR 196.93 Cr in FY23.

Read: BankBazaar Trims FY23 Loss By 15% As Top Line Jumps 66% To INR 158.69 Cr

Beardo Slips Into The Red, Posts INR 6.1 Cr Loss In FY23

Marico-owned men’s grooming D2C brand Beardo slipped into the red during the financial year under review. The Ahmedabad-based D2C brand reported a net loss of INR 6.1 Cr in FY23 as against a net profit of INR 75.5 Lakh in the previous fiscal year. 

Beardo’s revenue from operations rose 12.3% to INR 106.6 Cr in FY23 from INR 94.8 Cr in FY22, as per Marico’s annual report for the year ended March 31, 2023.

Total expenditure stood at INR 115.3 Cr in FY23, a rise of 20% from INR 96.1 Cr in FY22. 

Read: Marico-Owned Beardo Slips Into The Red, Posts INR 6.1 Cr Loss In FY23

BigBasket Crosses INR 16,000 Cr Revenue Mark 

Tata-owned BigBasket reported a total revenue of INR 16,903 Cr in FY23, a jump of 8.4% from INR 15,593 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

The combined B2C and B2B business of BigBasket incurred a net loss of INR 3,320 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), a 79% increase from INR 1,853 Cr reported in the previous fiscal year.

BigBasket spent INR 770 Cr for advertisement and promotional expenses during the year under review.

Read: BigBasket B2C Arm’s Net Loss Surges 89% To INR 1,535.2 Cr In FY23

Bira 91’s Sales Inch Closer To INR 1,000 Cr Mark

Delhi NCR-based beer brand Bira 91 reported an operating revenue of INR 824.3 Cr in the year ended March 31, 2023, an increase of 15% from INR 718.8 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Bira 91’s net loss increased 12% to INR 445.4 Cr in FY23 from INR 396 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Total expenditure increased 14% to INR 1,282.4 Cr during the year under review from INR 1,122.5 Cr in FY22.

Read: Bira 91 Incurred Loss Of INR 445 Cr From Sales Of Beers In FY23

BlueStone’s Expenses Dip 45%

Jewellery startup BlueStone’s operating revenue increased over 1.6X to INR 770.7 Cr in FY23, an increase of 67% from INR 461.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

The startup’s loss plunged 86% to INR 167.2 Cr from INR 1,268.4 Cr in FY22 on account of a one-time non-operating expense in the previous fiscal year. The jewellery startup’s total expense declined 45% to INR 955.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,739 Cr in FY22. 

The startup is in the process to raise $65 Mn from Nikhil Kamath’s office, Deepinder Goyal, Amit Jain, and Ranjan Pai

Read: Ratan Tata-Backed BlueStone Earned INR 771 Cr By Selling Jewellery In FY23

boAt Slips Into The Red For First Time Since Inception

Aman Gupta-led consumer electronics startup boAt slipped into the red for the first time since its inception as the increase in its expenses outpaced the rise in sales. boAt reported a net loss of INR 129.4 Cr in FY23 after posting a profit of INR 68.7 Cr in FY22.

Operating revenue rose 18% to INR 3,376.7 Cr from INR 2,873 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

The startup earned INR 2,350.8 Cr in FY23 from the audio segment, which accounted for 70% of its operating revenue. The wearable segment contributed INR 901.5 Cr to boAt’s topline this year.

Total expenses jumped 28% to INR 3,562 Cr in FY23 from INR 2,786.9 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Read: Aman Gupta’s boAt Sold Audio Products, Smartwatches Worth INR 3,376 Cr In FY23

BookMyShow Turns Profitable After COVID

Online ticketing platform BookMyShow turned profitable and posted a consolidated net profit of INR 85.1 Cr in FY23 as against a loss of INR 92.2 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

As more people stepped out and went to movie theatres and attended live events post the Covid-19 pandemic, the startup’s operating revenue surged 252% to INR 975.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 277 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

BookMyShow’s total expenses also jumped 138% to INR 940.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 395.2 Cr in the previous financial year

Read: BookMyShow Posts INR 85 Cr Profit In FY23 On Post-Pandemic Boost, Sales Jump 3X

CaratLane’s Sales Cross INR 2,000 Cr Mark

Titan-owned jewellery startup CaratLane’s operating revenue surged 73% to INR 2,169 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,255.6 Cr in the previous fiscal on the back of growing demand.

Despite the rise in revenue, CaratLane’s net profit dipped 8% to INR 82 Cr during the year under review from INR 89.2 Cr in the previous fiscal year.
Total expenditure jumped 69% to INR 2,068.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,225.9 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Read: Titan-Owned CaratLane’s FY23 Sales Jump To INR 2,169 Cr, Profit Dips To INR 82 Cr

CarTrade Back In The Black In FY23

CarTrade, which recently acquired OLX’s India business, returned in the black in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The Rajasthan-based startup reported a net profit of INR 40.4 Cr in FY23 as compared to a loss of INR 121.3 Cr in the previous year. 

Operating revenue rose around 16% to INR 363.7 Cr in FY23 from INR 312.7 Cr. 

The auto marketplace also reported an over 300% rise in profit after tax at INR 13.5 Cr in the first quarter of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from INR 3.3 Cr posted in the year-ago quarter. 

Read: CarTrade’s PAT Jumps 4X YoY To INR 13.5 Cr In Q1

Amazon-Backed Cashify’s Revenue Crosses INR 800 Cr Mark

Delhi NCR-based recommerce startup Cashify’s sales jumped 67% to INR 815.9 Cr during FY23 from INR 497.9 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Despite the rise in revenue, Cashify’s net loss increased in FY23. Its net loss grew 49% to INR 147.9 Cr during the year under review from INR 99.3 Cr in FY22.

The Amazon-backed startup saw its expenditure grow 61% to INR 973.4 Cr in FY23 from INR 603.1 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Read: Cashify Earned INR 816 Cr By Selling Refurbished Phones, Laptops In FY23

Classplus’ FY23 Loss Widens To INR 257 Cr

The Tiger Global-backed edtech startup’s net loss rose 57% to INR 256.6 Cr in FY23 from INR 163.5 Cr in FY22. Operating revenue jumped 4X to INR 102.04 Cr in FY23, compared to INR 25.9 Cr in the previous year.

Earlier this year, Classplus faced legal trouble when Saarthi’s cofounder, Chiraag Kapil, and its investors filed a lawsuit against it in the Delhi High Court (HC) for alleged cheating and criminal breach of trust.

Read: Tiger-Backed Classplus Spent INR 4 To Earn Every INR 1 From Ops In FY23

Clear’s Revenue Crosses INR 100 Cr Mark

Peak XV Partners-backed Clear’s (formerly known as ClearTax) operating revenue jumped over 85% to INR 108.8 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) from INR 58.7 Cr in FY22.

Despite the increase in revenue, the startup’s net loss grew nearly 5% to INR 233.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 222.7 Cr in FY22.

Total expenditure increased over 21% to INR 343.7 Cr from INR 283 Cr in FY22.

Read: Tax Filing Platform Clear’s FY23 Revenue Jumps Over 85% To Cross INR 100 Cr Mark

Flipkart-Owned Cleartrip’s Loss Doubles 

Flipkart-owned online travel aggregator Cleartrip witnessed a 90% surge in its loss to INR 676.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 356.5 Cr in the previous financial year. The startup’s operating revenue declined 10% to INR 50 Cr, whereas expenses jumped 63% to INR 773.2 Cr in the financial year. On a unit economics level, the startup spent INR 15 to earn every INR 1 from its operations. 

Read: Flipkart Owned Cleartrip Spent INR 15 To Earn Every INR 1 From Ops In FY23

Kunal Shah’s CRED’s Revenue Jumps 250% In FY23

Kunal Shah-led fintech unicorn CRED’s total revenue jumped over 3.5X in the financial year ended March 31, 2023 to INR 1,484 Cr from INR 422 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

While the loss grew 5% to INR 1,347.4 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,279.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year, the startup’s total expenditure jumped 1.6X to INR 2,831.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,702.1 Cr.

CRED, which is known for splurging on advertisements, reduced its marketing costs by 26% to INR 713.4 Cr from INR 975.7 Cr in FY22.

Read: Kunal Shah-Led CRED’s Revenue Jumps 3.5X To INR 1,484 Cr In FY23

Darwinbox’s Loss Jumps To INR 158 Cr

HRtech unicorn Darwinbox’s consolidated net loss soared 2.4X to INR 158.25 Cr in FY23 from INR 65.72 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

The Microsoft-backed startup’s operating revenue almost doubled to INR 224.04 Cr in FY23 from INR 116.73 Cr in FY22. 

The SaaS-based startup’s total expenses soared 2.2X to INR 407.22 Cr in FY23 from INR 186.93 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Read: HRtech Unicorn Darwinbox’s FY23 Loss Surges 2.4X To INR 158 Cr

Delhivery Sees Meagre Uptick In Revenue

Logistics company Delhivery saw a 5% YoY jump in operating revenue in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The Lee Fixel-backed startup reported an operating revenue of INR 7,225.3 Cr in the financial year under review as compared to INR 6,882.2 Cr it had reported in the previous quarter. 

The startup also reported a loss of INR 1,007.7 Cr in FY23, a 0.3% dip as compared to the loss of INR 1,011 Cr it had reported in the previous year. 

However, the logistics startup reported almost a 78% decline in net loss at INR 89.5 Cr in the first quarter of FY24 from INR 399.3 Cr reported in the last year’s quarter.

Read: Delhivery’s Q1 Loss Narrows 78% YoY To INR 89.5 Cr On Strong Growth Across Verticals

DroneAcharya Witnesses 700% Jump In Profit

Of the listed companies, Pune-based drone startup Droneacharya reported the highest jump in profit on a YoY basis. The company reported a profit of INR 3.4 Cr in FY23, a jump of over 700% from INR 0.4 Cr it had reported in the previous fiscal. 

The startup’s operating revenue also increased by over 429% to INR 18.5 Cr in FY23 as compared to INR 3.5 Cr it had reported in the previous fiscal year. 

Read: DroneAcharya’s FY23 Profit Jumps Over 700% YoY To INR 3.42 Cr On Increase In Offerings

Dunzo’s Loss Quadruples

Reliance-backed Dunzo’s loss nearly quadrupled in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The Bengaluru-based hyperlocal delivery startup’s loss surged to INR 1,801 Cr in FY23 from INR 464 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Meanwhile, operating revenue increased 317% to INR 226.6 Cr in FY23 from INR 54.3 Cr in FY22. The startup’s total expenses ballooned 286% to INR 2,054.4 Cr in FY23 from INR 531.7 Cr in the previous fiscal year

Read: Dunzo Spent INR 9 To Earn Every Single Rupee From Operations In FY23

EaseMyTrip Nears INR 500 Cr Mark in Sales

Prashant, Nishant, and Rikant Pitti-led online travel aggregator – EaseMyTrip – reported a 91% jump in operating revenue in the year under review. The Delhi-NCR-based startup reported an operating revenue of INR 448 Cr in FY23, an almost 2X jump from INR 235.3 Cr it had posted. EaseMyTrip also reported a profit of INR 134 Cr in FY23, a 27% jump from INR 106 Cr it had reported in the previous fiscal.

However, the startup’s profit declined by 22% YoY to INR 26 Cr in the first quarter of financial year 2023-24 (FY24).

Read: EaseMyTrip’s Q1 PAT Declines 22% YoY To INR 25.9 Cr On Deep Discounts

ElasticRun’s Revenue Cross INR 4,000 Cr Mark

Softbank-backed logistics unicorn ElasticRun’s revenue from operations saw a YoY increase of 24.71% to INR 4,754.86 Cr from INR 3,812.65 Cr in FY22. Further, the total revenue saw a YoY increase of 26.71% to INR 4,851.09 Cr from INR 3,828.24 Cr in the previous fiscal.

However, the startup loss nearly doubled to INR 618.82 Cr from INR 358.59 Cr in FY22. 

ElasticRun’s total expenditure surged 30.65% YoY to INR 5,469.91 Cr from INR 4,186.66 Cr in FY22.

Read: SoftBank-Backed ElasticRun’s FY23 Loss Doubles To INR 619 Cr

Flipkart’s B2B Arm’s Loss Jumps 42%

Flipkart India, the B2B arm of Flipkart, saw its standalone net loss balloon over 42% to INR 4,845.7 Cr in FY23 from INR 3,404.3 Cr in FY22. 

Operating revenue increased a mere 9.7% to INR 55,923.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 50,992.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year.  Total expenses rose 11.5% to INR 60,858.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 54,580 Cr in FY22.

Read: Flipkart’s B2B Arm’s FY23 Loss Surges 42% To INR 4,846 Cr

SaaS Unicorn Fractal Posts INR 194 Cr Profit 

New York-based AI intelligence unicorn Fractal turned profitable in FY23, posting a profit of INR 194.4 Cr as against a loss of INR 148.4 Cr in FY22. 

Operating revenue increased 53% to INR 1,985.4 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,295.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Total expenditure surged 52% to INR 2,225.2 Cr from INR 1,461.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Read: Exceptional Gain Helps SaaS Unicorn Fractal Post INR 194 Cr Profit In FY23

Fino Reports 50% PAT Jump In FY23

Mumbai-based Fino reported a 166% increase in its operating revenue to INR 95 Cr in FY23 as compared to INR 35.6 Cr it had reported in the previous fiscal year. The payments bank further reported a 52% increase in net profit to INR 65 Cr in FY23 as compared to INR 42.7 Cr it had reported in the previous financial year. 

The payments bank reported an 85% YoY jump in its profit after tax (PAT) to INR 18.7 Cr in the June quarter (Q1) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) as compared to a PAT of INR 10.1 Cr on a revenue of INR 289 Cr in Q1 FY23.

Read: Fino Payments Bank’s Q1 PAT Jumps 85% YoY To INR 18.7 Cr; To Apply For Small Finance Bank Licence

Groww Turns Profitable In FY23

Bengaluru-based stock broking platform Groww’s parent entity Billionbrains Garage Private Limited turned profitable in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. It reported a net profit of INR 448.7 Cr in FY23 as against a net loss of INR 239 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Operating revenue jumped over 3X to INR 1,277.8 Cr in FY23 from INR 351 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Groww’s expenses increased by a muted 41% to INR 932.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 663.6 Cr in the previous fiscal year

Read: Groww’s Revenue Crosses INR 1,000 Cr Mark, Posts Profit Of INR 449 Cr In FY23

HealthifyMe’s Loss Dips

Healthtech startup HealthifyMe saw its total loss decline by around 10% to INR 142 Cr in FY23, down from INR 157 Cr reported in the year-ago fiscal. 

Meanwhile, total revenues from operations rose 23% to INR 228.7 Cr in FY23 from INR 185.25 Cr in FY22. Total expenditure stood at INR 371.72 Cr during FY23, up 8.23% YoY.

Read: HealthifyMe’s Revenue Cross INR 200 Cr Mark, Losses Dip 10% In FY23

HomeLane’s Net Loss Jumps Over 15% 

Home interior startup HomeLane witnessed a 1.1X increase in net loss in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The Bengaluru-based startup reported a net loss of INR 173.5 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), a 15% increase from INR 150.8 Cr in FY22. 

The MS Dhoni-backed startup saw its total expenses increase over 1.3X to INR 757.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 581.7 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Read: HomeLane’s Loss Widens 15% To INR 173.5 Cr In FY23

ideaForge’s Profit Dips In FY23

Listed in 2023, drone manufacturing startup ideaForge saw its profit drop in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The company reported a 28% drop in profit to INR 32 Cr in FY23 from INR 44 Cr it had reported in the previous fiscal year. 

The Mumbai-based startup’s operating revenue rose 17% to INR 186 Cr in FY23 from INR 160 Cr it had reported in the previous fiscal year. 

Moreover, in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year, the company saw over 50% decline in profit to INR 18.9 Cr as compared to INR 41.2 Cr it had reported in the corresponding quarter last year. 

Read: ideaForge’s PAT Declines 54% YoY To INR 18.9 Cr In Q1

iD Fresh Food’s Loss Halves In FY23

Ready-to-cook food maker iD Fresh Food’s net loss narrowed over 50% in FY23. The Bengaluru-based startup, which sells idli batter and parota, incurred a loss of INR 328.8 Cr in FY23, a 53% decline from INR 703.7 Cr in the previous year. 

Operating revenue increased 26% to INR 479.2 Cr during the year under review from INR 381.6 Cr in FY22. The startup’s expenses grew 14% to INR 517.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 453.9 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Read: iD Fresh Food Earned INR 479 Cr By Selling Idli & Dosa Batter In FY23

IndiaMART Nears INR 1,000 Cr In Sales

The only new-age publicly listed ecommerce marketplace, IndiaMART, witnessed a slight improvement in its revenue in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. Dinesh Agarwal-led B2B ecommerce marketplace reported an operating revenue of INR 985.3 Cr in FY23, a 31% increase from INR 753.4 Cr it reported in the previous fiscal year.  

The company’s profit dipped around 5% to INR 283.8 Cr in FY23 as compared to INR 298 Cr it had reported in the previous fiscal year. 

In Q1 FY24, it reported a consolidated revenue of INR 282.1 Cr, up 25.65% YoY. 

Read: IndiaMART At 52-Week High Following Q1 Results

Indifi In The Black In FY23

Lendingtech startup Indifi Technologies turned profitable in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The Delhi NCR-based startup reported a net profit of INR 5.1 Cr in FY23 as compared to a loss of INR 32.8 Cr in FY21. 

Revenue from operations jumped over 2X to INR 197.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 96.29 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

The startup’s total expenditure stood at INR 202.8 Cr in FY23, an increase of 1.4X from INR 138.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Read: Alok Mittal Led Indifi Reports INR 5.1 Cr Profit In FY23

INDMoney’s Operating Revenue Doubles 

Investment tech startup INDmoney reported a 7.7% rise in its net loss to INR 73.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 68.6 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

The startup’s operating revenue  increased to INR 40.6 Cr during the year from INR 21.8 Cr in FY22.

INDmoney’s overall spending grew 1.5X to INR 200 Cr in FY23 from INR 133.4 Cr in the prior fiscal year. 

Read: INDmoney’s FY23 Net Loss Widens To INR 73.9 Cr, Revenue More Than Doubles

Info Edge In The Red In FY23, Revenue Crosses INR 2,000 Cr Mark

Sanjeev Bikhchandani-led Info Edge, the first Indian internet company to go public, reported a 47.6% jump in operation revenue to INR 2,345.7 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,589 Cr it had reported the previous year. However, the company slipped in the red in FY23. 

The parent entity of Naukri.com reported a net loss of INR 70.4 Cr in FY23 as against a net profit of INR 1,288.2 Cr in FY22. It must be noted that Info Edge wrote off investment worth INR 276 Cr in Rahul Yadav led 4B Network during this period. 

However, it reported a profit of INR 147.4 Cr in the first quarter of FY24. 

Read: Info Edge Back In The Black With INR 147.4 Cr Net Profit In Q1

InsuranceDekho Narrows Loss To INR 51.5 Cr 

InsuranceDekho, the insurance arm of CarDekho, managed to narrow its net loss by 29% to INR 51.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 72.2 Cr in FY22, on the back of a strong growth in its business.

The Haryana-based insurtech startup’s operating revenue doubled to INR 96.4 Cr during the year under review from INR 47.9 Cr in the previous fiscal year. The startup’s total expenses rose 25% to INR 151.8 Cr from INR 121 Cr in FY22

Read: InsuranceDekho’s Net Loss Narrows 29% To INR 51.5 Cr In FY23

Jar Spent INR 16 To Earn Every Rupee

Fintech startup Jar’s loss increased 77% to INR 122.8 Cr in FY23 from INR 69.5 Cr in FY22.

The Bengaluru-based investment tech startup’s revenue from operations jumped to INR 8.7 Cr in FY23 from INR 73.8 Lakh a fiscal ago. 

The Tiger Global-backed startup’s expenses doubled to INR 137.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 70.3 Cr in FY22.

Read: Tiger Global-Backed Jar Spent INR 16 To Earn INR 1 In FY23

Jupiter Spent INR 54 To Earn Every Rupee

Neobanking soonicorn Jupiter Money’s loss jumped over 2X to INR 327 Cr in FY23 from INR 156.3 Cr in the previous fiscal, hurt by a sharp jump in its employee benefit expenses.

The Jitendra Gupta-led startup reported an astronomical increase in revenue to INR 7.1 Cr from a mere INR 40 Lakh it had reported in the previous year. The startup’s FY23 expenses increased 115% to INR 383 Cr in FY23 from INR 178 Cr in FY22.

Read: Neobank Jupiter Spent INR 54 To Earn Every Rupee In FY23

Justdial’s Profit More Than Doubles In FY23

Reliance-acquired hyperlocal search engine Justdial reported a 130% jump in profit in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The Mumbai-based company reported a net profit of INR 162.7 Cr in FY24, a 2.2X increase from INR 71 Cr it had reported in the previous financial year. 

The company reported an operating revenue of INR 844.7 Cr in FY23, a 30.5% increase from INR 647 Cr it had reported in the previous year. 

Even in the first quarter of the ongoing financial year, the company reported a net profit of INR 83.4 Cr, a 72% increase from INR 48.4 Cr it had reported in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal year. Operating revenue stood at INR 247 Cr in Q1 FY24.

Read: Justdial’s User Traffic Crosses 17 Cr Mark In Q1, Posts Record Revenue Of INR 247 Cr

LEAD School’s Loss Narrows 

Mumbai-based edtech startup LEAD School’s net loss declined 18.5% to INR 321.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 395.3 Cr in FY22 on strong growth in business and reduction in cash burn.

The startup’s revenue from operations increased by more than 2X to INR 273.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 132.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year, as per its filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Total expenses increased over 14.7% to INR 617.4 Cr in FY23 from INR 538.1 Cr in FY22. 

Read: LEAD School’s FY23 Loss Narrows 18.5% to INR 322 Cr

Licious Narrows Loss By 38% To INR 529 Cr

Bengaluru-based meat delivery startup Licious witnessed a marginal rise of 9.5% in its operating revenue to INR 748 Cr in FY23 from INR 682.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the startup managed to decrease its net loss by over 38% to INR 528.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 855.6 Cr in the previous year due to reduction in its cash burn. 

Licious’ total expenses rose 9.8% to INR 1,309.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,191.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Read: Licious Sold Meat Worth INR 748 Cr In FY23 But Growth Plateau

Mamaearth Slips Into The Red 

IPO-bound D2C unicorn Mamaearth slipped into the red with a net loss of INR 151 Cr in FY23 as against a net profit of INR 14.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year on the back of a one-time loss of INR 155 Cr.

The startup reported an operating revenue of INR 1,492.7 Cr in FY23, a jump of 58% from INR 943.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Total expenditure surged 59% to INR 1,501.6 Cr in FY23 from INR 942 Cr in the previous year, in line with the increase in its operating revenue.

Read: Goodwill Impairment Hits IPO-Bound Mamaearth, Posts INR 151 Cr Loss In FY23

MapmyIndia’s Profit Crosses INR 100 Cr Mark

Geotech startup MapmyIndia saw a 40% jump in operating revenue to INR 281.4 Cr in the financial year ended March 31, 2023 from INR 200 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Besides increase in operating revenue, the startup reported a jump of 32% in profit on a YoY basis to INR 107.5 Cr in FY23. 

In Q1 FY24, it reported a 32.2% YoY rise in consolidated net profit to INR 32 Cr.

Read: MapmyIndia Q1 Net Profit Zooms 32.2% YoY To INR 32 Cr

Matrimony Sees Dip In Profit In FY23

Indian online matchmaking site Matrimony saw its profit after tax slip 13% to INR 46.6 Cr in  FY23 from INR 53.5 Cr in the previous financial year. The matrimonial site’s operating revenue rose just 5% to INR 455.7 Cr in FY23 from INR 434.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Matrimony saw a 18% increase in profit to INR 4.16 Cr in the first quarter of FY24 as against INR 11.95 Cr it had reported in the corresponding quarter in previous year. 

Read: Matrimony’s Q1 PAT Rises 18% YoY To INR 14 Cr

MediBuddy’s Loss Crosses INR 300 Cr Mark

Bengaluru-based healthtech startup MediBuddy’s net loss widened 24% to INR 321.7 Cr in FY23 from INR 259.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

The operating revenue of the startup, founded by Satish Kannan and Enbasekar Dinadayalane, grew 27.2% to INR 297.7 Cr during the year under review from INR 234.1 Cr in FY22.

MediBuddy’s total expenses jumped over 30% to INR 648.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 497.4 Cr in the previous year, with the cost of materials consumed being the single biggest contributor at 35%.

Read: MediBuddy’s FY23 Loss Jumps 24% To INR 321.7 Cr As Business

Fintech Giant MobiKwik Narrows Loss To INR 83.8 Cr

Delhi NCR-based fintech unicorn MobiKwik’s net loss fell 35% in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The startup reported a net loss of INR 83.8 Cr in FY23 as against a loss of INR 128.1 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

While the startup reduced its expenditure to INR 617 Cr in FY23 from INR 652.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year, MobiKwik’s operating revenue remained almost flat at INR 539.4 Cr in FY23. 

Read: MobiKwik’s FY23 Loss Declines 35% To INR 84 Cr, Operating Revenue Flat

Moglix’s Revenue Crosses INR 4,000 Cr Mark

Rahul Garg’s B2B ecommerce startup Moglix reported an operating revenue of INR 4,664.7 Cr in FY23, a jump of 83% from INR 2,554.6 Cr in the previous year. The Bengaluru-based startup saw its loss increase 12% to INR 196 Cr from INR 175.3 Cr in FY22. Total expenditure jumped 80.5% to INR 4,941 Cr in FY23 from INR 2,736.8 Cr in FY22. 

Earlier this year, the Tiger Global-backed startup laid off around 40 employees. 

Read: Moglix FY23 Revenue Jumps To $560 Mn, Founder Sells Shares Worth $10 Mn

Nazara’s Sales Zooms Past INR 1,000 Cr Mark

Nitish Mittersain-led gaming company Nazara Technologies saw a sharp increase in revenue in the financial year ending on March 31, 2023. The Mumbai-based technology company reported an operating revenue of INR 1,091 Cr in the financial year under review, a 75% jump from INR 621.7 Cr it had reported in the previous year. Profit jumped 21% to INR 61.4 Cr from INR 50.7 Cr in FY22. 

In the first quarter of FY24, the company saw its operating revenue jump to 14% to INR 254.4 Cr during the quarter under review from INR 223.1 Cr in the year-ago quarter.

In Septmeber 2023, the gaming giant also raised INR 510 Cr from Zerodha founders and SBI Mutual Fund.

Read: Nazara Tech’s Q1 Net Profit Soars 31% YoY To INR 20.9 Cr

NeoGrowth Turns Profitable In FY23

Mumbai-based non-banking financial company (NBFC) NeoGrowth turned profitable in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The NBFC reported a profit of INR 17.2 Cr in FY23 as against a net loss of INR 39.4 Cr in FY22. 

The Lighrock-backed NBFC reported an operating revenue of INR 380.8 Cr in FY23, a meager 5.3% increase from INR 361.5 Cr in the previous year. Meanwhile, it saw a 13.7% decline in expenses to INR 357.4 Cr from INR 414.5 Cr in FY22. 

Read: NeoGrowth In The Black In FY23, Posts Profit Of INR 17.2 Cr

Noise Profits Takes A Plunge

Gurugram-based bootstrapped startup Noise saw its profit nosedive to INR 88 Lakh in the financial year 2023-23 (FY23) from INR 35.5 Cr a year ago.

However, the startup’s operating revenue jumped 1.8X to INR 1,426.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 792.8 Cr in FY22. 

The smartwatch and earphone manufacturer’s expenses surged 1.9X to INR 1,431.6 Cr in FY23 from INR 752.6 Cr in FY22. 

Read: Noise’s FY23 Revenue Soars Past INR 1,400 Cr, But Profit Fails To Create A Buzz On Rising Expenses

Nykaa Reports 50% Dip In Profit In FY23

Beauty fashion giant Nykaa, which listed on the bourses in 2021, reported an operating revenue of INR 5,143.8 Cr in FY23, a 36% increase from INR 3,773.9 Cr it had reported in the previous fiscal year. 

The Falugni Nayar-led ecommerce startup saw its profit dip by around 50% to INR 21 Cr in the year under review as compared to INR 41 Cr it had reported in the previous fiscal year.

Employee benefit expenses jumped to INR 492 Cr in FY23 from INR 326.4 Cr in FY22. Of late, the company has also seen several top-level exits.

However, the Mumbai-based company posted a net profit of INR 5.4 Cr in Q1 FY24 as compared to a profit of INR 5 Cr in the same quarter of previous fiscal year. 

Read: Nykaa Q1: Net Profit Rises 8% YoY To INR 5.4 Cr

OfBusiness’ Revenue Crosses INR 15,000 Cr Mark

Delhi NCR-based B2B marketplace OfBusiness’ revenue from operation crossed the INR 15,000 Cr mark in FY23. The unicorn marketplace reported an operating revenue of INR 15,342.5 Cr in FY23, an increase of 115% from INR 7,139.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Net profit surged 130% to INR 463.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 201.1 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Total expenditure more than doubled to INR 15,037.4 Cr during the year under review from INR 6,993.5 Cr in FY22

Read: OfBusiness Posts INR 463 Cr Profit In FY23, Revenue Crosses INR 15,000 Cr Mark

OneCard’s Operating Income Jumps 6X

Credit card startup OneCard reported a 6X increase in its operating revenue to INR 541.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 83.7 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Meanwhile, loss more than doubled to INR 405.6 Cr in FY23, an increase of 122% from INR 182.7 Cr in FY22. 

Total expenditure rose 3.5X to INR 999.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 280.6 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Read: Fintech Unicorn OneCard Spent 60% Of Its Operating Revenue On Advertising In FY23

Oxyzo’s Profit Triples In FY23

Fintech unicorn Oxyzo’s profit after tax almost tripled to INR 197.5 Cr in the financial year ended March 31, 2023 from INR 69.3 Cr in the previous financial year. 

Oxyzo’s revenue from operations increased by over 82% to INR 570 Cr in FY23 from INR 313 Cr in the previous financial year. 

The company also reported a 1.7X jump in employee benefit expense to INR 78 Cr in FY23 from INR 46 Cr in the previous year. 

Read: Fintech Unicorn Oxyzo’s FY23 PAT Jumps Over 2.8X To INR 198 Cr

OYO’s Loss Declines 34% To INR 1,287 Cr 

IPO-bound hospitality unicorn OYO reported a 34% decrease in its net loss to INR 1,286.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,941.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year, as expenses declined marginally despite growth in business. 

The SoftBank-backed startup’s operating revenue grew 14% to INR 5,463.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 4,781.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Total expenditure fell 3% to INR 6,799.6 Cr from INR 6,985.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Read: IPO-Bound OYO’s Loss Declines 34% To INR 1,287 Cr In FY23

Paper Boat’s Sales Cross INR 500 Cr Mark

Hector Beverages, the parent company Paper Boat, saw its net loss widen 71% to INR 90.6 Cr in the financial year FY23 from INR 53 Cr in FY22.

The juice maker’s loss widened, despite it crossing the INR 500 Cr mark in sales for the first time. The startup’s sales rose 56% to INR 504 Cr during the year under review from INR 324 Cr in FY22.

Paper Boat’s total expenses rose to INR 599.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 378.1 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Read: Paper Boat’s FY23 Loss Surges 71% To INR 90.6 Cr, Revenue Crosses INR 500 Cr Mark

PayMate Manages To Narrow Its Loss

IPO-bound B2B payments solutions provider PayMate managed to narrow its consolidated net loss by a marginal 3.5% to INR 55.7 Cr in FY23 from INR 57.7 Cr in the previous fiscal year. On the other hand, operating revenue rose 11.7% to INR 1,350.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,208.9 Cr in FY22.

The fintech startup’s total expenses increased 11% to INR 1,407.3 Cr during the year under review from INR 1,266.9 Cr in FY22. In that, the cost of materials accounted for a significant 95%.

Read: IPO-Bound PayMate’s FY23 Loss Narrows Marginally To INR 55.7 Cr

Paytm’s FY23 Loss Drops By 26%

Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led Paytm improved its financial performance in FY23. The Delhi NCR-based fintech giant reported a 1.6X jump in operating revenue at INR 7,990.3 in FY23 from INR 4,974.2 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Its net loss also reduced 26% to INR 1,766.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 2,396.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Even in the first quarter of FY24, the startup reported a revenue of INR 2,342 Cr, a 39% jump from INR 1,680 Cr it reported in the previous quarter.

Read: Paytm Q1 Net Loss Declines 45% YoY To INR 358.4 Cr But Jumps 113% QoQ

PB Fintech’s Operating Revenue Jumps To INR 2,558 Cr

Mumbai-based insurtech startup PB Fintech saw its operating revenue jump over 80% to INR 2,557.8 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,425 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Despite the startup’s advertisement expense jumping 1.6X to INR 1,357 Cr in FY23, PB Fintech reduced its net loss by 41.4% to INR 488 Cr from INR 832.9 Cr in FY22. 

In the first quarter of FY24, the startup managed to reduce its loss by over 94% to INR 11.9 Cr from INR 204 Cr in the year-ago quarter.

Read: PB Fintech’s Q1 Net Loss Narrows 94% YoY To INR 11.9 Cr

Porter’s FY23 Revenue Crosses INR 1,700 Cr Mark

Intra-city logistics service provider Porter reported a 2X jump in operating revenue on a YoY basis in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The Tiger Global-backed startup reported an operating revenue of INR 1,753.5 Cr in the year under review as against INR 847.6 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Porter’s net loss jumped over 43% to INR 157.7 Cr in FY23 as compared to INR 122 Cr in the previous year. The startup, which has raised $132 Mn in funding so far, spent INR 185 Cr on employee benefit expenses, a 75% increase from INR 106 Cr in the previous year. 

Read: Logistics Startup Porter’s Operating Revenue Doubles To INR 1,753 Cr In FY23

Purplle’s Sales Inches Closer To INR 500 Cr Mark

Beauty ecommerce marketplace Purplle’s operating revenue more than doubled to near the INR 500 Cr mark during the year ended March 31, 2023. The startup’s operating revenue or sales stood at INR 474.9 Cr in FY23, an increase of 116% from INR 219.8 Cr in FY22. 

Despite the rise in operating revenue, Purplle’s net loss grew 13% to INR 230 Cr from INR 203.6 Cr in FY22. 

The startup’s total expenditure grew 71% to INR 738.3 Cr from INR 431.2 Cr in FY22.

Read: Purplle’s FY23 Sales Inch Closer To INR 500 Cr Mark, Loss Widens To INR 230 Cr

RapiPay’s Loss Doubles In FY23

After raising $15 Mn in 2022, fintech startup RapiPay saw its net loss jump over 2X in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The Noida-based startup incurred a net loss of INR 93.3 Cr in FY23 as against a loss of INR 40 Cr in the previous financial year. The significant rise in startup’s loss could be attributed to an increase in service and commission charges, which grew to INR 360.8 Cr in FY23 from INR 322.2 Cr in the previous year.

The startup’s revenue from operations also rose to INR 439.2 Cr in FY23 as compared to INR 371.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Read: Fintech Startup RapiPay’s Net Loss Jumps 2.3X To INR 93.3 Cr In FY23

RateGain’s Profit Jumps Over 700%

Traveltech SaaS startup RateGain reported a whopping 714% jump in profit to INR 68.4 Cr in FY23 from INR 8.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. The Delhi NCR-based company saw its revenue from operations jump over 54% to INR 565 Cr from INR 366 Cr in FY22. 

In Q1 FY24, the company tripled its profit after tax to INR 24.9 Cr from INR 8.4 Cr in the previous year. The company reported an 80% YoY increase in operating revenue to INR 214.5 Cr in Q1 FY24.

Read: RateGain Q1 PAT Almost Triples YoY To INR 24.9 Cr On Robust Travel Demand

Recykal Slips Into The Red 

Morgan Stanley-backed waste management marketplace Recykal slipped into the red in FY23, reporting a net loss of INR 25.7 Cr as against a net profit of INR 1.2 Cr in FY22. 

However, the Hyderabad-based startup’s operating revenue jumped 291% to INR 745.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 190.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Read: Morgan Stanley-Backed Recykal Slips Into The Red, Posts INR 25.7 Cr Loss In FY23

Rupeek’s Loss Declines 23% 

Gold loan startup Rupeek reported a 22.7% narrowed loss of INR 281.6 Cr in FY23 from INR 364.4 Cr in FY22. The Bengaluru-based startup’s revenue from operations dropped 27.7% to INR 88.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 122.9 Cr in FY22.

Total expenses fell one-fourth to INR 376.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 499.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Read: Fintech Startup Rupeek’s FY23 Loss Declines 23% To INR 282 Cr, Sales Slide 28%

Pine Labs-Owned Setu’s Loss Jumps Over 100%

Bengaluru-based fintech startup Setu’s FY23 net loss jumped 118% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 62 Cr. The startup’s operating revenue increased 22% to INR 14.2 Cr from INR 11.6 Cr a fiscal ago.

The fintech startup’s overall expenditure rose by over 77% to INR 79.6 Cr during the year under review from INR 44.9 Cr it spent in the previous fiscal year. 

Read: Pine Labs Owned Setu Spent INR 5.6 To Earn Every Rupee In FY23

Servify’s Operating Revenue Almost Doubles

Device management startup Servify’s net loss narrowed to INR 229.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 2,860.8 Cr posted in the previous fiscal, helped by a sharp decline in non-operating expenses.

Servify’s operating revenue almost doubled to INR 313 Cr during the year under review from INR 611.2 Cr in FY22.

The startup reported an over 73% decline in its total expenses to INR 846.7 Cr in FY23 from INR 3,176.4 Cr the previous year.

Read: Decline In Non-Operating Expenses Helps Servify Narrow FY23 Loss Over 90% To INR 229 Cr

ShareChat’s Loss Crosses INR 5,000 Cr Mark

India’s indigenous social media platform ShareChat saw its loss increase to INR 5,144 Cr in FY23 on the back of amortisation expenses due to the acquisition of MX Taka Tak. In FY22, the startup’s loss stood at INR 2,988.6 Cr in FY22.

ShareChat’s revenue from operations increased 59% to INR 552.7 Cr in FY23 from INR 346.9 Cr in FY22.

The startup’s total expenses increased 72% to INR 5,862.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 3,407.5 Cr

Read: Google Backed ShareChat’s Losses Ballooned To INR 4,064 Cr In FY23 

Shiprocket’s Revenue Crosses INR 1,000 Cr Mark

Zomato-backed logistics unicorn Shiprocket’s revenue from operations increased over 78% to INR 1,088.8 Cr in FY23 from INR 610.5 Cr on the back of its acquisition spree.

The startup’s loss increased over 425% to INR 333.8 Cr during the year under review from INR 63.6 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

On the expenses front, the Saahil Goel-led startup spent a total INR 1,397 Cr in FY23 as against INR 697.8 Cr it had spent in FY22.

Read: Shiprocket’s FY23 Revenue Crosses INR 1,000 Cr Mark, Reports 3.6X Surge In Loss

Spacetech Startup Skyroot’s Loss Doubles 

Indian spacetech startup Skyroot Aerospace saw its standalone net loss widen to INR 55.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 23.7 Cr in the prior fiscal year.

While the startup’s operating revenue rose to INR 44 Lakh in FY23 from INR 1.5 Lakh in the previous year, its expenses surged to INR 63 Cr during the year under review from INR 24 Cr in FY22.  

Read: Skyroot Aerospace’s FY23 Net Loss Jumps Over 2X To INR 55 Cr

Tata 1mg’s Sales Cross INR 1,600 Cr Mark

The online pharmacy, owned by the Tata Group, saw its net loss jump over 2X to INR 1,254.8 Cr in FY23 from INR 526 Cr in FY22. 

However, operating revenue jumped over 2.6X to INR 1,627 Cr in FY23 from INR 627 Cr it reported in the previous fiscal year. Unlike most startups, Tata 1mg reduced its marketing expenditure by 25% to INR 135 Cr in FY23 from INR 180 Cr in FY22. 

Read: Tata 1mg’s Net Loss Soars 2.3X To INR 1,259 Cr In FY23

Testbook’s Loss Almost Triples In FY23

Government job test prep startup Testbook’s loss surged 2.7X to INR 129.8 Cr in FY23 from INR 48 Cr in FY22.  The Mumbai-based startup’s revenue from operations rose 59% to INR 56.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 35.2 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Testbook’s expenses rose a whopping 2.2X to INR 186.7 Cr during the year under review from INR 81.4 Cr in the previous year, with employee benefit expenses climbing 200% to INR 95 Cr from INR 31.8 Cr in FY22. 

Read: Testbook Spent INR 3.3 To Earn Every Rupee From Operations In FY23

Tracxn Reports Profit In FY23

The Bengaluru-based market intelligence startup turned profitable in the financial ending on March 31, 2023. In FY23, Tracxn reported a net profit of INR 33 Cr as opposed to a net loss of INR 4.4 Cr it had reported in the previous fiscal year. Tracxn’s operating revenue stood at INR 78.1 Cr, a 23% increase from INR 63.4 Cr it reported in the previous fiscal year. 

However, Tracxn’s net profit declined 18% to INR 0.69 Cr in Q1 FY24 from INR 0.84 Cr in the year-ago quarter. 

Read: Tracxn’s Q1 Net Profit Halves QoQ To INR 69 Lakh, Revenue Slips 2.5%

True Balance’s Profit Jumps Over 17X 

Softbank-backed digital payments and lending platform True Balance saw its profit jump over 17X in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23). The Delhi NCR-based fintech startup reported a net profit of INR 59 Cr in the year under review, a 1,600% jump from INR 3.4 Cr it reported in the previous fiscal year. 

True Elements’ Spent INR 84 Cr To Earn INR 57 Cr

Marico-owned healthy snacks brand True Elements’ net loss jumped 37% to INR 18.6 Cr in FY23 from INR 13.6 Cr in FY22. 

While the startup’s operating revenue saw a 25% jump to INR 57.3 Cr in FY23 from INR 45.8 Cr in FY22, expenditure increased over 44% to INR 84.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 58.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. The startup’s biggest expenses, cost of materials consumed, increased over 43% to INR 36.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 25.5 Cr.

Read: True Elements Spent INR 84 Cr To Earn INR 57 Cr From Selling Healthy Snacks In FY23

Udaan’s FY23 Revenue Declines 43%

Bengaluru-based B2B ecommerce startup Udaan’s operating revenue declined 43% to INR 5,609.3 Cr in FY23 from INR 9,897.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Its net loss also fell 33.5% to INR 2,076 Cr in FY23 from INR 3,123.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

As per some media reports, Udaan is in discussions to raise around $250 Mn in  fresh round of funding. 

Read: Udaan’s Operating Revenue Drops 43% To INR 5,609 Cr In FY23

Unicommerce’s Profit Inches Up 

IPO-bound SaaS startup Unicommerce’s operating revenue zoomed 52% to INR 90 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 from INR 59 Cr in the previous fiscal year on strong demand for its services.

This resulted in the SoftBank-backed startup’s net profit rising 8% to INR 6.4 Cr in FY23 from INR 5.9 Cr in FY22.

The startup’s overall expense rose 55% to INR 84.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 54.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Read: IPO-Bound Unicommerce Posts INR 6.4 Cr Profit In FY23, Revenue Nears INR 100 Cr Mark

Uniphore’s Net Profit Quadruples

Uniphore, one of the few profitable unicorns, saw its net profit rise further in FY23. The startup’s profit jumped over 4X to INR 142.7 Cr in FY23 from INR 33.4 Cr in FY22. This was the second consecutive profitable year for the startup after it reported a net loss of INR 281.8 Cr in FY21. 

However, operating revenue fell 28% to INR 488.4 Cr and overall expenses also dropped 29% to INR 492.7 Cr in FY23. 

Read: Uniphore’s FY23 Profit Quadruples To INR 143 Cr As Revenue From India Soars 272X

upGrad’s Loss Jumps Past INR 1,000 Cr Mark

Mumbai-based edtech unicorn upGrad’s net loss surged 76% to INR 1,141.5 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) from INR 648.2 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

The startup’s bottom line took a hit due to goodwill writedown of INR 410 Cr despite its operating revenue crossing the INR 1,000 Cr mark. The Ronnie Screwvala-led startup reported an operating revenue of INR 1,169.6 Cr in FY23, an increase of 97% from INR 595 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

The startup’s overall expenses increased 56% to INR 1,938 Cr from INR 1,241 Cr reported in the previous fiscal year.

Read: upGrad’s FY23 Loss Surges To INR 1,141.5 Cr On Goodwill Writedown Of INR 410 Cr

Urban Company’s Employee Expenses Drops 15%

Delhi NCR-based consumer service startup Urban Company saw its net loss drop by 39% to INR 312.4 Cr in FY23 from INR 514 Cr in the previous fiscal year. The Dragonner-backed unicorn reported a net operating revenue of INR 636.5 Cr in FY23, a 45% jump from INR 437 Cr it had reported in the previous financial year. 

Interestingly, the company reduced its employee benefit expenses by 15% to INR 377 Cr in FY23 from INR 443.8 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Since the beginning of this year, the startup has been facing a series of protests from its partners over permanent blocking of their IDs due to a sudden increase in the required customer rating to continue working with the platform.

 Read: Urban Company’s India Biz Achieves Adjusted EBITDA Breakeven In Q1 FY24

Wakefit’s Operating Revenue Crosses INR 800 Cr Mark

D2C furniture and mattress startup Wakefit’s net loss widened by 37% to INR from INR 107 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Revenue from operations increased 28% to INR 813 Cr during the year under review from INR 632.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year.  Total expenses grew 30% to INR 965.6 Cr in FY23 from INR 743.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Read: After Spending INR 96 Cr On Advertising, Wakefit Incurs INR 146 Cr Loss In FY23

Xpressbees’ Loss Surges Over 6X 

Logistics unicorn Xpressbees’ net loss widened over 500% to INR 180.4 Cr in FY23 from INR 27.1 Cr in FY22. Operating revenue increased a mere 1.3X to INR 2,531.5 Cr during the year under review from INR 1,904.4 Cr in FY22.  

The TPG-backed startup’s total expenses grew 42% to INR 2,784.7 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,957.1 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Read: Logistics Unicorn Xpressbees’ FY23 Loss Surges Over 500% To INR 180 Cr

Yulu’s Loss Inches Closer To INR 100 Cr Mark

Emobility startup Yulu saw its consolidated net loss widen 71% to INR 94.9 Cr in FY23 from as against INR 55.5 Cr in FY22.

The cleantech startup’s operating revenue rose to INR 41.7 Cr, a 43.8% from INR 29 Cr it reported in the previous fiscal year. 

Yulu reported a total expenditure of INR 140.1 Cr in FY23, a sharp 60.5% increase from INR 87.3 Cr spent in the prior fiscal.

Read: Yulu’s FY23 Net Loss Widens 71% To INR 94.9 Cr As Business Expands

Zepto’s Revenue Suprasses INR 2,000 Cr Mark

Zepto, the latest entrant to the unicorn club, reported an operating revenue of INR 2,024.3 Cr in FY23, a 14X increase from INR 140.7 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

At the same time, the startup’s loss soared 3.2X to INR 1,272.4 Cr from INR 390 Cr in FY22.

Total expenses stood at INR 3,350 Cr in FY23 as against INR 532.7 Cr in the previous year.

Read: Zepto’s FY23 Revenue Jumps 14X To INR 2,078 Cr, Loss Triples To INR 1,272 Cr

Kamath Brothers’ Led Zerodha’s Revenue Inches Closer To INR 7,000 Cr Mark

Bootstrapped stock-broking platform Zerodah, led by Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, reported a total income of INR 6,875 Cr in FY23, an increase of 38% from INR 4,964 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

The Bengaluru-based unicorn, which is valued at $3.6 Bn, saw its net profit jump 39% to INR 2,907 Cr from INR 2,094.3 Cr in FY22.

Read: Zerodha’s FY23 Net Profit Rises To INR 2,907 Cr As Revenue Nears INR 7,000 Cr Mark

Zomato’s Loss Under INR 1,000 Cr

Delhi NCR-based food delivery giant saw its consolidated revenue surge over 68% to INR 7,079.4 Cr during the year under review. In the previous financial year, the startup had reported an operating revenue of INR 4,192.4 Cr. Zomato, which completed the acquisition of quick commerce delivery startup Blinkit in FY23, saw its net loss drop by 20.5% to INR 971 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,222.5 Cr in FY22. 

In the first quarter of FY24, the startup reported an operating revenue of INR 2,416 Cr as against INR 1,413.9 Cr in Q1 FY23. The startup also reported its first-ever profitable quarter. It posted a consolidated profit after tax (PAT) of INR 2 Cr in Q1 as against a consolidated net loss of INR 186 Cr in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. 

Read: Zomato Turns Profitable, Reports INR 2 Cr PAT In Q1

Edited By: Vinaykumar Rai
Last Updated: 16th December, 17:30 PM IST

The post Indian Startup FY23 Financials Tracker: Tracking The Financial Performance Of Top Startups appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Continuing with its upward momentum in the second week of December, the Indian startup ecosystem managed to secure $527 Mn across 21 deals, marking one of the highest funding weeks in the past two years, ever since the funding winter set in early 2022. This marks a 520% jump from $85 Mn raised across 18 deals in the preceding week.

Besides, the week also witnessed a mega deal in the ecosystem with Udaan raising $340 Mn in its Series E funding round. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Dec 11 – Dec 16]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce giant Udaan raised $340 Mn in its Series E financing round led by UK-based M&G Prudential, with participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global, making it the biggest funding deal of the week.
• Fuelled by Udaan’s funding, the ecommerce sector not only emerged as the most funded sector this week with $380.9 Mn funding but also witnessed a maximum number of deals with eight deal counts.
• Lightspeed Venture Partners emerged as the busiest investors as it participated in two deals each.
• Seed funding took a backseat this week with a mere $2.8 Mn across two deals.

Startup Acquisitions This Week

• US-and India-based CareStack, a cloud-based dental practice management platform acquired Kerala-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup Waybeo for an undisclosed amount.
• Direct-to-consumer (D2C) superfood brand Nourish You acquired Bengaluru-based One Good (erstwhile Goodmylk) for an undisclosed sum.
• Fintech startup M2P acquired big data analytics and intelligence platform Goals101 for $30 Mn in a cash-and-equity deal.
• Kunal Shah-backed Anq Finance acquired healthcare-focussed lending startup Kiwimoney for an undisclosed amount.
• Indian mobile gaming company Octro acquired Israel-based DGN Games for an undisclosed amount.

Other Major Developments From This Week

• Aditya Birla Group’s Hindalco Industries will invest INR 800 Cr to set up a battery foil manufacturing facility in Odisha’s Sambalpur district.
• Climate-focused Asha Ventures marked the first close of its debut fund at $50 Mn, which will have a total corpus of $100 Mn.

The post From Udaan To VeGrow — Indian Startups Raised $527 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

A total of 71 founders of 42 new-age tech companies in India took home INR 228.4 Cr in annual salaries in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23)!

The average founder annual salary rose marginally to INR 3.30 Cr in FY23 from INR 2.86 Cr in FY22.

This comes at a time when the ongoing funding winter has brought about a significant transformation in the country’s startup ecosystem, compelling startups to focus on profitability. This also meant cutting down cash burn, which resulted in companies taking aggressive cost-cutting measures, including pay cuts and layoffs.

According to Inc42’s layoff tracker, Indian startups have laid off more than 29,000 employees since the onset of the funding winter in 2022. 

While these drastic measures helped some startups turn profitable or reduce their losses, most of the startups are still bogged down by losses.

While 41 companies (excluding Lenskart) out of the aforementioned 42 reported a total operating revenue of INR 75,809 Cr in FY23, 23 of them incurred a combined loss of INR 17,615 Cr.

Amid all these, it’s natural for one to ask that if the employees are losing their jobs and taking pay cuts, have the founders of the new-age tech companies also seen a decrease in their remunerations? To answer this question and keep our readers up to date with the remunerations earned by the founders, Inc42 has launched the ‘Founder Salaries FY23 Tracker’. 

The tracker will keep you informed about the remuneration earned by the founders in FY23, the percentage increase/decrease in their salaries compared to FY22, and more.

Editor’s Note: This list is not a ranking of any kind, we have placed companies alphabetically. This is a running list and will be updated periodically. 

Founder Remuneration Tracker FY23

Companies are placed in alphabetical order | Data has been sourced from MCA filings, annual reports, and DRHPs | The remuneration Includes salary, wages, & bonus

*NOTE: Includes, salary, wages, & bonus

Nithin & Nikhil Kamath | Zerodha

Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, the cofounders of bootstrapped stock broking platform Zerodha, took home INR 48 Cr each in annual salaries in FY23, making them the highest paid founders in this list as of now. However, their remuneration remained unchanged from the previous fiscal year even as Zerodha’s net profit increased 37% to INR 2,909 Cr. Its total revenue inched closer to the INR 7,000 Cr mark during the year under review.

Ritesh Agarwal | OYO

OYO’s Ritesh Agarwal is currently second on the list. In FY23, Agarwal took home INR 12 Cr in remuneration, representing a 114% hike from INR 5.6 Cr withdrawn in FY22. It must be noted that while Agarwal’s compensation more than doubled during the year, the unicorn fired nearly 600 employees in FY23.

OYO reported a 34% decline in its net loss to INR 1,286.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,941.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year. The SoftBank-backed startup’s operating revenue grew 14% to INR 5,463.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 4,781.3 Cr in FY22. 

Deepak Singh Ahlawat | Gameskraft

Deepak Singh Ahlawat, the cofounder of Gameskraft, received one of the biggest hikes among the list of the cofounders featured in this list. His annual remuneration jumped 264.6% to INR 10.1 Cr in FY23 from INR 2.77 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

The startup’s revenue from operations jumped 24.8% to INR 2,662.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 2,133.1 Cr in FY22, while profit rose 14.2% to INR 1,061.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 930.4 Cr in FY22.

Manish Taneja | Purplle

Manish Tanjea and Rahul Dash, the cofounders of beauty ecommerce startup Purplle, took home INR 6.71 Cr each in remuneration in FY23, a hike of 527% from INR 1.07 Cr each they got in the previous fiscal year.

The startup’s operating revenue or sales stood at INR 474.9 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), an increase of 116% from INR 219.8 Cr in FY22. Loss grew 13% to INR 230 Cr from INR 203.6 Cr in FY22.

Nitish Mittersain | Nazara Technologies

Nitish Mittersain, CEO and cofounder of publicly listed Nazara Technologies, was one of the highest-paid founders in the year under review. Mittersain took home INR 4 Cr as remuneration in FY23. His remuneration increased 21% from INR 3.3 Cr he earned in the previous fiscal year. 

Meanwhile, the Mumbai-based company reported an operating revenue of INR 1,091 Cr in FY23, a jump of 75% from INR 621.7 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Net profit rose 21% to INR 61.4 Cr from INR 50.7 Cr in FY22. 

Vijay Shekhar Sharma | Paytm

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Paytm and the poster boy of the Indian fintech sector, took home INR 4 Cr as remuneration in FY23. Sharma’s annual remuneration increased 8% from INR 3.7 Cr in FY22. 

On the other hand, Paytm reported a 1.6X jump in operating revenue to INR 7,990.3 in FY23 from INR 4,974.2 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Net loss reduced 26% to INR 1,766.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 2,396.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Dinesh Agarwal | IndiaMART

Dinesh Agarwal, the founder of publicly listed B2B ecommerce marketplace IndiaMART, took home took home INR 3.8 Cr in salary, an increase of 11.8% from INR 3.4 in the previous year. 

The company which was founded in 1999 reported an operating revenue of INR 985.3 Cr in FY23, an increase of 31% from INR 753.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Profit, however, dipped around 5% to INR 283.8 Cr from INR 298 Cr in FY22. 

Sahil Barua & Kapil Bharati | Delhivery

Sahil Barua, the cofounder and CEO of Delhivery, received an annual remuneration of INR 3.1 Cr in FY23. This was a 11% increase from INR 2.88 Cr that he took home in the previous fiscal year. 

Kapil Bharati, the CTO of Delhivery, was fifth on the list with a remuneration of INR 3 Cr in FY23, an increase of 24% from INR 2.42 Cr in FY22.

Meanwhile, Delhivery reported a 5% jump in operating revenue to INR 7,225.3 Cr in FY23 from INR 6,882.2 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Loss was almost flat at INR 1,007.7 Cr in FY23 as against INR 1,011 Cr in FY22. 

Gaurav Singh Kushwaha| BlueStone

Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, the CEO and cofounder of Ratan Tata-backed jewellery brand Bluestone, took home an annual remuneration of INR 3.1 Cr. This was a surge of 313% from INR 75 Lakh he took home in the previous fiscal year.

Meanwhile, BlueStone saw its operating revenue increase 67% to INR 771 Cr in FY23 from INR 461.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Net loss jumped 183% to INR 167.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 59 Cr in FY22.

Last Updated: 15th December, 18:30 PM IST

The post Founder Salaries Tracker FY23: Amid The Funding Winter, How Much Did Startup Founders Earn? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Just when the Indian startup ecosystem was poised to reach new heights, the year 2022 unfolded like a nightmare and with it unravelled a flurry of distasteful events.

While the likes of Trell, Zilingo and BharatPe made headlines in 2022 for all the wrong reasons, 2023 became the extension of what could not be accomplished a year ago in terms of setting wrong precedents. 

From the boardroom brawls of BharatPe, founders falling victim to deception at a startup forum, financial mismanagement and syphoning of funds to accusations that Shark Tank judges failed to uphold their promises, the year thus far has been rife with controversies, painting a less-than-ideal picture of the Indian startup landscape.

Now that we stand on the edge of 2023 to welcome 2024, let’s take you through this year’s top controversies and disputes that we wished had never happened to start with.

With that said, let’s get the ball rolling.

Revisiting Major Startup Controversies That Stirred Up A Storm In 2023

BYJU’S 2023: A Year Of Turmoils

In 2023, the edtech juggernaut, BYJU’S, found itself ensnared in a series of controversies. The year commenced with a saga of delayed financial reporting, prompting the departure of auditor Deloitte Haskins & Sells and the exit of three influential board members — MD of Peak XV Partners V Ravishankar, Russell Dreisenstock of Prosus and Chan Zuckerberg’s Vivian Wu. 

As the year unfolded, BYJU’S encountered an inquiry by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), alleging a staggering INR 9,000 Cr violation of FEMA rules, resulting in a show cause notice. 

The challenges intensified when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took BYJU’S to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) over a dispute concerning sponsorship dues amounting to INR 158 Cr for the Indian cricket team’s jerseys.

In the midst of a difficult year, BYJU’S named Arjun Mohan as its India CEO. Close on the heels of him taking over the reins of the company, the edtech announced that it will have to let go of 4,000 employees. Not to mention, the edtech decacorn had already been laying off employees in small groups.

On December 6, it came to the fore that the startup had not submitted the PF of its staffers since August, even after deducting the same from their paycheques. BYJU’S made a similar folly last year too.  

Now, BYJU’S has scheduled an Annual General Meeting (AGM) on December 20, which is aimed at resolving a list of issues, including its much-awaited financial results for FY22. Although it has already posted an EBITDA loss of INR 2,253 Cr for FY22, much is still to be reported.

Under the pile of aforementioned troubles also lay the edtech’s legal tussle with its TLB investors, back-to-back valuation markdowns, several instances of misselling, and a likely sale of its subsidiary companies Great Learning and Epic by Byju Raveendran. 

As of now, the entire startup ecosystem seems to be closely keeping its eye on how the BYJU’S chapter will unfold in the upcoming year.

Financial Deception At GoMechanic & Mojocare 

In the early months of 2023, automobile after-sales startup GoMechanic, too, faced corporate governance crisis. Cofounder Amit Bhasin publicly admitted to committing “errors in judgement” regarding financial reporting while trying to pursue growth. 

The startup allegedly misled investors for years by showing fake numbers. GoMechanic was acquired by a consortium led by Lifelong Group, a majority shareholder in GoMechanic rival Servizzy for about INR 220 Cr. But major investors of GoMechanic, including Orios Venture Partners and Peak XV Partners, filed a joint complaint against the startup’s founders, leading to an FIR by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing. 

 In a similar story, healthtech startup Mojocare’sfounders, Ashwin Swaminathan and Rajat Gupta, too, confessed to cooking the books. 

This confession led to a change in leadership and eventual plans to shutter operations, returning capital to investors. 

India’s Very Own Fyre Festival For Startups 

Just three months into 2023, the patience of Indian founders was put to the test by the organisers of The World Startup Convention (WSC).

Promoted as India’s biggest funding festival by influencers such as Ankur Warikoo, Prafull Billore, Chetan Bhagat and Raj Shamani, the three-day event was supposed to host minister Nitin Gadkari, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and the Crown Prince of Dubai as speakers from March 24 to March 26 in Greater Noida.

Much to everyone’s annoyance, the event proved to be a sham, triggering a clash as some attendees spent over INR 50 Lakh to become a sponsor of the event for the World Startup Convention.

While the organisers of the event, Luke Talwar and Arjun Chaudhary, denied any charges of cheating and duping the participants anywhere between INR 6,000 to INR 8,000 for a three-day pass, clashes between organisers and attendees led to police intervention at the venue.

Along with organisers Luke Talwar and Arjun Chaudhary, influencers like Ankur Warikoo and Chetan Bhagat were blamed for endorsing the event. 

At the time we had questioned — “Where is India’s influencer economy headed?” 

The  Broker Network Implosion 

In the middle of the year, 4B Networks, the third entrepreneurial stint of Housing.com founder Rahul Yadav, came into the headlines. The controversy started when its investor Info Edge initiated a forensic audit into the affairs of the proptech startup. 

As the investigation unfolded, from unsettled debts to multiple entities to an alleged illicit transfer of funds from Broker Network to two other companies associated with Rahul Yadav and his wife, Karishma Singh, several issues were revealed.

It turned out that the money from 4B Networks took a detour to Yadav’s holding company and then found its way to a company called Kult App, where Yadav’s wife played a big role. 

In November, Rahul Yadav was quite close to being put behind bars but had a close shave in an INR 50 Lakh cheque bounce case filed in May by an erstwhile Broker Network employee, Arun Singh Shekhawat. 

It must be noted that the Economic Offences Wing is also investigating two separate cases against Yadav, one of which is filed by Broker Network’s lead investor Info Edge, alleging an INR 288 Cr graft. In addition, employees of the company have also not been paid since September 2022.

Embroiled in multiple allegations of fraud, Yadav’s story once again shows how important it is for founders to have strong ethics in place.

The BharatPe-Ashneer Grover Brawl Intensified In 2023

The BharatPe-Ashneer Grover brawl continued to make headlines into 2023 as well. Topping the list of headlines was a criminal complaint against Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, and her family members, which turned into a full-blown FIR by Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW). 

Despite Grover’s consistent denial of allegations, a lookout circular led to the couple being stopped at the Delhi Airport. Alongside, the EOW’s probe allegedly uncovered payments to sham HR consultancies run by Madhuri Jain and her kin.

Already in the face of EOW questioning for allegedly syphoning funds from BharatPe, beleaguered former managing director Ashneer Grover landed himself in yet another legal soup just last month (November).

The fintech juggernaut filed a fresh case against its outspoken ex-MD in the Delhi High Court for publicly sharing the company’s confidential information on a social networking platform. The ex-MD had to apologise for the posts and was slapped with an INR 2 Lakh fine.

Mounting a multi-pronged legal offensive against the Grovers, BharatPe has initiated as many as 15 proceedings against the couple and their kin, including a civil suit for alleged embezzlement that seeks INR 88.67 Cr in damages from the duo.

The INR 200 Cr Wedding Aisle That Led To Mahadev Betting App Scam

In February 2023, the opulent INR 200 Cr wedding of Indian native Sourabh Chandrakar in Ras Al-Khaimah, the UAE, drew the attention of enforcement agencies. Hailing from his humble origins as a juice vendor in Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai, Chandrakar’s meteoric rise raised the eyebrows of many in the government as they began a full-scale investigation into his finances. 

Seven months later, the Enforcement Directorate unearthed the Mahadev app online betting scam, exposing Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal as its masterminds.  

In October, the ED filed a chargesheet, naming 14 persons, including Chandrakar and Uppal, before a PMLA court in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The Mumbai Police later joined the probe, too, and booked 32 individuals during its investigation. 

Caught in between seem to be a clutch of prominent figures and Bollywood celebrities who have been interrogated and named in various chargesheets and complaints filed by both the police and the ED. 

Meanwhile, on December 23, it was reported that Uppal was detained in Dubai by the local police on the basis of a red notice issued by the Interpol at the behest of the enforcement directorate.

ZestMoney’s Saga Of Failed Acquisitions, Founder Troubles & Shut Down 

The journey of ZestMoney, once the BNPL poster child of India, came to an end after the management shocked its employees by asking them to stay at home from December 7.

The management had to pull the plug on the company after an internal funding round failed to materialise, as per sources. 

For the uninitiated, the cash-starved startup was fighting many battles — founders calling it quits, failed acquisition bids, regulatory hurdles and a severe slowdown in the core BNPL business. 

It is imperative to mention that ZestMoney once held its head high with a peak valuation of $455 Mn. However, soon the company fell into a debt trap due to growing NPAs, sub-par collections and a faulty business model. This was despite the company’s claim of catering to 17 Mn registered users. In FY22, ZestMoney’s losses bloated 3X YoY at INR 398.8 Cr due to a steep rise in expenses. 

Operating within a business model similar to BNPL players like LazyPay and Simpl, ZestMoney was sitting on an NPA rate exceeding 13%, way above the healthy BNPL loan default rate of 2-3%.

Earlier in the year, ZestMoney’s cofounders Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma, and Ashish Anantharaman stepped down. Following their exits, the new management took over and was in talks to raise funds but to no avail.

Did Sharks Ghost Founders? 

The popular TV show Shark Tank India has undeniably left a lasting impact on citizens, so much so that the show is one of the topics of discussion at the Indian dinner table.

However, the euphoria surrounding the show has been marred by allegations from young founders who have voiced concerns about the conduct of investors, aka ‘Sharks’. 

Many participants of Shark Tank India told Inc42 that the Sharks have deliberately delayed investments under various pretexts. The participants have also alleged that the Sharks are impolite in person and deride their business models even after promising investments.

Complicating matters further, as per the participants, is the absence of proper documentation of the funding commitments they get on-air, which makes it tough for them to seek legal recourse. Notably, verbal promises lack the legal weightage necessary for pursuing legal recourse.

In June, we were also told that Sony TV only assures of providing a platform, and there are no terms and conditions to protect our interest if judges renege on their pledge.

At the time, it also came to the fore that Sharks got defensive and reneged from their commitments after engaging in the due diligence processes of some of the show’s participants.

[Edited by Shishir Parasher & Vinaykumar Rai]

The post Disputes, Deception & Fibs: Revisiting Major Startup Controversies That Stirred Up A Storm In 2023 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Last year, this time around, we remember mentioning how 2023 would be no different from the year in review (2022), which took jobs of more than 18K startup employees due to reasons galore. 

As expected, the layoff axe continued to slash employee headcounts at Indian startups, with over 17K jobs already lost as of December 8 this year. Essentially, the primary factors that played a macro role in making 2022 an attrition-heavy year found their way into 2023 as well.

For the uninitiated, the entire 2022 was laden with the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the global economy, ailing markets, rampant inflation and the fear of a global recession. These, in turn, impacted investor sentiment, along with the fact that Indian startups had little to deliver but cash burns.

Long story short, according to the data collated by Inc42, more than 35K startup employees have lost their jobs since the onset of the funding winter in Q1 2022. However, if industry experts are to be believed, 5,000+ layoffs have gone unreported.

Moving on, leading the onslaught are BYJU’S, Ola, Unacademy, Blinkit, and WhiteHat Jr, which have shown doors to 13,740+ employees in the last two years. Interestingly, among these industry frontrunners in living the layoff dream, BYJU’S takes the podium with 6,500+ job cuts.

While BYJU’S, Ola, Unacademy, Blinkit and WhiteHat Jr together sacked an estimated 9,390 employees in 2022, BYJU’S, Skill-Lync, GoMechanic, ShareChat and ZestMoney made 6,075+ employees look for pastures new.

Now, we can either blame the ongoing funding winter for the meltdown in the startup job market or talk about the factors that have largely remained hidden in plain sight, adding more blue to the Indian startup gloom.

Two Attrition-Heavy Years: Who’s To Blame?

As per the Inc42 analysis, homegrown startups raised $8.67 Bn between January and November 2023 against $22 Bn and $27 Bn during the same time in 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Looking at the correction rate, which stands at 61% for 2022 and 68% for 2021, it is easy to blame the funding winter, which is the root cause of almost every anomaly in the Indian startup space.

However, if you are a regular reader of Inc42, you would know that we always try to look beyond the clichés in our endeavour to bring forth deeper analogies and equations working in the background.  

In our perusal to look beyond the funding winter, we learned that the world’s third-largest startup economy is also vulnerable to attrition caused by high work stress.

It is also imperative to mention that, unlike typical 9-5 office jobs, startups seek high levels of commitment, ownership, accountability and efficiency from their employees. “Therefore, several employees leave due to high stress and workload,” an industry expert said. 

According to a March 2023 EY report, the ecommerce, technology and related sectors – all startup-related segments – experienced attrition rates exceeding 20%, with an average involuntary turnover of 4.4% across segments.

Moving on, given that many similarities exist between startups and tech companies regarding employee skill sets, the high attrition rate in the two circles results from people leaving one domain to enter another.

Further, it is anybody’s guess that the state of the Indian startup workforce has been adversely impacted by geopolitical and macroeconomic developments over the past two years — rising energy and food prices, the US hitting its debt ceiling, the trade war between the US and China, the Russia-Ukraine war and the Palestine-Israel conflict.

Global inflation rose on the back of these developments and all these factors confected a reduced market liquidity. This has broken the confidence of VCs and PEs in Indian startups, making them think twice before embarking on the route fraught with uncomfortable twists and turns. 

As such, grappling with falling revenues and mounting losses, capital-hungry Indian startups have been sacking employees just to extend their cash runway for a bit longer.

Adding insult to injury, the emergence of generative AI has been yet another dent in the image of the Indian startup corporate culture. With the rapid adoption of AI, industry experts see consumer-facing roles being rendered obsolete soon. 

Startup Turnarounds Made Employees Pay Heavily In 2023

According to Inc42’s Indian Startup Layoff Tracker, which monitors startup layoffs across the country, nearly two-thirds of the layoffs that took place during the year (2023) were attributed to restructuring or turnaround efforts by various Indian startups. 

In terms of numbers, nearly 11K employees have been impacted by restructuring exercises so far this year. Going by the available data, only about one-fifth of the laid-off employees lost their jobs due to cost-cutting measures. This number ought to be much higher, but the current analysis only considers the official reasons for layoffs provided by the startups.

Meanwhile, during the year, late stage Indian startups accounted for more than half of the total layoffs conducted in the Indian startup realm, witnessing a respite from 2022 when late stage startup layoffs accounted for approximately 70% of the total job cuts.

On average, a late stage startup sacked 14% of its workforce in a typical layoff exercise in 2023 compared to 265 growth stage and 41% at the early stage. It is imperative to note that industry experts see the layoff trend mirroring stage-wise funding trends observed during the year. 

According to Inc42 data, growth stage funding fell 38% during the first half of 2023. Meanwhile, late stage funding increased by 30% YoY, which might be a reason why late stage startups saw fewer layoffs this year than last year.

Edtech, Consumer Services, Enterprise Tech Employees Among The Worst-Hit

Among the 11 startup segments that saw layoffs during 2023, edtech, consumer services and enterprise tech saw the most job losses. Two of every three startup employees laid off during the year worked in one of the aforementioned segments.

Refusing to budge, edtech continued to be the startup employees’ worst nightmare, accounting for more than 40% of all layoffs during the year at more than 6,758. BYJU’S, the edtech behemoth, alone accounted for nearly a quarter of the total layoffs recorded by Inc42 during the year so far.

Consumer services retained its unfortunate label alongside edtech as being among the top segments impacted by layoffs for two consecutive years. This year, 11 startups in the sector fired over 2,105 employees. Across the past two years, 19 startups in the space let go of nearly 7,400 people.

Enterprise tech became an unexpected entry into the startup layoff realm as 18 startups from the segment fired over 1,700 employees during the year. Troubled by the fall in enterprise spending across the globe, the segment’s share in handing out pink slips jumped from 2.6% in 2022 to 10.3% in 2023.

Will 2024 Be Any Better?

The last few years have been quite paradoxical. While we have observed investors going gaga over the charm of Indian founders, we have also witnessed them tightening their purse strings in no time.

For instance: The nine months between July 2021 and March 2022 were witness to the most intense funding activity the Indian startup ecosystem had ever seen. In just three quarters, homegrown startups raised $44 Bn.

In contrast, the nine months between July 2022 and March 2023 saw the worst layoffs during any time in the history of the Indian startup ecosystem. During this period, 63 Indian startups fired 12,214 employees.

However, the only common trend in 2023 has been investors’ distastefulness in making vanity startup bets, despite accumulating billions of dollars in dry powder.

As analysts continue to sound caution over unsustainable business models and growth trajectories, Indian startups seem to be rethinking their approach and strategy.

On a different note, rating agency Fitch delivered a mix of good and bad news earlier this week. While the good news is that the US economy has managed to avoid a recession, the bad news projects the world’s growth to fall sharply to 2.1% in 2024 from 2.9% in 2023.

Predicting the future is a fool’s errand. However, we can only expect 2024 to be the year of revival, with global supply chains returning to normalcy and core inflation cooling off faster than anticipated.

However, given that the current funding scenario reminds one of the pre-pandemic funding era, employee retrenchment is an anomaly we may see Indian startups bracing in yet another painful year on the employee front.

The post Two Years, 35,000+ Job Cuts: Indian Startup Layoffs Continue, Will 2024 Bring Change? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

It’s a season of pain for even some of the most storied venture capital firms in India, and Omidyar Network is just the latest one to succumb.

The firm, which has backed the likes of 1mg, Bounce, Indifi, ZestMoney, Drinkprime, DealShare, Vedantu, Pratilipi among other startups, is shutting down its India operations.

While the announcement has come this week, Omidyar Network India will completely transition out of the Indian market by the end of 2024.

“After several months of deliberation, it has been decided that Omidyar Network India will stop making new investments and will completely transition out of the market by the end of 2024. Over the next two months, the board and leadership team will assess how best to manage the organisation’s portfolio while recognising the long and trusted partnerships that the Omidyar Network India team has built,” a statement from the firm said.

Active in India since 2009, Omidyar is among the handful of VCs that have seen the startup ecosystem grow to its current size from a nascent part of the economy.

There’s some speculation of a division within the Omidyar Network India (ONI) management to further separate the Indian investment vehicle from Omidyar Network’s global investment arm. But at the moment, the firm remains tight-lipped about the next steps.

What we do know is that in a conversation with some founders of its portfolio, ONI has set a 3-5 year horizon for exiting its investments and the firm is likely to also transition out of many boards where its representatives are currently directors.

“The leadership had a short call with some of us portfolio founders and informed us about the next steps, which included the estimated exit horizons and also boardroom changes,” one founder who was present on the call told Inc42.

The founder said Omidyar was clear that there would be no change in management at least until December 2024 and indicated that the firm is not likely to be in a hurry to liquidate its assets, even though that will be the primary focus area.

But before we look at the implications on its portfolio, it’s important to understand what exactly forced Omidyar to quit the Indian market, and as we will see, there are multiple factors at play here, including the firm’s problems with Indian law enforcement. The fund managers and partners we spoke to called it a “sudden-yet-expected” departure.

Omidyar’s India Experience

Backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, Omidyar Network India is a veteran in the Indian startup ecosystem, having invested in new-age ventures since 2009 onwards.

While its core focus has been on impact investing in nonprofits and grassroots organisations, it has also branched out to back startups in the mobility, fintech, edtech and other for-profit sectors, and has invested through three separate entities from its early days.

As per its website, the company has a total AUM of $673 Mn with over 120 portfolio companies. Over 70% of this corpus has been invested in private for-profit ventures.

In 2023, Omidyar invested in Indifi’s Series E round, as well as Series A rounds of SatSure, Sequretek, Kiwi, DGV and ZestMoney, which incidentally is in the process of dissolution. Most recently, Omidyar Network India led dairy fintech startup Digivriddhi Technologies’ (DGV) INR 50 Cr ($6 Mn) Series A funding round.

Over the years, ONI has also seen exits from the likes of WhiteHat Jr, Dailyhunt, Pickrr, NowFloats, Credlfow, IndusOS and 1mg, many of which were acquired by leading companies. Indeed, its exit track record is healthy for a firm of its vintage, given that even the likes of Tiger Global and others have struggled to extract high returns in recent years.

For instance, WhiteHat Jr was acquired by BYJU’S in August 2020, netting a 17X return for Omidyar. Besides this, 1mg was acquired by Tata Digital in June 2021 in a high-profile deal; NowFloats was acquired by Reliance Industries for $20 Mn and IndusOS by PhonePe for a reported valuation of $60 Mn in 2022.

Despite these positive outcomes, it seems Omidyar has lost patience with the Indian market. Or was its hand forced by external factors that are not related to its portfolio, as is the speculation in the immediate aftermath of the announcement?

Why Omidyar Is Quitting India

The undeniable fact is that Omdiyar’s track record of exits has also come alongside controversies related to its investments in non-profit organisations, some of which have come under the radar for the source of funding.

For one, Omidyar Network India came under fire in 2021 when it was placed on a watch list by the home ministry, which came with restrictions on the foreign donations it could accept.

Omidyar was named as an accused by the Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI) for allegedly conspiring to illegally facilitate the registration and renewal of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) licences. FCRA licences are mandatory when receiving funds from foreign sources for charitable purposes.

Additionally, Omidyar has come under fire from members of the current ruling party in India for being associated with alleged iPhone hacking warning messages and its monetary contribution to entities that are said to be working against the interests of India.

Moreover, in June 2021, SEBI alleged that Franklin Templeton’s Asia Pacific head Vivek Kudva and his wife Roopa — ONI’s former managing partner — had violated insider trading laws and barred them from investing in the capital markets for one year.

While this is unrelated to Omidyar’s investments in startups, having the country head named in such a case would undoubtedly have carried some reputational risk for the firm.

The challenges with law enforcement and the general crackdown on FCRA violations by the Indian government have coincided with some pressure on Omidyar’s portfolio in 2022 and 2023.

Many of its portfolio companies have, in recent times, come under stress due to the tough market conditions as well as a paucity of funds. Doubtnut, for instance, was acquired by Allen Career Institute in a distress deal. Doubtnut is said to have been acquired for $10 Mn, despite raising more than $50 Mn in its lifetime.

One ONI portfolio founder told Inc42 that the firm is likely to have booked a loss of over 75% on its investment in Doubtnut. The state of other portfolio companies is also not great. The likes of Bounce, Dealshare, Healofy and others have come under scrutiny for weak business models, founder exits as well as slow revenue growth.

Interestingly, the leadership situation at the firm is less than clear after Kudva’s exit. One noteworthy point is that Omidyar’s decision-making layers have dedicated directors as well as partners. It’s not clear exactly who is calling the shots.

On the director level, the firm has leaders such as Amol Warange, Aditya Misra, Lakshmi Pattabi Raman, Sarvesh Kanodia, Sushant Kumar and Treasa Mathew. At the same time, the firm also has partners such as Siddharth Nautiyal, Badri Pillapakkam, Mahesh Krishnamurthy, and Shilpa Kumar.

This leadership structure is largely due to the fact that Omidyar’s focus was split between private investments as well as funding and grants to nonprofits. However, many VCs believe this is an antiquated structure and often results in delays in investment decisions.

And finally, there is the changing landscape of impact investing in India. When Omidyar arrived in India, its impact investing focus was on grassroots organisations and community-led MSMEs. But today, impact investing is moving into areas such as manufacturing and large-scale production which offer higher potential for employment and economic growth. As such, Omidyar’s thesis is perhaps also a bit outdated in the Indian context and might be better suited for other geographies.

VCs Feel The Heat 

Portfolio problems are of course not exclusive to Omidyar — other VC firms have seen partners exit by the droves and are in the process of dissolution in some form or the other. We have seen changes at firms such as Lightbox, Orios VP, Together Fund and others in recent weeks.

Tiger Global partner Scott Shleifer’s comments earlier this year about the lack of big returns from India also signalled a change of heart for some of the biggest investors in India. Plus, there is a great deal of competition in the early-stage ecosystem where Omidyar likes to operate.

As we have reported throughout this year, the changes at the partner level at VC firms is largely a result of poor performance of the funds and pressure from limited partners. However, this does not seem to be the case with Omidyar, according to the founder and CEO of a unicorn startup in Omidyar’s portfolio.

In the case of Omidyar, the firm is likely to have faced little to no pressure from its limited partners given the fact that most of the firm’s invested corpus comprised the personal wealth of founder Omidyar.

Another factor is that India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) rules excluded Mauritius from the list of geographies exempted from the so-called angel tax. This meant that ONI, which invested through a special purpose vehicle named ON Mauritius, would be subject to tax action in relation to the gains in valuation when investing in startups.

According to the founding partner of a Bengaluru-based early-stage firm, the word within VC circles was that a lot of firms are likely to quit the Indian market due to portfolio trouble and the changing landscape around investment thesis particularly for emerging technologies.

“While this is the moment for impact investing in India, Omidyar’s troubles with CBI were well-known. Most VCs are only surprised by how quickly the firm has announced its exit, not the fact that it has,” the partner mentioned above added.

Of course, the exit of a major investor (at least in the case of some startups) is likely to be a headache for the startup founders. What does Omidyar’s exit mean for its portfolio?

The Portfolio Impact

“In the call with founders, Omidyar was clear that the Indian ecosystem is maturing and that it no longer sees room for the role it played in the past decade. They called it a decision taken by the global leadership which would see the focus shift to other geographies,” one Delhi NCR-based portfolio founder told Inc42.

Naturally, we wanted to know what it meant for some of the companies that had already raised significant amounts from Omidyar in the past year. The likes of Indifi are at an inflection point, having also reached profitability, while others such as Vedantu, Bounce and Dealshare are said to be transitioning to better unit economics. Will Omidyar’s departure have ripple effects that disrupt this momentum?

“The biggest impact will be on the startups which have just raised a seed or Series A round from Omidyar. The exit of one major backer is a signal to the rest of the market, but again this depends on the stage of the company and how much stake Omidyar owns in the company,” the founder quoted above added.

On the positive side, another founder pointed out that given that the firm has announced its intention to exit the portfolio, it will likely make it easier to execute secondary share sales. “Typically investors are okay with a discount when they want to exit, so secondary sales might even see a discount of 40%-50% in some cases. This means founders can buy back some shares at a low rate if they have the capital,” added another Bengaluru-based founder in Omidyar’s portfolio.

Ultimately, M&As are also a possibility for some startups that are staring at an uncertain future. Given the fact that ONI’S portfolio includes some unicorns such as Dealshare and Vedantu, these startups could even acquire some of the distressed startups in the firm’s portfolio.

Whatever the fate of the portfolio startups, Omidyar’s exit is a major signal for the Indian VC and startup ecosystem. Will this be the first of the old guard to give way to a new breed of investors?

There’s also a positive undercurrent in the Indian market for domestic investors and increasing participation of HNIs and Indian corporates in the VC ecosystem. Omidyar’s global DNA runs against this grain. But many in the ecosystem feel its exit from India is nevertheless sudden and there could be a domino effect in store.

The post Behind Omidyar Network’s ‘Sudden-Yet-Expected’ India Exit appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Investment firm Omidyar Network, a backer of leading Indian startups such as 1mg, Bounce, Indifi, DealShare, HealthKart, and Pratilipi, is shutting down its India operations.

Omidyar Network India confirmed the development in a statement, saying it will “completely transition out of the market by the end of 2024”.

“After several months of deliberation, it has been decided that Omidyar Network India will stop making new investments and will completely transition out of the market by the end of 2024. Over the next two months, the board and leadership team will assess how best to manage the organisation’s portfolio while recognising the long and trusted partnerships that the Omidyar Network India team has built,” the statement said.

TechCrunch was the first to report the development.

A source told the publication that the impact investment firm’s India team wants to reunite and raise money externally to start a new fund but cautioned that it’s too early and the plans may change and deliberations may fail.

Backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, the social impact-focussed investment firm had about $673 Mn cumulative assets under management and its portfolio startups reached 735 Mn people cumulatively till July 2023, as per an investor presentation.

Most recently, Omidyar Network India led dairy fintech startup Digivriddhi Technologies’ (DGV) INR 50 Cr ($6 Mn) Series A funding round.

Last month, fintech startup Kiwi also raised $13 Mn in a Series A funding round led by Omidyar Network India. 

The investment firm has backed businesses across areas including education and employability, emerging tech, financial inclusion and well being and property inclusivity. 

While India’s startup ecosystem is booming, concerns have been raised about the returns made by venture investors in the country, especially amidst the funding winter over the last two years.

Omidyar Network said in its statement that the decision to pull out of India was heavily informed by the significant change in context and the growth in the economic landscape that the India-based team has experienced since first making investments in 2010. 

“Today, there is more Indian-led philanthropic and venture capital than ever before, the country has a vibrant startup sector, and several funds now have a middle and lower-middle income focus as part of their investment strategy. From its outset, the Omidyar Network India team identified these system shifts as critical to impact and worked diligently to help catalyse this change,” the investment firm said.

It is also pertinent to note that 2023 hasn’t been very smooth for Omidyar Network as its portfolio startup ZestMoney, a major name in BNPL that was once valued at $450 Mn, had to shut shop. Its another portfolio startup Doubtnut, which had raised over $50 Mn, also got acquired by Allen Career Institute for $10 Mn.

The development also comes at a time when the venture capital ecosystem in India seems to be going through a churn. A number of partners and fund manages have quit venture capital firms in recent times to either launch their own funds or startups. 

On Monday, it was reported that Lightrock India partner and chief financial officer (CFO) Kushal Agrawal will be stepping down from this role at the end of the ongoing month.

The post DealShare, Indifi Backer Omidyar Network To Exit India appeared first on Inc42 Media.