Commercial due diligence on a gold loan platform

Even though banks' dealing with SMEs have somewhat changed over the years, many small entrepreneurs resort to private credit as most banks and large non-banking finance companies have limited exposure to them

2023 is on track to be the most successful year for Indian private credit investments. In the first half of the year, approximately $ 5.1 billion was invested across 63 deals. With India's projected growth to a $ 7.5 trillion economy over the next decade, the opportunity for private credit managers is $100 billion.

Private Credit investments in India have reached a record high of 16 per cent of total alternative investments in 2023H1 from 5 per cent in 2018

Aspects such as trade practices, accounting practices, expense policies, profiles of suppliers, related-party vendors are getting the spotlight now,” Madhur Singhal, managing partner, financial investors group at Praxis Global Alliance,

Till last year, every good asset was being chased by several funds, this year that’s not the case. Till last year, there was fear of losing out on the deal.

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, India saw an increase in private deal activity in 2021. Over 1,000 venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) projects were completed, totaling nearly US$ 74B in FDI.

Investment platform LetsVenture’s co-founder Shanti Mohan has launched a Rs 50 crore (around $6.3 million) micro venture fund to invest in early-stage startups

The Indian startup biological system is not working smoothly compared to last year.

But what makes family offices (FOs) a favourite is critical long-term capital with investment horizons of 6-10 years. These large family-owned capital pools are now managed by young scions of rich business families. They are more adventurous with riskier investment such as seed-stage startups, unlisted companies, newbie venture funds and greenfield real estate projects.

No Indian startup achieved the billion dollar unicorn status in the month of April 2022, which seems quite shocking given the pace that was set in the first quarter of 2022.

Raj Savla’s last year at IIT Bombay fintech, and he was given the Slice credit card in June of last year. With no money, he didn’t have many options for getting a loan or credit. Savla, born and raised in Mumbai, was excited to try Slice. She is a big fan of the Indian startup scene.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) focused venture capital fund Fluid Ventures on Monday announced the final close of its debut fund at Rs 50 crore (around $6.6 million).

Global headwinds like a hike in interest rates by the US, geopolitical tensions arising from the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict, crude oil prices going uphill, and battering of tech stocks have induced caution among investors.

Global belief in the India growth story seems to be strong as seen by an analysis of private market investments in 2021.

Marked by funding frenzy and a record number of unicorns, 2021 was a dream run for Indian start-ups. But, rising geo-political tensions and volatile domestic market could play spoilsport this year.

The Covid-19 pandemic has upset the world in unimaginable ways, making the norms of business turn topsy-turvy. Now the question arises, Is it good time to take the plunge and build your own startup? Has setting up a startup changed with the advent of the ‘new normal?’

The information era has seen a tremendous rise in new businesses.

At least 5,354 startups were founded in Delhi during 2019-21, against Bengaluru’s 4,998

The startup funding ecosystem has evolved beyond angel investors and venture capitalists

There have been four unicorn fundraises this week (including Xpressbees)

Disruptors Capital on Thursday said it has launched a Rs 120 crore early-stage venture capital fund to invest in tech startups across India, Southeast Asia and the US.

Today, the aspiration of any startup founder is to have three important constituencies on their cap table – a large VC firm, a micro VC firm and a prominent angel investor.

Fintech leads the sectoral pack with the potential to add 15 unicorns. Logistics and agritech are jointly expected to create 13 unicorns in the coming months

India’s unicorn run is far from losing stream. The country, which added over 40 unicorns to its growing kitty in 2021,

Fintech, healthtech, SaaS segments will continue to find favour with investors; however, the B2B space will emerge as a big theme next year.

More family offices are opting to invest in startups directly, rather than backing them through VC funds.

In the public domain, multi-family offices are strictly viewed as wealth management and advisory firms that are meant for the ultra-rich.

India is expected to have more than 10,000 ultra wealthy people by 2025. By that time, they could be worth up to $700 billion. And India's tech startup ecosystem will be an appealing playground for their funds.

Typically, micro-VC funds have a corpus of less than $30 Mn and they invest in 10-15 pre-seed and seed stages of startups, rarely going to post-seed. According to a recent report by IVCA, AWS and Praxis Global Alliance, the number of micro-VC funds in India has increased to 88 in 2020 from 29 in 2014.

Seeders’ founders come from a vast angel investment background — over $4.2 Mn invested across 100+ startups — to make pre-seed and seed investments beginning with 24 startups a year — nearly 2 every month.

Five start-ups joined the $1-billion club in two weeks.

From its debut fund of INR 225 Cr, Artha Venture Fund (AVF) has announced a specialised program “Artha Access” to invest INR 25 Lakhs in 40 startups

Pune-based Pentathlon Ventures is an early-stage B2B SaaS-focused VC firm, has announced the final close of its debut fund at INR 76 Cr to invest in 20+ startups

In the past few years, some angel networks have been working very hard to educate and create awareness about start-ups as an asset class in Tier-II/III/IV cities, which has initiated the process of democratisation of angel investing in India.

In the past year, VC firms have become a suitable form of funding for small businesses and startups seeking colossal capital investment in their early stages of growth.

PE investors have found the telecom sector to be an attractive investment avenue owing to its dynamic nature. The biggest factor driving the steady inflow of PE funds in the sector has been the breakneck speed of subscriber additions. According to a report by the Competition Commission of India, the increase in subscriptions in the telecom sector has been nothing short of dramatic, on occasion touching even 20 million in a month.

It has aggressively passed checks to Indian startups in the first half of 2021, surpassing venture capital firm Sequoia Capital as the company with the most significant number of investments in Indian unicorn companies.

Startups can benefit the most from alumni networks at the earliest stages, said Abhishek Nag, Atrium cofounder and Netflix director of business development

The Indian startup ecosystem has rallied sharply despite the pandemic. The year 2021 has till now recorded M&A value of $3.8 billion as compared to $1.3 billion in 2020, and the momentum is likely to stay strong.

The startup ecosystem in India has been oozing positivity in our Nation by being the important engine for growth and job generation.

With a record number of Indian startups becoming unicorns this year and around a dozen preparing to go public, the availability of venture capital in the market has shot through the roof.

BharatPe, in a funding round led by Tiger Global Management, has secured $370 million, raising the company's worth to $2.85 billion in just six months.

Five years since the launch of the Start-Up India initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is witnessing a golden chapter in the history of Indian entrepreneurship.

India is well-positioned to supplant China as the darling of foreign investors looking for the next big tech unicorn

The company’s attrition rate has increased to 13.9% in June quarter.

Data sourced from market research firm Venture Intelligence revealed that VC (venture capital) investment in start-ups touched a whopping $12.1 billion in the first six months of the year alone.

Investment vehicles operated by billionaires and ultra HNIs are expected to contribute around 30% of the estimated $100 billion to be raised by startups in India by 2025.

India is now an emerging unicorn hotspot with 16 startups entering the league this year.

An in-depth understanding of Praxis Global Alliance and 256 Network's latest report on HNI and UHNI investment trends for startups in India.

Some of India’s wealthiest families are likely to be behind the flurry of funds that the country’s growing startup ecosystem will receive over the next few years.

In this episode of Young Turks, Sheeren Bhan discusses with an expert panel the role that family offices and ultra-high net worth individuals can play in the growth of Indian tech startups. They discuss the opportunity for startups as funding into them sees a rise.

The total wealth held by Indian ultra-high net worth individuals will also grow to over USD 700 billion by 2024, as compared to USD 440 billion in 2019.

India could see ultra HNIs invest $30 million in tech startups by 2025.

Ultra high net worth individuals (UHNI) are likely to invest up to $30 Bn+ in tech startups in India by 2025, reiterating the growing investment opportunity for home-grown tech ventures, according to a joint report released by 256 Network and Praxis Global Alliance India.

High net-worth individuals are expected to invest $30 billion in Indian tech startups by 2025, according to a report by 256 Network and Praxis Global Alliance India.

With UHNIs investing up to $30 billion in tech startups by 2025, India could add 95 tech startups to its unicorn club, a research report by Praxis Global Alliance and 256 Network showed. Family offices could benefit from investing in the startup ecosystem and give growing ventures a boost.

The funding -- from SoftBank, Abu Dhabi's ADQ, CPPIB -- is expected to set the stage for Flipkart's IPO in the US by next year and increase its valuation to about $50 bn

The number of micro VC funds has increased to 88 in 2020 from a nimble 29 in 2014 in the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem.

Falcon Edge, an offshoot of Tiger Global Management, has deployed more than $800 million to $1 billion in Indian tech startups—Policy bazaar, Swingy, Moglix, etc.—over the past four months.

Opportunity for startups as current wave exacerbates growth of internet-using people Abhinav Singh

Besides Prosus, the other investors include DF International and Wellington Management

Bengaluru-based Sparrow Capital is a micro VC fund founded by Yash Jain in 2020. It is passionate about process-driven approach to investments with the ability to provide impactful inputs to startups.

India is poised to regain its status as the largest growing economy of the world by next year. The Narendra Modi government has laid the structural framework for roaring growth that is sustainable, technology-driven and job-oriented. More than anyone else, the Prime Minister realises that the post-Covid world presents a unique opportunity to make up for the missed chances of the past to push India resolutely on a high-growth path.

After the Jio and Reliance Retail deals, not as much. If you take those deals out of the numbers, the private equity and VC fund flows dropped as expected.

NEW DELHI - Geopolitical tensions between India and China have cast a long shadow on Indian entrepreneurship, with investment from China slowing down considerably.

With the Innovators Growth Platform (IGP), India’s stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) may be trying to replicate the success of Nasdaq.

India currently has 100 unicorns -- private companies valued at over $1 billion -- and 336 listed companies with over $1 billion market capitalisation, according financial services company Credit Suisse.

Micro venture capital firm Eximius Ventures on Thursday said it has marked the first close of its debut fund that seeks to make pre-seed investments in startups.

The number of micro VC funds in the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem has increased to 88 in 2020 from 29 in 2014.

AI models can help investors by determining viability, strategy and potential outcome of an investment in an early-stage startup, based on past investments, revenue growth, market penetration, consumer sentiment

Despite the pandemic wreaking havoc on businesses everywhere, PE/VC funds pivoted towards Indian companies last year, says a Praxis Global Alliance report.

Indian private market is going strong with a record investment of $41 billion in 2020 despite Covid

The bulk of the funding was cornered by the telecom, retail and consumer platforms. These three sectors collectively garnered over 50% of the capital.

With increasing entrepreneurship action and with startups needing more risk capital to move from proof of concept to product-market fit, micro VCs -venture investors filling the financing gap between an angel investment and the first institutional round for startups- has grown almost 3x in the past six years.

Investors such as Helion Venture Partners, which had put $800k in Flipkart back in 2008, earned 16.7x returns on its exit from the Walmart-owned company. Others including Orios secured around a whopping 375x returns on its 2011 angel investment of $156k in Ola while DSG Consumer Partners witnessed around 6x returns on its $1.25 million investment in OYO back in 2014.

Micro VCs have infused $341 million in the Indian startup ecosystem in past 3 years according to a new report from IVCA and AWS along with Praxis Global Alliance. Micro VCs are firms with a fund size of below $ 30 million. As per the study, most of these firms typically invest in the sunrise sectors and over half (52%) are sector agnostic.

Founders of the new unicorns of 2020 have three things in common - adaptability, grit, and a zest for life

India now has 38,756 officially-recognised start-ups –– with 27 unicorns, eight of which achieved this status in 2020 –– and is the third-largest tech start-up hub globally.

Between 2016-2020 (up to May), over $63 billion of venture capital (seed stage through to late stage) has been invested in Indian technology startups.

This week, the startup ecosystem was buzzing with a lot of new developments. Here are the top startup stories of the week: 1. Google Playstore & India startup ecosystem 2. Silver Lake, General Atlantic & Mubadala invests in Reliance Retail

Management consulting firm Praxis Global Alliance and IVCA have conducted a market analysis of India’s startup ecosystem, finding that the innovative players are drawing tens of billions in investments from around the world.

Indian startups have raised close to USD63 billion during 2016-20, shows a report by Praxis Global Alliance and Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (IVCA).

Praxis Global Alliance and IVCA have published a report “Overview of Indian Startup ecosystem”. The report, which has tracked the sector from 2016 - 2020 presented data which points to the robust growth in the sector.

Some players have acquired the status of a unicorn without using even $1 billion of capital. While funds have flowed into the food delivery and ed-tech spaces this year, 2019 saw a staggering $20 billion invested, across 1,854 deals.

India has become the third largest tech star-tup hub in the world with Indian start-ups having raised $63 billion over the past four years, according to the ‘Overview of Indian Startup ecosystem’ report.

Decoding Google's New Billing Policy & It's Impact On Indian Apps | Startup Street

Tech-enabled players continue to drive investors' interest and have dominated the early-stage funding landscape, according to the data collated by the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and Praxis Global Alliance.

The startups ecosystem has raised as much as $63 billion in growth capital between 2016 and 2020, when they spawned 27 unicorns

The startups ecosystem has raised as much as $63 billion in growth capital between 2016 and 2020, when they spawned 27 unicorns, according to the data collated by the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and Praxis Global Alliance.

Tech cold war comes to India: Silicon Valley takes on Alibaba and Tencent

When more than 350 startup founders dialled into a Zoom video call, organised recently by TiE Mumbai and hosted by prolific startup investor Sanjey Mehta, a partner at an early-stage venture-capital fund (VC) shared a story.