EARLY STAGE INVESTMENT
Global firms buy PB Fintech stakes from early backers
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have lapped up shares in Gurugram-based listed fintech firm PB Fintech, as its founders and early investors sold their shares, in full or in part, in multiple tranches. These transactions happened through bulk deals when several early-stage investors of the company exited the firm fully or partly after 2021, when it went public.
8X Ventures closes India-focused deeptech fund at Rs 200 crore
8X Ventures announced the first close of its second India-focused deeptech fund at Rs 200 crore, with a green shoe option of Rs 100 crore, aiming to back 18-20 early-stage Indian deeptech startups over three years.
Early-stage VC Z21 Ventures planning $40 million second fund
Z21 Ventures, an early-stage investment firm focusing on the India-US corridor, has fully deployed its first $5-million fund and is gearing up to launch a $40 million second fund. The firm, founded in 2022 by Abhinav Shashank and Raj Shekhar Singh, targets enterprise software and hardware startups with investments ranging from $100,000 to $150,000, backed by a community of Indian-origin technology executives like Google, Amazon, and Meta.
Silicon Valley’s South Park Commons launches Bengaluru outpost in collaboration with Binny Bansal
Silicon Valley-based early-stage venture fund South Park Commons made its India entry with an outpost in Bengaluru. This is its first international location outside of the US. The fund was launched in 2016 as a collective of engineers, founders and researchers by husband-wife duo of Ruchi Sanghvi and Aditya Agarwal.
Best Electronic Early Development Toys for Kids and Toddlers
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Bonds, rupee stage strong rebound on poll outlook
Government bond yields closed at their lowest in over two years, and the rupee saw its largest single-day gain since December, driven by exit polls predicting a strong NDA victory in the general elections.
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100X.VC invests $2.7 million in 17 startups
100X.VC, a Mumbai venture capitalist firm, injected $2.7 million into 17 startups in their 11th cohort. This brings their total portfolio to 161 companies. Ninad Karpe, founder and partner at 100X.VC, said they invested Rs 1.25 crore in each startup and provided mentorship to help them refine their products and go-to-market strategies.
Venture capital funding in crypto rises to $2.4 billion: PitchBook
Funding was spread across 518 deals and rose by 40.3% from the previous quarter, according to data firm PitchBook. Global venture capital investments dropped to a near five-year low in the same period.
ThinKuvate launches Rs 100 crore maiden India fund
Technology-focused ThinKuvate India Fund will take a sector-agnostic approach and invest up to Rs 3 crore as initial amount.
VC funding for women-led startups declined in 2023: report
A new report reveals a decline in VC funding for women-led businesses in India. According to WinPe, a non-profit organisation focused on gender diversity in private equity, the share of funding going to female founders dropped to just 9.3% in 2023, compared to 14.7% in 2021.
Late-stage startup funding up 3x in April
Data from market intelligence platform Tracxn reveals a new trend in Indian startups. While overall funding for startups declined in the first three months of 2024, late-stage funding (for more established companies) saw a dramatic increase, more than tripling in April.
Unicorn sightings slump; Tata’s chip exports
Happy Tuesday! Despite deal activity in late-stage startups showing signs of a revival, new unicorns aren’t being birthed. This and more in today’s edition of ETtech Morning Dispatch.
Unicorn sightings become rare as VCs shun that leap of faith
Investors are going back to the same list of startups they have already backed to write bigger cheques leading to new unicorn sightings becoming rare. Only Perfios and Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal’s Krutrim AI have become unicorns so far in 2024, and the number was the same for the whole of 2023.
Early stage VC IvyCap Ventures announces final close of third fund at Rs 2,100 crore
The fund is allocating a significant portion of its third fund to invest in around 25 early-stage startups. These initial investments will typically range from Rs 30 crore to Rs 50 crore. Some of the startups that have already received funding include Dhruva Space, Snitch, Celcius Logistics, GradRight, Eggoz, and Flexifyme.
Mohit Gupta, Mukesh Bansal’s omnichannel fashion startup Lyskraft raises $26 million in seed funding
Former Zomato executive Gupta will steer the venture as CEO, Bansal to stay away from operations. The fashion startup will focus on offline play in the premium women's wear fashion category and expand into other lifestyle segments later.
PMS Talk: Anirudh Garg turns Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2.5 cr since 2020; secures place in top 10 PMS funds in FY24
Anirudh Garg from INVasset PMS shares insights on market trends, strategic shifts, and investment performance, emphasizing the importance of identifying new leaders during bull runs and adapting promptly to sector changes for optimal returns.
Flipkart Ventures to fund, mentor GenAI-based early stage startups
Flipkart Ventures' Flipkart Leap Ahead (FLA) programme accelerates early-stage startups with USD 200,000 to USD 500,000 equity investments, mentorship from industry veterans, and a focus on GenAI solutions for hyper-growth.
Fintech funding in Q4 down over 50% YoY, but up 59% from Q3
According to the Fintech India report released by data intelligence platform Tracxn, funding during the January-March quarter dried up year on year across stages, with seed stage down 77% to $9.9 million, early stage down 42% to $147 million and late stage falling 60% to $394 million, compared to the previous year.
Nexus MD Sameer Brij Verma quits; will launch multi-stage fund
The fund will likely be $150-200 million in size, Verma will be a solo partner with a team of around a dozen executives.
India’s startup landscape: Funding winter continues as investment plummets
A new report brings out the continuing downward trend in funding, as investors remain more cautious and selective, even as India remained the fourth largest venture market in the world in 2023.
8i Ventures launches seed funding initiative 'Origami' to back early-stage startups
Early-stage venture capital fund 8i Ventures has introduced Origami, a seed funding initiative offering investments of $250,000 to $2 million for startups. The program aims to streamline the investment process and has allocated $10 million to back eight to ten startups this year.
Tata Motors wants EV sops extended; Peak XV's new fund
Tata Motors, which dominates the local EV market with a share of more than 70%, wants New Delhi to help replicate an enabling environment similar to the one in China that has pledged to support adoption of electric vehicles until unit sales touched at least a fifth of all new cars sold.
Revenue-linked financiers bet big on SaaS companies
Over the past month, revenue-based financiers such as GetVantage and Velocity have set aside a dedicated corpus of Rs 250 crore and Rs 300 crore, respectively, to meet the growing demand for this kind of debt financing in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry.
ETtech Deals Digest: Startup funding down 80% to $144 million this week
Companies, across seed, early and late stages, had raised about $722 million in 30 rounds in the period from January 13 to 19 last year, as per data from Tracxn.
Inflection Point Ventures launches accelerator programme for early-stage startups
Programme has been designed for entrepreneurs seeking to take their business from the idea stage to MVP
Investment firm We Founder Circle claims to lead early-stage funding in Indian startups in 2023
Currently, five partial exit discussions are in the advanced stage including corporate VCs and acquisition offers, WFC said in a statement.
Blume Ventures sees five-fold gain from first fund
Through its first fund – a rupee-denominated fund – Blume Ventures began investing in 2011, and has backed startups such as GreyOrange, Carbon Clean, Cashify, Purplle, Zopper, Taxi For Sure and WebEngage.
View: A few observations — tips, if you will — for early-stage startup investors to cherry-pick wisely
Startup investments are long-term bets on founders and their ideas. There is often an initial period of volatility in a startup before green shoots become visible. This is the point other investors may enter, and early-stage investors may get their first exit option. Premature exit, at this point, leads to minimum returns for maximum risk. The value creation thereafter is multi-fold. This is captured by investors who hold on to their convictions, resisting the temptation to trade on impulse. 80% of upside happens in the final 20% of a startup's journey before the exit.
ETtech Deals Digest: Early-stage investments boost startup funding to $62 million this week
The funding plummeted by 73% in the week from Nov 20 to 25, compared to the same period last year, when startups secured $224 million across 39 rounds. However, compared to last week, funding activity saw an uptick of 52%.
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