VCS

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.

Congress leaders come to Rahul Gandhi's defence after VCs' open letter

Congress leaders including Manickam Tagore, Ajai Rai and Avinash Pande came to Rahul Gandhi's defence after a collective of 181 Vice Chancellors issued an open letter against Gandhi's alleged remarks on their appointment.

SC asks WB Governor to appoint 6 as VCs from list sent by Mamata govt

SC directs WB Governor to appoint 6 VCs amid state feud. AG opposes Bill. High Court upholds appointments. Petitioner claims illegality. Potential search committee for more appointments.

Exclusive: Chiratae Ventures secures $70 million via portfolio sale as VCs eye exits

Chiratae Ventures sold stakes to Madison India Capital for $70 million, involving companies like Lenskart, Bizongo, and Rentomojo. Madison Capital, supported by Lexington Partners, had invested in Sequoia Capital India's portfolio firms like Star Health.

VCs in reset mode amid exit pressure; and other top tech & startup stories this week

While VCs haven’t really been busy closing deals over the past year or so, their performance has surely come under increased scrutiny as limited partners (LPs) or sponsors of funds ask for cash returns. The Indian venture market, which is now 15 years old, has been exit-starved and a prolonged downturn has exposed the state of the industry very clearly.

VCs looking for partial exits, investors eyeing IPO-bound firms push up secondary deals

Founders of mid-scale startups, who spoke to ET, said existing investors in their cos are demanding exits even at reduced valuations.

Tech-first VCs line up for new-age consumer brands, offline businesses

Tech-first VC Nexus Venture Partners will lead a $5 million funding round in specialty coffee brand AbCoffee and it will also invest in lab-grown diamond maker Aukera, sources told ET. Accel, one of Flipkart's earliest investors, will close a $12 million round in fast fashion brand Newme. Why are tech-first VCs lining up for new-age brands with a horde of affluent young customers?

VCs hire experts to help with exits as LPs look for returns

One of the major concerns voiced by investors regarding India consistently has been the lack of exit liquidity opportunities. To take on this problem, over the last two years, leading venture capital funds including Lightspeed, Accel and Matrix Partners India have sought out professionals with investment banking expertise.

Meesho’s secondary deal; tech VCs line up for consumer brands

Peak XV Partners and Tiger Global are among investors aiming for a stake in ecommerce firm Meesho via secondary deals. More details in a packed edition of ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Veni, Vidi, VCs back to first principles

The lessons from the funding winter should, however, not be lost entirely, a point made at last week's ET Now GBS by more than one guest speaker.

RSS ideology taking India back to pre-Independence era, says Rahul Gandhi

Mamearth turns 7, Ghazal Alagh shares pitch deck from 2016 that Honasa sent to VCs for raising funds

The entrepreneur took to LinkedIn to inform her followers that the personal beauty care brand Mamaearth - a part of Honasa Consumer - turned a year older on Tuesday. She also shared a few points from the "first formal pitch deck."

EU founders and VCs turn to safer shores like AI on slump

European startups are making strides towards developing AI platforms that aim to compete with US-based companies, such as Open AI, in addition to building in areas such as quantum computing, chip design and semiconductors.

ETtech Exclusive: Google’s Jeff Dean interview; VCs scrutinise corp governance amid rising lapses

Happy Tuesday! In the backdrop of the buzz surrounding Generative AI, Jeff Dean, the chief scientist of Alphabet Inc’s merged AI entities (DeepMind and Google Brain) sat down with ETtech’s editor Samidha Sharma for an exclusive chat at the tech giant’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.

VCs double check corporate governance as lapses rise

Multiple top-tier founders and investors said investors are bringing in stricter terms in shareholding agreements as well as term sheets and that's delaying the overall timeline for investments to close by several months in a number of instances.

Explained: VCs insisting on responsible AI in startups

More than 35 VC firms and some 15 tech sector companies have voluntarily signed up for Responsible AI Commitments

This is a great time to be more aggressive in India: Sunish Sharma, Kedaara Capital

“More IPOs are happening, in fact record IPOs are happening. Private equity has definitely started using more traction. People are being careful but I do believe that there is traction on private equity investment and private equity for good companies. So, there is a big flight to quality in IPOs and in private equity. VC is probably a little bit slower and rightly so.”

GST-hit gaming companies, VCs in a huddle to keep the lights on

Experts predict a major consolidation in the real-money gaming (RMG) industry in the near future, wherein 80% of the smaller companies will either shut down or get acquired by bigger rivals such as MPL, Dream11 and Games24x7.

VCs, startups want govt to address grey areas impacting consumers, policy harmonisation

During a panel discussion organised by think tank 'The Dialogue', angel investor and business strategist Lloyd Mathias said government policies should aim to minimise regulation on sectors that have an impact on large consumer base.

TN Startup & Innovation Policy hopes to create more Tamil Nadu-based VCs

The state government launched the Tamil Nadu Startup and Innovation Policy 2023, under which the government will create a fund of funds to invest in regional and thematic funds.

Governor is well within his rights to appoint VCs: Union Education Minister

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has expressed support for Governor CV Ananda Bose in the controversy over the appointment of vice-chancellors for state universities. Pradhan stated that the governor has the authority to make these appointments and suggested that the state government should focus on ensuring campus safety and preventing incidents like ragging. This comes after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused Bose of violating norms and threatened an economic blockade on universities. State Education Minister Bratya Basu and former VCs aligned with the ruling Trinamool Congress have also criticized Bose's actions.

Guv acting appointing VCs in arbitrary manner : West Bengal education minister

West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu has accused the state's governor, C V Ananda Bose, of acting arbitrarily in appointing interim vice chancellors in state universities. Basu said the government would take legal action if the governor continued to make these appointments without the state's consent.

VCs get more involved in CXO search at early-stage startups

This comes at a time when the Indian startup ecosystem has been mired in a spate of financial mismanagement, flurry of layoffs and reports of non-compliance with regulations.