Priyesh Srivastava

Kunal Shah-led fintech unicorn CRED reported a revenue of Rs 2,473 crore in FY24, marking a 66% increase driven by higher product adoption and the growth of monetised users. The startup also reduced its operational loss by 41% to Rs 609 crore. However, net loss—after accounting for employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) expenses and taxes—stood at Rs 1,644 crore, reflecting a 22% year-on-year increase. The Bengaluru-based startup achieved a 58% growth in its monetised user base, while significantly cutting costs. Marketing expenses were reduced by 36%, and customer acquisition costs (CAC) dropped by 40%, largely due to a greater number of customers joining the platform organically. “Our focus is on creating deepening relationships with our customers and on many things from UPI to Garage and other products that we have launched in the last year," said Shah. #cred #fintech #unicorn #business #startup #creditcard #news #Indianstartupnews

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Most people might think, “₹10,000? That’s nothing.” But for me? It was everything. When we launched AY Ventures, we started from scratch—bootstrapped with just ₹3000 in hand. No fancy offices, no funding, no safety nets. It was all grit and late nights. So, when that first client paid us ₹10,000, it wasn’t just money. It was proof. Proof that our model worked. Proof that our efforts were paying off. Proof that we were on the right track. It was a small victory, but one we celebrated like we had hit the jackpot. Here’s why: • Every startup journey is an emotional rollercoaster. • Small wins keep you going during tough times. • That first revenue is more than just money. The joy of that first revenue is irreplaceable. It’s not about the amount—it’s about the energy it gives you. Because once you’ve tasted that first victory? It drives you to reach for more. To all the founders out there: Celebrate every milestone, no matter how small. That’s how success is built—one step at a time. P.S. What was your first revenue you made in your startup? And how did you feel? If you are a busy founder struggling to raise funds, fill the form in my featured section to get help.

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Zepto announces its $ 665M Series F financing at a $3.6bn valuation yesterday. They started as KiranaKart (part of YC's W21 program) & re-branded to Zepto; the firm has defied all funding winters with crazy momentum ⤵️ June '20: $50K Contrary Capital fellowship Nov '20: $125K YC W21 program  Jan '21: $700K Seed round Oct '21: $60M Series A/B round Dec'21: $100M Series C round May '22: $200M Series D round Aug '23: $200M Series E round Zepto's investors include Y Combinator, Nexus Venture Partners, StepStone Group and even Glade Brook Capital (former investor in Zomato). 📈 And, their metrics in the last few months have been astounding: (1) ~4.5M (i.e. 45 Lakh) Zepto Pass subscribers in 3 months - Initially this was free, then they began charging > ₹99 per month (2) 75% of ~350 dark stores are EBITDA positive - Time to EBITDA breakeven per store is down from 23 months to 6 months (3) ~28% market share in Quick Comm - Impressive given they are an independent company (versus Instamart or Blinkit) ✅ And, Zepto is just getting started:  (a) Entry in non-metro cities next (b) Entry into private label (Zepto Cafe & Meats) (c) Going to x2 the number of dark stores ➡ What I've seen lately in the key metro cities: There is a shift from e-comm to QC. I think it is only going to accelerate as QC co's bring in more categories & tap into long tail SKUs via larger warehouses.. Product searches first moved from Google to Amazon, now they may move from Amazon to Zepto et al. incredible to see how the Power Law plays out - these folks are going to change Commerce in India. Congratulations Aadit, Kaivalya + team Zepto! #startups #india #venturecapital

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The Next Unicorns: Which Indian and Southeast Asian Gaming Startups Are Poised to Dominate the Global Stage? The gaming industry in India and Southeast Asia is booming. With a massive mobile-first audience these regions are becoming hotspots for gaming unicorns. Millions of new players are entering the ecosystem, and startups are ready to dominate the global stage. -> Mobile-First Growth India and Southeast Asia are mobile-first markets. According to Newzoo, Southeast Asia’s mobile gaming revenue hit $3 billion in 2022, while India's reached $1.5 billion, projected to grow to $5 billion by 2025. India has over 510 million mobile gamers, while Southeast Asia is expected to hit 250 million by 2025. -- Localized Content Startups succeed by offering culturally relevant content that global giants can’t match. JetSynthesys – India JetSynthesys is an Indian gaming and digital entertainment startup that has been quietly making waves with its localized content, especially in the fields of cricket games and celebrity-driven content. With investments from cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, JetSynthesys has developed games like Sachin Saga Cricket Champions, which has resonated deeply with Indian audiences. VNG Corporation – Vietnam VNG Corporation, with its game ZingPlay, taps into Vietnamese folklore and is valued at over $1 billion, making it a top gaming company in Southeast Asia. PlayShifu – India PlayShifu combines toys with augmented reality (AR) games. Having raised over $30 million, it’s set to become a unicorn by blending gaming and education. -- Esports: A Major Growth Driver Esports is fueling growth in these regions. India’s esports viewership is projected to reach 85 million by 2025, while Southeast Asia’s esports industry is already worth billions. Nodwin Gaming – India NODWIN Gaming raised $22.5 million and plays a big role in India’s esports scene. EVOS Esports – Southeast Asia Based in Indonesia, EVOS Esports has raised over $16 million and leads across several countries. -- Blockchain and Play-to-Earn Models Blockchain and play-to-earn (P2E) models are reshaping the industry. Yield Guild Games (YGG) – Philippines YGG raised $12.5 million and leads in blockchain gaming in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines. -- Unicorn Potential Several factors are driving unicorn growth User Base- Millions of mobile-first users offer scalability. Localization: Local content increases engagement. Streaming- Streaming platforms like YouTube Gaming and Twitch provide new revenue streams. Play-to-Earn- P2E games offer real-world value, especially in emerging markets. The global stage is watching, and the next wave of unicorns will emerge from the East—reshaping the future of gaming and driving unprecedented innovation. To read the full article go to my Substack - https://shorturl.at/y04j6

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🎉 Excited to share as an indirect investor that DevRev, backed by Khosla Ventures, has officially become a unicorn. Dheeraj Pandey, CEO at DevRev, puts it perfectly: "At the end of the day, every developer is either building something new or fixing something related to the product. But inefficient systems and processes keep developers further from their consumers. We believe there's a better way to build, operate, support, and grow your business through code. That's why we've embarked on a journey to create the Developer Customer Relationship Manager (DevCRM) that we hope will help makers build the most customer-centric companies on earth." Here are some key points about DevRev: - Co-founded by Dheeraj Pandey (co-founder of Nutanix) and Manoj Agarwal (former SVP of Engineering at Nutanix). - Offers three modern CRM apps tailored for support, product, and growth teams. - Already making waves in Southeast Asia. If you're in the region and have questions, reach out to Jeffin Mathew. 💡 Fun fact: Nutanix was also backed by Khosla Ventures. Congratulations to the entire DevRev team on reaching this incredible milestone in under 4 years! I'm thrilled to be part of the journey as a Limited Partner in 2 | Twelve one of their seed investors.

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Mayank Bidawatka, Koo's co-founder, raised a $4M seed for his new consumer internet startup. Koo raised $50M+ before shutting down early this year. Most #founders would struggle to raise $0.5M at such an early stage. Koo's investors lost their shirts when it shut down (not literally but you get the gist). Then why are new investors backing a founder who lost other investors millions? Koo shut down and lost money. You might think this shows the founders were incompetent. VCs don't think like this. In the #VentureCapital industry, failure isn't bad. Sometimes, it's good. VCs look at Mayank and Koo in a different light. Here is a founder who raised $50M and scaled a consumer #technology startup to a certain level. He has the vision to build a product like Koo. He has the skills to hire and retain good people. He knows how to sell his story to investors. He understands what it takes to build tech #startups. VCs want these traits in founders. There must be different reasons for Koo's failure. IMO, it failed because it was a poor product harping on nationalism to find users. However, VCs backing Mayank think Koo failed because the Indian market wasn't ready for it or some other reason. They believe Mayank will be more successful this time because he knows how to build and scale consumer technology companies. VCs find this story of one billion users and a dollar opportunity credible because it comes from a celebrated founder. If it were you and me with the same product or vision, they wouldn't be so easy with capital.

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Gm everyone. We are hiring. This time for Ecosystem growth superstars, someone to work with Abhinav Singh ➡️📍ETHDenver at DappLooker legends to build the ecosystem, junior or senior alike! Ping TG: reach_abhinav Required: - Have a good connection in the Indian web3 ecosystem. - Good with design and content creation. - Super accountable. Don’t let things slide. - Hungry. Make things work and solve whatever problems that come in your way Good to have: - Technical knowledge of web3. Though we can get you ramped up - Strategic thinking. Though we can show you the way - completely remote

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2nd day on ProductHunt and StockPe is already on No.2! When I first had the idea to build a gamified investment learning platform, I was shaking..with excitement. People talk about business growth on LinkedIn a lot but they forget to mention: it’s scary. During the early days: > My eyes were glued to the dashboard > I kept checking each signup in real-time > Seeing that count growth got us hooked It was only last year when we decided to re-align our product and take it live on a global market. Let me tell you how it all went down: 1️⃣ Product & strategy: We recognized the need for a more mature regulatory environment for gamified investment products. While India is making strides with the involvement of Meta, and SEBI, there isn’t a single Indian-origin player in the global market. 2️⃣ Building the global StockPe team: To navigate these global complexities, we brought on board our Chief Product Officer (CPO)! His experience leading the product team at a successful Indian gaming platform, made him a perfect fit for our global strategy. 3️⃣ Testing the waters & early success: In Jan 2024, we launched a minimum viable product (MVP).  This allowed us to quickly gauge user response in a regulated environment. The results were promising, as we saw > 20% monthly growth in users > increased engagement by 82% (some users spending 20Hr+) > and more positive responses Users weren't just signing up, they were actively using and loving StockPe! 4️⃣ Scaling up for final step: After 3-months of hard work, we're ready to scale up our US operations. We're incredibly grateful for the journey so far, and we can't wait to show you what lies ahead. Now I can say this for sure: The future of investment education is gamified. Are you in? #finance #gamification #milestone

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There are two types of #startupfounders- 1. Extremely Foolish 2. Extremely Genius Ngl, this is what i used to think…however, lately i’ve realised that there’s actually only one type, the former. You have got to be extremely foolish (and borderline insane) to willingly let go of a much more comfortable and easier life in exchange for a decade of 24-hour work days and stress. If you do the math, it’s never a “smart” decision, considering how big a factor “luck” is, for any successful startup. So when an extremely foolish founder starts a company, which is statistically 90% likely to fail, there’s a small possibility that they could survive long enough to see it become successful and then be labelled as a “Genius”. Remember, “Genius” is only in hindsight, never in foresight. I guess this is why Steve Jobs said-

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Summer is just around the corner so founders have started hearing about bad times to fundraise. Let me extend on this common advice and give my own... Whenever you go out, you should plan for a 3-month process with no interruptions, so look for a time window within the following trouble zones: • Jun thru August - this is the summer slow down. vacations with family keep VCs out of pocket and hard to reach • Sept - Labor day and back to school so this is a hectic month for VCs • Oct - Halloween and parent teacher conferences mess up october. No one will take your fundraise seriously when thinking about how to dress themselves or kids up in costumes • Nov thru Dec - this is the dreaded Thanksgiving to Christmas to NYE Bermuda Triangle of holiday fundraising. Start raising here at your own peril • Jan thru Feb - holiday hangover and ski season for VCs make this a no go ⛷️ • March - spring break ❌ • April - April is pretty clear • May - end of the school year, final exams make this a stressful time for investors with kids. VCs without families are already mentally checking out prepping for the summer If you just avoid these, you should be good to go Hope that clears things up for everyone 🙏🤪

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Here is why we build Supergrow in public: Often, I am asked why we choose to build Supergrow in public. Here’s why and how it has helped us: 1. Quick Feedback:   - Getting feedback is very important for a startup.   - Sharing our work in public helps us get feedback fast. 2. Getting Clients:   - Trust is very important in business.   - By sharing our journey, wins, and mistakes, we build trust with our audience, making them more likely to become clients. 3. Product Awareness:   - Social media is like a bulletin board for our new updates.   - Many of our users find out about new features through our posts. 4. Building Trust:   - For a small company like ours, trust is key to success.   - Regularly sharing about our work helps build trust in our community. 5. Networking:   - Sharing publicly helps us meet amazing people in our industry.   - We get to connect with people we never thought we could. 6. Content Ideas:   - Every day brings new stories and experiences.   - This means we always have new ideas for content. Big cheers to everyone who shares their journey in public.

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Pivots are common in startups, but do you know how they generally come about? There are enough examples via Slack, Brex etc but closer to home, want to share two stories. First is personal, we were building Trade94 for intermediate and advanced derivative traders in India, but realised soon enough that the market in just India was small. 🙁 So we started talking to our network outside to see if this can be sold globally. Our network was mostly Indians (NRIs) and they kept mentioning how hard investing in India has been for them. We got this feedback from hundreds of users, looked into the space seriously and felt that this was worthy enough of a pivot. That's how iNRI was born! So this was a story of us discovering demand while we were trying to sell something else. The second is a story of new demand discovering a platform while they were trying to sell something else. This is Meesho, which originally started from resellers as customers and became a complete B2C platform, as even shoppers started finding the value prop (read price mainly) amazing. If you want to know how they identified when to pivot, I'd recommend checking out 51 to 55 mins of our last episode (link in comments)

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From Sept 21st to 27th, I read daily recent developments in the AI world. Here are my most interesting picks: 1. Fractal, India’s first AI unicorn, plans a ₹4,160 crore IPO at a ₹29,000 crore valuation, aiming to go public in 2025.🇮🇳 2. UK police are testing an AI tool that can crack 81 years' worth of cold cases in just 30 hours🇬🇧 3. Chipotle Mexican Grill’s augmented robots can serve burrito bowls in just 26 seconds 🥑 4. SeoulTech's Palletrone launched flying carts to help people carry upto 3kg weight up the stairs or while shopping ;) 5. Meta introduces AI voice mode on WhatsApp with John Cena and others. Imagine Cena guiding your chat—if you can even see him!👀 But that’s just this week—who knows what next week will bring? Looking forward to seeing what next week brings and sharing them with you all! 😀 #artificialintelligence #ai  #tech #innovation

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Can technical founders become effective CEOs? Srinath Sridhar knew he needed to step out of his comfort zone when he founded Regie.ai four years ago. Now he and cofounder Matt Millen have raised more than $20 million and landed on G2’s list of fastest-growing software products of 2024. My full conversation with Sri is in the comments.

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You guys met online??? We get that a lot. Yash and I met on the Y Combinator Co-founder match platform last year. I'd spent about a year figuring out what Pettle needs to build and was looking for a CTO to build it. Yash was looking to startup, after building products at tech giants as well as early-stage ventures. Here's a screenshot of our first chat. At the risk of romanticising this, that first call we scheduled for 45 mins went on for nearly 2 hours. The same happened on our second call. Some of the key things we connected on were WHY we're building. For both of us, this came from our strong desire to build stuff from scratch and feel fulfilled with that. Money was a secondary motivator. Yash decided to come on board for a 1-month trial. During this period, and I can only say all of this in hindsight, both Yash and I did a few things right. In my case, I decided to fully trust him with (what was until then) MY baby. In his case, he was mindful of his being new to the company and played his role with the right balance of honesty and diplomacy. Our objective though, was aligned - build, ship, get to market ASAP. That month was our fastest month of activity until then. He and the team built V1 of our product in a month. By the 2nd month, we had paying customers. Another thing we did was communicate very openly. And very excitedly. In just Yash's first week with us, the team was attending our first India International Pet Trade Fair. A very exciting event for a young pet company. The first thing I did that evening after coming back to my hotel room was sending Yash a 6 min voice note with updates from the event. He was as excited as I was. In no time, both of us were equally excited about every opportunity Pettle could chase. We also handle conflict pretty well. When we disagree, we both do a fair job at keep emotion aside and simply talking facts. We’re also learning to be more understanding of each others’ functions - engineering & sales respectively. We've gone from Hustler v/s Hacker to Hustler AND Hacker. Thanks to Siddharth Sharma and his masterclass with us at 100X.VC. What we also did right was connect outside of work right from the early days. We happen to like the same kind of music, food, and content. So not all talk is work talk. In all of this, the fact that we met online is so so trivial. Pettle (Backed by 100X.VC) is just one example of good people coming together and making it work. #CoFounders #WorkingRelationships #Pettle

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Three years of being a founder at StockPe. Here are my ten biggest learnings: 1. I still miss the time I spent with my father and always will. Give time to your family. No amount of startup growth can compensate for that. 2. You need to believe in yourself to the extent that it seems delusional to others. You don’t need more guidance; you need more confidence. 3. If you have money, the right people, and a belief that you can fight this off, then it doesn’t really matter if you are an 18-year-old founder or in your 30s. 4. Be true to yourself so that you do not get carried away by false hopes. If your KPIs aren't met and if it's not aligned with your vision, it's not working. 5. Don’t procrastinate. Think of life as a big poker game where every decision is a bet because it really is. Don’t overcomplicate it. Take actions. 6. Nothing is gloomy in business. Have contingency plans. Have backups. “What’s your plan if this strategy doesn’t work out”? 7. Always keep GST in mind. Initially, we neglected it, but when we calculated our burn, it was significantly higher. Know the actual cost. 8. Hire people who are trustable, accountable and align with your vision. Set a process. Right people can change your game. 9. Don’t micromanage. Let the other person take the routes they want. If things go sideways, fix it together. You hired them for a reason. 10. No matter how many times it appears to be, it is still not an end of your life. You will figure everything out just when it's required, and not even a second before.

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𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐜𝐞. 𝐈𝐓 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐬' & 𝐀𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐬' 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚? 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐓 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐬 𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬. Building AI adoption use cases is super skilled work that even Google will falter on the way. Indian AI startups, IT bros are most suitable for building Industrial AI adoption 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈𝐓 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝. We get all the instructions from bosses abroad. Especially the hardest & most rewarding part is already done. i.e spotting market niche & devising solution, failing, iterating when there's nothing on Internet about it. 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝 prefer 50-100𝐜𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. While IT is India's super power to build much bigger global businesses. Vaayu - AI for Finance & Sales - Invites all domain experts CXOs/CEOs/CIOs/Sales Heads who are leading from front for building AI use cases. DM for partnerships.

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#ESOPs should be given to people who value ESOPs and understand them. It's the best value creator one can have if an employee believes in the company's purpose. This is a good resource shared by Aviral to understand the different aspects of ESOPs. #startups #employeegrowth

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