Vivek Gupta

🚀 From Zepto to Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters – Indian Startups Raised $490.32 Mn This Week🚀 This week 31 Indian startups raised $490.32 Mn, which includes 7 growth stage and 19 early-stage deals while 5 early-stage startups kept the transaction details undisclosed. Regarding the city-wise number of funding deals, Bengaluru-based startups led with 8 deals followed by Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Dehradun, Jodhpur, and Lucknow. During the week, Seed funding deals are on top with 11 deals followed by 6 Series A, 4 pre-Series A, 3 Series C, 2 Series B, 2 pre-Seed, and 1 Series F deal. On a weekly basis, startup funding tripled and went up 239.42% to $490.32 million as compared to around $144.46 million raised during the previous week. So, I put together a comprehensive guide that covers: - 📌 Key Startup Funding Highlights of The Week 📌 Growth/late-stage deals 📌 Early-stage deals 📌 City and Segment-Wise Deals 📌 Other Major Developments of This Week ➕ Follow Shilpi Kumari for more such insightful content. #startups #fundraising #fundingsuccess #investmentstrategy #founders #entrepreneurs #startupecosystem #fundingnews

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As we work towards raising capital to grow Fungible Chocolates in the next 12-18 months, I’m constantly reminded of the importance of building a solid foundation. BetterBrand™ journey serves as a cautionary tale that is unfortunately all too common in the world of startups. They raised substantial funds by overpromising but ultimately fell short of delivering on those promises, leaving investors and customers feeling disappointed and cheated. Raising capital is not just about securing funds, it’s about maintaining trust, transparency, and building a solid long term relationship with your investors and community. I believe wholeheartedly in the future of our mushroom infused chocolates, but before scaling to the next level, it’s essential that I feel secure in our foundations, processes, and products. This way, when we're ready to expand, we'll be doing so responsibly and sustainably, ensuring that we can commit for the long haul. Raising capital is about trust. It’s about building something real, and that’s the journey we’re committed to. ❤️ #fundraisingcpg #betterbrand #angelinvestors #cpgfounders #fungiblechocolates #chocolate

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As someone who’s always been fascinated by the rapid evolution of logistics and e-commerce, I can’t help but applaud Blitz, the Bengaluru-based same-day delivery platform, for securing ₹51 Cr ($6M) in Series A funding led by IvyCap Ventures Advisors Private Limited.🌟    Founded in 2020, this Bengaluru-based startup is already enabling 60-minute deliveries across 10 cities for omnichannel sellers. Now, with fresh backing from IndiaQuotient, Alteria Capital, and industry leaders from Zepto, SNITCH, and Arvind Fashion, Blitz is set to: 📍 Expand its dark store network to 20 cities ⏱️ Enhance its lightning-fast delivery infrastructure Taking on competitors like Shiprocket, Pickrr, etc. Blitz is redefining logistics for a growing world and growing tech. As someone who truly values speed, efficiency, and scalability, I can’t wait to see how Blitz continues to shape the future of logistics. Here’s to bold visions and brighter horizons for the startup ecosystem! #blitz #delivery #speed #startups #startupnews #entreprenuer #logistics #scalability #technology #iycapventures #efficiency  

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Who exactly is losing market share in the hotly contest grocery commerce? I thought it must be the now-not-so modern retail, but I'm not so sure. Zepto raised $665 Mn at a valuation of $3.6 Bn, and is in talks to raise $250 Mn more. And their cofounder and CEO Aadit Palicha recently commented that they can beat DMart - Avenue Supermarts Ltd on GMV in the next 12-18 months. Swiggy Instamart also is growing, and Blinkit is likely to be more valuable than their owner Zomato itself - so they are all doing well, even if Dunzo isn't. Sure, no idea what JioMart Digital is doing, but deep pockets. Same with Tata Digital and their weird assortment forced to converge on Neu. bigbasket.com is trying to unlearn and relearn, and it just might. And Flipkart Grocery and Amazon Fresh are also upping their game - launching faster deliveries, discounts, improved fill rates, and selection. So I wonder if it is the modern-trade players? The likes of More Retail Private Limited, Spencer's Retail, STAR BAZAR, and SPAR Retail that are suffering? The nearest Spencer's to me is definitely a sore sight, now reduced to a shell of it's former glory - I think they aren't even replenishing inventory now. And we all know what happened to Big Bazaar - Future Retail. But Dmart itself isn't doing half bad - with pareto presence in just 23 cities, and no presence in UP (except NCR), Bihar, and West Bengal, they have considerable headroom, still. And they haven't yet quite solved for ecommerce, so while The Ken says that they are lost, they may find their way, eventually? I also don't think that the real consumption is growing, if at all, it may even shrink with the K-growth. Thus, some one _is_ losing share. And if it is not modern trade, then is it the regional chains? The single kiranas? The corner-store? The hand-cart? I'm not entirely sure because this data is hard to organize, and get. Would you know? Image created by AI in Microsoft Bing Copilot.

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Swiggy’s IPO launch marks an extraordinary milestone for the Indian tech industry, showing us what’s possible when a startup’s vision is powered by relentless hard work, innovation, and adaptability. From humble beginnings to a full-fledged IPO, Swiggy has shown how a single idea can be scaled to new heights, becoming one of India’s most iconic names in tech and food delivery. What stands out just as much as Swiggy’s success story? Their commitment to people. Through their ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) pools, Swiggy has elevated many of its employees to new levels of financial success, with several team members now turning into crorepatis—creating wealth for those who were part of the journey from the early days. This has enabled team members to share in Swiggy’s incredible growth and reflects a thoughtful, people-first approach that many companies can learn from. 👏 Reaching decacorn status and achieving a successful IPO is not just about scaling a business; it's about building a resilient organization and proving that quality, trust, and consistent service can drive long-term success. Swiggy’s journey sets an inspiring benchmark for startups everywhere. Here’s to a new chapter of continued innovation, customer satisfaction, and growth for Swiggy. 🥂 Here’s to more milestones ahead for the Indian tech ecosystem! Sriharsha M.🚀💼 #SwiggyIPO #IndianTechIndustry #Decacorn #ESOPSuccess #TechInnovation #StartupJourney #FoodDelivery

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Zepto's strategic positioning in the quick-commerce sector is indeed impressive. Their revenue growth from ₹142.36 crore in FY22 to ₹2,024 crore in FY23, a 14-fold increase, demonstrates their effective execution and market understanding. ​​Achieving a 29% market share by January 2024, up from 15% in March 2022, highlights their rapid expansion and customer acquisition strategies. It will be interesting to see how Zepto sustains this momentum and continues to innovate in the competitive quick-commerce landscape.​​

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2021: Only grocery delivery app in India with 10 minutes delivery 2024: Competitor chasing the '10 minute' brand segment Zepto is the only player sticking to its original promise - and is clearly acing it Scaling up a grocery delivery business is particularly challenging in India. And adding up a unique attribute, as huge as this –  has clearly been game changing for Zepto. Success didn’t come easy to Zepto too, There was a time when all the Q-commerce players faced backlash & people questioned the safety of drivers. Some brands stopped claiming the delivery time altogether, from “groceries in 15-30 minutes”, they went to “groceries in minutes” But Zepto didn’t, it went on to install a myriad of dark stores across locations, and is already serving superfast deliveries in 10 cities. Top 3 factors that helped Zepto drive exceptional growth over a very short span of time: - Captivating Customer Experience: The platform served a deeply engaging user experience and the service promise was being consistently fulfilled – a powerful combo. - Outstanding Retention: All thanks to near-perfect buying journey, Zepto achieved a retention rate which was considered only to be a fantasy for the industry earlier. - Not slowing down: More dark stores and continuous geographical expansion at the same time helped the startup acquire customers in huge numbers. Zepto cracked the key to scale in the quick commerce space by constantly growing at the same pace, and not compromising customer satisfaction at the same time – simple yet not easy. A perfect example of go big, go fast – it is surely a fascinating study for the space creators. No matter the circumstances, the brand didn’t let go of its biggest differentiator, eliminating all the question marks experts had put to its launch. What do you think is going to be the future of grocery delivery space in India? #casestudy #growth #startup

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Today, we are excited to share our biggest investment as Antler, in India so far. At Antler, incl. our Elevate continuty fund (Fady Abdel-Nour, CFA), we're thrilled to co-lead a $11M pre Ser A in Namma Yatri, alongside Blume Ventures Karthik B. Reddy and Google In this business, a few times in your career, you come across a truly disruptive business model that challenges the way things have been done, and extremely obsessed founders creating a culture that is so unique, you have never seen it before. When that happens, despite all the things not clear, it’s a joy to jump on board that potential rocketship. That’s what we have seen in the way Namma Yatri is being built by Magizhan Selvan and Shan M S with (a) a disruptive business model in urban mobility, rethinking how to make the life of a driver better and (b) Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) at its heart. 46 million trips have already been completed, with >7 million registered users. For us, this is also a continuation of our commitment to investing in a future on DPI / Beckn / ONDC, started in 2022. h/t Susmit Patodia. Rajiv Srivatsa Magnus Grimeland Martell Hardenberg Teddy Himler Keerat Singh Sethi Vimal Kumar Sheetal Lalwani T Koshy sujith nair Pramod Varma

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Had the pleasure of hosting the amazing Hemant Mohapatra of Lightspeed India, who spoke on the opportunities in AI for founders in India. An excellent session, covering pointed analogies, and lessons from the past to inform the future: - Why is this wave of AI important - How to differentiate between ideas that can create large impact vs. ideas that are incremental - Big opportunities for new founders to build in the next few years. Notes on 1) AI x consumer 2) AI x enterprise adoption 3) AI x infra - Next generation of Agents and what to expect and more with Nitin Sharma Watch the full session - link in comments

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🚨 Ritesh Agarwal to increase shareholding in OYO with fresh infusion OYO’s Founder & CEO, Ritesh Agarwal, is taking his commitment to the company to the next level by investing an additional ₹550 crore ($65.1 million), increasing his stake to 32%! This move comes with a 45% valuation premium, pushing OYO’s worth to an impressive $3.4 billion. 📈💡 This fresh capital comes on the heels of OYO’s Series G funding round, where Agarwal led a $175 million raise, helping the company acquire G6 Hospitality—adding 1,500 Motel 6 and Studio 6 locations across the US and Canada. 🏨🌍 With strong Q2 results and profits for two consecutive quarters, OYO is proving that it’s on a growth trajectory. In FY24, OYO recorded ₹5,541.6 crore in revenue and ₹229.6 crore in net profit! By Payal Ganguly | #OYO #RiteshAgarwal #Investment #HospitalityGrowth Read more 👇 https://lnkd.in/ggPf5yi7

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Great advice on growing D2C. Also a powerful lesson on how an entrepreneur thinks as opposed to a 'founder'. Public market benchmarking on bottom line, not top line. Operating with a ten percent profit margin, you need 150 crores of Earnings, which requires 1500 crore of topline, to get to a valuation of ~5000 crore+ These are similar multiples to what I offer, because they're close to reality. Seeking a 15x+ multiple on your topline? I'm the wrong person to chat with #venturecapital #founder #startups #scaling #valuation

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Meituan Sells Over $200M Stake in Swiggy Ahead of IPO Chinese lifestyle e-commerce giant Meituan has sold over $200 million worth of its stake in Swiggy to a US-based investor through a secondary deal, according to sources. Meituan first invested in Swiggy in 2018, later increasing its stake in 2020. The recent sale, which occurred last week, valued Swiggy at around $10 billion, though the exact stake sold remains undisclosed. Currently, Meituan holds a 3.88% stake in Swiggy via Inspired Elite Investments, according to TheKredible. Other investors, including Elevation Capital and Norwest, are also offloading shares ahead of Swiggy’s anticipated IPO in the coming weeks. Swiggy plans to raise $450 million through a fresh issue of shares, alongside an undisclosed amount via an offer for sale. Swiggy reported a 36% revenue increase for FY24, reaching Rs 11,247 crore, while reducing net losses by 44% to Rs 2,350 crore. Its main competitor, Zomato, achieved profitability in FY24 and has seen its market capitalization nearly double to $27.3 billion since going public in 2021. #Leadership #Innovation #CareerGrowth #Entrepreneurship #BusinessInsights

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Lenskart.com recently received a new round of funding from Temasek and Fidelity Investments. If I were to analyze the reasons behind this success from the lens (pun intended) of retail operations, it's no surprise why this brand is scaling so well.  . Here are the top 5 reasons why Lenskart is an exemplary D2C brand mastering retail 👇👇👇 . . . #retailinnovation #Lenskart #retailstoredesign #storeofthefuture #retailtrends #experientialretail #retailcollaboration #D2Cretail #Lenskart #Funding #RetailSuccess #D2C #CustomerExperience #TechInnovation #ProductFocus #ValueShopping #RetailStorytelling #IntuitiveDemos

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Gururam-based angel investment platform Inflection Point Ventures has announced a full exit from Jaipur-based D2C fashion brand Fashor with a 33% IRR. The firm said it has achieved 3.75X MoM (Money over money) from this exit within 54 months of investing in the startup. Read the full story here: 👇 https://lnkd.in/djhTrmvS #funding #investors #angelinvestors #d2c #fashion #entrepreneur #indianstartupnews

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Investor repellant sectors. There are a few out there for sure! Having seen the boom in B2B vertical marketplaces (Zilingo, ReshaMandi, Fashinza, Arzoo, Nestaway etc), there are quite a few sectors that have seen a considerable amount of funding going in with nothing coming out. Conventional wisdom would think there's something inherently wrong with these spaces, leading most investors today to shy away from the sectors. Having seen the textile vertical first hand, this didn't instill a fear of the sector overall in me. Instead, I started diving into the reasons these rather ripe-for-disruption sectors didn't find a footing! My key takeaways from investing and operating in the space: - Sectoral expertise is needed: There have been loads of 'qualified' founders (read MBB + great colleges) tackle this space. What's been missing is a core understanding of problems to solve - Patience: For anyone expecting some tech forward business, trying to intercede in a 50+ year old industry, these aren't SaaS businesses. I've met (and invested in) a lot of amazing founders here like Pratik Gadia, Aman Mehra and Ramya Iyer (Fantail). This needs investors and capital that are open to mid-market returns (sub 2000 crore) with deep understanding of traditional sectors - Real value add: It's taken me a while to appreciate having family businesses as our primary LPs as opposed to global institutions, though when I evaluate the doors we can open for early stage companies within Asia, it's awesome. Want to build in Saas? We've got some of the OG founders of India. Similarly for deep tech, manufacturing, real estate etc Fund size: I cannot emphasize this enough, check yourselves on valuation, because the funds that can write you massive checks need to return a minimum of 3x their fund size to LPs. So a return that's great for a micro VC will be laughable for a 'big fund'. Sometimes, these outcomes are better for both founders and investors I can go on and on, suffice to say if you're building in 'non sexy' sectors, I'd love to chat! #venturecapital #founders #investors #lp #funding

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He is the Leader behind a ₹167 Cr success! Amarjit Singh Batra is the managing director of Spotify India and has led several other large platforms like eBay, Olx and is now shaping one of the world’s largest music markets. A very interesting that we discussed was that if you have recognised that you are on the wrong journey then instead of switching it's always better to get back and start from scratch. We also talked about-  → How India consumes music  → The changes in the Indian economy  → What do international markets really offer → How you can become successful as an artist  → Split for a company to focus on music in India His journey from being a corporate leader to leading Spotify's expansion across India, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East can tell you so much about the music industry. You never know how his experiences can teach you something new about entrepreneurship and the constantly changing consumer landscape. (Link in the comments below) #entrepreneurship #musicindustry

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Q-Commerce overtaking traditional e-commerce? Currently we are seeing a big boom in terms of the different SKUs being sold in Quick commerce apps like Zepto, Blinkit, etc. - Atomberg Technologies 's fans - Sony's PS5 - Samosa, Chai and what not - Digital Gold from Jar! Zepto is in talks to raise $300m for its broader ecommerce play. While Swiggy is preparing to file for an IPO this year, incumbent Flipkart is readying its entry into quick commerce. Zomato has invested $240 million in Blinkit over the last one year. Taking a step back, the lines between quick commerce and traditional e commerce have started to become increasingly blurred with QCom pretty much catering to every needs! Also, multiple reports suggest that QCommerce can potentially become bigger than traditional e commerce in India!  Case in point : According to Goldman Sachs, the valuation of Blinkit is greater than Zomato's core food delivery biz! Non-grocery boom in Q-Commerce: Categories including beauty, toys, health and electronics are witnessing robust sales growth on quick-commerce platforms overall. While the overall base for the new categories is still small, aggressive expansion by these players is starting to ensure a dominant presence for these categories. Plus AOV is higher which also comes with better margins, making it a win-win! Case in point: Zepto - 2x sales MoM in segments such as toys and electronics accessories - Beauty category expanded 3x QoQ - ~15% of Zepto’s $1.2bn annualised gross sales currently comes from non-grocery products (Source: Goldman Sachs) For several D2C quick commerce has become the fastest growth channel as well as the platform with highest customer engagement This is definitely a positive for the consumers and the Q-Commerce players, but is everything on the up and up?   As the demand for space on quick-commerce platforms skyrockets, niche D2C cos in segments like FMCG, beauty and personal care, and health and fitness are agreeing to pay a 30-45% commission on sales, besides shelling out on advertising and discounting on these Q-Com platforms. On top of the commissions, brands are also regularly spending around 20% of their total sales on ads on the platforms, and discounting their products by about 20-25% (totaling 60-70% revenue!). This is in stark contrast to the 10-20% commission that large FMCG cos pay these platforms reflecting the intense competition for visibility. The brand's scale and comparison with competitors are crucial considerations when it comes to new listings. On the positive side, smaller D2C brands have seen 40-60% total revenue coming from Q-Commerce compared to ~10-20% from traditional ecommerce, which is surprising! Essentially, Q-com currently has a BIIIG Bargaining power against new D2C brands and can essentially make or break their businesses! Is this sustainable on the long run? #ecommerce #quickcommerce #india #zepto #businessmodel #d2c #startups #LIPostingChallenge

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