A meaningful outcome of 2020 has been the acceleration of digital adoption. India's digital story stands unshackled and technology is now being rapidly embraced to disrupt business processes in many sectors. This provides an exciting decade of opportunity for innovations and business models to emerge specifically for Bharat.
Here at Kalaari, that has translated into a productive start to the year. We are actively adding new founders to our portfolio as we continue to support our existing companies. We are also happy to welcome new team members into our Kalaari family.
The new members of our team bring deep startup and operating experience to the table, along with a passion for the Indian startup ecosystem and Kalaari’s cause. We are an entrepreneur-first organisation driven by empathy and determination to roll up our sleeves and do what it takes to enable a company’s vision to succeed.
One of our most recent rewarding partnerships has been with Bhavit and Harsh of Dream Sports, who continue to be pioneers of fantasy sports in India. From leading the company’s Series A round in 2015 to still serving on their board today, our faith in them has only grown. We did a secondary sale of $200M plus of DreamSports shares and continue to hold a significant stake in the company. With this we have returned our Fund 2 ($162M Corpus) fully and Opportunity fund ($74M Corpus) substantially to our LPs.We are excited about the journey ahead. The extraordinary returns from investments such as Dream Sports generate distribution and liquidity to LPs, enabling the virtuous cycle of funds to flow into more Indian startups.
Speaking of LPs, we are honoured to have Reliance as an anchor in our recent fund. The Indian LP base is almost non-existent currently. The development of a long-term Indian LP base creates access to local capital for many other Indian funds. RIL is a sterling example of how to think big and scale right. Their bold initiatives have paved the way for confidence in the Indian digital opportunity. Kalaari and Reliance share an enthusiasm for the development of India’s startup ecosystem and creating a level playing field for all of India.
We are grateful for the privilege to support India’s startup ecosystem and look forward to adding more founders into the #KalaariFamily.
Regards,
Vani Kola
Managing Director,
Kalaari Capital
Founder Spotlight - Koo
Vernacular Microblogging Platform Koo (Vokal) and Kalaari, Since Series A, 2018 Koo has pioneered the Indian vernacular microblogging space. In the last year, it has amassed 4.5M+ users across 9 languages.
Earlier this month, founders Aprameya and Mayank shared with us the inspiration behind serving the vernacular population and their ultimate vision for the yellow bird.
What is the path and vision ahead for Koo? Despite being the world’s largest internet market after China, India is yet to realise the true potential of products made by Indians for Indians. It is a large market that is underserved and underpenetrated. We will focus on serving the 1.3B+ users by building immersive experiences that cater to a wide range of communities, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
What inspired you to solve the vernacular problem - giving a voice to the people who are not comfortable with English?
It started with the desire to build something meaningful for the next 600M Indians. India is the only country with people speaking so many languages. Despite so much diversity, most products that get built here require people to break the language barrier. Having compiled multiple problem statements and looked at several products, we quickly gauged the presence of a vacuum for those Indians who don’t think and converse in English. For instance, less than 1K out of the 300M+ tweets published every day are in Kannada and Telugu, extremely low for languages spoken by 130M+ people. So, we decided to Indianize micro-blogging by creating a space that caters to these distinct communities and allows them to express themselves comfortably.
What has been your biggest learning from serving the users of #Bharat? What are some key behavioural insights that you have observed across geographies?
The context is very different, especially when comparing the average Koo user with the average Twitter user. On Koo, people look sideways a lot more than they look upwards. They tend to engage with users on the same level (horizontal) much more than they engage with influencers (vertical). There’s a lot more acceptance for localization over globalization. The urban population, fluency in English notwithstanding, is using the platform to reconnect with its roots.
Portfolio Transactions
Horizontal Sports Platform Dream Sports and Kalaari, SinceSeries A, 2015
Dream Sports is India's leading Fantasy Sports platform with 110M+ active users. The company recently raised $400M from several growth investors. We are grateful to Harsh, Bhavit and the team for generating multifold returns for our funds and look forward to working with them on the next phase of their journey. (Read More)
Discount Brokerage Platform Upstox and Kalaari, SinceSeries A, 2016
Upstox is India's 2nd largest brokerage serving ~3M users. We are grateful to Ravi and the team for generating valuable returns for our fund and wish them ongoing success.
B2B Omni-Channel Retail Tech Platform Perpule and Kalaari, SinceSeed, 2017
Perpule provides end-to-end store management solutions to 12M+ SMB's. The company recently sold to Amazon. We thank Abhinav, Saketh, Yogesh and the team for driving returns for our fund and wish them the best for their journey.
D2C Cosmetics + Community PopXo (MyGlamm) and Kalaari, SinceSeries A, 2015
MyGlamm has raised $23M from Ascent Capital, Wipro Ventures and Amazon. We congratulate Priyanka, Darpan and the team and look forward to partnering with MyGlamm.
B2B Marketplace for Food & Grocery Jumbotail and Kalaari, SinceSeries A, 2017
Jumbotail serves 30K+ neighbourhood stores across the country. It recently closed its $25M Series B round. We are honoured to have a front row seat in their remarkable journey and look forward to continuing working closely with Ashish and Karthik.
Healthcare and Pharma Analytics Healthplix and Kalaari, SinceSeries A, 2018
Healthplix manages 120M+ unique patients on behalf of 5K+ clinics. It recently raised a $13.5M Series B round from Lightspeed Ventures and existing investors. We are privileged to be early partners in the journey of Sandeep and his team and watch their growth from close quarters.
Why We Invested?
SaaS Management Platform Zluri Partners with Kalaari for Seed Zluri helps companies discover, manage, secure, and comply across multiple SaaS applications from a single dashboard. In just 3 months since its launch, the company has onboarded 50+ enterprise clients. We are elated to partner with Chaithanya, Ritish and Sethu. (Read more)
One-on-One Online Music Education Muzigal Partners with Kalaari for Seed Muzigal is a platform that connects teachers and students to teach and learn music at their convenience. Since Jun'20, the company has onboarded 200+ teachers who have provided 12K+ classes to 1.2K+ students. We look forward to working with Dr. Yeluri. (Read more)
Kiran Vasireddy is a Partner at Kalaari and focuses on D2C, Enterprise SaaS and FinTech.
"At Kalaari, I am excited to back entrepreneurs, who are customer obsessed and execution driven, with a lot of conviction. I like the transparency and the culture of empowering people across levels & functions at the fund."
Vamshi Krishna Reddy is a Partner at Kalaari and focuses on AgriTech, Media & Entertainment and Social Commerce.
"I am elated to be a part of the remarkable team at Kalaari that strives towards bringing a change and impact lives and lifestyles by empowering entrepreneurship."
Ravinder Singh (Ravi) is a Venture Partner at Kalaari and focuses on Adaptive Manufacturing, Intelligent Machines, Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence.
"Passion & conviction to encourage & support Indian entrepreneurs to build platforms catering to young demography aspiring for great future is what excites me about working at Kalaari."
All of us are hardwired to enjoy a good story - VCs are no different. They instantly connect with founders who are great at pitching their dream, vision, passion and commitment. Here are five tips to help you tell your story better. (Read More)
Exploring the Truth About Ourselves
The extraordinary folks who tend to win at life have one fundamental quality. They know what they are good at, as well as what they are not good at. That takes an innate willingness to accept the truth. Here's an article that will help you become better at self-reflection. (Read more)
Success Diaries
Amul is a story of how large sustainable companies can be built in fragmented and commoditized industries. Successful companies like Amul can offer insightful learnings that entrepreneurs can draw on for their own journeys. Some lessons we can derive from 60+ years of Amul:
- Continuous innovation is the only long-term moat,
- Relatable & relevant branding will stand the test of time,
- Invest in your stakeholders and they will take care of you, and
- Incentive structures & organizational alignment eventually determine long term success over decades. (Read the case)
Book Recommendation
By Kaavya Reddy:In his book: Dreamers and Unicorns, Abhijit Bhaduri, the former Chief People Office of Wipro, reflects on the 5 shifts that have shaped human relationships in the Post COVID-19 world. He uses real-life examples to showcase how softer aspects of talent strategies and organizational culture have become important areas of value creation for businesses.
Bhaduri also touches up on the evolution of the world of work with the rise of AI, the Gig Economy, and the importance of being relationship workers over knowledge workers in today's time. His book serves a wide audience, from early professionals exploring career choices to established leaders that are shaping management teams.
I feel this book can be used as a daily manual for getting inspiration through these tough times. The witty sketches skilfully put by Abhijit helped refresh my mind.
Horizontal Sports Platform
Discount Brokerage Platform
B2B Omni-Channel Retail Tech Platform
D2C Cosmetics + Community
nagement Platform
a Reddy
ry folks who tend to win at life have one fundamental quality. They know what they are good at, as well as what they are not good at. That takes an innate willingness to accept the truth. Here's an article that will help you become better at self-reflection. (
Amul is a story of how large sustainable companies can be built in fragmented and commoditized industries. Successful companies like Amul can offer insightful learnings that entrepreneurs can draw on for their own journeys. Some lessons we can derive from 60+ years of Amul:
