Umakant Soni’s Post

Exciting News in Tech and Investments! Upekkha, the renowned SaaS-focused accelerator fund, has just announced a stellar first close of its new fund at an impressive $15 million, with leading support from WestBridge Capital. The total corpus of this dynamic fund is set to reach around $40 million, fueling investments in over 70 early-stage startups throughout 2024. Upekkha, a trailblazer in the SaaS and AI sectors, is strategically positioning itself to drive innovation and transformative growth in these dynamic fields. This milestone comes from Upekkha's successful $9 million fundraising round in February 2022. WestBridge Capital was pivotal in launching a groundbreaking rolling fund, the first of its kind in India's Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) landscape. Founded in 2017 by visionaries Prasanna Krishnamoorthy, Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan (Rajan), and Shekar Nair, Upekkha is not just a fund; it's a platform that mentors and trains SaaS companies, leaving an indelible mark on the startup ecosystem. Over the last six years, Upekkha has collaborated with over 250 Indian B2B SaaS founders, with its portfolio featuring industry disruptors such as API Platform, Almabase, Gimlet.ai, and Labellerr. With this fresh injection of capital, Upekkha is set to solidify its position as a catalyst for innovation in the SaaS and AI domains further. Stay tuned for a year filled with groundbreaking investments and technological advancements! https://lnkd.in/g3cEQMnT #Upekkha #SaaS #AI #TechInnovation #StartupInvestment #VentureCapital #BreakingNews #Technology #Investment #Entrepreneurship

Thank you Josh Scott at BetaKit for telling Defined's story and profiling our work with founders and partners to advance and shape the AI Frontier! Learn more reading our whitepaper: https://lnkd.in/gmb3e2gA #AIFrontier #data #AI #automation #venturecapital #startups #technology

Thank you Josh Scott at BetaKit for telling Defined's story and profiling our work with founders and partners to advance and shape the AI Frontier! Learn more reading our whitepaper: https://lnkd.in/gmb3e2gA #AIFrontier #data #AI #automation #venturecapital #startups #technology

🚀 Great news in the #AI arena! Mark Trevitt, former BDC Capital (Canada) alum, has launched Defined, targeting a $15M USD fund to support early-stage AI startups. We are proud to be among the LPs, alongside Band Venture Partners and distinguished #BCtech entrepreneurs, contributing to this new venture. 🌐 In a recent interview with BetaKit, Mark shared insights into his track record, the evolving AI market landscape, and the aspirations for the new Vancouver-based #VC fund. This initiative marks an important stride in strengthening the AI ecosystem and aligns with our mission to empower pioneering #tech entrepreneurs. 👉 More details in the full article: https://lnkd.in/eP4m_ke4 #YVRtech #CDNtech #CompanyBuilders

Breaking News! I am proud to share an Exciting Development; Smpl Holdings has just launched a $10 million fund - Smpl Fund I, to support tech and AI startups in the MENA region and beyond. As the UAE continues to emerge as a global hub for startups and innovation, this fund aims to provide seed capital and strategic value-added services to the promising ventures. 🔗 Read more about it here via a Gulf News story : https://lnkd.in/dBPbDfyn #SmplHoldings #Smpl #TechStartups #AIInvestment #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #Innovation #TechInvestment #MENAStartups

AbleCredit Secures $1.25 Million in Seed Round Led by Merak Ventures. We are excited to announce that AI credit underwriting company, AbleCredit, has successfully raised $1.25 million (approximately Rs 10 crore) in its seed funding round, spearheaded by Merak Ventures. This funding round also saw significant contributions from Venture Catalysts++ | India's 1st Multi-Stage VC and Helios Holdings, LLC (Suraj Nalin). This is Merak Ventures' fourth investment this year, showcasing their unwavering support for groundbreaking startups. The funds will be utilized to scale AbleCredit's AI operations, enhance business growth, and drive expansion. Co-founded by Utkarsh Apoorva, Harshad Saykhedkar, Ashwini Prabhu, and Anubhab Bandyopadhyay, AbleCredit is revolutionizing the credit industry with generative AI models that assist credit teams in generating compliant, case-specific credit reports. AbleCredit's innovative technology is a game-changer for the informal sector, which is often data-scarce. Their AI-driven model has increased underwriting speed by over 20 times and reduced costs by enhancing credit process throughput by 12 times. Merak Ventures, with its $100 million fund launched in November 2022, aims to invest in up to 20 startups over the next few years, continuing its mission to back pioneering technology and innovation. Read More: https://lnkd.in/gfy9muBD #AbleCredit #MerakVentures #StartupFunding #AICreditUnderwriting #VentureCatalysts #HeliosHoldings #GenerativeAI #BusinessExpansion #TechInnovation #SeedRound #StartupNews #AItechnology

Selective weeding... ✅ US startup failures have increased by 60% over the past year. According to Carta, 254 of its VC-backed clients went bust in Q1 '24, a rate 7x higher than in 2019 when they started tracking this data. Recent casualty is Tally, a credit management tool provider, which was valued at >$855m in a 2022 funding round. High interest rates are a major factor behind the increase in failures. The slowdown in M&A and public market activities has also contributed to preventing VCs from returning money to their LPs. The rise of these startup failures poses a significant risk to jobs, with potential spillover effects across the economy. According to MS, VC-backed firms employ about 4m people in the US. Crunchbase also released its data on the startup funding ecosystem in the US which present a not so rosy picture. Some key takeaways from H1 '24 Series A and B Funding: ➡ Series A and B funding for US companies increased by 34% YoY, reaching $31.5bn, the highest in two years. ➡ However, the increase was driven primarily by larger rounds in healthcare/biotech and AI sectors, with notable contributions from a ~$6bn Series B for xAI. Despite the uptick, a bottleneck persists at the Series A stage, particularly for seed-stage companies facing challenges in raising follow-on funding. ➡ Growth was concentrated in large Series A and B rounds, especially in healthcare/biotech and AI, with other sectors like financial services, transportation and e-commerce seeing significant declines. ➡ Investors like Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst and Khosla Ventures were the most active US investors leading Series A and B rounds globally in H1' 24. Khosla Ventures showed the most significant increase in activity compared to H1 '23. ➡ If we look at the same investors by amounts led, there is a big range. Arch Venture Partners, a life sciences-focused investor, tops the list with $1.9bn invested in rounds it led or co-led. Arch co-led the $1bn funding with Foresite Capital in AI drug discovery company Xiara Therapeutics. On the other hand, General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz were key players in AI and robotics investments. ➡ AI and healthcare/biotech accounted for 65% of investments, with AI alone representing 40%. Compared to H1 '22, the landscape has shifted, with previous leaders like Tiger Global significantly reducing their activity. While the increase in Series A and B funding is promising, the concentration in specific sectors and the ongoing Series A bottleneck indicate that challenges remain for early-stage companies. The market outlook shows signs of recovery, but the distribution of investments suggests a selective approach by investors. Rate cuts might provide a beacon of hope but in all investors are being more discerning about where they place their bets in the current funding landscape. Src: FT, Crunchbase #venturecapital #privateequity #fundraising #startups

OpenseedVC, which backs operators in Africa and Europe starting their companies, reaches first close of $10M fund Founder-market acceptable is 1 of the astir important factors successful a startup’s success, and operators (someone progressive successful the day-to-day operations of a startup) turned founders person an astir unfair vantage successful uncovering that fit. Data shows that a deficiency of expertise and concern acumen successful founders contributes to failed VC investments. The aforesaid rule applies somewhat to relation VCs (firms typically launched by erstwhile startup founders). While there’s nary definitive impervious that relation VCs marque amended investors, caller probe does bespeak that founders and operators who go VCs are importantly much successful astatine backing companies than accepted capitalist VCs. Operator VCs person a agelong past successful Silicon Valley. Still, their adoption is little wide successful Europe and Africa: lone 8% of VC firms successful Europe and Africa are led by erstwhile operators, compared to astir fractional successful the US. OpenseedVC is applying the exemplary successful Africa and Europe with a caller fund. The fund, which plans to beryllium the archetypal cheque successful startups launched by operators crossed some regions, has reached the archetypal adjacent of its $10 cardinal angel-style early-stage fund. General spouse Maria Rotilu said “the archetypal adjacent is good into the millions and fundraising is inactive successful progress” without specifying however much. OpenseedVC hopes to scope the last adjacent wrong a year, she added. Supporting operators with funding… and operators Rotilu founded OpenseedVC with a wide vision: to put aboriginal successful experienced operators anxious to motorboat their exertion companies. In a statement, OpenseedVC said it would supply these founders with not lone superior and condemnation astatine the earliest stages but besides the enactment of a assemblage of seasoned operators, which presently comprises much than 50 individuals. “If you’re supporting operators that person identified a occupation and are making the leap into gathering their technology, you’ve apt recognized a communal challenge: the request for superior and guidance from different experienced individuals. To code this, we absorption connected enhancing the relation web successful 4 cardinal areas,” said Rotilu successful a speech with TechCrunch. “In the aboriginal stages, expertise successful bundle engineering is crucial. You’d request idiosyncratic who’s recruited method talent, built teams and understands infrastructure design, offering invaluable firsthand experience. So if that’s the communal thread, I would accidental firsthand acquisition is what we optimize for crossed bundle engineering, product, go-...

BrightCap Ventures launches a €60m successor fund to invest in founders from Rising SEE! 🚀 Building on their successful first fund, with Fund II BrightCap aims to invest in unique, globally scalable and impactful tech companies born out of Rising Southeastern Europe. The fund focuses on three priority verticals: Future of Work, Digital Health, and Fintech. The majority of initial investment tickets will be aimed at the pre-seed and seed stages, in the €0.4m to €3m range. Noteworthy is their diverse team—BrightCap is one of the very few VCs with a female majority among its General Partners. "BrightCap II is an exciting new step for us - larger scale fund with a wider scope and even greater ambitions than our first. At the same time, our philosophy of working with deeply technical founders with domain expertise and global reach from day one hasn't changed. It keeps us grounded in the AI era where opportunities seem everywhere, but lasting technology winners can be built by few" - comments Georgi Mitov "We are thrilled to continue partnering with incredible entrepreneurs in our region and from the diaspora abroad. The first few investments from Fund II are already in the closing stages and we cannot wait to share what we've been working on once they are finalized.” - says Elina Halatcheva “The tech industry is facing a pivotal moment. With BrightCap II, we have the opportunity to capture the next generation of category-defining companies from our region and nurture them to success. I look forward to bringing my tech enterprise experience in support of SEE startups to scale their businesses and reach global markets.” - adds Diana Stefanova Congratulations to the whole team! 🎉 cc: Dimitar Korsakov Roumen Jordanov Veronika Nacheva

🚀 **A Major Leap for AI Start-ups: £100M Investment Boost by NexaTech Ventures!** 🚀 We're witnessing an extraordinary moment in the tech world with Scott Dylan's launch of NexaTech Ventures' £100 million fund aimed at supercharging AI start-ups. This infusion of capital is set to catalyze seismic shifts in the way we perceive, develop, and integrate AI innovations into our daily lives. 🔍 ### What's in Store? Let's explore some key perspectives and predictions: 1. **Market Expansion**: With £100 million in the kitty, we can anticipate an accelerated roll-out of pioneering AI solutions, opening up untapped markets and industries. 🌟 2. **Talent Magnet**: Such a significant fund will undoubtedly attract top-notch talent from around the globe, fostering a robust ecosystem of brilliant minds eager to redefine AI boundaries. 🎓 3. **Increased Collaboration**: Potential partnerships between new ventures and established enterprises can create synergy that leads to phenomenal breakthroughs. We might see more cross-industry collaborations because of this financial push. 4. **Advanced Applications**: From healthcare to education, the utilization of AI will broaden, leading to more nuanced, and effective applications. Think personalized medicine, intelligent education systems, and smarter cities! 🌐 ### Broader Implications Given this monetary injection, these burgeoning companies are likely to affect not just business landscapes, but also societal constructs: - **Economic Growth**: Significant spike in job creation and economic activity in the tech sector - **Ethical and Responsible AI**: Funds should be allocated to ensure the ethical use of AI, mitigating bias and ensuring transparency - **Global Competitive Edge**: Positioning the UK as a frontrunner in the international AI race, boosting our international standing and influence This £100 million clearly sets the stage for revolutionary changes across multiple sectors. 🏅 Let's keep an eye on these developments and see how NexaTech Ventures propels us into the AI-powered future. 🌐🚀 Looking forward to the transformative impact and sharing these success stories with our community. For more details, check out the full story here: [AI and Tech Startups to Get £100m Investment Injection with Scott Dylan launching NexaTech Ventures](https://lnkd.in/enm4y7H8) #AI #TechInnovation #StartupGrowth #Investment #NexaTechVentures