Abhiraj Singh Bhal

SCOOP: Urban Company has turned profitable at PBT level (profit before tax) on a consolidated basis in the last month. The development will potentially smoothen its public listing plan which is likely to happen in 2025. My story:

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Isn’t it amazing how start-ups’/ companies’ focus have dramatically shifted to profitability? 😯 Just in the last decade era (10-15 years back), companies like Amazon/ Flipkart, Ola/Uber, BYJU'S’s, OYO and WeWork were laser-focused on growth - revenues over everything.
 It was all about grabbing market share, even if it meant burning through cash. 💸 Today, most of them are still loss-making. But companies in the last 5-10 years? We’re seeing a shift.
 Newer players (or the ones that became prominent recently) like Meesho, Zepto, Urban Company, and PW (PhysicsWallah) are taking a different path.
 They’re not just chasing scale— most of them actually aiming and winning profitability (at least EBITDA-positive). 📊
 Sustainability is finally becoming as important as growth. Of course, it’s not a one-size-fits-all trend.
Companies like Ola Electric are loss making, while Zerodha (last decade era) have consistently made profits. But it’s fascinating to see this evolution of new tech/ business model focus to profitability.
 What do you think about this shift? 💬

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There's buzz across the market that HUL is looking to acquire Minimalist for ₹3,000 crores. While I personally feel the valuation is a bit nutso (new favourite word), it's heartening to see India Inc embrace new age companies who are creating differentiators and appealing to broader consumer bases than the traditional. Some great examples across the past decade include: 1. Dr. Vaidya's by RPSG Group: Built by the phenomenal Trisha Rajani Vaidya and Arjun Vaidya, in 2019. By no means the biggest exit, it was one of India's first D2C exits, opening up the pathway for other India Incs to follow suit. 2. Flipkart by Walmart: India's largest startup acquisition and the World's largest E-commerce acquisition at $16 billion, this deal was Walmart's commitment to what's expected to the biggest growth market for the next decade and a chance to incorporate a lot of Flipkart's processes and in-house technology into Walmart's global e-comm efforts 3. CaratLane - A TATA Product & Tata 1mg: Clubbing the two, since Tata has been an active player across M&A, the teams here beautifully showcased a synergistic (ONLY time this word should be used) acquisition as well as a market-entry one, with Tanishq's supply chain being leveraged in the jewellery space, while 1mg giving Tatas a foray into pharmaceutical retail. 4. Reliance Industries Limited and Haptik, Addverb, Fynd (Shopsense Retail Technologies Ltd.), Karkinos Healthcare, JioSaavn and more, Reliance has emerged the most supportive of corporates, acquiring startups to help expand their reach, services and bolster the ecosystem they are building. Kudos to Aakrit Vaish and the omnipresent Manoj Modi. Global companies have long had their eye on India, with the likes of Meta acquiring Little Eye Labs all the way back in 2014, with Google following suit in 2017 (acquiring Halli Labs) and 2018 (acquiring Where is my Train), Rephrase.ai being snapped up by Adobe and more #venturecapital #startups #acquisition #funding #sale

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Challenging the Traditional "Right to Win" Narrative in Startups 🤔 The startup world often talks about a founding team's "right to win" - typically measured by domain expertise in the industry. But I wonder if this is a narrow view. Consider these examples: 🏨 Ritesh Agarwal built OYO without any hospitality experience - just a deep understanding of budget travelers' pain points as one himself 💄 Falguni Nayar created Nykaa at 50 with no direct experience in beauty/retail - but she understood the Indian woman consumer deeply 🍲 Deepinder Goyal Kalra built Zomato after noticing long lines for food services while working at Bain. The "right to win" can come from multiple sources: - Deep personal experience as a consumer - Pure passion to solve a problem - Obsession with product excellence - Fresh perspectives unburdened by industry assumptions This hits close to home for me. As I build Elfina Health, I often get asked on my "right to win". But my personal mental health journey has given me something equally valuable - authentic user perspective and an unwavering commitment to solving this problem. Sometimes, being too entrenched in an industry can blind you to innovation. The most disruptive ideas often come from outsiders who see problems with fresh eyes and aren't constrained by "how things have always been done." Yes, there are domains like deep tech where technical expertise is crucial. But for many problems, especially in B2C, understanding your users' pain points intimately and being relentlessly focused on solving them can be your strongest "right to win." What's your take on this? Does every founder need domain expertise to win? #Startups #Entrepreneurship #RightToWin #Innovation #StartupIndia

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💲💲 If you are a D2C Consumer Brand Startup you should know this VC that invests in pre-revenue stage Startups! 💰 VC Background: Meet Sauce VC a Cat II VC that launched their first fund in 2019 with a modest corpus of INR 60 Cr and since then launched 3 more funds and made 33 investments. Their recent INR 365 cr Fund launched in Aug'24 plans to invest in 20-25 consumer brands. They pick 6-7 selective investments annually out of 3000+ deck they get. However, their Fund I has a success rate of 50% (not a bad idea to invest in the fund if you are a UHNI). Infact their Fund IV was oversubscribed 3 times. 💰Notable Investments: Mokobora, Hocco Ice cream, Supertails, Innovist, The Whole Truth etc 💰Stage at which they invest: They invest even at pre-revenue stage to early traction stages. Ideally this VC invests at pre-seed to Series A. 💰What do they look for: Taking call at pre-revenue stage is really tough, especially in Consumer Brand segment. Hence, they look for founders who have deep experience in the segment either by the family background or by the founder's professional background. However, if the founder is not well-versed with the D2C game, they are cool with it. But the founder should know the segment, scope for new brands and plan to differentiate the brand. 💰Ideal cheque size: $ 1 Mn. But can go up to $ 5 Mn. 💰Investment Style: Sauce VC prefers working along with the founders to ensure the success of the Startup. They lead the rounds at pre-seed and Series A stages. Once the Startup is into Series B, they take a back seat and only participate in the following rounds. 💡 Hope this helps. Share it with some great founder of a consumer brand who is at early stages and needs to know this. If you want a warm-introduction, DM me or let me know in the comments. Bhavesh K Jatania Raunaq JaisinghaniAshish SharmaMohit Kanjwani

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Funding Update - INDIA - E-commerce & SaaS startups grabbed maximum funding Growth Stage #Atlan: Data and AI governance company raised $105 mn in its Series C funding round, co-led by GIC and Meritech Capital.   #NephroPlus: Dialysis chain raised $102 mn from Quadria Capital.   #GreenCellMobility: Shared electric mobility startup raised $36.7 mn from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) for its electric bus project in Uttar Pradesh.   #K12TechnoServices: Provider of full-stack education, content, and technology services raised $27 mn from Venturi Partners Pte. Ltd, acquiring a 5.12% stake.   #Lendingkart: Lending firm raised $10 mn from external commercial borrowing (ECB) from BlueOrchard Fund.   #MyelinFoundry: Deeptech AI startup raised $4 mn led by SIDBI Venture Capital, with participation from Endiya Partners, Pratithi Investment Trust, and Subh Labh.   #BharatRohan: Agritech firm focused on drone-based hyperspectral remote sensing raised $2.3 mn in a pre-IPO round from Villgro Innovation Foundation, Caspian, RevX, Venture Garage, and UHNI individuals.   Early Stage #Superplum: Direct-from-farm produce supply chain startup raised $15 mn in a Series A round led by Erik Ragatz.   #Poshn: Foodtech startup raised $4 mn in equity and $2 million in debt in a pre-Series A funding round led by Prime Venture Partners and Zephyr Peacock India.   #Parseable: Log analytics startup raised $2.75 mn in a seed funding round led by Surge, with participation from NP-Hard Ventures.   #Cornext: Agritech startup raised $2.2 mn in a seed funding round led by Omnivore.   #Regrip: Re-engineered tyre startup raised $2 mn in a funding round co-led by Sirious One, Inflection Point Ventures, and Let’s Venture.   #ICON: Startup raised $1.2 mn in a seed round led by DSG Consumer Partners with participation from angel investors.   #Atomgrid: Startup raised $1.2 mn in a seed funding round led by Merak Ventures, with participation from Dexter Ventures, Upsparks, Point One Capital, and UniCards's founders Nitin Gupta and Prateek Jindal.   #Eternz: Startup raised $1.15 mn in a pre-seed funding round led by Kae Capital, with participation from Gemba Capital, IIMA Ventures, TDV Partners, and Venture Lab.   #Knit: Startup secured $1 mn from Endiya Partners, Axilor Ventures, and angel investors.   #SelectBrands: Startup raised $778k in Pre-Series A funding led by Agra Gwalior Pathways and Airen Holdings, with contributions from We Founder Circle, Prataap Snacks, Apricot Foods, Workie, and IVY League Ventures.   #50Fin: Startup raised $550k from Arali Ventures and Nitin Gupta.   #Treacle: Cybersecurity startup raised $479k in a pre-seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures.   New Fund Launch #InCredAlternativeInvestments: Marked the first close of its inaugural private equity fund.   #ClientAssociates: Wealth management and investment banking firm announced the first close of its inaugural Cat II AIF @$36 mn. Like it? Follow me for more updates like this.

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Thanks Bismah and Inc42 Media for the insightful coverage and deep dive into the vital role of operator VCs! Bismah's thoughtful analysis underscores the growing need for operator VCs in today's startup landscape. As an operator VC , I've witnessed firsthand how founders increasingly value more than just capital. They seek partners who bring operational expertise, strategic guidance, and an extensive network to the table. These elements are crucial for driving sustainable growth and navigating the complexities of scaling a business. At GrowthCap Ventures , we understand the unique challenges faced by early-stage startups, which is why we prioritize offering not just funding, but also hands-on support and access to our extensive network. Together, we're empowering founders to realize their vision and build transformative businesses. #OperatorVC #StartupEcosystem #Gratitude

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2024 in Review - My Experiences in the Indian Early-stage VC Ecosystem... Boxing 2024... 1) On Start-up and VC Trends 2) On Start-up Pitches 3) On VC Expectations from Start-ups 4) On Growth Partnerships with VCs 5) On Deep Engagement between a VC and Start-up 6) On Tapping the Portfolio Community 7) On Brand Building - by VCs and Start-ups Unboxing 2025...

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A thoughtful, ready reckoner program hosted by ET NOW - aimed at educating and helping a first time buyer or investor in real estate. Quite timely given the active interest in property buying from many first time buyers and the ongoing festival season. Do give it a watch! At Magicbricks, we have a whole host of tools, calculators, content, research and advice resources aimed at helping both first time and seasoned buyers navigate the markets and make a smart, data-driven decision on buying their dream home. If you havent yet checked out Propworth, our market-price monitoring tool, or MagicHomes our dedicated section on builder projects, or the vast repository of advice/insights, do give it a spin now. And of course, dont forget to check out our property listings - there are over 1.5 Million of those currently hosted on the platform with tens of thousands of fresh postings daily. Snehi Shah ET NOW Magicbricks

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It is fabulous to see the growing interest in Angel Investments in Startups.. The news of Mamaearth stocks and also those of Zomato, Policy Bazar etc doing so well and making many new millionaires is definitely helping the cause. Some of these angel investors are beneficiaries of exits and esops and hence believe in this asset class, while others are looking to build such breakout events in their lives. Yet there are others who thrive in the ecosystem and enjoy riding the wave while making profits or losses from it. Whatever is the motivation, this space needs to be tread with caution. As a lead investor of our syndicate VG Angels at VentureGarage and having over a decade of experience in this space, I often advice my fellow angel investors the following: 1. Angel Investment is probably the riskiest asset class and requires patience. If you want to be one, then invest in 7-8 cos in 3 years or so and then expect a breakout in the 4th year from one of them. 2. There are over 20000 startups registering in the country every year, it is almost impossible for you to source and then invest in one of the top 20 of those. Follow a syndicate lead investor or a curated angel network for the deal flow and evaluation. 3. Founders are not looking for your mentorship. Invest in them first and then maybe you can mentor them. Definitely do not invest in founders who need your active guidance. 4. Learn about the future opportunities and build your thesis around some sectors. Learning new stuff is one of the big requirements and motivators of angel investments after all. Invest in those sectors which you are bullish about. Happy investing! https://lnkd.in/g2xx3zBX

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Meet the man who built India's largest logistics company at 40,000 CR. 1. It was March 2010. The Internet boomed to 210.23 million users in India. Sahil Barua, a consultant at Bain studying the telecom sector for three years, knew the Internet would be massive. He wanted to start a startup. With two of his friends from Bain, he took a big step. 👇 2. He took a six-month sabbatical but could not find the idea for months. And one day, his food order was late by half an hour. That's when Sahil realised that online food companies could get the orders online but lacked the logistics to deliver them. He wanted to solve it. ✅ 3. He partnered with local restaurants and set up an office with six employees and four delivery persons from a 250 sq ft room in Gurgaon. Sahil started clocking 100 orders daily with deliveries in under 30 minutes, but the big wake-up call arrived. 👇 4. Food delivery was getting solved with emerging players like Zomato, but E-commerce was still an open market. Conventional players like DTDC could not make doorstep delivery. Sahil changed the plan. In January 2011, SSN Logistics started, and Delhivery was born. 🚀 5. Sahil delivered free for a month, on the condition to do thirty deliveries monthly and upgrade to 50 in the next month if satisfied. And the idea worked. By 2012, Delhivery delivered over 500 shipments across five customers and scaled to three centres within Delhi NCR. It raised 7 CR from Times Internet. 6. Delhivery skyrocketed to 2 million orders across 90 clients. They kept the pricing as low as Rs 35 for a 500-gram packet. It also opened two 10,000 sq ft fulfilment centres in Delhi and Chennai. Seeing the growth, Nexus Venture Partners pumped 35 CR. 💸 7. Delhivery kept growing and processed 9000 orders daily. 90% of revenues came from shipping, and Delhivery expanded to 180 towns and cities in India. On 8th September 2014, it raised 212 CR led by Multiples Alternate Asset Management and became a 500 CR company. 💰 8. Growing 400% yearly, Delhivery handled 3 million monthly transactions for 1,500 e-commerce companies. It had beaten the competition by focusing on 45,000 non-e-commerce enterprises for order management and warehousing solutions. As it expanded to 1 million sq. ft of warehousing space, it raised 506 CR from Tiger Global and became a 2000 CR company. 📉 9. Delhivery grew on steroids and grossed a revenue of 1073.64 CR, 15,000 pin codes and 30 fulfilment centres across 12 cities by 2018. On 24th March 2019, it raised 2766.82 CR led by Softbank and became the first unicorn of 2019. As Delhivery became a 10,000 CR company, the headline news came. 📰 10. On 11th May 2022, Delhivery went for a 5235 CR IPO and saw an oversubscription of 1.63 times. 🙌 ➡️ Today, Delhivery has shipped 2.1 billion parcels across 30,000 businesses and 99.5% of India's population. It leads with a 21.5% market share. 💪 Sahil Barua's small dream has become a 40,000 CR company today. 🙏 #india #startup #casestudy

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To VC or not I came across two separate notes yesterday. One where Zomato and PolicyBazaar (InfoEdge is the common and largest investor) topped the charts on the market cap of all the 20-30 tech IPOs in the last few years. And the second about 65% IRR growth of Rohit and Kunal's investment. It got me thinking of operating entrepreneurs are yielding impressive returns compared to regular VC's Most first time founders get lured into raising VC funding as they get instant recognition from their social circle. But they suffer unimaginably. 1. The day they raise VC funding they cease to be an entrepreneur but a glorified CEO/senior exec working over time and severely under compensated. 2. Most VC's don't like founders to take enough salary (barely to make ends meet) and they don't like them to sell shares till they get an exit. I meet so many first time founders who are proud of this act of sacrifice hoping for a glorious victory at the end of it all. Their first time romance of entrepreneurship and gullibility gets exploited by VC's who misguide them at times to go without salaries/comp leaving them torn between family care and business priorities. 3. VC's like to invest in high growth, strong businesses with low risk(ideally, showing signs of profitability already) but as soon as they invest, they want the company to grow 100X continuously citing examples from the silicon valley of that one company which did amazing. They only care about the "power law" which is even 2-3 of their 10 investments work, they make enough but in that process the poor first time founder gives the best years of his life to the startup in vain as unwinding from this mindless experimentation and growth is nearly impossible 4. VC's celebrate Job's brashness or Travis's aggression and calls you a weak or a soft founder if you grow and manage business sensibly without undue aggression. They steadily try to influence your character and personality through stories of inspiration of "aggressors" but the moment you get there, ditch you for your insolence. 5. VC's don't bring any operating experience but have high conviction coming from their gut experience and reading a book or two on silicon valley startups. The reality of India dawns on to them after 10-20 years of investing and by that time, several founders have wasted their most productive years getting misguided by the intuition and gut feelings of the inexperienced VC's What's the solution - 1. There are some ideas that need VC capital and some don't - anything that required deep tech, strong network effects (mobility), research need VC capital. 2. Good businesses (so already existing business models getting improved by tech/AI etc) should not need too much VC capital. They should treat VC capital as an expensive debt and don't get influenced by VC's too much (discipline is key here). Example - D2C, or SAAS, or Edtech or Traveltech or such.

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HSBC's recent assessment values Byju's at $0, along with other unicorn startups like Meesho, Pharmeasy, and StackOverflow Valuation down from previous round. This highlights the importance of focusing on value creation over valuation in the startup ecosystem. An exemplary case is Zoho, which revolutionized the software as a service market without external funding, emphasizing customer success. #startup #funding #valuation [Read more](https://lnkd.in/dPk7i8Jh)

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I built a 4 step framework to understand the VC business. Access → Picking → Entry → Exit. It works for all types of VC’s irrespective of their size, industry focus & geography. Let us dig deep. 1. Access – Is the next Sachin Bansal coming to pitch to you? If not, it is NOT worth being in this business. Unlike the stock market, where anyone can open an account and start buying, in venture capital, you risk falling into the trap of adverse selection. This can significantly impact your IRR. To avoid this, it is essential to make sure the top 1% founders are pitching to you and you are seeing 80% of the deals in the market. 2. Picking – You receive 400 applications every month. Congratulations Most VC’s proudly flaunt this in their pitch decks – but are you actually seeing all 400 or just the ones referred to you. What if the next Sachin Bansal filled your application form but you never saw it? So seeing everything is a must but it is only the first step. The real challenge lies in picking the right market and founders that align with your investment thesis. 3. Entry – You Choose the Asset, But the Asset Also Chooses You. You might excel at sourcing the best opportunities and making the right picks, but if the founder doesn’t choose to take your money, all that effort is in vain. Without a strong brand, even if you nail steps 1 and 2, you’re still at risk of missing out on the top deals, which can ultimately lower your IRR. 4. Exit – The Final and Most Crucial Step After making 20, 30, or even 50 bets, the ultimate question is: What’s the exit math to ensure a strong return for your investors? How much ownership do you need, and what are the realistic odds of achieving the returns necessary to justify those investments? This is where most VC’s go wrong. Ultimately, you are only as good as your last deal. You have to track and make sure you are getting better at each of these – every quarter just like a start up would. If you’re an LP evaluating a fund, the important questions to ask are – 1) Are you seeing the best deals in the market? What are you doing to make sure you continue to see them. 2) How do you pick companies? Show us an investment memo? 3) Have you lost any deals, and if so, why? Found this useful? Let's continue the discussion in the comments. #vc #venturecapital #investing

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Eternal source of confusion in India SaaS. Terms like SMB, mid-market and enterprise are used pretty casually. Putting out a version here and inviting opinions from founders & investors on how they see the breakpoints between segments. US: SMB (upto $250mm in annual revenue), mid-market/commercial ($250mm-$1B), enterprise ($1B+). India: S (upto 10cr), MB (upto 250cr/$30mm in annual revenue), mid-market (250cr-1000cr, upto $150mm), enterprise (1000cr+/$150mm+) (note the breakpoints between segments are much lower in India and not comparable to the US)

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