Startup

The ‘2022 ESG Global Study’ by Oracle, which involved over 11,000 participants from 15 countries, shows that 89% of business leaders believe that companies using tech for sustainability are more likely to succeed. A whopping 93% of these leaders acknowledge technology's crucial role in enhancing corporate sustainability and 94% advocate the use of technology in ensuring data accuracy, automating data collection across sectors, planning and revising sustainability targets based on performance, and automating report generation.

In spite of the fall, India ranked third globally in 2023 in terms of fintech startup funding. Worldover, funds have become tight for startups due to rising interest rates, as well as tough and uncertain macroeconomic conditions. Even as funding was scarce, sectors within fintech like alternative lending, payments, and bankingtech saw a good run. Alternative Lending received funding of $835 million in 2023, down from $2.28bn in 2022.

In 1999, amidst the dot-com frenzy, Warren Buffett's prophetic words at the Allen-Sunny Valley Conference foresaw the bubble's burst. I witnessed this, my first tech bubble-bust, firsthand as a 16-year-old trader in my dad’s office. At that time, companies, merely by donning a “tech” or “soft” label, saw their valuations soar. This pattern, a rollercoaster of tech stock highs and lows, has been a recurring theme in the two-plus decades since and is especially pronounced in India.

Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has come up with a new venture - 'OppDoor', which will help e-commerce companies expand operations globally by providing them with end-to-end solutions, a media report said on Tuesday. According to the filings, the company is registered in Singapore and was founded in May 2021. OppDoor was previously known as Three State Ventures Pte Ltd, reports Moneycontrol.

Investments by private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) funds to homegrown companies declined to $27.9 billion across 697 transactions this year (as of December 20), compared to $47.62 billion across 1,364 deals in 2022, according to a new report.2023 saw more money being pulled out from the country by private equity players, with overall exits reaching $19.34 billion from 248 companies, in comparison to 233 exits worth $18.45 billion in 2022, according to data from Venture Intelligence and industry body IVCA.

SCOPE, an invite-only networking platform for the startup ecosystem, on Tuesday announced the launch of a USD 45 million venture capital fund focused on driving innovation in the fast-evolving fintech and gaming sectors. This strategic initiative underlines SCOPE's commitment to fostering innovation, collaboration, and growth within the startup community, according to a release.

The year of 2023 was tough for many startups which had to survive without the VC funding bottle. Unicorns like Byju’s, Swiggy and Ola saw valuation markdowns, few others shut shop. Founders shifted focus to profitability and 18% of them said they’re profitable in a survey. Half of India’s 100 unicorns could turn profitable by FY27, predicts Redseer.

Exponent Energy, an innovative energy-tech startup working at 15-minute fast charging and introducing a 3000-cycle life warranty for electric vehicles, has secured $26.4 million in a series B funding round led by Eight Roads Ventures.This round includes a strategic investment from TDK Ventures, their first foray into India’s EV sector. Existing investors such as Lightspeed, YourNest VC, 3one4 Capital, AdvantEdge VC, and Dr. Pawan Munjal's family office, Executive Chairman of Hero MotoCorp, also participated in this round.

TiE Silicon Valley, the gateway for global entrepreneurs in the United States, is now working to train, mentor and facilitate Indian startups to grow their markets in the US, the head of this top organisation for entrepreneurs from the IS sector has said."We see ourselves; TiE Silicon Valley is the gateway for the global entrepreneur. A bulk of those global entrepreneurs are coming from India," Anita Manwani, president of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Silicon Valley told PTI in a recent interview.

There’s a new word that has entered the lexicon of startups – profitability. During the pandemic, when money was literally available on tap, startups found newer ways to burn the cash. Now that the bubble has burst and even the most celebrated decacorn has fallen from grace, founders are now learning the meaning of ‘profitable’ growth. Many startups are now announcing that they are profitable, even if the pool of profit continues to be very small. From being a fad, profitability is no longer optional as many startups are looking to tap public markets.

It takes a lot of creativity, courage and determination to start and build a successful business. In this digital era, it helps if you are an engineer too. As per Hurun and IDFC First’s list of top 200 companies founded by 405 self-made entrepreneurs, 225 are engineers. Needless to say, the list is also dominated by startups and new-age businesses. The odds get better if you are from a marquee college like IIT, as 82 of them from the list are either from IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay or IIT Kharagpur.

India’s burgeoning startup ecosystem is highly dynamic. However, some industries have a distinguished standing as fertile gr...

With the go-go days of funding behind us, private equity players say that founders are no longer behaving like overgrown teenagers. In a freewheeling chat with Business Insider, Mukul Gulati, President and Chief Investment Officer of Zephyr Management, says that founders now see the writing on the wall and don’t have to be lectured on profitability.

The friendly government policies and timely investments have given a much-needed boost to startups in the aerospace sector compared to other countries and the country is ripe for tremendous growth in the space industry over the next decade, a top AWS executive has said. Clint Crosier, Director, Aerospace and Satellite, AWS, told during the sidelines of the 'AWS re: Invent 2023' conference here that he is very bullish on India and is witnessing a faster rate of space startups being created in the country over the last year.

Global investors are still interested in India’s private markets. New York-based global investment manager Zephyr Peacock is looking to raise $200 mn from global and domestic investors over the next few months. Zephyr Peacock was looking to raise an India-dedicated fund of $120-130 million earlier this year but has increased the target.

After hours of negotiations to bring back Sam Altman as OpenAI CEO following his shock firing, the company's board decided to go a different direction and appoint former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear as interim CEO.OpenAI co-founder and board director Ilya Sutskever said that Shear will take over as interim CEO.Shear will replace Mira Murati as CEO, who was publicly aligned with Altman.

The number of unicorns in India has been reduced to 72 with a total valuation of $195.75 billion, from over 100 unicorns last year, according to a new report.

Happy Nature, a direct to consumer breakfast brand, has recently secured $300,000 in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). This investment will enable Happy Nature to further expand its mission of providing high-quality, ethically sourced milk, dairy, and breakfast essential products to its customers. The company addresses the challenges faced by small farmers by providing them access to resources and markets.

Google is reportedly investing $2 billion in AI startup company Anthropic, founded by former members of Microsoft-backed OpenAI, as the AI race heats up.

Private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investments registered a 60 per cent year-on-year growth in the July-September quarter to touch USD 13.6 billion, according to the latest EY-IVCA monthly PE/VC roundup. According to the report, the third quarter of this year recorded an investment worth USD 13.6 billion across 209 deals, 60 per cent higher than the investments in the third quarter (3Q) of 2022.

Business Insider has obtained scores of pitch decks used by startups to persuade VCs and other investors to fund them. You can search for them here.

Agritech and manufacturing are new boom sectors for private investors now. BharatAgri, an advisory led ecommerce platform for farmers, on Thursday announced that it had raised Series A funding of ₹35 crore ($4.3mn) led by Arkam Ventures, India’s first early-stage venture fund dedicated to Middle-India startups. Other than Arkam, the latest capital raise round also saw participation from Capria Ventures and existing investors India Quotient, 021 Capital and Omnivore.