<br /> <keyword id="2238518" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="LetsVenture">LetsVenture</keyword>, which was was founded in 2013 by Shanti Mohan and <keyword id="110507" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sanjay-Jha">Sanjay Jha</keyword>, is an online <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> platform that is redefining early-stage investing in India with a host of business world biggies like Infosys cofounder <keyword id="44604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nandan-Nilekani">Nandan Nilekani</keyword>, <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>'s Kunal Bahl, Wipro's Rishad Premji, Manipal Global Education's Mohandas Pai, Freshdesk's Girish Mathrubootham and Snapdeal cofounder Rohit Bansal among the other marquee individuals who pooled together an undisclosed investment.<br />
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As per an industry report, 18 investors participated in the latest fund-raising exercise of LetsVenture, which includes Accel Partners, People Group's Anupam Mittal, Times Internet, Singapore Angels and IDG Ventures India.<br />
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"Just like the last 10 years was about creating doctors and engineers, this decade will be about creating entrepreneurs. It's a foundational period now. I hope LetsVenture succeeds in this and I make money off that," Anupam Mittal told ET.<br />
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Talking about the expansion plan, Shanti Mohan, CEO of LetsVenture, said that the funding marketplace will be using the money from the latest Series A funding round to bring in more investors on its board from across the globe. In 2014, LetsVenture raised Rs 4 crore from a group of 21 angel investors.<br />
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According to Mohan, “LetsVenture has unlocked a new category of angel investors online-entrepreneurs-turned-investors, second-generation family businesses and global Indians who are actively looking for a trusted marketplace to discover high-quality” last year.<br />
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Up until now, LetsVenture has 1,200 investors from 20 countries and has raised $17 million ( Rs 109.9 crore) for 53 startups, the business daily reported. It plans to double its team to 40 people by the end of the year.<br />
(Image: BCCL)<br />

LetsVenture’s is getting its cash registers ringing with big money coming in!

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The furniture market in India is worth $16 billion. The furniture and appliances rental is estimated only at a third of that. However, while the sector is growing at a sizeable 25% month-on-month, only 2% of the industry is currently online.<br />
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With sharing economy being on the rise across sectors, the country has seen over 13 startups coming into the space in 2015 alone. The names include Wheelstreet, Etashee, Rentickle and Rentsetgo among others.<br />
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<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Rentomojo&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Rentomojo</a> is among these startups. It is a marketplace that offers furniture, furnishings, appliances and other home verticals that house hunters can book at affordable rentals. It works on an asset-light model, and makes anything from 40-50% of the rental fee as commission on every booking, with the rest going to the vendor.<br />
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The company is currently in the market to raise fresh rounds. It raised $2 million in pre-Series A funding from Accel Partners and IDG Ventures India last year.<br />
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Business Insider sat down with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Rentomojo&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Rentomojo</a> CEO <keyword id="3210543" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Geetansh-Bamania">Geetansh Bamania</keyword> to understand the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=online+rental&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">online rental</a> space better.<br />
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<strong>Why could have caused the boom in <keyword id="3438857" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="online-rental">online rental</keyword> startups?</strong><br />
As soon as an industry starts making money, people start trying to get in. This industry is here to stay because India is an income-constraint economy, with a maximum of 30-40k disposable income. That’s exactly why several <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=e-commerce&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">e-commerce</a> companies are suffering.<br />
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There is also a bunch of migration from tier II and tier III to tier I cities. This is because of the renewed cash flow and new opportunities being created. People are changing cities every 3 years. Combine the mobility quotient with the income constraint, and you’ll see the renting model making a lot of sense.<br />
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<strong>Owning vs. renting in the long term.</strong><br />
When you think of the long term, renting does lose to owning after a certain period. However, our consumer is typically somebody who’s looking to have it for 12-16 months. Also, as we go forward as a company we’ll experiment with 24-48 months rental periods. We’ll continue to offer price bands that will seem lucrative to you.<br />
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<strong>OLX and Quikr are going pretty hard on add-ons and advertising. <keyword id="864887" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Pepperfry">Pepperfry</keyword> and <keyword id="2539960" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Urbanladder">UrbanLadder</keyword> now have EMI options. Are you worried?</strong><br />
Our target segment is against the ownership model. You are bound to pay a pending EMI. However, renting allows you the flexibility to come out when you want.<br />
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Inherently, rentals will always be lesser than EMI. That’s simple math. A <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Pepperfry&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Pepperfry</a> or <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=UrbanLadder&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">UrbanLadder</a> will have a sourcing cost, a gross margin and a final market price. However, our rental costs will always be lower as they are based on the sourcing cost, and not the market value.<br />
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For second hand buying, from a unit economics perspective, I don’t know how lucrative a business it is to be in if you’re making money from relocation.<br />
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<strong>Why not own some furniture?</strong><br />
As the industry matures, we’ll be deploying several crore units a month. It’s not going to be scalable. Also, owning also comes with an inherent risk.<br />
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The ease of operating a marketplace model is why we replicated it. That’s why our unit economics have been positive from day 1.<br />
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<em><a href="http://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/56cbe59ce4b062f6b59a4bef/0x600.jpg?fit=scale&amp;background=000000">Image Source</a></em><br />

Rentomojo CEO wants to make an online offer
you can’t refuse

According to an education survey conducted by HSBC, <a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/minorityview/indian-parents-have-very-high-expectations-about-their-childrens-education-and-careers/">educating their children is the ultimate goal of 51% of Indian parents</a>. So, it is not surprising that education is the next front on the horizon of the entrepreneurial Indians leading to the emergence of many interesting edtech concepts.<br />
<br /> Most of the <keyword id="2989202" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="edtech-startups">edtech startups</keyword> comprise faculty pool, <keyword id="6379645" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Online-education">online education</keyword> material and technology working in tandem. Most of them cater to various sections of the student community, ranging from schoolchildren to working professionals and budding entrepreneurs. <br />
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While there is some focus on tuition for school-going children, others help in cracking entrance tests, and a few others focus on providing professional certification courses. Indian education system has come a long way from classroom education to redefining the way children are taught, and these edtech <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/topic/Startups">startups</a> are responsible for this revolution.<br />
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<h3>
	<a href="http://www.embibe.com/">Embibe</a></h3>
Embibe is an online portal that consists of a team of entrepreneurs, who help students to get coaching for various entrance examinations like JEE, AIIMS, AIPMT, CET and many more. Founded by an ex-TCS employee, 33-year-old Aditi Avasthi, wanted to change the way students prepared for competitive exams.<br />
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At present, Embibe boasts of over one million student users. Last year, this edtech venture raised $4 million from early-stage investor such as Kalaari Capital and Lightbox.<br />
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	<a href="http://www.careerguide.com/">CareerGuide</a></h3>
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	CareerGuide is an edtech platform targeted to provide answers to all the career related queries of an aspirant. They have a marketplace of renowned career experts from various fields and a student can connect instantly to get their query resolved.</h3>
How it is different than the other players? Well, Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be the answer. CareerGuide boasts of an AI-led algorithm that connects students with the best possible career guidance expert based on their query. Further, their psychometric assessments help students in figuring out their true aptitude, interest, motivation and personality to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/6-Tips-To-Landing-A-Job-At-A-Startup/articleshow/27654867.cms">take informed career decisions</a>. CareerGuide has most definitely emerged as the one of the hottest names in the edtech business as of now.<br />
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	<a href="http://www.vedantu.com/">Vedantu</a></h3>
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	Looking for a personalised teaching while you sit at home? Vedantu, the live online tutoring edtech company, is conceptualized to bring personalization back into education where a teacher will teach according to the requirement, pace and level of a student and the student will interact with the teacher online.</h3>
The founders claimed the existing teaching system to be “institutionalized and generalized”, which quite possibly was the motivation behind this concept.<br />
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According to Vamsi Krishna, cofounder and CEO, “The current system is teacher-centric and learning happens, predominantly, one-way. We want to change that.”<br />
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Vedantu raised a $5 million from Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management last year in May.<br />
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	<a href="http://www.edukart.com/">EduKart</a></h3>
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	EduKart is an online entrance coaching site that caters to the needs of almost every individual. Apart from courses for high school students appearing for various competitive examinations, the company offers undergraduate and post graduate courses for everyone who seeks help in management, engineering, medical, civil services, business, Law, and various other interesting courses.</h3>
The startup acquired $1 million funding from Holostik Group’s United Finsec, Yuvraj Singh’s YouWeCan Ventures, 500 Startups, and a bunch of other investors in June ‘15. EduKart projected 5x growth for themselves last year.<br />
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<a href="http://www.upgrad.com/">UpGrad</a><br />
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If you are a working professional and want to upgrade your skill set, UpGrad is the place for you to explore. This startup offers online higher education programs for working professionals. With a highly experienced faculty forming academia advisory board, this company provides one-to-one academic and non-academic support for all its students by providing them with live projects, case studies, group assignments, access to live lectures and interactive content and many more.<br />
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“With UpGrad, we aim to revolutionise the online education industry by bringing credibility and scale. The response to our first course is a strong validation that we are on our way of achieving our vision,” said UpGrad founder Ronnie Screwvala.<br />
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	<a href="http://www.toppr.com/">Toppr</a></h3>
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	This super-interesting edtech firm focuses on giving training to students aspiring for IIT JEE, pre-medical and also the foundation courses (starting from class 8) for various competitive examinations. They provide the students with unlimited practice tests along with learning material and students’ doubts will be answered personally on live chat.</h3>
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Till date, Toppr has raised $12.2 million in three funding rounds from four investors, such as Fidelity Growth Partners India, Helion Venture Partners, SAIF Partners, InnoVen Capital India and Powai Lake Ventures.<br />
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	<a href="http://www.wiziq.com/">WizIQ</a></h3>
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	WizIQ believes in delivering high impact online teaching and training through mobile apps by making virtual classrooms possible. Their online academy builder includes live classes, integrated cloud storage, mobile learning, tests and assignments and many other interesting features.</h3>
Hailed as the 'best virtual classroom provider' at the World Education Congress, one should expect a promising 2016 from WizIQ.<br />
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<h3>
	<a href="http://www.iprofindia.com/">iProf India</a></h3>
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	iProf claims to be India's biggest Tablet PC based education content delivery company and digital education library that offers “smarter way” of studying through its advanced android based application that works on offline mode (without internet connection). Their USP is their content, which can be accessed both online and offline via pen drives, memory cards, tablet PCs in a secured and scalable environment.</h3>
iProf has raised $15 million in total funding through Series A &amp; B rounds from Daily Mail Group Information, IDG Ventures India and Norwest Venture Partners – NVP.<br />
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<strong>In a nutshell</strong><br />
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The Indian edtech market is pegged at over $70 billion by 2017. The space breakup is estimated with higher education sector closing on 50 per cent, K12 at 40 per cent, and coaching/tutoring taking up 10 per cent. These emerging and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Top-10-Indian-startups-that-are-going-places/articleshow/49090916.cms">successful startups</a> are surely creating an impact and are making their presence felt. Books cannot be updated real time but these start-up can push updates on an app and this can be distributed to millions with no incremental cost which makes edtech definitely one of the most exciting sectors in the Indian consumer market. The funding battleground could perhaps change the face of this sector as well.<br />
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(The article has been authored by <a href="https://plus.google.com/+UtkarshSahu9?rel=author">Utkarsh Sahu</a>, a digital strategist with over three years of writing experience for business magazines, such as Business Insider, Huffington Post, Tech Radar, etc. He admires technology with paradigm-shifting attributes, and digital marketing, social media and content are his current beat. An analytics enthusiast, he likes to break down key performance drivers of a robust digital marketing campaign. You may connect with him on <a href="https://in.linkedin.com/in/utkarshsahu9">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/UtkSahu">Twitter</a>.)<br />
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(Image: Thinkstock)<br />

8 Indian Edtech startups to watch out for in 2016

BANGALORE: Flipkart could be weeks away from concluding a deal to buy rival Myntra as the two sides engage in last-minute haggling over valuation before concluding what will be the biggest transaction in India’s online retail industry. People with knowledge of the talks said fashion portal Myntra is aiming for a valuation of $400 million (Rs 2,400 crore).<br />
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The company, based in Bangalore, is founded by Mukesh Bansal, 38, an IIT-Kanpur graduate. But Flipkart, also based in Bangalore and cofounded by 32-yearold IIT-Delhi alumnus Sachin Bansal (the two Bansals are not related), may not be willing to concede that much.<br />
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Negotiators are considering a "target valuation" of $350 million, and may push the offer to $370 million, but there is "no possibility" of valuing Myntra at $400 million, according to a source with direct knowledge of talks. Representatives of Flipkart and Myntra declined to comment. The deal is being stitched during a period of frenetic activity in the ecommerce space.<br />
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<strong>Holding co to own shares in cos</strong><br />
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Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, is steadily building out its India operation -- it will start selling fashion items in the next few weeks -- while the country adds hundreds of thousands of new online shoppers every month.<br />
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The timing of the transaction also takes into account an initial public offering of Flipkart’s shares next year, most probably on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the United States, sources said. Flipkart, which raised $360 million in two rounds in 2013, was valued at around $1.6 billion in July last year.<br />
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The valuation is "significantly more" now, the sources said without disclosing how much. India's largest online retailer hit the billion-dollar milestone in annual gross merchandise value last month.<br />
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The sources who briefed ET about the contours of the deal that is taking shape said that Mukesh Bansal will most likely be given independent responsibility for all fashion retail at the combined business, including Myntra as well as Flipkart’s fashion unit. This is the model that Amazon followed when it acquired shoe and clothing retailer Zappos in 2009, which even now runs as an independent company. A holding company will own shares in Flipkart and Myntra.<br />
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A Flipkart-Myntra combine is aimed at shoring up the former's leadership in India's booming online retail industry, projected to reach $8.5 billion (over Rs 51,000 crore) in size in 2016. Moreover, Amazon is making its presence felt just eight months after entering India -- it has introduced about 20 categories of products and more are on the way.<br />
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Myntra's Mukesh Bansal has said the company needs about $100-150 million (Rs 600 crore to Rs 900 crore) in the next three years to reach its goal of becoming a Rs 20,000-crore fashion company in 2020. Flipkart has made a commitment to pump in over $100 million (Rs 600 crore) into the company, said a consultant.<br />
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"This will help (the country’s biggest fashion portal) Myntra take on competition like Jabong and other fashion sites. And by joining hands, both will be able to take on Amazon, which is the major driving force in these talks," said the consultant who has worked with Flipkart and Myntra.<br />
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Ashish Jhalani, head of advisory firm eTailing India, said the potential merger indicates how Amazon has changed the game in a short time. "It is imperative that the merger goes through and a very formidable domestic player emerges that can compete with Amazon and eBay," said Jhalani.<br />
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Common investors such as earlystage investor Accel Partners and investment fund Tiger Global are expected to remain invested in Myntra, as also recent investor Premji Invest, which participated in the Rs 300-crore funding round in the fashion portal in February.<br />
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The two companies now have three common investors — Accel, Tiger and Belgium-based family office Sofina. Myntra’s other investors are IDG Ventures India and Kalaari Capital.<br />
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"If a deal happens, it will get done by end of the month," a source said, adding that the transaction will have elements of cash and stock without providing details.<br />
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Fashion, which delivers over 35% in operating margin, is among the most contested categories in ecommerce and has seen the emergence of players like Jabong, Fashionara and Limeroad and even web-only brands like Yepme and Zovi.<br />
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"The Flipkart and Myntra merger will create the first Indian e-tailing powerhouse, and provide a big fillip to India's still nascent but very promising e-commerce industry," said Arvind Singhal, chairman of retail advisory services firm Technopak.<br />
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Flipkart, which introduced fashion in 2012, has a focus on providing a large selection, while Myntra is seen as a curated fashion destination with focus on quality of selection.

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Flipkart And Myntra Enter Final Lap In Negotiation

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