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For startups to grow they must garner funds from investors; and to gather funds, startups need to have a robust product-market fit along with a promising team and a solid business plan with the potential to scale. Then comes the role of angel investors and <keyword id="6357097" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="venture-capital">Venture Capital</keyword> (VC) <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> that usually surfaces when larger amounts are required to grow a business. 
 Lately, major <keyword id="982553" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-startups">Indian startups</keyword> have seen a tremendous boost from venture capitalists. To start with, we saw how Tiger Global Management, Softbank Corp., Morgan Stanley, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, IDG Ventures India and SAIF Partners managed to support promising Indian startups like that of Flipkart, Snapdeal, Ola, Zomato, ShopClues, Urban Ladder and many others. Moreover, it is not only the bigger firms who are eyeing VC funds, relatively younger and smaller firms like OYO Rooms, Swiggy and Grofers have also joined the race. 
 Apart from ruling the e-commerce and fashion industry, <keyword id="153868" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="VC-funding">VC funding</keyword> is now gradually moving into other sectors too, such as agriculture, healthcare and education. As per the data from the upcoming Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF), which is all set to launch the Wharton India Startup Competition (WISC) with over 500 entries, though majority of applicants (around 25%) belong to the e-commerce industry, the healthcare segment is not far away with around 22% applicants. Moreover, most of the participating startups already have pre-seeded and seeded funding arrangements and around 31% of them have listed themselves as social enterprises. 
 
The ecosystem for VC funding for Indian startups would be discussed at length at the Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF). WIEF is a two-day event starting from January 6, 2017, which will bring together the best entrepreneurs, investors, distinguished Wharton faculty, students and inspirational speakers. Attendees will not only have numerous opportunities for interaction and networking across the board but will also witness in-depth discussions in terms of understanding the evolving business landscape in India and the need for business model innovation from the government, various industry leaders, and distinguished Wharton faculty. 
 
The relevance of this summit doesn’t end there. It is also known for hosting the Wharton India Startup Competition (WISC) which is giving Indian startups the opportunity to present themselves in front of an esteemed panel of judges and also win cash prizes of over $25,000 and unparalleled mentorship of up to 4 months from some of the most renowned names in the industry on strategy and funding. The jury for WISC comprises top-notch personalities with the likes of Bharati Jacob (Co-founder of Seedfund), Nipun Mehra (Investor at Sequoia Capital India), Rehan Yar Khan (Managing Partner of Orios Venture Partners), Tarun Davda (Managing Director of Matrix Partners), Aditya Nair (Investor at Nyca Partners), Ajay Hattangdi (CEO India &amp; Group COO of InnoVen Capital Group), Ankit Shah (Vice President at Unilazer Ventures), Sameer Verma (Director &amp; Junior Partner of Nexus Venture Partners), Saurabh Joshi (Strategy Manager at PayPal) and Shantanu Gangal (Head – Analytics at Fundbox). Also, past finalists of this prestigious event includes names such as Ketto, Haptik, Zoomcar, Zostel, Targeting Mantra, Qlicket, Samaan and Ambitioni. 
 
Needless to say, such competitions and summits go a long way in not only promoting upcoming startups but also in educating the audience and the participants regarding the funding scenario. Not many seem to be aware about the types and rounds of funding, the know-how of VC funding and even the right way to go about securing such funds, hence this is surely going to be one the most-sought after events at the start of the next year. 
 
(Image Credits: Thinkstock) 
 
(About the Author: This article has been authored by Aman Jain, Chairperson WIEF 2017)

How VC Funding Fuels the Indian Startup Ecosystem

Taiwanese electronics maker <keyword id="168792" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Foxconn-Technology-Group">Foxconn Technology Group</keyword> is looking to invest in Indian startups and is gaining deep insight into Indian startup ecosystem. 
 For this, <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal are helping the Taiwanese electronics maker to scout for the best deals in the <keyword id="2902522" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="indian-startup-market">Indian startup market</keyword>. 
 
Over a dozen Indian startups met Wen-Hsin (Vincent) Tong, Chairman and Director of investments at FIH Mobile Limited, an investment arm of Foxconn, at the New Delhi office of Snapdeal recently, according to two people with direct knowledge of the initiative. 
 
The meetings were designed as fact-finding missions and were set up for Foxconn to gain a deeper insight in one of the world's most dynamic startup hubs. 
 
"(However) they could potentially lead to investments in these ventures," said the sources who briefed Economic Times on the developments. 
 
Though names of the startups were not known but sources told ET that among those present were several mobile-based ventures that offer on-demand services. "All the startups who met (Tong and Bahl) have raised significant amounts of venture capital funding and several of them are already in talks for a new round of equity financing," one of the persons quoted above told the financial daily. 
 
Foxconn, however, declined to confirm the meetings. 
 
"As a matter of company policy, we do not comment on rumours or speculation. As we have stated in the past, we would consider investments in India if they made commercial sense," a Foxconn technology group spokesperson said in an emailed reply to ET's questionnaire. 
 
Snapdeal also declined to comment on the developments. Foxconn's interest comes at a time when several Asian corporate behemoths are looking to invest in consumer-focused technology startups. 
 
Earlier this month ET had reported that Foxconn was one of the frontrunners to invest in Jasper Infotech, which owns and operates Snapdeal.com. 
The Taiwanese manufacturing giant is a contract manufacturer for a number of iconic brands, including Apple, Amazon, Sony and Microsoft. 
 
Strategic investors scouting for investments in India have increased over the last two years. Apart from South Africa's Naspers, which is an investor in India's biggest e-Commerce company Flipkart, others such as SoftBank have promised to invest close to $10 billion in the country. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Snapdeal founders are helping Taiwanese company to get best deals in Indian startups

The landscape of Indian startups in the recent times has interesting mix of businesses that provide an important indicator into the future. NASSCOM in its recent report said that <keyword id="770060" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-start-ups">Indian start-ups</keyword> are coming up with <keyword id="3070390" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Unique-Business-Solutions">unique business solutions</keyword> to meet the requirements of a geographically vast, diverse and a chequered society. With technology maximizing its potential, solutions that merge both possibilities of domain and tech are gaining ground. Geographically, minds that have been focusing on unexplored possibilities are making it to the list of some of the exciting <keyword id="121946" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="start-ups">start ups</keyword> that India needs to watch out for! 
 
Here are a few start ups that have caught the fancy of the nation for gaining popularity. 
 
Meet the chef everyday! 
<a href="http://www.holachef.com/">HolaChef</a>, a cloud-based restaurant aims at bringing best of cuisines created and crafted by some of the best chefs from across the world. It is operational in various areas in Mumbai. HolaChef strictly focuses on titillating your tastebuds only with masterpieces delivered each day in form of food! 
 
A startup in the food technology space, HolaChef raised a seed funding of Rs 2 crore from India Quotient early this year. Ratan Tata has made an investment of undisclosed amount in this startup, boosting its growth potential by a great extent. This bright spot among the startups also aims to raise an additional Rs 20 – 30 crore in the coming months to realize its full potential. 
 
A technology to track your sugar! 
<a href="http://diabe.to/">Diabeto</a> is a solution that was most needed in the times when diabetes is turning out to be a silent killer on the prowl. It is a hardware device which plugs into existing glucometers to transfer the sugar reading from the sugar testing machine, using Bluetooth to an Android device that has the diabeto app installed. 
 
This startup initially raised $70,000 in total, and was offered an additional $500,000 in case the business was interested in staying in Chile. Well, India being the better and lucrative market of the two, the minds behind Diabeto decided to be home in India. Now, time can reveal whether this decision was a good one or otherwise. 
 
Love across technology 
<a href="http://www.trulymadly.com/">Truly Madly</a>, in short, is a dating app that helps connect lovelorn people who are looking to meet the ‘right’ kind of partners who could be separated by mere geography. Worry no more! Started by Sachin Bhatia, Truly Madly is a dating app that was meant to cater to the love needs of people between age group 18 and 26 years. What’s the greatest cut the app has been able to make above the rest of the players in the same space? TM is about being a responsible app that connects people only after verifying their identity. No space for grasshoppers here. This app raised nearly Rs 35 crore funding early this year. 
 
Tasks? Don’t worry! 
<a href="https://www.taskbob.com/">TaskBob</a> conceived by Aseem who wanted to help average Indians meet their needs to run chores by way of roping in some experienced and reliable handymen was a dream come true for many people who simply find such tasks time consuming and exhausting since they have a long history of being conned at getting small jobs done. Now, no more sweat about menial tasks because TaskBob takes care of the entire gamut of requirements that need the attention of an expert plumber, painter, carpenter or just about anyone who is not on your friends’ list! The startup raised $ 1.2 mn from Orios and Mayfield in April this year. TaskBob is focusing on Mumbai right now, and has plans to expand soon. 
 
No teething problems! 
Mumbai-based <a href="http://www.mydentist.co.in/">MyDentist</a> conceived by Vikram Vora, is a chain of over 103 dental clinics spread across Greater Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Surat. With over 3 lakh cases that have been successfully treated much to the pleasure of both founders and users, MyDentist has addressed a crucial problem faced by most parents and youngsters by running nearly 100 clinics across cities. MyDentist, apart from its most successful run, also raised funds up to Rs 50 crore recently. 
 
When the trade is of a drink 
Mihir Desai of <a href="http://barstockexchange.com/">The Bar Stock Exchange</a> came up with the idea of setting up India’s first stock market based pub chain where drink prices changed based on the real-time demand and supply. Drinking at TBSE does not only give you a high on the drink alone, but also the empowered kick of having monitored the stock market at the same time. One of the most promising, innovative, fun and unique start up of our times that is bound to catch the fancy of more than drinkers alone. Go, savour that crash!

These Indian start-ups are revving up the Indian business scenario

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Indian+startups">Indian startups</a> have never seen better days. While some analysts argue the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Indian+startups">startup</a> bubble has burst with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=TinyOwl">TinyOwl</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Zomato">Zomato</a>, the truth is the country has attracted investors by the truckloads until very recently. Some of the world’s leading investors, the likes of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Tiger+Global">Tiger Global</a> are increasingly interested in investing their billions into this ‘untapped’ economy. 
 
China is targeting a minimum growth rate of 6.5% per year until 2020. That’s the lowest it has seen since the late 1970s. 
 
A recent analysis by <a href="http://qz.com/538962/indian-startups-have-been-handed-an-incredible-opportunity-to-reach-new-investors/">Quartz</a> proves just that - India has been awarded an awesome opportunity. 
 
 
It would take a lot to close the gap between China and India. The former still takes the largest share of the VC money coming into Asia. However, the influx of Chinese e-commerce giant <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Alibaba">Alibaba</a>, Japan's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=SoftBank">SoftBank</a>, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Google+Capital">Google Capital</a> promises to give the Chinese a tough run for their money. 
 
 
However, the key point here is ‘long term’. With China’s economy showing signs of stagnancy, the trillion dollar question is if investors would turn their attention toward India in the long run. 
 
 
Mind, old habits die hard. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Indian+startups">Indian startups</a> surely need to dangle big carrots to keep investors hooked for long enough to gain preference over the Big Daddy of the Asian economy. 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes and <a href="http://qz.com/538962/indian-startups-have-been-handed-an-incredible-opportunity-to-reach-new-investors/">Quartz</a>

China’s loss maybe gain for Indian
Startups

India is increasingly seeing a host of ingenious <keyword id="138263" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="startup">startup</keyword>s. While some may say the startup bubble would burst soon, as long as the money’s coming, the party’s on. 
 
Business Insider India ranks the top 10 most promising Indian <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=startup">startup</a>s. 
 
P.S: Flipkart and Snapdeal are excluded from the list as they’re too big to be considered ‘<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=startup">startup</a>s’ now. 
 
1. <keyword id="6362049" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ola-Cabs">Ola Cabs</keyword> 
Online taxi aggregator Ola is giving <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Uber">Uber</a> a hard time over who gets the biggest pie of the Indian market. This Mumbai-based startup has grown exponentially since it bought off rival <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=TaxiForSure+">TaxiForSure </a>for $200 million. 
 
2. <keyword id="6357120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="PayTM">Paytm</keyword> 
What more do you need if you have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Alibaba">Alibaba</a> supporting you! <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Paytm">Paytm</a> has expanded from online recharge to become an online marketplace. While it’s retail business is a fraction of Amazon, Flipkart or Snapdeal, it’s undeniably the jack of all trades. 
 
3. <keyword id="1960231" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Housing-com">Housing.com</keyword> 
Housing.com has been in recent news for all the wrong reasons. However, with an aggressive marketing campaign and ambition to tap into global real estate business, investors clearly see a lot of muscle in the company’s claims. 
 
4. <keyword id="6381424" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Quikr">Quikr</keyword> 
This online classifieds website is doing pretty well. In April 2015, the company raised a whopping $150 million from Tiger Global and Steadview Capital Management among other existing investors. Valued at $1 billion, the company has also rolled out its special Quikr Cars ad campaign with Ranvir Singh. 
 
5. Mu Sigma 
This Bangalore-based analytics firm clearly breaks the list of internet-based startups. This one offers analytics to major companies across the world. 
 
6. InMobi 
This company, founded in 2008 is fighting against the likes of Google and Apple in the mobile advertising segment. The startup already has 750 million users across 160 countries. 
 
7. Zomato 
Zomato sits at top of the host of food tech startups India has seen. Its international expansion plans and venture into food ordering and transportation has ensured its leadership in the food-tech space. 
 
8. Zivame 
Zivame offered a niche choice for an already under-served segment. The unavailability of sizes, social discomfort and poor market penetration ensured Zivame.com took the market by storm. 
 
9. RedBus 
RedBus has made a mark on consumer minds, thanks to it’s targeted marketing campaigns and differentiation. Of course, it has now been sold off to the Ibibo group for a whopping $138 Million. 
 
10. ShopClues 
 
Founded in January 2011, Gurgaon-based ShopClues has big names like Tiger Global, Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners backing them up.

Top 10 Indian startups that are going places

<keyword id="6373689" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cloud-computing">Cloud computing</keyword> services (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) have over the years reduced the total cost of ownership (<keyword id="2512347" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="TCO">TCO</keyword>) for many industry players. About ten years ago, when cloud services started becoming popular, the reigning thought was that only small and mid-size industry players will move to the cloud. But, today even largest players, across the globe and across industries, are leveraging cloud services to keep operational costs under control by paying-on-the go for the services instead of incurring high upfront capital expenditure. 
 
Is Cloud suitable for all Indian businesses? Maybe, maybe not, but its ‘pay-as-you-go’ benefit makes it more lucrative as well as sensible option for Indian start-ups, who usually work on shoe-string budgets. Why should they pay or invest in storage space which they might not be using? This is one of the many instances where start-ups can save money and drastically bring down their operational costs by leveraging the Cloud technology for business resilience. 
 
Let’s take a look at some of the immediate benefits that Cloud can deliver. 
 
Reduce up-front costs by 30% 
A report by O’Reilly Media shows that companies can save up to 30% in IT costs over a three-year period employing cloud resources versus on-premises equipment. This is a compelling proposition for the startups who would like to extract the maximum out of every penny available. The first three years are again very crucial years for a start-up. If the start-up is able to save 30% of its expenditure on IT- why should they think twice? 
 
Freedom &amp; ease to quickly scale up (or down) 
Every organization likes predictability. Larger organizations can predict their future needs for various resources based on empirical data they have collected in the past. Things are however, different with start-ups. They can’t predict how and when the demand for various resources will go up (or down) and this unpreparedness can do serious damage to their bottom line. They can address this issue by moving some of their IT services to the Cloud, thereby converting majority of the fixed costs on IT into variable costs. This will enable predictability and thus help start-ups scale up/down storage space, processing space, number of email IDs etc. on the go. 
 
Is cloud a safe bet? 
Earlier, concerns on cloud services security and reliability were valid. Not today, when many big players have entered the arena with a vast portfolio of cloud services. Presence of companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce.com in the cloud services space has already instilled confidence among organizations. 
Start using cloud resources now and save some precious rupees for marketing or expansion?

Indian Start-ups Should Ride The Cloud!

Seven <keyword id="982553" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-startups">Indian startups</keyword> recently became a part of the third edition of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Google-Brings-Its-Startup-Mentorship-Programme-Google-Launchpad-To-India/articleshow/40474207.cms">Google Launchpad Accelerator</a>, a six-month long intensive mentoring program by the search giant that is meant for mid to late stage startups. 
 
The list includes furniture rental startup RentoMojo, online learning HashLearn, wardrobe rentals service Flyrobe, the Kapture Mobile CRM app that helps businesses to do better lead management, a platform for doctors to discuss medical cases called Curofy, a desi word game Jalebi and Playment that lets you earn money for playing games. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Here-are-the-12-exciting-Indian-startups-that-applied-to-Microsofts-Accelerator-Demo-in-Bangalore/articleshow/52900619.cms">ALSO READ: Here are the 12 exciting Indian startups that graduated from Microsoft’s Accelerator program</a> 
 
The program will kick-off with a two-week all-expenses paid boot camp starting 30 January 2017 onwards at Launchpad Space in San Francisco, where these firms will join those from Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. 
 Each startup will get $50,000 in equity-free funding. The seven start-ups from India will also receive expert guidance from <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword> engineers, product managers and other mentors from top technology companies and VCs in <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword>. They will also receive equity-free support credits for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Heres-where-Googles-first-21-employees-are-now/articleshow/55552145.cms">Google </a>products and work closely with Google for six months in their home countries. 
 
Google's accelerator program has proved extremely beneficial for startups in the past. Over the last one year, the thirteen Indian startups which were a part of the program have successfully raised funding. 
 <keyword id="2766908" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nestaway">Nestaway</keyword> was part of Google's first batch from India and it closed a $30 million Series C investment. MagicPin that offers deals and discounts on Restaurants, Spas, Salons implemented a progressive web app that helped them to drive over 10% of their total daily transactions. 
 
"We are hoping the next batch will continue to find value in the programme and help them to succeed,” Paul Ravindranath G, programme manager of the Launchpad Accelerator, said.

Here's what's in store for these 7 Indian Startups selected for Google's Launchpad Accelerator Program

Software product think tank iSPIRT has designed a programme where <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Stanford">Stanford</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Duke+University">Duke University</a> researchers would help founders of 200 hyper growth companies to plan ahead and implement the learnings in their organizations. The aim of the exercise is to inspire <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Indian+startups">Indian startups</a> to be global category leaders. 
 
"We want them to become category leaders by making them think about future problems today," said Sharad Sharma, cofounder of iSpirt. "Because for a category leader, conversion rates are much higher than the number 2 or 3 players." 
 
The three-day retreat and conference would start this January where the 200 founders would begin their day with yoga and end it late night with brainstorming on strategies to supercharge their companies. The researchers are funding this programme through grants amounting to $57,000 (Rs 37 lakhs) endowed by their universities. 
 
"Anyone who sees the technology sector sees that the best pool of technical talent comes from India. But they are all working for American companies," said Sharique Hasan, associate professor of organisational behaviour at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Stanford">Stanford University</a>. 
 
 The goal of this programmed is to nail concepts of management into developing countries. 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes

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