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Leading venture capital firm <keyword id="10135370" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="elevation-capital" source="Orion">Elevation Capital</keyword> on Friday announced its eighth $670 million fund for early-stage startups in <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> and to help their founders realise their dreams. Over the past two decades, the company has invested almost $2 billion of capital in over 150 companies across seven funds, with 13 early-stage investments becoming unicorns. These include category leaders such as Acko, FirstCry, Makemytrip, Meesho, NoBroker, Paytm, Sharechat, Spinny, Swiggy, Unacademy, Urban Company, Xpressbees and several others. With the $670 million Fund VIII, the VC said in a statement that it will once again focus on the seed/Series A stage as its core. According to the company, its investment pace has been accelerating and went up by 100 per cent in the past 12 months. The firm has to date invested in over 150 companies across consumer internet, SaaS, fintech, consumer brands, edtech, healthtech and Web3/Crypto, and has offices in Bengaluru, Gurugram and Salt Lake City in the US. "Fund VIII will allow us to demonstrate a greater commitment to exceptional founders with a larger initial investment and continued support to them until much later in their journeys," said the VC. Elevation (earlier SAIF Partners) first started investing in India 20 years ago. India's equity market capitalisation is already the fifth-highest in the world, at $3.2 trillion, and is expected to approach $10 trillion over the next 10 years. "We have just scratched the surface of India's tech potential. The 100 unicorns in India alone have a combined valuation of $240 billion. We believe that this will grow over 10x over the next decade and Indian tech companies will have more than $2 trillion of market cap," said the company. The firm is led by co-managing partners <keyword id="304089" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="ravi-adusumalli" source="Orion">Ravi Adusumalli</keyword> and <keyword id="1700264" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="mukul-arora" source="Orion">Mukul Arora</keyword>, along with three managing directors <keyword id="10135369" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="mridul-arora" source="Orion">Mridul Arora</keyword>, Deepak Gaur and <keyword id="3039894" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="mayank-khanduja" source="Orion">Mayank Khanduja</keyword>. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/defense/news/hal-delivers-the-first-made-in-india-dornier-228-aircraft-to-alliance-air/slidelist/90719494.cms">HAL delivers the first made-in-India Dornier 228 aircraft to Alliance Air</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/abu-dhabis-ihc-to-invest-2-billion-primary-capital-in-three-adani-group-companies/articleshow/90725697.cms">Abu Dhabi's IHC to invest $2 billion primary capital in three Adani Group companies</a>

Elevation Capital announces $670 million fund for early-stage startups

<ul><li>The event focuses on Web3, D2C, metaverse, SaaS, in addition to conversations around corporate governance and building resilient businesses.</li><li>The event will include over 50 speakers, over 20 investors and has more than 20 sessions that include keynotes, masterclasses, panel discussions and exclusive lunch table sessions.</li><li>The 2-day event is spread across <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>’s leading sStartup hubs – Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.</li></ul>Dubbed as India's largest and most definitive startup event for tech entrepreneurs, TiE Delhi-NCR’s India Internet Day (iDay) is all set to commence. The event will be held at two different locations and nation’s leading startup hubs. It is slated for September 1-2 in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR. The theme for iDay 2022 is ‘Riding the wave: Building Winning Businesses Today’. Over 100 key industry stakeholders, ace investors, unicorn founders will be a part of conversations revolving around building resilient businesses, trends in D2C, Web3, metaverse, SaaS, crypto and beyond. Now in its 11th edition, the iconic India Internet Day has been running successfully for over a decade, curated by key leaders from the Indian startup ecosystem. iDay will showcase best practices, exciting opportunities and defining future trends. Expected attendees include tech pioneers, innovators, ideators, investors, mentors, incubators, accelerators, evangelists and budding entrepreneurs. The conference plays host to in-depth sessions, engaging keynotes by leading founders, investors and market experts of the digital world, in addition to exclusive lunch table sessions. “It has been an honour to co-chair this edition of India Internet Day, which has always been the premier event for tech entrepreneurs. The importance of this platform is even more amplified now, when founders need to learn from one another on how to build enduring, resilient businesses. Like they say - when the going gets tough, the tough get building,” said Mayak Khanduja, partner, elevation capital &amp; co-chair, India Internet Day. The exceptional line up for the event includes institution builders, leading tech entrepreneurs, nation’s best investors and policy makers including Deepak Bagla, Invest India; Mayank Khanduja, Elevation Capital; Rajan Anandan, Sequoia India &amp; SEA; Deep Kalra, MakeMyTrip; Mohit Bhatnagar, Sequoia India; Mukul Arora, Elevation Capital; Kiran Vasireddy, Kalaari Capital; Ashwini Asokan, Vue.ai, Blox.ai; Upasana Taku, Mobikwik; Ravi Chhabria, NetApp India; Gaurav Gupta, Squareboat; Ashish Hemrajani, BookMyShow; Ashish Singhal, CoinSwitch; Vidit Aatrey, founder &amp; CEO, Meesho &amp; many more. “Over the past decade, India Internet Day has emerged as a leading platform showcasing India’s internet growth story. After a resounding debut in 2012, it has grown from being relevant to being indispensable for stakeholders across the ecosystem. iDay hosts the entire gamut of the internet mobile industry in India like no other forum,” said Geetika Dayal, executive director, TiE Delhi-NCR. “This year iDay focuses on building robust, resilient &amp; future ready companies which can survive &amp; succeed in the midst of headwinds. We are happy to bring iDay to Bengaluru in collaboration with TiE Bangalore this year,” added Dayal. The conference is supported by <keyword id="3003094" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="startup-india" source="Orion">Startup India</keyword>, Elevation Capital, Sequoia Capital, Microsoft, AWS, Squareboat, Netapp Excellarator, Kalaari Capital, Client Associates, Google Cloud, Kalaari and NTT Data-TiE Pune. As a commitment towards being a responsible organization TiE Delhi-NCR is continuing to build on its initiatives to adopt sustainability and make its events truly sustainable. As a first formal step towards being carbon neutral, it is tracking its carbon emissions for the India Internet Day and adopting steps to reduce emissions, waste generated and water wastage. India Internet Day 2022 is going to officially be a carbon neutral event. All the emissions offset undertaken, shall be published for public knowledge, post third party validation. About TiE Delhi-NCR’s India Internet Day From its inception #iDay has set out to be a leadership conference that looks to set conversations around vision 2025 for the industry. It’s one of India’s most exciting gatherings of the internet community designed to deliver powerful content and showcase the possibilities, which the internet holds for the present and the future. The conference sees participation from all major and relevant technology companies from across the country. India Internet Day 2020 co-chairs include – Mayank Khanduja &amp; Ashwini Asokan along with the team Abhishek Gupta, Alok Mittal, Arvind Jha, Deep Kalra, Dev Khare, Gautam Gandhi, Karan Mohla, Latika Pai, Miten Sampat, Prasanto K Roy, Rajan Anandan, Rajat Garg, <keyword id="262068" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="rajesh-sawhney" source="Orion">Rajesh Sawhney</keyword>, Ravi Gururaj, <keyword id="8713499" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shereen-bhan" source="Orion">Shereen Bhan</keyword>, <keyword id="3380503" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="suchita-salwan" source="Orion">Suchita Salwan</keyword> and Vani Kola – who are the torchbearers who put together the conference that has emerged as the voice of India’s internet industry. About TiE Delhi-NCR TiE Delhi-NCR is among the most active and vibrant chapters across the vast TiE network. In the last two decades, it has continuously taken the lead in creating an increasingly positive ecosystem for entrepreneurs and investors. With a strong mentor support base, marquee events and focused workshops throughout the year it has emerged as one of the most valuable platforms supporting entrepreneurship, nationally. TiE Delhi-NCR conducts a wide range of programmes to help entrepreneurs. These include TiEcon, Startup Expo, TiE Institute, TiE Young Entrepreneurs along with Special Interest Groups (SIGs) across sectors.

India’s largest event for tech entrepreneurs, TiE Delhi-NCR’s India InternetDay - now connects two startup hubs

<ul><li>The Series A round was led by Matrix Partners India and Elevation Capital.</li><li>The eleven-year-old startup will use this funding to hire for leadership roles across functions.</li><li>About 75% of the company’s revenue from the USA and the Middle East markets comes organically.</li></ul><keyword id="8882829" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="camp-k12" source="Orion">Camp K12</keyword>, an edtech startup that provides online classes for kids to learn coding and other skills, has raised $12 million funding to expand to more geographies and add more content to its platform. The eleven-year-old startup will also use this funding to hire for leadership roles across functions, scale operations and marketing. It is also on a look out to build its engineering and product team. A part of the fund would also be used by Camp K12 to deepen their reach in existing markets and India, which accounts for 25% of the company’s revenue. The Series A round was led by Matrix Partners India and Elevation Capital. Sandeep Bhagi, co-founder of Camp K12, said, “This Series A Investment will accelerate our expansion and we are beefing up our team with experienced do-ers from business, sales, marketing, product, operations and engineering.” Founded by Anshul Bhagi and Sandeep Bhagi in 2010, Camp K12 connects students in the age group of 5-18 with teachers for live interactive online courses across categories such as coding, Math and English. The students, on the platform, also have the option to learn one-on-one with private teachers or small groups of friends in Camp K12’s gamified offerings. The company claims that their US business has grown two-fold month-on-month, whereas their Middle East business tripped in the last three months. About 75% of Camp K12’s enrollment comes from these geographies organically, the company adds. Camp K12 offers its in-house 3D coding platform called HatchXR in these geographies. “We are convinced that there is a massive global market for 21st century skills for kids. We believe that success in this global arena will require a different go-to-market playbook and product than what we’ve seen in the past. Camp K12, with its social, multiplayer online learning platform, has stood out from day 1 as an innovator in this space,” Mukul Arora, partner at Elevation Capital, said in a statement. The company competes with WhiteHat Jr, which was acquired by ed-tech major Byju’s in August 2020. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/india-is-making-it-easier-to-buy-fly-and-sell-drones-with-these-16-policy-changes/articleshow/85649984.cms">India is making it easier to buy, fly and sell drones with these 16 policy changes </a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/news/amazon-twitter-hyundai-and-dominos-are-buying-indian-software-fuelling-a-75-billion-dream-chased-by-top-vcs-like-sequoia-and-tiger-global/articleshow/85646116.cms">Amazon, Twitter, Hyundai, and Domino’s are buying Indian software fuelling a $75 billion dream chased by top VCs like Sequoia and Tiger Global </a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/infosys-airtel-kaveri-seed-and-other-top-stocks-to-watch-out-for-on-august-26/slidelist/85645299.cms">Infosys, Airtel, Kaveri Seed and other top stocks to watch out for on August 26</a>

WhiteHat Jr rival Camp K12 raises $12 million to expand its international presence

<ul><li><keyword id="161314" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SAIF-Partners">SAIF Partners</keyword>, one of India’s most successful VC firms, is back in a new avatar – <keyword id="10135370" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Elevation-Capital">Elevation Capital</keyword>.</li><li>It also announced the closure of its seventh fund in India for $400 million.</li><li>SAIF Partners, when it was formed in 2001, stood for Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund. </li></ul>SAIF Partners, one of India’s most successful VC firms, is back in a new avatar – Elevation Capital. The firm, which was founded in 2001, has backed several <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups">startups</keyword> in India – seven of which have gone one to become unicorns. With a new fund of $400 million – its seventh fund in India, Elevation Capital joins the likes of Sequoia, Lightspeed Partners, Chiratae Ventures – all of whom have successfully closed their funds in the middle of the pandemic. Rationale behind the rebranding SAIF Partners, when it was formed, stood for Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund. Even though SoftBank quit as an LP (Limited Partner) back in 2004, the firm had continued with the same branding. “We felt that the name SAIF, while well recognized, didn’t communicate what we stand for to our partners and founders. While the rebranding has been a thought over the years, and (with) a new fund raise in the offing, we thought that the time was prime to think about a new name that echoes our investment ethos better,” said Deepak Gaur, Managing Director. Some of its big investments so far <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 468pt; table-layout: fixed;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Paytm </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">MakeMyTrip </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Justdial </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">FirstCry </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Swiggy </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Unacademy </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Meesho </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">NoBroker </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Urban Company </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Sharechat </td></tr></tbody></table> <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 468pt; table-layout: fixed;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Total Assets Under Management </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Over $2 billion until Fund VII </td></tr></tbody></table> New brand, new fund, same investment thesis The new brand Elevation Capital, Gaur added, reflects their investment ethos and commitment to the founders who help redefine their future. Elevation Capital’s seventh fund will continue to work on the same investment philosophy, where the partners will invest in early-stage companies. “We will continue to focus on the Seed/Series A stage. As for the sectors, we will continue to invest across consumer internet (including e-commerce, edtech, gaming, content), consumer brands, global SaaS and financial services,” said Mayank Khanduja, Managing Director. Elevation Capital partners who will make the call for investments <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 468pt; table-layout: fixed;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Ravi Adusumalli </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Deepak Gaur </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Mayank Khanduja </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Mridul Arora </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Mukul Arora </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Vivek Mathur </td></tr></tbody></table> While each partner has a target of two investments per year, the firm doesn’t have a set goal for the seventh fund. “We have a long-term orientated approach with our funds and portfolio companies and we are selective in the investments that we make, so that we can do justice to the relationship we have with the founders. We don’t have any target number of investments in a year,” said Khanduja. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/justdial-jd-mart-challenges-indiamart-oldest-ecommerce-after-24-years/articleshow/78781834.cms">India’s oldest e-commerce platform is bracing for its first direct challenge in 24 years as Justdial ups its game</a>

INTERVIEW: Here’s why one of India’s most successful VC firms rebranded itself in the middle of a pandemic

<ul><li>In an exclusive interview with Business Insider, the million dollar men Mukul Arora, Deepak Gaur and Mayank Khanduja, of <keyword id="161314" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SAIF-Partners">SAIF Partners</keyword> sit down to discuss how they invest in <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups">startups</keyword>.</li><li>They are now willing to go as early as possible in the fund cycle of a startup. </li><li>SAIF Partners has been an early investor in <keyword id="6357120" type="DEFINITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="paytm">Paytm</keyword>, MakeMyTrip, Swiggy, Firstcry, BookMyShow, Rivigo, Meesho, Sharechat, Urbanclap and multiple others. </li></ul>In one of Gurugram’s hottest properties, in a swanky new space, we walked into the office of SAIF Partners. Huddled in the conference room were Mukul Arora, Deepak Gaur and Mayank Khanduja, men who have made million dollar bets in the Indian startup ecosystem – most of which have taken off and how. SAIF Partners has invested early in most top startups that saw a meteoric rise— like Paytm, MakeMyTrip, Swiggy, Firstcry, BookMyShow, Rivigo, Meesho, Sharechat, Urbanclap and others. The investment firm stood with them through the growth phase of these startups. Investing at the seed stage and Series A round has always been their strategy. They are now more leaning towards investing early. They meet more than 100 companies in a week, but with few breakthroughs. We sat down with Arora, Gaur and Khanduja, as they discussed what they look for in a company. “Our approach is to invest in the best team in place. We have a very focussed approach to investing - unlike some other funds which invest in multiple companies in the sub sector, we map out each sector and try to invest in the best in them, and come in as early as possible,” said Gaur. SAIF Partners invests across sectors – consumer tech, education, finance, healthcare, internet and IT services, logistics, mobile and SaaS companies and more. The second leg of their approach to investing is a fundamental one – looking for the right business model. They look for companies that are customised for India, rather than replicate what’s happening in other countries. The third aspect is that they continue to support and invest in those companies as their horizons are fairly long. “We invest for 7-9 years. We try to invest as much we can according to our fund circumstances across multiple rounds,” said Gaur. So what’s the trick to getting funded by them? A team that has a very fundamental approach to problem solving, where it understands how to solve a real problem in the right manner. It has to be a strong and ‘rightly motivated’ team – which is not creating short term goal or scale but sustainable impact. And of course, capital efficiency in the initial stages. How they cracked Swiggy SAIF Partners invested in Swiggy, when the foodtech unicorn had just a landing page. They had met over 50 teams in the foodtech space, including some of the large names out there today. What they liked about Swiggy was that they understood the problem deeply – the only way is to deliver food on your own, when you have your own logistics in place and — not just build an app for ordering. “First time, we pinged them even before they were live, they just had a landing page in July or August 2014. Then we saw the progress – they were very customer-obsessed even at a small scale, their retention was very strong, they were not offering discounts, charging a convenience fee on every order. They also have a complimentary founding team - Harsha is a very strong business leader, Nandan is great in operations and Rahul is a strong tech guy. Then we invested in the seed round,” said Arora. Could they have predicted then that Swiggy would today be a marker leader? “No,” comes the answer. “But that’s true for the entire consumer tech market, acceleration has happened much faster than we could have imagined in the last four years. But given their building blocks we were sure that this is the team that is likely to be a leader. We had a strong conviction,” said Arora. Why do they go after seed-stage startups As the internet penetration in India has gone deeper, so has a startup’s ability to reach out to more consumers. This has also led to investors going in after startups at an early stage, catch them before they become the hotshot company that everyone’s after. “We are now willing to go even earlier than in the past. We are even talking to companies that are in the pre-launch phase,” said Arora. A big reason for that is that the adoption of these new products or services by consumers is so much faster. “People are so much more open to trying out some of these new products and see if they are satisfying. We had invested in No Broker long time back, we knew that there would be a market for a real estate transaction without a broker. They took two-three years to build a user base but when they started to monetise, I think everyone was pleasantly surprised to see how many people were willing to pay the money. If there’s a high quality service out there, consumers are now more willing to pay,” said Khanduja.

SAIF Partners invested in Swiggy when they just had a landing page – today they are going after more seed stage startups, here’s why

<ul><li>There are several founder-turned-investors in the Indian startup ecosystem too. </li><li>Here are the qualities that makes a startup founder a good investor. </li></ul>There are many like Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal – who are extending the list of <keyword id="1303404" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="startup-founders">startup founders</keyword> who are turning <keyword id="6359051" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="investors">investors</keyword>. Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm who is still running his company, is also an active angel investor with over 20 investments. Being a celebrity founder like Sharma and the Bansal founders or even Kunal Shah of Freecharge fame, Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal, Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola, also adds weight to an investor’s journey. Having been through several rounds of funding while building a startup, a founder-turned-investor can see through the pros and cons of investing in a company. Manish Singhal who co-founded LetsVenture.com, is now running Pi Ventures – lived the life of an entrepreneur as well as an investor. Being a founder exposes you to issues that a startup faces, he believes. “You relate to the founder challenges a bit better. If you have built a deep technology product, it also becomes easy to appreciate their technology as well as value addition,” said Singhal. However, that’s not the only thing that can turn a founder into an investor. Mukul Arora of SAIF Partners believes that along with the unique perspective of running a business, a founder-turned-investor must bring more to the table. “That is 20% of what is needed to be an investor, so if founders come in with a mindset that there is an 80% left for which I will have to unlearn and relearn, they can become good investors. Just being a founder is not sufficient, you have to be hardworking and hungry to learn a lot,” said Arora. He added that while in the US there have been many such examples, the Indian startup ecosystem is not yet mature. Being a founder, one also tends to have the habit of creating new products. A VC enables products and not creates them. That is an understanding a founder needs to have before turning into a VC, adds Singhal. “Founders can have strong viewpoints but as an investor it’s also important to have flexibility,” said Singhal.

Here's how startup founders can become good funders

<ul><li>Fashion house High Street Essentials which runs <keyword id="2401997" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="FabAlley">FabAlley</keyword> and <keyword id="5954969" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="indya">Indya</keyword>, has turned profitable.</li><li>The company has reported a net revenue of ₹90.2 crores for FY19, along with a profit of ₹1.3 crores.</li><li>The company now aims to have 50 exclusive retail outlets.</li></ul>High Street Essentials which runs FabAlley and Indya, has turned profitable today The company has reported a net revenue of ₹90 crores for FY19, along with a profit of ₹1.3 crore. “FY19 has marked our transition from a primarily online company to an omnichannel entity while ensuring our infrastructure, supply chain, and product lines expanded efficiently to accommodate both online and offline retail growth with continued capital efficiency,” said founders Shivani Poddar and Tanvi Malik. FabAlley was launched in 2012 and since then has grown from an online platform to have offline retail stores. The company now aims to have 50 exclusive retail outlets. “The company is on track to close FY20 with gross sales of ₹220 crore, at a growth of 75% over FY19, with EBITDA and PAT-level profitability,” said Poddar and Malik. The company last raised funds in December 2018. The series B round of funding for ₹60 crore was led by SAIF Partners with the VC firm’s Mukul Arora joining the board of the e-commerce company.

Fashion e-tailer FabAlley turns profitable, aims to grow 75% this year

In a seed <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> round, deals and price comparison app Voodoo has raised $1 million (around Rs 65 lakh) from Saif Partners. 
 
The firm was founded by Mohit Mittal and Vijay Reddy and currently operates with a team of ten people and claims to have 1,200 downloads so far. 
 
Voodo enables people to get price comparison from 26 e-Commerce apps like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Flipkart-and-Snapdeal-are-at-it-again-but-this-time-for-friendly-exchange-of-tweets/articleshow/49334474.cms">Flipkart, Snapdeal</a>, Amazon, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Uber%2C+Ola">Uber, Ola</a>, Foodpanda and Zomato Order, among others. 
 
Voodoo has the potential to become one of the most popular Indian apps, and are really excited to partner with Mohit and the team on this journey, according to SAIF Partners Principal Mukul Arora. 
 
Voodoo Technologies, which launched the app last week, said the fresh funds will be used to build a unique mobile first global shopping experience. 
 
Mittal said there are so many mobile apps in every category and all of them have something amazing to offer. “Voodoo picks the best stuff from all of them and serves our consumers with the finest recommendations," he added. 
 In 2014, Mittal along with Reddy and another Manikanta Nikhil had founded offline <keyword id="115504" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="App-Store">app store</keyword> Preburn which was later acquired by now Snapdeal-backed Freecharge for an undisclosed amount. 
 
Besides Voodo, there are other players operating in this space which include <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Uber%2C+Ola">Junglee, PriceDekho and MySmartPrice</a>, which is backed by Accel Partners and Helion Venture Partners. 
 SAIF Partners is a leading <keyword id="6357097" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="venture-capital">venture capital</keyword> firm with over USD 4 billion under management and has <keyword id="6362476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="investments">investments</keyword> in around 40 companies including MakeMyTrip, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Amitabh-Bachchan-turns-73-on-Sunday/articleshow/49308365.cms">JustDial</a>, PayTM, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Amitabh-Bachchan-turns-73-on-Sunday/articleshow/49308365.cms">BookMyShow</a> and Urbanladder. 
 
The venture capital firm recently hired former Freecharge CEO Alok Goel for early-stage investments. 
 
In March, it had also raised $350 million for a new India-focused fund. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Voodoo raises $1 mn seed funding from Saif Partners

Taking a U turn, the central government has told the apex court that they would ‘try’ to ban child porn content and do nothing on adult content. Last week, the entire nation vehemently opposed govt’s sudden decision of blocking websites containing pornography. The netizens woke up and made fun of the BJP ruled government at centre. 
 
However, this recent reaction from government forces one to ask why this feedback suddenly. The statement made by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, during a hearing on a public interest litigation that has sought court intervention to get the government cracking down against child porn, is being seen as an attempt to deflect recent criticism against the government's decision to block more than 850 websites. 
 
"If someone wants to watch a film, how do you stop it? Can we do moral policing in people's bedrooms," the AG asked. He was making his submissions before a bench comprising Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy. "Geographical frontiers are no longer restricted. Unlike earlier, pornography is not restricted to magazines and books. It can be stopped to a limited extent," the AG said. 
 
The AG's submission is also a tacit acceptance of the limits of what a government could do in a democratic setup. Whether technologically feasible or not, a certain section would always feel that it was an adult choice of entertainment that the state should not interfere with, Rohatgi said. 
 
The AG said child porn had to be blocked, but wondered whether a complete ban was possible given the number of websites mushrooming in the virtual world. 
 
Senior lawyer Meenakshi Arora, appearing for some Internet Service Providers, said they could block some websites under court orders, but not all.

And finally, govt won’t stop you from watching porn

Welcome to our new E-Commerce Insider newsletter, a morning email with the top news and analysis on the e-commerce industry, produced by <a href="https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/">BI Intelligence</a>. 
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MOBILE SHOPPERS EMBRACE BEACON TECHNOLOGY: Roughly half of consumers who use mobile devices to shop said they would be "very willing" or at least "somewhat willing" to receive location-based messages powered by beacons, low-cost pieces of hardware that are able to exchange data with phones indoors over Bluetooth (such as coupons or payments information). The survey, by <a href="http://www.edigitalresearch.com/news/item/nid/690233215">eDigitalResearch</a>, also found that one-in-three consumers felt that personalized messages from retailers while shopping would "likely" influence their purchase decisions. Some retailers have been hesitant to install these new devices in stores over privacy or security concerns. But shoppers appear receptive to beacon-powered in-store offers - and these are already being used at retailers, including Apple stores. 
EBAY EXPANDS IN-STORE PICK-UP PROGRAM: EBay is piloting a program in the U.S. called click-and-collect, which allows customers to purchase items on the auction site but pick it up from select bricks-and-mortar stores. The program has been in a pilot phase in the UK, but eBay CEO John Donahoe <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/2175263-ebays-ceo-discusses-q1-2014-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single">said on the earnings call</a> earlier this week that it's been going so well that they've decided to test it in the U.S. To make it work, eBay needs to recruit physical retailers, and as an incentive to get them to join is helping to equip retailers with more in-store technology, such as beacons and options to pay with PayPal without having to wait in check-out lines. eBay's offline effort follows similar initiatives to bridge the offline and online commerce spheres - such as Google's campaign to track offline purchases triggered by search ads, and Apple's efforts to recruit bricks-and-mortar retailers to use its Passbook app. 
WHERE E-COMMERCE COMPANIES ARE INVESTING [CHART]: The key e-commerce priorities this year are improving websites, content, and personalized shopping features, according to <a href="http://www.e-tailing.com/content/?p=3906">The E-Tailing Group</a>'s survey of e-commerce executives.
- Nearly half of the executives surveyed said they will be allocating considerable funds to improving important web pages, such as an e-commerce site's homepage.
- Also, 30% of executives said they are planning a full site redesign this year, and the same number of respondents said they will be implementing responsive design, which creates a more consistent shopping experience across mobile devices and PCs.
- Meanwhile, only one in ten e-commerce companies are making a significant investment in enhancing in-store technology experiences.
There's clearly still a basic performance gap felt by many e-commerce sites, and executives are racing to close it. 
<div class="KonaFilter image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="BI Intelligence" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5361590e69bedd502e1d2fdc-960/bii-ecomm-exec-investments.png"></a>BI Intelligence</div></div>
E-COMMERCE DELIVERY WARS HEAT UP IN INDIA: India is one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets in the world so online retailers are looking to differentiate any way they can. Amazon, eBay, Flipkart, and Snapdeal all offer same-day shipping in India now, and some are even experimenting with half-day delivery - or faster. However, the race to the bottom in shipping times could actually end up hurting these companies' bottom line. The costs associated with same-day delivery in India might simply be too great, unless these companies can figure out how to fulfill orders that don't require a costly infrastructure of shipping centers, says Mukul Arora, vice president at venture capital firm Saif Partners, who spoke with <a href="http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/e-commerce-firms-costs-to-rise-on-delivery-challenge/1/205723.html">Business Today in India</a>. "If you do the ... mathematics, this is not the most efficient way. They will have to make huge warehouses all over the country like Amazon did in the U.S." 
FACEBOOK E-COMMERCE ANNOUNCEMENT: At its f8 developer conference, Facebook announced that e-commerce platform provider Ecwid will now offer Facebook's autofill feature to its merchant clients, <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/30/facebook-ecommerce/" target="_blank">according to TechCrunch</a>. Facebook's autofill form is intended to make checking-out on e-commerce sites easier, for both the buyer and seller, by automatically completing forms with user payment information on file at Facebook. Facebook could potentially become a payment processor itself (i.e., doing the back-end work of processing credit cards for merchants). But that seems unlikely. There are all sorts of regulatory and consumer trust issues that come with that, and the space is already highly competitive, with low margins. Facebook said that at this point it will not charge companies for the autofill feature. As it stands <a href="https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/facebooks-payments-revenue-withers-as-users-go-mobile-2014-4" target="_blank">Facebook's payment revenue comes in at just under 10%</a> of its ad revenue.
WELCOME, E-COMMERCE INSIDERS: This is our new newsletter covering all things e-commerce. Please email <a href="mailto:csmith@businessinsider.com">csmith@businessinsider.com</a> with news and tips. Click <a href="http://e.businessinsider.com/join/ci/biiecommerceform">here</a> to sign up for E-Commerce Insider today, and <a href="http://e.businessinsider.com/join/ci/biiecommerceform">receive it every morning in your inbox</a>. 
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<a href="https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/facebooks-payments-revenue-withers-as-users-go-mobile-2014-4">Facebook's Payments Business Withers As Users Go Mobile</a>
<a href="https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/sales-on-ebay-show-the-platform-is-as-relevant-to-e-commerce-as-ever-2014-4">Sales On eBay Show The Platform Is As Relevant To E-Commerce As Ever</a>

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