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<ul><li><keyword id="11936722" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="rockstud-capital" source="Orion">Rockstud Capital</keyword> announces partial exit from <keyword id="9011294" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="everest-fleet" source="Orion">Everest Fleet</keyword>.</li><li>Fund returns entire capital to limited partners in its fifth year of operations.</li><li>Stake dale comes after Everest raised $20 mn from Uber, which is a part of its first inorganic investment in India. </li></ul>Rockstud Capital, an alternative asset management firm, announced that it would sell a part of its stake in its portfolio company Everest Fleet. This is Rockstud’s first exit. Everest Fleet, is a fleet management service provider to Uber India. The fund, which also invests in listed equities, has already exited its listed portfolio earlier this year. This along with its partial exit from Everest has enabled the Fund to return the entire capital back to its limited partners. Commenting on the development, Abhishek Agarwal, Founder and Managing Partner of Rockstud Capital, said, “This makes Rockstud Capital one of the very select few <keyword id="47360" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="vc-funds" source="Orion">VC Funds</keyword> in the country to be able to return the entire capital back to its investors within the 5th year of operations. The Fund has generated 18.8x return on its investment through this partial exit.” Everest Fleet recently announced funding of $20 million led by Uber. This is Uber’s first inorganic investment in India as it looks to expand into electric vehicle (EV) space for which it has partnered with several fleet operators including Everest. On the other hand, this funding will enable Everest to transition from being a CNG-dominated fleet to one with CNG and EVs over the next 5 years. By 2026, it aims to have 10,000 EVs as part of its overall fleet. Rockstud Capital had invested in Everest Fleet in 2019 when the Company had presence only in Mumbai with 150 cars. Today, Everest is the largest fleet manager with over 13,000 cars spread across 7 cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, and <keyword id="6354925" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="kolkata" source="Orion">Kolkata</keyword>. It has now also started deploying EVs after placing an order for 5,000 cars to <keyword id="42747" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="tata-motors" source="Orion">Tata Motors</keyword> at the beginning of the year. Rockstud Capital had launched the first Fund at the end of 2018. It was a hybrid Fund that invested both in listed equities as well as unlisted equities(startups). It invested at Pre-Series A stage and across sectors like mobility, consumer brands, healthcare, fintech, agritech, among others. It built a portfolio of 10 companies from the first fund likes of BigHaat, Lilac Insights, Knorish, NOTO, MoneyClub to name a few. Recently, Rockstud Capital has announced a dedicated startup fund under AIF Cat-I for a fund size of INR 300cr and actively looking for new investments in the early stage startups The second Fund strategy would continue to invest at Pre-Series A stage and follow a Yuva-Bharat theme by investing across five broad categories – sustainability, financial inclusion, health &amp; safety, consumption and digitalization.

Rockstud Capital announces partial exit from Uber’s fleet service provider

<ul><li><keyword id="2023017" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="unicorns" source="Orion">Unicorns</keyword> that were once celebrated are now bearing the burden of their past valuations.</li><li>Chasing rapid growth, cash burn, low governance standards and troubled public debuts have become their undoing.</li><li>Few are hitting the $1 billion valuation status and even those who are achieving them are wary of declaring it, experts say. </li></ul>A unicorn, by its very definition, is a rare creature only to be found in myths and fairytales. Not surprising then that the startup ecosystem decided to use the name of this mythical creature to describe companies that attained the exalted valuation of $1 billion or more. Two years after India became the third largest home for unicorns in the world, these entities are yet again becoming rare. Several have seen down rounds and have lost their <keyword id="6846108" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="unicorn-status" source="Orion">unicorn status</keyword>, while a few others are wary of even acknowledging their unicorn status. Suddenly, the word is no longer a feat or a milestone that founders or investors want to celebrate. India minted 58 unicorns in 2021 and the total tally went up to 100 in May 2022. Business Insider caught up with experts from the startup ecosystem to understand why ‘unicorn’ is no longer a coveted title. Amarjeet Makhija, partner and leader of startups &amp; unicorns, PwC India, says that hitting the unicorn status called for a lot of celebration and that attracted a lot of attention. “They (startups) also attracted regulator attention after flying under the radar for a long time. The result is taxes in the gaming sector as the unicorn status led people to believe that these companies have deep pockets. I would think even those who are raising money and attaining the status are being cautious about it and not declaring it,” he explains. Here’s some context, India is now the third largest startup ecosystem in the world with nearly 100,000 startups and at last count India had 110 unicorns that collectively had raised $100 billion with a combined valuation of over $350 billion. India’s first unicorn was born in 2011 and the maximum number of unicorns were created between 2020 and 2022. Just to understand the pace of value creation, let’s look at Infosys, which took 18 years to become a billion dollar corporation. Easy money that was sloshing around in the system did not do any favours to the startup ecosystem as investors funded mere ideas that did not have long legs. India is now home to the third largest number of unicorns in the world, but nobody thinks it is a cause of any celebration because it means nothing. <div type="image" title="unicorns in india" msid="104356992" hostid="261" sizebytes="636638" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Source: Company&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Who is to blame for the unicorn bubble? Blame it on the greed of founders or willing suspension of disbelief on the part of venture funds that backed companies which had neither a sound business model nor path to profitability, but the truth is that the valuation bubble has burst. Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher at Hurun India, says that some of the blame lies with the investors that pushed for unrealistic growth metrics. “It is very hard to be a unicorn today and investors are no longer buying into grand visions on growth,” he adds. The problem is not so much with the word unicorn but the issue is with cash-guzzling loss-making unicorns. Abhishek Agarwal, managing partner at Rockstud Capital, argues that the market's sentiment is negatively impacted due to loss-making unicorns. Founders are, therefore, avoiding the press since their profit and loss statements are negative. He says: “This is a temporary phase when exuberance around unicorns is not as it was earlier. We are in the middle of a funding winter. The playbook during the pandemic was to chase at any cost ignoring fundamentals. Since then there has been a shift in investors and founders are now factoring that in." Hurun’s Junaid adds that startups that do not have a clear path to profitability, it would be difficult to get a good pricing. “I wouldn’t just blame the startups for the grand vision. After all it’s some of the VCs and investors who pushed for unrealistic growth metrics. This unrealistic expectation to grow rapidly is not sustainable and could eventually burst. The flipside is some of these startups also start painting a picture of building castles in the air. Eventually, all this snowballed and became bigger until it burst,” he says. <div type="image" title="unicorns india" msid="104356922" hostid="261" sizebytes="639628" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Source: Company&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Unicorn’s fall from grace – from aspiration to becoming a bad word From being an aspiration, the word unicorn stands for excesses of the pandemic era, when talk mattered more than substance. And few of them made good use of the money that came too easy. One venture capital investor cites a troubling example of a startup that was looking to raise funding without any business model or proposition but had a full customer care team in place. The investor says, “Which good company with good governance standards would have a customer and sales team without the product?” From being an aspirational goal, the word unicorn is now being seen as a dubious distinction by many. There have been many fallen heroes. Byju’s was once a celebrated decacorn. But now it’s in all sorts of trouble after funding dried up — like legal troubles of its inability to repay a term loan, high-profile exits from the board, jobs cuts and valuation cuts. Extensive delays in declaring its financial earnings too added to people who view it with askance. What has made matters harder for founders is the performance of some of these new age companies in the last three years in the public markets after they got listed on stock exchanges. <keyword id="6376684" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nykaa" source="Orion">Nykaa</keyword>’s stock price had already fallen by 80% before it issued bonus shares in November last year. <keyword id="11111226" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pb-fintech" source="Orion">PB Fintech</keyword>’s stock also lost a quarter of its value since it was listed, even after a recent run-up in the stock. A few other listed companies like <keyword id="830092" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="zomato" source="Orion">Zomato</keyword> also angered investors and regulators alike for directing IPO proceeds towards acquisitions, without an indication of it in the DRHP. In the last three years, there have been many public listings of startups that later became the litmus test for founders. “Going from private to public is the ultimate test for many celebrated startups. While there were many expectations, they turned into a poisoned chalice. It taught many lessons on pricing these companies, with sustainable profits and not just growth,” says Junaid. Vivek Singla, Managing Partner and CIO - Private Equity at Incred Alternative Investments, does not think that the word unicorn has become an anathema in the startup world but he feels that it is nothing but a derivative and not a goal in itself. He explains: “The two years of the pandemic were heady for the startup ecosystem with two unicorns being minted almost every week. Everyone knew that the party would end at some point but nobody knew when, as everyone was only chasing valuations. The subsequent rounds that unicorns raised were at even higher valuations. Thereafter, we have seen the downrounds that have happened and many unicorns may not go back to their peak valuations in the foreseeable future.” According to a report by Redseer, 20% of India’s unicorns may see a bleak future <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/unicorn-report-30-will-be-ipo-ready-next-year-but-future-bleak-for-20/articleshow/102394774.cms">in the next three years</a> but half of them might turn profitable. Several unicorns have lost their status after downrounds that happened in 2022 and 2023. The reason for this is because the era of easy money is long gone and Explains Makhija of PwC, “Even if a startup attains unicorn status, if a down round takes place in six months, are you even a unicorn? Earlier large players were writing big cheques where there was no need to raise funds for another 12-18 months. Now, they are not being written, which means they need money sooner.” <div type="image" title="unicorns" msid="104356973" hostid="261" sizebytes="712256" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Source: Company&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The real value is in ‘profits’ There was a time when every week saw the birth of at least two unicorns. This year has been fairly quiet with only Zepto announcing that it became the first unicorn of the calendar year after it raised $200 million in its latest round. While most unicorn founders have gone underground, the bulge bracket venture and private equity investors too have gone silent on valuations. Instead the attention is now on profitability and break-even. While most unicorns that are looking to tap public markets say that they are profitable both at the net and operating level, their profit pool will remain rather small in the foreseeable future as they will continue to be in the growth phase. Incred’s Singla is of the view that now every other month there will be announcements on startups turning profitable. “The earlier mantra was ‘growth at any cost’, which has now changed to ‘profit after all the costs’. Founders have realized that investors are no longer chasing just growth, rather profitable growth and they have recalibrated their priorities accordingly,” he says. Startups have always been operating in manner that were poles apart from family-run businesses or regular small and mid cap companies who veer towards cash conservation and value addition. Initially, startups that were led by young founders’ disruptive nature were cheered. Now that the dust has settled, investors refuse to see a mirage where there might be a storm coming. That’s how unicorns were left with little but their status — which now means little.

A billion little pieces: Unicorns lose bragging rights as funding winter deepens

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="12154096" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="valentino" source="Orion">Valentino</keyword> is releasing a $690 sweatshirt with the word "Vaccinated" across the front. </li><li>It's a collaboration with an LA company called Cloney, which originally produced a bootleg version.</li><li>The approach is noticeably different than how Nike dealt with MSCHF's "Satan shoes." </li></ul><keyword id="12154097" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="luxury-fashion" source="Orion">Luxury fashion</keyword> designers have dealt with knockoff companies recreating their wares for years.But in today's world, high-end wares are almost as likely to be repurposed into a statement-making shoe, or sweatshirt. Such is the case for Valentino, the 60-year-old Italian <keyword id="11893303" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="fashion" source="Orion">fashion</keyword> house known for its dramatic gowns and <a href="https://www.whowhatwear.com/valentino-rockstud-heels-jennifer-lopez">ubiquitous Rockstud heels</a>. The company's serif branding, "V" logo, and penchant for the color red are highly recognizable in the fashion world - so much so that, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/style/valentino-cloney-vaccination.html">The New York Times</a>, a Los Angeles-based company called Cloney repurposed the branding onto a simple black sweatshirt emblazoned with a single word: "Vaccinated." The sweatshirt caught the eye of Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, who bought one and wore it in <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CS7bqY4tJGH/">a post on his Instagram account</a> along with a caption that read, in part: "Getting vaccinated is not a choice." The sweatshirt was an instant hit among Piccioli's followers, which include the likes of actress Zoey Deutch, Instagram fashion chief Eva Chen, activist and TV host Janet Mock, and fellow designer Marc Jacobs. According to the Times, Piccioli bought five more sweatshirts, the last of Cloney's stock, and distributed them to friends, family, and Lady Gaga. Now, Valentino is working with Cloney to produce luxe versions of the design which will <keyword id="11893588" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="retail" source="Orion">retail</keyword> for 590 euros, or about $690. According to the Times, all of the proceeds will go to UNICEF to support <a href="https://www.unicef.org/supply/covax-ensuring-global-equitable-access-covid-19-vaccines">the COVAX program</a>, a World Health Organization initiative to supply <keyword id="11907020" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="vaccines" source="Orion">vaccines</keyword> and supplies to countries that need them. But the "Vaccinated" sweatshirt also capitalizes on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vaccine-card-t-shirt-cala-andrew-wyatt-2021-8">pandemic-themed fashion trend</a> that began cropping up early last year. Fashion labels like Erdem and Fendi introduced luxury face masks and hand sanitizer holders, respectively, and a company called Cala recently introduced another way to prove your vaccination status: with a simple white t-shirt complete with a plastic pouch for your vaccine card. As the Times points out, however, Valentino could have sued or ripped off the design altogether. But by collaborating, it's taking a vastly different approach to fashion trolls than Nike did earlier this year, when it filed a lawsuit against MSCHF <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-lil-nas-x-Satan-blood-shoe-mschf-lawsuit-2021-3">over its so-called satan shoes.</a>The shoes were a collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X that involved tricking out a pair of Air Max 97s with "666" in red ink and a drop of human blood to the midsole. Nike alleged that it had suffered "significant harm to its goodwill, including among consumers who believe that Nike is endorsing satanism." Nike and MSCHF later <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-satan-shoe-mschf-settle-lil-nas-x-2021-4">settled the suit</a> for an undisclosed amount with MSCHF issuing a voluntary recall of the shoes.

A renowned luxury brand teamed up with an LA bootleg label to create a 'Vaccinated' hoodie that celebs and fashion insiders are clamoring for

<keyword id="6356028" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="sports">Sports</keyword> community platform Rooter on Monday said it has raised USD 1.7 million (about Rs 13 crore) in funding from Paytm, leAD Sports, Rockstud Capital and Founder Bank Capital. <keyword id="3851366" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anthill-Ventures">Anthill Ventures</keyword>, Venture Catalysts, and a few more current angel investors also participated in the pre-series A round, Rooter said in a statement. Rooter is also entering into a strategic partnership with Paytm First Games, where both companies will collaborate to grow the ecosystem of cricket, fantasy sports, e-sports and gaming creating seamless integration across gaming and content, it added. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="75526547" title="From BigBasket to Swiggy to Nobroker⁠— top ten Indian startups that raised money in April amidst the coronavirus crisis" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> "The fresh round of funding will be used to grow Rooter's user base over the next one year and <keyword id="2264647" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="capitalising">capitalising</keyword> on the company's upcoming e-sports and gaming content and communities. This will add a new dimension to the unique positioning of Rooter which already has a very high engagement around its sports content," the statement said. The new content strategy will also allow Rooter to launch user monetisation channels, in addition to current advertising monetisation, it added. Rooter was founded by Piyush and Dipesh Agarwal in 2016 to connect fans with each other, and build a community. The platform was largely built around live sports gaming during its early days before it pivoted to content in 2019. Currently, it comprises sports content developed by users and professionals with a user base of more than 8 million. Rooter was selected by leAD Sports Accelerator (an Adidas Family backed Fund) and later secured its first funding from the entity in 2019. Rooter has raised over a million dollars in funding so far through Venture Catalysts, Bollywood actor <keyword id="31951" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Boman-Irani">Boman Irani</keyword>, Anthill ventures, and other marquee investors. "We started Rooter with the objective of creating a sports fan community and we are glad our pivot to content has found a strong product-market fit. Our engagement metrics and user growth have been excellent in the last two quarters," Piyush, Founder and CEO of Rooter, said. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="75527010" title="Between US-China bickering and earnings bummer from RIL and HUL, Sensex has lost over 4% in first hour of trading" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="75526401" title="Coronavirus cases in India inches towards 43,000 mark— with Maharashtra and Delhi seeing a continuous rise" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>

Rooter raises $1.7 million led by Paytm, leAD Sports and others

<ul><li><keyword id="308865" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Piyush-Kumar">Piyush Kumar</keyword>, co-founder and CEO of sports tech startup <keyword id="3756169" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rooter">Rooter</keyword>, started going to <keyword id="32462" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="therapy">therapy</keyword> in May 2020. </li><li>Near death moments are basically those times in a startup journey when because of any reason – the situation, product or funding you fear that you are nearing the end of your startup.</li><li>Here’s why Kumar recommends therapy to many other struggling founders out there.</li></ul>When Cafe Coffee Day founder V. G. Siddhartha took the extreme step and died by suicide, the Indian startup ecosystem sat up and took notice of the pressures of building a business. One year since that incident, and <keyword id="6354774" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mental-health">mental health</keyword> is still a hush-hush topic and going to therapy continues to be perceived as an option for only when you are ‘sick’. During the coronavirus lockdown, the need for therapy has only gone up with people stuck inside their homes feeling more anxious and uncertain about their future. But this entrepreneur doesn’t want to take mental health as a joke. Piyush Kumar, co-founder and CEO of sports tech startup Rooter, started going to therapy in May 2020, and his advice to fellow entrepreneurs is to start taking mental health seriously. Handling the near death moments When Piyush Kumar was starting up his sports tech startup Rooter, he read a quote by one of India’s startup leaders – every startup goes through three-four near death moments, and the startup that survives all of it, eventually goes on to be successful. While Kumar didn’t understand it then, in 2018 and 2019, he went through similar crisis situations. “Near death moments are basically those times in a startup journey when because of any reason – the situation, product or funding you fear that you are nearing the end of your startup,” Kumar told Business Insider. In 2018, Kumar went through a tough period for six-seven months where his startup wasn’t able to raise money and the product was not going in the right direction. “A good friend’s wife who is a psychologist recommended therapy. But I told her that I play a lot of sports – five days a week and spend a lot of time with my four-year old son, that should help me. But she told me then, that there will be a time when you’ll need more than this,” he said. How therapy helped When the coronavirus pandemic began, Rooter was just about to sign its funding term sheet with Paytm and the sports startup was left in a situation where sports had stopped. What followed was six weeks of stress, where Kumar was working for 18-20 hours a day – working on the product, ensuring a smooth transition to work from home for his team and concluding the investment discussion. While Kumar and his team managed to do it all and raised $1.7 million from Paytm, leAD Sports, Rockstud Capital and Founder Bank Capital, the startup founder realised therapy was important. “I started going for therapy when things were good, when we had successfully launched a new product and raised funding. I started because just like I concentrate on physical exercise, I wanted to pay attention to mental health as well,” he said. While in the West, entrepreneurs have been more open to therapy, that has not been the case in India. In the West, there are <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/18/21183555/co-founder-therapy-counseling-tech-bros-feelings-silicon-valley">even startups</a> that help other founders reach out for emotional well-being. Kumar, who had not been diagnosed with depression or sleep disorders, turned to therapy to handle the pressure of his job. “A lot of people think that if you have great friends or a great partner, they will be able to handle your mental pressure but most of the time that is not the case because anybody who knows you will have a certain bias. Therapy has helped me prepare for the future because as a startup founder, you know there will be those times in the future again,” he said. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/zomato-has-doubled-its-revenue-but-founder-founder-deepinder-goyal-says-covid-19-has-made-the-company-lean-and-mean/articleshow/76893760.cms">Zomato has doubled its revenue and founder Deepinder Goyal says COVID-19 has made the company lean and mean</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/unicorns-like-byjus-first-cry-and-zomato-got-a-big-chunk-of-startup-funding-in-2020/articleshow/76868237.cms">Unicorns⁠ like Byju’s, First Cry, and Zomato bagged one in every three dollars invested in startups this year</a>

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Rockstud Capital announces partial exit from Uber’s fleet service provider

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A billion little pieces: Unicorns lose bragging rights as funding winter deepens

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A renowned luxury brand teamed up with an LA bootleg label to create a 'Vaccinated' hoodie that celebs and fashion insiders are clamoring for

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Rooter raises $1.7 million led by Paytm, leAD Sports and others

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This Indian entrepreneur started going to therapy and recommends it to startup founders to survive the ‘near death’ moments in business

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