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<ul><li>Just a year old, <keyword id="8891896" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Airmeet">Airmeet</keyword> has since seen its business grow rapidly, thanks to the COVID lockdown.</li><li>The startup’s co-founder Lalit Mangal shares with us how the company has registered a 2000% growth over the last quarter.</li><li>The startup has raised $12 million in Series A funding from new investor Sequoia India and existing investors Accel India, Venture Highway and Global Founders Capital (GFC), and others.</li></ul>At the beginning of the coronavirus lockdown, the new buzz word in the corporate world was ‘webinar’; everyone was hosting one, and the likes of <keyword id="10296" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zoom">Zoom</keyword> saw their stock price and revenue numbers skyrocket. Closer home, Airmeet, just a one-year-old startup, was handling more business than it had imagined, that too just a few months into its official launch. Essentially an alternative to Zoom, Airmeet wants to be the virtual replacement of a physical venue for events. Today, the startup has raised $12 million in Series A funding from new investor Sequoia India and existing investors Accel India, Venture Highway, Global Founders Capital (GFC), and Gokul Rajaram (Caviar Lead at Doordash). The startup’s co-founder, Lalit Mangal, shares with Business Insider how the company has registered a 2000% growth over the last quarter and his vision on the growth of the <keyword id="7795244" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="online-events">online events</keyword> industry. Had to say no to the investors who once rejected him A year ago, when Mangal was looking for funding, he met with investors who had told him, “interesting idea, but come back later”. Now, without taking names, Mangal says he had to say no to those same investors. The all-in-one platform for event organizers to host interactive and immersive <keyword id="9084093" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="virtual-events">virtual events</keyword>, Airmeet saw value in the space even before the COVID pandemic struck. But it was this pandemic that truly unlocked its potential. “With COVID, people have embraced virtual events. People weren’t compelled before, but now they are – some are even on their 50th virtual event or more this year,” said Mangal. Airmeet, which organised its first virtual event on November 16, 2019 was doing barely 20 events a month, but after the lockdown its conducting 1000 events per month, and has already seen over 10,000 events being held on the platform. ‘Online’ allows people to hold high-value events for cheap Mangal shares that at Airmeet, they offer full customizations and even virtual seating arrangements. “We have created a product which ensures that an event manager doesn’t need to reimagine the event online,” he said. And while webinars are just a standalone event, Mangal shares that now even multi-day, complex agenda events are also going online. “Location based events made the event not feasible, as you don’t have the budgets and you can’t fly in so many people and those are now online,” he said. Mangal shared the example of a recently held ‘World Librarian Summit’ on Airmeet. “That’s something people won’t have the budget to do offline, but online we saw over 200 people participating,” he said. And there are also many who, according to Mangal, have now sworn off offline events. Headstart recently held its internship fair, which saw participants from all across India, and over 200 offers were rolled out from startups even from South East Asia. “If it happened offline, the participation would be so restrictive and virtually it was a hit. They have now decided they will not have an offline fair next time,” he said. With the latest investment, the company, which has always been a remote-work startup, now plans to accelerate technology development and grow the team of 60 (across six countries) to 100. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/education/news/8-in-10-parents-in-these-five-indian-states-say-there-was-no-online-education-in-government-schools-during-the-lockdown/articleshow/78126229.cms">8 in 10 parents in these five Indian states say there was no online education in government schools during the lockdown</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/tencent-joins-alibaba-and-bytedance-in-making-singapore-its-new-headquarters-after-india-ban-and-tensions-in-the-us/articleshow/78125459.cms">Tencent joins Alibaba and Bytedance in making Singapore its new headquarters after India ban and tensions in the US</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/snapdeal-says-it-has-just-tested-deliveries-using-robots-and-it-was-successful/articleshow/78120511.cms">Snapdeal says it has just tested deliveries using robots and it was successful</a>

‘Had to say no to investors now,’ says the founder of Airmeet, India's alternative to Zoom, after raising $12 million from Sequoia

<ul><li>Sequoia India, <keyword id="136057" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Matrix-Partners">Matrix Partners</keyword>, <keyword id="161314" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SAIF-Partners">SAIF Partners</keyword>, Lightspeed Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Accel, Chiratae Ventures, Omidyar Network and Nexus Partners published their learnings from the startup world for founders to learn. </li><li>From scenario planning to fundraising and company restructuring or business continuity plan, the document has a detailed learning graph for founders. </li><li>With the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> pandemic, there’s going to be a funding crunch, valuations could change due to uncertainty.</li></ul>The coronavirus pandemic has put Indian startup founders in a spot. <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups">Startups</keyword> in several sectors will have to go for months without revenue and many could shut down. Only a few startups in the sectors of education, healthcare, entertainment, fintech etc could brave through the crisis. ‘We're in uncharted waters, founders face tough decisions’ There’s going to be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/startup-funding-could-halt-valuations-to-take-a-hit-and-business-models-have-to-be-pivoted-say-investors/articleshow/74910779.cms">a funding crunch, valuations could change</a> due to the uncertainty. But investors understand the dilemma that founders are facing. Some of India’s top VCs – Sequoia India, Matrix Partners, SAIF Partners, Lightspeed Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Accel, Chiratae Ventures, Omidyar Network, Nexus Partners – published their learnings from the startup world for founders to learn. The VCs published their notes on Twitter so that it’s accessible to all entrepreneurs – big or small. “We're in uncharted waters and founders are faced with their toughest decisions yet. Some of us in the VC ecosystem have put together learnings from our best founders. While in no way exhaustive, we hope it serves as a good starting point for founders in a tough time,” wrote the VCs. <div type="twitter" handle="Sequoia_India" handlename="Sequoia_India" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/516892713078108160/eKVFOxeA_normal.png" favoritecount="171" retweetcount="62" status="We're in uncharted waters &amp; founders are faced with their toughest decisions yet. Some of us in the VC ecosystem ha… https://t.co/D9j8Xk1Qai" createdat="1585656007000" id="1244957646106423296"></div> Published on Notion – a workspace for notes, texts and more – the notes are called “Best Practices for Founders in the wake of COVID-19”. “Founders will inevitably be faced with difficult decisions, tactically on execution for the next 21-30 days, and strategically on how to plan for the next 12-18 months,” wrote the VCs. The <a href="https://www.notion.so/Best-Practices-for-Founders-in-the-wake-of-COVID-19-54f0c0db17064e6f9e5dd456d9cb26de">document</a> has learnings for founders on scenario planning, fundraising, company restructuring, business continuity plan, strategic relations and mergers and acquisitions, work-from-home ethics and much more. ‘Indian startups depend on capital from US and China’ The investors also spoke about the dependence of India’s startups on the world’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. “India's startup system doesn’t operate in isolation and in fact, is dependent on external capital primarily from the US and China. It’s likely that the Indian mid to late stage startup financing market will see a rebound only after their ‘home’ markets rebound. So even if India escapes the <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="covid-19">Covid-19</keyword> crisis, we will still have to wait for the rest of the world to come back,” wrote the VCs. While the investors have written clearly – no new hiring, they have also mentioned measures of cost cutting – from cutting down on marketing to saving capital costs. “Co-opt team leaders in identifying payroll cost solutions – be pragmatic but humane. Examples of ideas companies are thinking about vary from salary reduction, shifting to variable pay, salary deferral or worst case headcount reduction,” they wrote. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/startup-funding-could-halt-valuations-to-take-a-hit-and-business-models-have-to-be-pivoted-say-investors/articleshow/74910779.cms">Startup funding could halt, valuations to take a hit and business models have to be pivoted say investors</a>

India's top VCs publish ‘best practices’ for startups to tide over the Covid-19 crisis

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‘Had to say no to investors now,’ says the founder of Airmeet, India's alternative to Zoom, after raising $12 million from Sequoia

Sanchita Dash

India's top VCs publish ‘best practices’ for startups to tide over the Covid-19 crisis

Sanchita Dash

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