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E-commerce firm <keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ShopClues">ShopClues</keyword>, headquartered in Gurgaon, has denied reports that it is having merger talks with arch rival <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Flipkart-just-made-a-move-to-improve-its-customer-service-as-Amazon-is-also-bringing-a-similar-concept-to-India/articleshow/53278799.cms">Flipkart</a>. 
 
"Really speaking, it is not the fact. Of course, mergers help but do not guarantee businesses to grow," <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Shopclues-goes-local/articleshow/51681993.cms">ShopClues </a>CEO <keyword id="118292" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sanjay-Sethi">Sanjay Sethi</keyword> was quoted saying. 
 
"If money was the only reason why businesses have to be made and sustained, then Tatas and Birlas should be one entity, but they aren't. They are competing with each other," he added. 
 
Sethi also said that it was wrong to link the two e-commerce majors only because they have a common investor in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Tiger-Global-Management-to-adopt-two-track-approach/articleshow/49856094.cms">Tiger Global</a>. 
 
"The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/ShopClues-raises-Series-E-at-a-valuation-of-1-1-Billion/articleshow/50547081.cms">largest investor </a>in our company is Nexux Venture, which is also a very large investor in Snapdeal. Nexus Venture has been with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/ShopClues-acquires-Momoe/articleshow/53223378.cms">ShopClues </a>for four years, but somehow, nobody asks the same question about Snapdeal," he said. 
 
<a href="http://www.livemint.com/rf/Image-621x414/LiveMint/Period1/2015/04/18/Photos/Sanjay%20Sethi-k4FE--621x414@LiveMint.jpg">Image source</a>

Shopclues denies having any merger talks with Flipkart

Chinese internet behemoth <keyword id="302749" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Alibaba">Alibaba</keyword>, which means to enter the domestic e-commerce market by early next year, has held discussions to acquire online marketplace <keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShopClues">ShopClues</keyword>, which is valued at over $1 billion. Alibaba needs to merge the Paytm, in which it has a stake, with the much bigger adversary ShopClues, as it is prospecting several securing targets to solidify an India entry against opponent Amazon, people acquainted with the matter said. 
 The Gurgaon-based ShopClues numbers <keyword id="6357968" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="GIC">GIC</keyword> of Singapore, <keyword id="526777" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tiger-Global">Tiger Global</keyword>, Nexus Venture Partners and Helion among its investors and has raised about $250 million till date. ShopClues is positioned as an online flea market, selling cheaper and generally unbranded merchandise to value shoppers. The organization, which is one among the top takeover targets in Indian e-commerce, is said to be reporting a revenue run-rate of $750 million based on the gross merchandise value of the products sold. 
 Investment bankers have taken multiple deal propositions to Alibaba in recent months. The Jack Ma-led Chinese goliath is hoping to sew up combination moves to challenge Amazon, which has already emerged as the nation's second-largest online marketplace and is seen threatening <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>'s leadership. This includes getting a significant stake in Flipkart and merging smaller Indian opponents with it, or scaling up investments in <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> in which it is currently a little shareholder. 
 
The media has speculated about Alibaba's interest in Flipkart, however these parleys have stalled over differences in valuations. Incidentally, Flipkart has likewise been rumored as a potential suitor for ShopClues since Tiger Global is a large regular investor in both. 
 Former <keyword id="188699" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zynga">Zynga</keyword> and <keyword id="6363100" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Yahoo">Yahoo</keyword> executive K Guru Gowrappan, who has been mandated to graph Alibaba's development in Asian markets (excluding China), is driving the M&amp;A chats with the senior management of ShopClues, sources, said. Gowrappan, who joined Alibaba in November a year ago, is spending more time in India to finalize Alibaba's entry strategy. Sources said he was in regards to join the leading body of One 97 Communications, the parent of Paytm, and is working from the latter's offices in Noida. 
 
Sources cautioned that the discussions with ShopClues may not lead to an exchange. Alibaba could value ShopClues at around $1 billion however the organization's management is negotiating for a higher valuation. The up and coming Diwali festival season sales would determine the valuations of several Indian e-commerce companies which are in the M&amp;A ring currently. 
 
Meanwhile, Alibaba bunch, which holds around 40% stake in Paytm, has already started the process to separate the Noida-based organization's core payment business and the smaller commerce business into two separate entities. Alibaba is keen on moving the battling and money swallowing marketplace of Paytm into one of the larger blends it is seeking after in the nation. Paytm clearly sees its future as a payments organization and has attempted to locate a new investor or sell off the commerce in recent past.

Alibaba reportedly in talks to acquire Shopclues

<ul><li><keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shopclues">Shopclues</keyword> has finally been sold to Singapore-based <keyword id="8279466" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Qoo10">Qoo10</keyword> in an all stock deal. </li><li>The <keyword id="7321558" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="unicorn-startup">unicorn startup</keyword> was sold at a valuation ranging between just $70-100 million. </li><li>This year, Shopclues had been at the centre of multiple failed attempts at mergers as it tried to survive.</li></ul>Indian unicorn e-commerce startup Shopclues has finally <a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet/shopclues-acquired-by-singapore-based-qoo10/71839928">found</a> a buyer in Singapore-based e-commerce platform Qoo10. Shopclues which was once valued at $1.1 billion-- is sold in an all stock deal for a reported valuation ranging between $70-$100 million. Here’s a look at how it all went down for the e-commerce startup. 2011 Shopclues was founded in July 2011 by Sanjay Sethi, Sandeep Aggarwal and Radhika Aggarwal. This was two years before Amazon came to India. It raised an angel round of funding. 2012 The startup raised its series A round of funding of $4 million. During this time, Shopclues had 2500 transactions a day and according to <a href="https://www.techcircle.in/2012/09/04/excl-shopclues-raises-4m-in-series-a-round-looking-to-gross-rs-100cr-sales-by-dec-2012">reports</a>, was hoping to turn profitable by 2013. 2013 Gaining momentum, Shopclues closes its series B round for $10 million from investors Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners. 2014 Shopclues raised $15 million as a part of its series C round of funding from its existing investors. 2015 In 2015, the startup scooped up its Series D funding for $100 million, also welcoming Tiger Global to its board of investors. “Shopclues has emerged as the leading marketplace of choice for the millions of small and local businesses seeking to reach mass consumers in India’s tier 2 and tier 3 cities,” the then Tiger Global private equity business head Lee Fixel <a href="https://www.vccircle.com/e-com-marketplace-shopclues-raises-100m-series-c-funding-led-tiger-global/">had said.</a> It also registered a GMV of $400 million. 2016 Between late 2015 and early 2016, Shopclues closed its series E round of funding to join the prestigious unicorn club. It also brought back its dreams for profitability while also reportedly hoping for an IPO. 2017 Shopclues was caught in the middle of a very public spat between its founders – husband and wife duo Sandeep Aggarwal and Radhika. Aggarwal put out a post on Facebook accusing his wife of “an illicit affair” as well as ousting him from the company. It was also the year when the company’s <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/money/shopclues-fy-17-revenue-up-5-losses-decline-by-13/articleshow/61539773.cms">revenue began slowing dow</a>n. In FY17, the company’s revenue grew by 5% instead of the usual 50% jump it had been seeing. Its losses stood at ₹332 crores. 2018 It managed to come back in the game with a 46% revenue jump and cutting down its losses to ₹208 crore in FY18. But at this time, Shopclues also <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/shopclues-revenue-up-46-to-rs-273-crore/articleshow/66409043.cms">cut down</a> on operational costs, advertising spends and employee benefits. However, it was facing immense competition from Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm etc who were growing at breakneck speed. Meanwhile, Shopclues was focussing on its wholesale marketplace model. Once again, its plans to go in for an IPO in 2018, failed to see the light of the day. Multiple senior management <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/top-level-exits-at-shopcluescom/article23263804.ece">exits</a> too began in the company. It also fired 50 employees across verticals. It also lost a legal fight with L’oreal, which had <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/loral-india-wins-judgement-on-counterfeits-against-shopclues/articleshow/66652453.cms">accused</a> Shopclues of selling counterfeit products on its platform. 2019 Having survived on bridge rounds of investments, troubles started mounting for the company as its struggle to survive became public. The rumours of its probable sell began taking solid turns. Snapdeal (who was itself making a comeback from massive losses) was reported to be in talks with Shopclues for a possible merger, but the talks didn’t go through in the end. There were also rumours about ebay.in looking to <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/ebay-in-talks-with-etailers-including-shopclues-for-a-fresh-bid-in-india/articleshow/65157378.cms">acquire</a> Shopclues. Shopclues also laid off about 200 employees to cut costs. Then came the news of its final sale to Singapore-based Qoo10 in an all stock deal, but with a massive fall in valuation. “This partnership presents new strategic opportunities for both companies, as it opens up cross-border opportunities for consumers and sellers across Asia,” the company said in a statement.

Once valued at $1.1 billion Shopclues finally gets sold for less than $100 million valuation

<keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShopClues">ShopClues</keyword>.com, India’s largest marketplace for small medium businesses (SMBs), has raised investment worth $100 million. The new round of investments was led by <keyword id="526777" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tiger-Global">Tiger Global</keyword>, one of the largest global institutional investors. 
 <keyword id="118292" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sanjay-Sethi">Sanjay Sethi</keyword>, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder, ShopClues said, “So far we have brought 100,000 sellers and 10 million products online and the next three years will be focused on bringing 10 million sellers and 1 billion products to the online domain. We will continue to build Technologies &amp; services to enable and empower retailers to participate in the e-commerce revolution that is happening in India. ShopClues levels the playing fields for SMBs to compete with other organized retailers both in the online and offline space, said Sethi.” 
 
Lee Fixel from Tiger Global said in a statement, “ShopClues has emerged as the leading marketplace of choice for the millions of small and local businesses seeking to reach mass consumers in India’s tier two and tier three cities. Sanjay, Radhika and the team have done a great job aggregating the country’s largest online catalog of regional and local brands and we are excited to partner with ShopClues as it expands its offerings.” 
 
Elaborating about the deal, Radhika Ghai Aggarwal, co-founder, ShopClues said, “In Tiger Global, we found a strategic partner who showed confidence in our capability to operate the country’s largest marketplace for the masses – be it the millions of small merchants wanting to sell online or the vast pool of shoppers in tier 2/3 towns looking for access to the products and categories that they never had before. The fact that another ace investor has been added to our list of institutional investors is a strong endorsement of our team, strategy and business performance.” 
 
ShopClues was set up in 2011 as the country’s first fully managed marketplace. At present, ShopClues has 1.5 million transactions per month. More than 70% of its transactions come from tier two and three cities. ing about 40 million monthly visitors, it is growing by 600% year-on-year.

ShopClues.com Bags $100-million Investment

<keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ShopClues">ShopClues</keyword>.com, the mass-market online retailer founded in 2011 by renowned wall-street analyst Sandeep Aggarwal, has received an undisclosed amount of funding in its Series E round. 
 
This funding has brought the retailer’s valuation at more than $1.1Billion. 
 
The round of capital infusion was led by GIC, which happens to be the largest sovereign wealth fund of Singapore. Existing investors of ShopClues.com, including major names like Tiger Global and Nexus Venture Partners, also participated in this funding round. 
 
“As a long-term investor, GIC believes in the strong growth potential of India's e-commerce industry. We are confident that ShopClues’ merchant-first mind-set and solid management team will enable the company to expand its reach, especially in the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, bringing its unique value proposition to even more consumers and merchants,” said Ravi Balasubramanian, GIC’s Head of Asia Equities Research. 
 
Sanjay Sethi, CEO &amp; Co-founder of ShopClues, had his two cents to share on the same. “ShopClues has consistently demonstrated that hyper-growth and strong business fundamentals are not mutually exclusive. The recent addition of GIC and the continued strong support from our existing investors is a validation of our capital efficiency with a clear path to profitability. This investment will enable us to double our focus on digitizing our merchants’ businesses so that they scale to fully leverage the opportunity online commerce provides them.” 
 
The gross merchandise volume (GMV) of online retailer has grown over four time since January 2015. They are currently shipping out over 3.5 million items on a monthly basis, thereby attracting more than 100 million visits per month. 
 
The business growth, which is accompanied by strong improvements in capital efficiency, is expected to prove profitable by H1 2017. 
“Today, we are the dominant player in low price-point &amp; unstructured categories like lifestyle, home, kitchen, electronic &amp; automotive accessories etc. Our focus on selection, value and trusted shopping for Indian middle class consumers has given us tremendous scale with a rapidly growing buyer &amp; merchant network. We are confident that our capital efficiency &amp; execution will make this our last fund raise before we become profitable with the eventual IPO in 2017,” said Radhika Aggarwal, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer of ShopClues. 
 
The capital raised in this funding round will be used to focus on building and rolling out new products so that SME merchants can be enabled to digitize their businesses. It would also be used to further establish itself as the e-commerce operating system on the cloud. 
 
Image source

ShopClues raises Series E at a valuation of $1.1 Billion

In a bid to beat its competitors or at least be equal to them, online marketplace <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=shopclues">Shopclues</a> is reportedly looking to raise $150-200 million (Rs 990-1,320 crore) at a valuation of $650-700 million. 
 <keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShopClues">Shopclues</keyword>, which is behind <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=flipkart">Flipkart</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=snapdeal">Snapdeal</a> and Paytm, is also mulling to foray into IPO. 
 
In January this year, Shopclues had raised $100 million from New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global Management that valued it at $350 million. 
 
As per reports, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Tiger+Global+Management">Tiger Global Management</a> is expected to re-invest in Shopclues. 
 
The four-year-old company, Shopclues, may have little difficulty in raising expected <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=fundraising">funds</a> as in the current scenario, the investors have become more focussed on business models. 
 
Chief Business Officer at Shopclues, Radhika Aggarwal, said what differentiates Shopclues from others is margins, sellers and unstructured categories. 
 
According to Aggarwal, Shopclues aims to end fiscal 2015-16 with $1.2 billion in annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). 
 "We ship almost one-third the orders of Flipkart and half the orders of <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> and our entire employee strength is about 850. 
GMV/revenue/number of orders created per employee is significantly higher than the competition,” she told ET. 
 
On IPO dreams, director on the board of Shopclues, Sanjeev Aggarwal, said, “We feel we could be the first ecommerce company to go public.” 
However, the company has not submitted documents for an IPO with the SEBI. 
 Shopclues was founded in <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword> in 2011 and started India operations after seven months from Gurgaon. 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Shopclues wants to achieve its billion dollar dream, eyes raising Rs 1320 crore through funding, IPO

Online marketplace <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/exclusive-shopclues-predicts-how-the-e-commerce-space-will-turn-out-in-2017/articleshow/56592792.cms">ShopClues</a> is looking forward for a possible public share sale, as it struggles with internal disputes amongst co-founders. 
 
The Gurgaon-based company, which entered the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/ShopClues-raises-Series-E-at-a-valuation-of-1-1-Billion/articleshow/50547081.cms">unicorn club</a> in January last year after exceeding the valuation of $1 billion, has been reportedly in talks with investment banks including <keyword id="6361649" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Goldman-Sachs">Goldman Sachs</keyword> and Credit Suisse, two people in the know told ET. 
 
The issue is said to be ready for the first quarter of financial year 2018-19, and would have at least two investment banks as the lead book runners. 
 
Talking of the conflict, co-founders <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/slideshows/sai/heres-how-startups-like-oyo-paytm-snapdeal-reacted-to-budget-2017/sanjay-sethi-ceo-co-founder-shopclues/slideshow/56938870.cms">Sanjay Sethi</a> and Radhika Aggarwal are dealing with accusations from co-founder and former CEO Sandeep Aggarwal, regarding the issue of illegally taking away his voting rights. Both Sethi and Radhika Aggarwal have denied the charges, and are being supported by the company's board. 
 
In other development, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/shopclues-launches-shopclues-surety-to-ensure-quality-products-on-its-platform/articleshow/57667609.cms">ShopClues</a> is looking to raise a fresh funding of somewhere between $75 million and $100 million, a transaction that's expected to be a mix of primary and secondary components from its investors Nexus Venture Partners, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/billionaire-chase-colemans-tiger-global-made-a-nearly-500-million-bet-on-fiat/articleshow/57156399.cms">Tiger Global</a>, GIC (the sovereign fund of the government of Singapore), and Ronnie Screwvala, founder of Unilazer Ventures, among others. 
 
(Image source: LiveMint)

Internal conflicts aside, ShopClues might bring out an IPO

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

If reports are to be believed, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is all <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Will-Paytm-pave-the-way-for-Alibabas-entry-in-to-India/articleshow/51490871.cms">set to enter India</a>; and the news is in itself enough to set Indian ecommerce-focussed <keyword id="1474532" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="logistics-companies">logistics companies</keyword> in motion. These companies, like <keyword id="1560090" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Delhivery">Delhivery</keyword>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Snapdeal-invests-20-mn-in-gojavas-to-reach-100-more-Indian-cities-easily/articleshow/49258885.cms">GoJavas</a> and Ecom Express are all standing in a queue to fetch a partnership from the global ecommerce giant. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Alibaba-Tata-may-enter-into-a-partnership/articleshow/51491487.cms">Big consolidation awaits ecommerce industry as Alibaba, Tata may enter into a partnership</a> 
 
Delhivery, backed by Tiger Global, even confirmed that it has had talks with Alibaba last month for a possible partnership. "We have discussed how best we can provide fulfilment for Alibaba, which is still finalising its India strategy. There is no official agreement yet," said Sahil Barua, Delhivery CEO. 
 Delhivery has been in the market for five years now, and has been under pressure to diversify its business portfolio especially after Flipkart moved some of its logistics business to its in-house logistics arm <keyword id="2057197" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="eKart">Ekart</keyword>. The ecommerce giant had been one of Delhivery’s top partners. 
 
Ekart, on the other hand, has recently <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Paytm-joins-hands-with-Flipkart-for-timely-deliveries/articleshow/51696229.cms">tied up with third-party players like Paytm</a>, ShopClues and Jabong, which has made it an emerging name in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/E-commerce-shipping-a-great-business-opportunity-for-India-Post/articleshow/47720544.cms">B2B logistics industry</a>. 
 
As of now, AllCargo Logistics works for Alibaba’s cross-border shipments to India. 
 
<a href="http://s32.iamwire.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Delhivery.jpg">Image source</a>

Indian logistic companies look forward to partnering with Alibaba for its India entry

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)

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Shopclues denies having any merger talks with Flipkart

BI India Bureau

Alibaba reportedly in talks to acquire Shopclues

Gaurav Sangwani

Once valued at $1.1 billion Shopclues finally gets sold for less than $100 million valuation

Sanchita Dash

ShopClues.com Bags $100-million Investment

BI India Bureau

ShopClues raises Series E at a valuation of $1.1 Billion

BI India Bureau

Shopclues wants to achieve its billion dollar dream, eyes raising Rs 1320 crore through funding, IPO

BI India Bureau

Internal conflicts aside, ShopClues might bring out an IPO

BI India Bureau

Top 10 Indian startups that are going places

BI India Bureau

Indian logistic companies look forward to partnering with Alibaba for its India entry

BI India Bureau

How VC Funding Fuels the Indian Startup Ecosystem

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