A business incubator is a company that helps new and startup companies to develop by providing services such as management, training or office space. Startup incubators support the well-interested startup companies both financially and mentally.
They offer a variety of resources and services which act as means to accelerate the company’s development. This makes them reach great heights in business fields and do an effective service to people.
So, an entrepreneur must choose right startup incubator for him carefully. Here are some points which can help you to choose right startup incubator.
Incubators look for companies that will ultimately succeed not just because of the equity stake, but also for investing more capital in future. While scrutinizing the applicants, they look for those who are promising and exhibit the ability to execute. The first impression is always the best impression. So prepare a unique pitch that will distinguish you from other applicants and rehearse it well so that you deliver the best on stage.
How much you can pay
You need to pay fees for being admitted into an incubator is typically an exchange of equity in your company. Determine how much you are ready to spend for being in an incubator and you also have to see if it is worth. Consult a legal expert who can help you with the final agreement.
Decide what you expect from incubators
Most of the incubators provide you physical spaces, shared services, infrastructure assistance, security and regulatory compliance, helping with borrowing loans, networking with mentors, advisors and investors, attaining strategic partnerships and more for you to grow. So, you have to decide what you can do or manage on your own and what do you expect from incubator.
How to Choose Right Startup Incubator for your Business
Examine the talents
There are two important facts that should be kept in mind while choosing the right incubator.
The first fact is what type of resources and services they offer for the development of the startup.
The second fact is how much they will be able to sponsor for the development of the startup.
Other than these facts, there are other things that must be specifically looked at.
The first thing is Mentors. Mentors mean a person who is experienced in the incubator. The entrepreneur must find out that the incubator has experience in the required field and their experience would be helpful to the development of their startup company or not.
The second thing is Location. Some of the incubators suggest relocating the program to the appropriate location. So, the entrepreneur must be aware if their business will succeed in that location or not.
The third thing is the curriculum. That curriculum includes the difficult training and educational seminars. So, the entrepreneur must know their capability of handling them and managing the regular activities.
Experience is the best teacher
The entrepreneurs should choose incubators who have the list of companies that are undergoing the same process. They will be able to suggest the best incubator who has many experiences in their career. The entrepreneurs must have incubators who share their experiences and knowledge to help them in developing their company’s success. One company’s bad experience may be another company’s ideal challenge. So, an entrepreneur must prepare their questions in advance and be thorough.
Capable of choosing strong team members
Entrepreneurs must choose incubators who are capable of selecting the effective and strongest team members and founders. They give fingertip business ideas to them. That team will make the changes in the development of the startup company.
A startup that goes through an incubator will more than likely exit as a completely different and certainly more refined business. They make the business more feasible and compatible with the users.
The entrepreneurs have the big duty to place the right developers and workers at the right place. This will reduce the confusion in the business process and lead the startup to shine among other companies.
Self-preparation
The entrepreneur must prepare their duty because it will make them clear in their ideas and make the company run without any obstacles. They must prepare well and be well practiced for their income.
They should choose incubators who want companies that can succeed, not only because they have shared and invest in the future planning. The incubator must also watch how that company would succeed and find the accurate path for success.
They must manage the founders and lead them to demonstrate the program execution. They must focus on all the activities done by the doors and founders and suggest them to work as early as possible because submission of the project on time is important. The entrepreneur should select an incubator that acts like a caring mother for the company.
The incubator should take care of budget
The entrepreneur must determine the person who spends the limited cost according to their project needs. The entrepreneur should ask themselves how much they are willing to give to be in the incubator and make certain it matches the needs and goals of the incubator.
The incubator uses the cost in a beneficial manner and decides the final term sheets. It decides the accurate budget of the project without any extra expenses.
So, these are 5 things that you need to take care when you want to choose right startup incubator.
The incubator is an incredible opportunity for a startup company, which they should grab at the earliest if they are aiming towards success.
FAQ
How do incubators help startups?
Incubators are an organization, platform or team of experienced professionals that helps startups bootstrap during its early stages and often provides mentoring, guidance, co-working space and also at times some funding.
Is Y Combinator an incubator or accelerator?
Y Combinator (YC) is an American seed money startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch over 2,000 companies.
How many types of Business Incubators are there?
There are 4 types of Business Incubators, Corporate Incubators, Local Economic Development Incubators, Private Investors’ Incubators and Academic Incubators.
Conclusion
So, the entrepreneur should choose an experienced incubator for making a perfect budget for their project. The incubator is an incredible opportunity for a startup company, which they should grab at the earliest if they are aiming towards success.
A business startup comes with a lot of responsibilities. If you’ve got a business idea and you think it could make a change in the market, it’s up to you to make it a reality. Funding is an essential part of any business, as, without the seed money, you’ll be unable to fire the starting gun on your startup.
Entrepreneurs are an incredibly clever and industrious bunch, but many are in the dark about how to fund their startup business idea, preferring instead to focus their energies on a core offering.
Great ideas can only fulfill their potential if they are backed by a stable investment. These are some of the ways you can fund your startup:
How Startup Funding Works.
1. Personal Money
For many people, the first inclination is to use personal money to make essential purchases. With a new startup creating so many different needs for money, it can be rather challenging to decide what needs to be funded first.
Business costs start right from the time you decide on a business name. For instance, to retain that business name, you need to register a company name via a company formation. Registering a new entity costs money, but it is one of the first requirements to legitimizing your idea.
Personal money can come from savings, and you can finance everything yourself, leaving you with total equity in the organization. One important factor to keep in mind is not only will you need cash for business purchases, but you will need working cash flow. You probably have other financial responsibilities. Therefore, you will need funds to deal with these. If you use up all your savings for your business startup idea, it could leave you in a precarious situation financially as you move forward.
Money Management Tips
2. Seek for Angel Investors
There are some people out there whose sole job is investing in businesses that might help them make even more money going forward. These are known as angel investors and they have plenty of money to spare. These are the people you should be pitching to if you think your business idea is innovative and has the potential to make big money in the future.There are many online angel investment networks, as well as local investor groups you can pitch to in person, so do your research and start submitting your pitches.
Find the right angel investor and not only will you benefit from their financial support but also their wisdom: oftentimes, they offer mentorship as a side dish alongside their capital. Although they generally offer less financial backing than banks and venture capital funds.
Crowdfunding has taken off in a big way over the last few years. Crowdfunding is a favorite of the digital economy, and probably the quickest way of obtaining finance for a new business. All you need is a compelling pitch, one which strongly references your start-up’s potential for growth, as well as a knack for interacting with your cash-rich community. The sooner you get started and get creative with your crowdfunding campaign, the sooner you’ll start to draw more people in.
As a side benefit, crowdfunding is a nifty form of advertising, a way of stimulating public interest in your company before it’s even made its debut.
4. Bank Loans
In the modern age, it almost seems anachronistic to seek a bank loan. But if you have a solid credit history or existing assets that you’re happy to offer as collateral, as well as a workable business plan with clear profit forecasts, it’s still possible to launch your start-up with an infusion of bank cash. If you want to get money, it makes sense to head to a bank where they have lots of it. Their loans might come with harsh interest rates that could cause you plenty of problems further down the line though.
5. Find a venture capitalist
Finding a venture capitalist who shares your vision, or at the very least believes in your ability to turn your idea into a successful, profitable venture, is a good way of raising cash. The main con with this option is that venture capitalists are typically looking for the next big thing and so, many entrepreneurs struggle to convey the scale-ability of their enterprise.
Venture capital funds, by their very nature, have a short shelf life as they generally seek to recover their investment, turn a profit then move on to the next fresh startup.
6. Pursue startup grants
Grants are great for people who don’t know where else to turn. If you have an unusual idea that investors and banks are scared of and crowdfunding doesn’t seem like a realistic option for you, it makes sense to apply for startup grants. While you shouldn’t expect to be cut a massive cheque, there are dozens of grants available, offered by national and state governments (as well as private enterprises) in the interests of stimulating the economy and growing the jobs market so it’s worth checking out your options for funding your startup.
The main drawback is the fierce competitiveness of such grants, as well as the box-ticking involved, it can be a frustratingly drawn-out process, but that’s the tradeoff for retaining equity.
7. Family and Friends
Lastly, the idea of hitting friends and family for cash doesn’t sit well with some entrepreneurs, but many of the world’s top magnates readily admit to borrowing from their social network early in their careers. As such, you should have no compunction about doing the same.
On the other hand, it’s not easy to put together a hefty bankroll relying solely on family and friends; and you have to ask yourself whether you want to risk straining meaningful relationships.
It is difficult to qualify for a small business loan with a credit score lower than 700. Additionally, you should build a strong personal credit score and drive down any debt prior to applying for a business loan.
What do startups use the funding for?
Startups raise funds for various reasons but most often the main purpose is to grow their business. It can take a while for a company to reach profitability and until then, the business needs some cash to keep going.
Who is eligible for startup India?
Being incorporated or registered in India for less than seven years and for biotechnology startups up to 10 years from its date of incorporation. Annual turnover not exceeding INR 25 crores in any of the preceding financial years.
How can I approach angel investors in India?
Here are a few tips to approach angel investors in India are:
Approach angel investors in your niche.
Show them how successful your past business ventures were.
How can I raise money to start a business in India?
Go for Crowdfunding.
Consider Self-funding.
Get in touch with the Venture Capitalists.
Try Angel Investment.
Try Angel Investment.
Focus on the close.
Terms of the deal.
Conclusion
Perhaps a combination of funding options is best, but only you will truly know. All these above options require a great deal of consideration and researching because each of the options that have been discussed here has its own benefits and drawbacks, don’t forget that when you’re making your decision.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Trainman.
Don’t know your train number (PNR status)? Worried when the train is arriving? Want to know the live running status but unable to follow? Want to know whether the seats are available or not in the train? Want to know how much it will cost you to go?
No more worries, please! You don’t need to run to those brokers anymore! Become tension-free because Trainman is here to solve all of your existing problems related to the railways and offer you relief. It is a site where PNR status, seat availability, fare enquiry is possible by sitting at the comfort of your homes. Read the Trainman success story below to know more!
Trainman is a one-stop-shop for checking PNR statuses of various required trains. It’s used to check the predictions after the train tickets are booked on IRCTC. Searching for various stations in one train’s route is also done here. The time the concerned trains stop at each station is mentioned within the app properly. It’s the most preferable railway site for train’s information.
Trainman – Founders And Team
Mohammad Amir and Vineet Chirania are the founders of Trainman.
Mohammad Amir is a graduate from IIT Roorkee who graduated in the year 2010. From class 6 he has been staying away from his home so he used to travel a lot by trains.
Vineet Chirania is also graduated from IIT Roorkee. He is from Gurgaon, Haryana, India. He is a techie-turned-entrepreneur and has got 9 years of experience in this technology and internet industry field. He has got deep knowledge and a special interest in the Indian Railways.
Vineet Chirania, CEO, Trainman
Trainman – Startup Story
All have heard the name of IRCTC very well. Here online booking for the railways is done but they don’t provide you with all the information required for every passenger to know. Trainman helps you out here. Now it’s a compulsory app on every individuals mobile phone – the ones who travel by train a lot.
The company is very alert of itself and concerned with what it’s doing. It provides data to its users for the prediction that is taking place every day, so that it’s users can stay updated with the correct information and follow the changes happening. It provides trendy evidence to its users which is updated on a regular basis so that the users always remain updated rather than lagging behind with months-old information. It’s done so that nobody misses anything and can take proper decisions.
Trainman – Revenue Model
The Trainman Revenue is derived from advertisements. It also has tied up with various relevant businesses like Cleartrip which is used for flight and hotel bookings. They also tied with Jugnoo which is used for auto booking. All these help the company to generate more and share more revenues. This way they can stay bootstrapped and run profitably. The app is available in 7 Indian languages so that everyone can have proper access to it. The annual revenue of Trainman $3 million.
Trainman is bootstrapped and plans to stay so for as long as possible so tthey have raised $0 in the field of funding.
Trainman – Logo
Trainman Logo
Trainman – Competitors
The top competitors of Trainman include WAmazing, PKFARE, GrupoCDV and AirTickets.
Here all the companies mentioned above are private except one.
Air Tickets is a Subsidiary. They are the oldest ones among all competitors who came in 1949.
WAmazing is a technical travel and leisure platform. It came into existence in the year 2016.
PKFARE deals with travel and leisure. Its founding date is 2014.
Grupo CDV also deals with travel and leisure. We know them since 2015. The subsidiary ones also work for the same.
All have got various locations with a very small number of employees. PKFARE has got the highest among all competitors. The second highest is Grupo CDV.
The Trainman company is acquiring growth. It has tied up with Jugnoo – an auto-rickshaw aggregator. It will enable travellers to book three-wheelers from their respective railway stations. It will be operational in only a few cities. Recently, now it’s available in 35 cities of India. They are a Chandigarh based company. Trainman wants to expand its business this way by associating itself with various companies to acquire more growth.
Trainman – Future Goals
Currently, the company is having 5 lakh daily active users. It aims to have more and is also heading towards something technical that would bring prosperity to them and its users would enjoy as well.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What is Trainman?
Trainman is a one-stop-shop for checking PNR statuses of various required trains and isused to check the predictions after the train tickets are booked on IRCTC. Searching for various stations in one train’s route is done here. The time the concerned trains stop at each station is mentioned within the app properly too.
What is the Trainman funding till date?
Trainman is a bootstrapped company.
Can you check the seat availability Trainman app?
Yes, you can check the seat availabilty on the Trainman app.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.
Angel Broking is a company that shares the concept of demand and supply. The prices always suffer from a rise and fall. It’s the law of nature that if a company is expected to post good results, it will be reflected in a corresponding rise in it’s share price, owing to buying by the investors informed.
Technically, all the companies have got it’s own psychology to work. There are theories, there are circumstances but these all help in predicting better share price movements. Read the Angel Broking success story below.
Angel Broking is an Indian stock brokerage firm which was established in 1987 by Dinesh Thakkar. The company has got 8000+ sub – brokers and franchisee outlets in more than 850+ cities of India. Their services include stock – broking, commodity trading, advisory service, IPO, portfolio management services, mutual funds, health insurance, and life insurance.
The tagline of the company is “SERVICE TRULY PERSONALIZED.”
Portfolio management is a different aspect here so let me tell you it started in the year 2006 as another arm of the company. Areas related to investment broking publishes research reports which is the central aspect of the company.
Angel Broking – History
The company was established in the year 1987 as an Indian Stock Broking firm. It’s a member of the Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange, National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange of India Limited. It’s a depository participant with Central Depository Services Limited. Once again, let me tell you the company holds services like commodity trading, online stock broking, loans and health insurances.
Dinesh Thakkar, is the founder of Angel Broking. He is the chairman and managing director of the company. The CEO of the company is Vinay Agarwal. The company got the CEO Award for the Best Trading Platform of the year 2018 in India.
Dinesh Thakkar, Founder, Angel Broking
Angel Broking – Business Model
The company gives you a number of enjoyable benefits if you appear to be a sub-broker. It’s a complete process. The business model of the company shares the topics-currency trading, derivatives, equity, life insurance and mutual funds as mentioned above. ‘Investment’ the word has got trust issues in today’s world. In this company, in order to invest one needs to go through sub-brokers authorized by the stock exchanges. The company provides it’s investors a support in exchange for brokerage so that both of them doesn’t suffers from any of the trust issues appearing worldwide. Here, higher brokerage is equal to higher commissions.
Angel Broking – Revenue Model
80% of the company’s revenue has been clocking from the digitized platform. From which 55% is added to mobile alone and the rest 25% is from the web. The company has made the transformation digitized so it’s a major surge by now because before the revenue used to be meager than now.
It’s a digital based broker service which consists of a network of more than 10,000+ sub – brokers which was recorded on June 30 , 2018. Mobile app was also established and it has got 850,000 downloads. There are 110 branches in India and in the year 2018 it managed to earn a profit of INR 113.02 billion in client assets an 1.11+ million active broking accounts.
Customer pays brokerage when buying or selling stocks through the company. The brokerage charges for equity, commodities and currency are all almost equal. It’s flat INR 20 per executed order and for the equity delivery it’s absolutely free. Annual maintenance charges is 300 per person for any scheme investor. The transaction fee is changed this year.
Here, in this company, customer acquisition has been made more and more accessible with various sorts of excellent facilities. Especially it’s a sub – broker platform. It helps the customers with significant leverage and advanced technologies. REMINDER – There’s no limit to growth. With holding the hands of this company you can speed your own path of achieving your career as a sub – broker. Social media helps a lot nowadays for customer acquisition. The internet has transformed the way for the sub – brokers doing their business here.
Angel Broking – Challenges Faced
Success never comes in a straight leading path. You always face hurdles, challenges in order to acquire your goal. From the last few years the company has witnessed an euphoric growth rate in the startup industry. Despite adequate funding and an unprecedented growth of 135% in just 2 years, the startup industry is grappling with inefficiencies in multiple fields. However, in India the transformation process is going on slowly towards cashless economies. The outlook for the future is most probably robust. Presently, PayTM, FreeCharge are helping a lot. Regular sandboxes has been established. Research about a product is always very compulsory before bringing it to the market. There are various rules and regulations to overcome the challenges on board. The best solution is always a promising mentorship. In the future, technology is expected to intensify further to overcome the challenging issues appearing.
Angel Broking – Growth Calculator
Whenever you are investing, it’s a natural urge that occurs to everyone’s mind that what are the returns and how am I going to get benefited by ? It’s like a tradition which is being followed over the years. Henceforth, the company uses CAGR to calculate the rate of growth annually in order to know how much beneficial it’s becoming day by day to the investors. So, it’s always wise to use an online CAGR calculator. The investor should know how compounding works. Although the CAGR calculator always helps you to find things out but it’s a 2 – way process.
The top 3 competitors of the company are Sharekhan, Motilal Oswal and Karvy.
Sharekhan is one of the top competitors of Angel Broking. It is a private company which was founded in the year 2000 in Mumbai. It has got more number of employees than Angel Broking.
Motilal Oswal is also one of the biggest rival of the company Angel Broking. It was found in the year 1987 in Mumbai. This company raises more revenue than Angel Broking.
Karvy is one among the top competitors. It was founded in the year 1979 in Hyderabad. Karvy has got more 15,000 employees than Angel Broking.
Angel Broking – Future Goals
The company has released a new brokerage plan for the sub – brokers. Angel iTrade Prime plan, where 0 brokerage is availed on delivery trades along with a flat rate of INR 20 per order for intraday, F&O, currency and commodity trading. Market research is very important for such sorts of brokerage companies. Before selecting a digitized platform research is necessary where you can compare between various brokerage plans. It’s done for a worry – free future. Currently, Angel Broking is the largest company in India in this aspect and it aspires to hold it’s first position forever. The company also launched a campaign, ‘AAGE BADHNE KA SMART SAUDA’ which showcases a smart plan for their future in India.
Angel Broking – FAQ’s
Is Angel Broking is safe?
Yes, Angel Broking is a safe stock broker for trading and investment. Angel Broking is one of the largest stock brokers. They are in the business since 1987.
Is Angel Broking good for beginners?
Unfettered access to extensive and detailed fundamental and technical research reports is one of the reasons why Angel Broking is the best stock broker for beginners in India.
Is Angel Broking good for trading?
Yes, Angel Broking is a safe stock broker for trading and investment. Angel Broking is one of the largest stock brokers. They are in the business since 1987. They are a member of BSE, NSE and MCX.
Which is Better Angel Broking vs Zerodha?
Angel Broking’s trading account opening fees (INR 600) and Demat AMC (INR 450) are higher than Zerodha that charges INR 200 for account opening and INR 300 for Demat AMC. Zerodha offers automated trading whereas Angel Broking doesn’t. Zerodha has much better self-serving and education awareness platforms than Angel Broking.
How does Angel Broking make money?
If you want to make money every day, you should indulge in intraday trading. In intraday trading, you buy and sell stocks within a day. Stocks are purchased not as a form of investment, but as a way of making a profit by harnessing the fluctuations of the stock prices.
Is there any withdrawal charges in Angel Broking?
No, there is no charge on withdrawing money from your trading account by Angel Broking. You can withdraw the balance amount in your account partially or fully at any time without any cost.
Is Angel Broking legal in India?
Yes, Angel Broking is a SEBI registered stock broker. The company’s SEBI Regn. No. is INZ000161534. In addition to SEBI, Angel Broking is also registered with CDSL, NSE, BSE, MCX, and NCDEX.
Angel Broking – Conclusion
Angel Broking Limited is one of the largest independent full-service retail broking houses in India committed in providing accurate and widespread data for every online share trader. Angel Broking is considered as a home to the independent database on the web covering the Indian online brokerage industry. Our experience of over two decades has helped us to integrate our knowledge and expertise in the broking industry with the technology we provide to our retail clients through various platforms.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.
Didn’t find a job yet? Want to start the journey from a startup company? Wasting money right now and don’t know where to utilise it? The world is filled with talented people. But these people don’t get the opportunity to fulfil their ambitions or dreams. No worries! Here is a great way to kick start your future and accomplish your goals
AngelList is a website which helps the people to find out many startup jobs near them. Investments in the latest startups can be made as well. Read the Angellist success story below! Know and explore more!
AngelList is a US company for startups. For angel investors and job seekers looking to work at startups as well. The company was founded in the year 2010. The mission of the company is to democratize the investment process. It helps the startup companies, especially in fundraising. They began as an online introduction board for tech startups that needed funding. Since 2015, the company allows startups to raise capital from angel investors free of charge.
The company was founded in the year 2010 April, 22nd in San Francisco by entrepreneurs Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi. Naval Ravikant thought that remote work’s time would be coming. And in the future, it will turn out to be the most important category in hiring. They had an idea of investing in companies. Which is why both shared a list of 25 investors. With whom they could share interesting companies to invest in. The company declared a list as ‘AngelList’ in 2010 along with the subscription of 50 angel investors whose intention was to invest USD $80 million in that particular year 2010.
Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi are the founders of the company AngelList.
Naval Ravikant is the CEO and the founder of the company. He is a brilliant entrepreneur and investor. He is having one of the most innovative minds in venture capital. AngelList is his biggest startup success.
Babak Nivi is an entrepreneur and the co-founder of the company. He started his career as an Associate at Seed Capital Partners. Then he joined Atlas Venture as a Consultant. In the year 2005, he joined Bessemer as an Entrepreneur in Residence. He was also the Vice President at Songbird for 1 year and 2 months.
AngelList – Business Model
The business model of the company is to connect investors with startup companies mainly. Their job is to attract more investors to fill up the funding rounds. Whenever an investor swipes right in the website. He/she receives all the information about the startup company. AngelList also provides it’s investors a recommendation along with the information. Angel investors are wealthy individuals. They provide capital for startup companies. All are accredited individuals with a net worth of at least $1 million or an annual income of more than $200,000. Private applications are submitted to get hooked up with the investors.
AngelList is a place, especially for entrepreneurs. The core business model focuses on the revenue model. The investors here invest in each other’s deals. They also invest in similar kinds of deals. And mainly they invest in the places whom they know. This is done because in this case, the investors find themselves safe. Whenever somebody signs in to angel.co. All the “angels” get access to the IP automatically. The company receives a 5% interest whenever a deal is made through the help of the platform.
AngelList – Funding And Investors
AngelList has raised a total amount of $26.2 million in funding over the 6 funding rounds.
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investors
March 9, 2015
Series B
$2.1 million
–
September 22, 2013
Series A
$42 million
GV, Atlas Venture
August 1, 2013
Series B
–
–
June 22, 2013
Seed Round
$100,000
SOSV
January 1, 2013
Seed Round
–
–
June 1, 2012
Seed Round
–
–
AngelList has got 45 investors.
AngelList – Growth
Success stories are growing in every corner of the world. One such story is AngelList’s story. In the year 2012, the company accepted applications for more than 500 startup companies. In the year 2013, AngelList Syndicates was noted as one of the most important innovations in the venture capital and angel investment industries. Like this, the company is growing. Today, they have 44 investors and have made 75 investments.
AngelList – Competitors
The top competitors of the company are Crowdfunder, SeedInvest, FundersClub, Crowdlords and Crowdzu.
Crowdfunder is crowdfunding the future. It connects projects with communities. In order to create great ideas all over the UK the company was founded in the year 2010.
SeedInvest is an online equity crowdfunding platform for venture capital and angel investing. The company was founded in the year 2011.
FundersClub is a company. It offers a venture capital platform to its consumers. The company was founded in the year 2012.
Crowdlords is a two-sided residential buy to let crowdfunding platform. It aims to bring the investors and landlords together. The company was founded in the year 2014.
Crowdzu is a crowd-based marketplace. Especially for entrepreneurs. The company was founded in the year 2014.
AngelList – Future Plans
The company is aiming towards innovating the infrastructure. They want to democratize the investment process more. These things will help the startup with money, talent and customers. AngelList has got over 35,000 recruiting companies. And has 5 million registered users. More acquisitions will support startup companies with customer generation and product launch. It is the current and main target of the company right now.
AngelList – FAQ’s
How much is AngelList worth?
We eliminate the hassles of investing so they can focus on helping founders. AngelList Venture has over $1 billion in assets under management and 23 unicorns in the portfolio, including Lime and Robinhood.
How does AngelList make money?
AngelList’s core business model is focused on revenues from matching startups with talent. The syndicate’s platform has high upfront costs to AngelList, which AngelList hopes to cover through the 5 percent carried interest.
How to Land a Job through AngelList?
Know your audience.
Understand how AngelList works.
Be the perfect candidate.
Follow up.
Follow directions.
First impressions go a long way.
Check your content.
Who started AngelList?
AngelList was founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi. Using the traction from the Venture Hack blog on entrepreneur financing, Naval and Babak started a list of 25 investors with whom they would share interesting companies to invest.
How do you use AngelList?
AngelList is also a useful platform for anyone looking to get a job at a startup. It is just a three-step process: create a free profile showcasing your experience and skills, browse jobs and select the companies you are interested in, and wait for an email saying that that company has also said yes to you.
How much does it cost to post a job on AngelList?
There are over 2,000,000 active candidates looking for jobs on AngelList Talent, and connecting with them by posting a job is completely free.
Is AngelList free?
Employers can post-startup tech jobs on AngelList for free. You’ll first need to sign up with AngelList to create profiles for you and for your startup, all of which are also free of charge.
AngelList – Conclusion
AngelList was started as a platform to connect founders and investors in Jan 2010 by Babak Nivi and Naval Ravikant. Since then, it has evolved into 2 companies– AngelList and AngelList Venture. AngelList is a platform to help startups recruit employees, while AngelList Venture facilitates investments into startups via funds and syndicates. The help center you’re currently in contains information about AngelList, the recruiting platform. The AngelList Venture Help Center can be accessed at help.venture.angel.co.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Voonik.
There was a time when women/men used to take their friends to go shopping just to have a little help in the selection process. Roundabout the same time, people were paying huge amounts to the stylists and designers to get a personalized style statement.
To shift this paradigm online and optimize the whole process to being smooth and handy came in Voonik in 2013. Get insights on Voonik’s Company Profile, Voonik Founders, Funding, Competitors, Business Model, Growth, Revenue and more.
Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan launched Voonik to personalize the shopping experience for men and women. Yes, Voonik initially was launched for both men and women but later they decided to only focus on women’s clothing.
Now, Voonik is a personal clothing shopping app for women, allowing them to buy apparel from multiple brands and fashion stores, according to their body type, lifestyle, and budget.
Voonik enables women customers to directly shop like on any other e-commerce portal or the customer can provide some inputs like her body shape, skin tone, height, and personal style to let the application advise some dresses for her.
Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan are the founders of Voonik.
Founders of Voonik
Sujayath Ali
Sujayth did his MBA in Technology and Finance from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science Engineering from MepcoSchlenk Engineering College.
Before Voonik, he was working as VP, head of Visa Checkout merchant program at Visa. He has also worked for Amazon as a senior product manager in the states for 7 Years.
Navaneetha Krishnan
Before co-founding Voonik, he worked for Freshdesk as a Principal Developer, Narus Networks as Tech-Lead and Aryaka Networks as Technical Architect. Voonik originally started with a 12 member team which now grew to more than 150 employees.
How was Voonik Started?
Navaneetha and Sujayath went to college together and have known each other for more than 20 years now. Navaneetha was not very new to the startup scene because he had been a garage stage engineer at big companies like Zoho, Freshdesk, and Aryaka. And as we know, the other co-founder, Sujayath was in America spending 7 years at Amazon and Visa.
“We first discussed the idea of starting something together over a Facebook chat session” Says Sujayath.
Back then, Navaneetha had an idea for a SaaS offering based on his long and intriguing experience at Zoho and Freshdesk. On the other hand, Sujayath pitched an idea of creating an entirely new way of shopping to enable the users in buying what suits their build, lifestyle, and budget. The former was convinced by the idea of the latter, both quit their jobs and that’s how the idea of Voonik was originated.
Voonik – Name, Logo and Tagline
Voonik’s tagline is “Everyday Fashion”, suiting its tagline, Voonik offers a range of options in every fashion category for the Indian urban market.
Voonik basically is a marketplace where the retail stores register and get to showcase their products. Voonik brings multiple online stores into a single cart. So it showcases product ranges from stores like Jabong, Snapdeal, Fashionara, Fashionandyou, Yepme, Zovi, etc.
Revenue Model
The revenue model of Voonik is generated by charging a 15 percent commission on every sale to the brand or the seller. And the deliveries are done by a third-party logistics partner.
Voonik – Funding and Investors
Voonik has raised a Total Funding of $34.5 Million till date.
Here is the Vooniks Funding Details:
Date
Amount
Round
Investors
February 2014
$500k
Seed
SeedFund
June 2015
$5 Million (~Rs 32 crores)
Series A
Sequoia Capital, SeedFund
June 2016
$20 Million
Series B
Sequoia Capital India
July 2016
$3 Million
Debt
InnoVen Capital
February 2017
$6 Million
Series C
RB Investments Pte. Ltd.
Voonik – Startup Challenges
Costly Shipping
Our biggest challenge for Voonik in the initial days was extremely costly shipping. It was particularly losing money on every shipment. And so the venture decided to work on projects where the team observed shipping across each category.
They eventually came up with the right algorithms through permutations and combinations to make shipments more cost-efficient. And soon after, Voonik had a 20% gross margin on shipping.
Marketing
The second-biggest cost driver for Voonik wasmarketing. Apparently, to save recurring overheads, it stopped focusing on traditional channels like Facebook and Google.
Instead, Voonik approached innovative channels for marketing to make money immediately. One of these initiatives was referral programs that allowed Voonik to make money from the very first transaction.
Online fashion space is as crowded as it can get. New players are coming in fashion industry. And now with Instagram and its buzz, it has become very easy for people to sell fashion apparel online.
Given that, there’s so much happening out there in the online fashion zone. Be it creative concepts like style cracker who customly assigns stylists to its customers to make a box of accessories paired with the dress. Be it bag fashion portals like Myntra and Shein, all of these along with Voonik are competing neck to neck to cater to the same audience.
Voonik – Acquisitions and Mergers
TrialKart
Voonik acqui-hired TrialKart in 2015. TrailKart is a mobile platform providing a virtual dressing room experience to the users.
Getsty
In 2016, Voonik acquired Getsty which is a personalized shopping portal for men.
Vilara
In June 2016, Voonik stepped into the premium e-commerce segment by launching Vilara.
Dekkoh
In September of 2016, Voonik undertook an acquisition of Dekkoh which was a personalization and styling app.
Dekkoh
Voonik did not stop here. It has also acqui-hired three startups, Zohraa, Picksilk.com, and Style, to further build the platform and taking it deep towards personalization by adding more and more personal stylists and connecting them with its users through a chat-based app.
ShopUp
According to the reports in February 2020, Vooniks B2B business was merged with Bangladesh-based startup ShopUp. ShopUp is a platform that helps businesses go online. It enables e-commerce, store, logistics, sourcing, marketing and working capital requirements.
Schoolay
On February 2020, Vooniks B2C business was merged with kids activewear startup Schoolay.
Voonik – Growth and Revenue
Voonik reported 264% jump from losses of Rs 17.63 crore (FY19) to the Net Profits of Rs 28.7 crore (FY20)
Voonik had a revenue of Rs 44.76 crore in FY20 as compared to FY19 i.e Rs 21.45 crore
Voonik had over 10,000 downloads in the first month with an average rating of 4.7.
Today, it has over 20 Mn registered users
Total 17 million application downloads
Close to 2 million unique visitors per month
Displays more than 15 Lakh products from 22,000 sellers.
Caters to an average of 20,000 daily orders
Currently has a rating of 4.1 at Google Play Store.
Voonik – Awards
2014 – Voonik was amongst the Microsoft Ventures India’s list of 16 startups for its summer batch of the accelerator program.
Voonik has big plans of taking onboard offline boutiques and launching chat-based features. Currently, the app is only giving recommendations to the customers, but the users are not able to chat with the stylists. Hence their main priority in the long term plan is to take personalization to the highest level on Voonik.
Voonik – FAQs
Who are the Founders of Voonik?
Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan are the founders of Voonik.
How much is Voonik Funding?
Voonik has raised a total funding of $34.5 Million till date.
How much is Voonik’s Revenue?
Voonik reported 264% jump from losses of Rs 17.63 crore (FY19) to the Net Profits of Rs 28.7 crore (FY20).
How does Voonik make money?
Voonik basically is a marketplace where the retail stores register and get to showcase their products. The revenue for Voonik is generated by charging a 15% commission on every sale to the brand or the seller.
What is Voonik store?
Voonik is an online marketplace operating in products for women’s fashion.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Venture Catalysts.
Startups are built by dreams and hard work. However, they also need mentorships and capital to rise to the sky. Most of the early stage startups in India do not have access to knowledge and advice from experts. That is why many Indian startups fail. Venture Catalysts is a venture capital firm. They provide all the support that an entrepreneur needs to get his/her startup to where they wanted.
We interviewed the Co- Founder of Venture Catalysts, Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma to get all the information about their company. We covered everything about Venture Catalysts in this article. Read about their their vision and mission to their future plans and hiring strategy and much more:
Venture Catalyst is India’s first and largest integrated incubator. The core idea behind Venture Catalysts is to invest – whether capital, effort or time – in people and their ideas. The company focuses on developing and mentoring promising early stage startup ideas into viable business propositions that create an impact on local, national, and global levels. Venture Catalysts provides capital investment, mentorship and business networking, exposure, corporate partnerships, etc. They do it by implementing an integrated approach to incubation, mentorship, and investment. For all these goals, they have three key initiatives: 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, and 9Syndicate.
Their mission is to become the largest and most impactful startup incubator in the Asian market. In the US, the top-10 stocks listed on exchanges such as NASDAQ are heavily dominated by tech companies. They aim to replicate this in India and Asia at large.
On the other hand, their vision is to implement their formula of success on a global level. They want to emerge as the world’s largest and most active early-stage integrated incubator.
Venture Catalysts’ second target audience after startups, is investors. They keep networking with both existing angels and HNIs looking to support ventures with their capital and networks. They provide them with access to curated early-stage startups from multiple sectors to invest in, along with portfolio management services. After the investment, the team manages their portfolio and secures high-value exit opportunities delivering multifold returns for the investors.
For the last 4 years, Venture Catalysts has been the largest and most active early-stage player in India. With their growing global footprint, they are also present in high-growth markets such as the UK, Singapore, the Middle-East, etc.
Venture Catalysts – Industry details
In 2019, the Indian startup sector raised funds worth $14.5 billion across 1,185 financing rounds. And $6.9 billion of it were secured by early stage startups only. Depending on the scenario, these investments are typically spread out over 350-500 deals worth $500,000 – $2 million each. As Venture Catalysts makes 55-70 investments annually, they capture 11% to 20% of those early stage startups.
Venture Catalysts – Starting Up
The founder, Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, noticed a major gap in the startup industry. He saw that there is a lack of an integrated, growth-oriented approach to startup incubation. Early-stage ventures did not have any visibility over capital networks. They did not know how venture capital moves, which investors to pitch to, or how to pitch to them. There was also limited or no access to the right set of mentors. Mentors are important to help startups identify existing and emerging gaps, address business challenges, and plan growth trajectory.
These were major challenges. Most of the entrepreneurs ended up diluting their startups’ equity by the time they reached the second or third round of funding. The reason was their lack of visibility over capital flows. It hurt their long-term valuation and growth prospects. In the absence of the relevant guidance, many startups also couldn’t strike the much-needed balance between the speed and sustainability; they either scaled too quickly by burning cash or failed to grow fast enough to stay ahead of their competitors.
To address these challenges, Dr. Apoorva Ranjan came up with an approach that combined angel investments with gap-based mentorship and networking at the seed stage. His goal was to build an integrated incubator that not only provides investment and capital visibility to promising early-stage startups but also connecting them with founders of Unicorn/Soonicorn companies, top industry leaders, and corporate CXOs for key learning and growth opportunities.
Dr. Apoorva doesn’t believe that geography limits the ideas. For him, it is just as likely that a valuable startup such as Beardo emerges from the city of Ahmedabad as it is that something like ConfirmTKT emerges from Bengaluru. So, he wanted to move beyond the conventional startup hubs of Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, and Hyderabad. He wanted to identify and nurture high-potential startup ideas in tier-2 and tier-3 markets.
Further, his ideas was to capitalize on the growing interest in the startup landscape. He networked with HNIs and business class in these regions by bringing them on board as investors, advisors, and mentors.
Venture Catalysts – The Service
Venture Catalysts, also known as VCats, has three initiatives – 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, and 9Syndicate. These initiatives are reinventing the early-stage startup investment landscape in India. By incubating the startups, they fill up two main gaps for them: financing and mentorship. Both of them lead any startup to a great success.
The USP of Venture Catalysts is their commitment to creating incremental entrepreneurial value through a high-impact combination of capital, mentoring, business networking, and corporate partnerships.
9Unicorns nurtures innovative startups at extremely nascent stages by investing INR 75 lakh to INR 1 crore per company. This investment is made when most of these startups are little more than high-potential ideas on a drawing board, driven by a passionate team. Through Venture Catalysts, they facilitate investments of INR 3-15 crore for its incubates, while 9Syndicate provides growth capital to the tune of INR 15-50 crore to startups.
Apart from investment, VCats provide invaluable learning, networking, and growth opportunities to the startups in their portfolio. To this end, they have brought on board veteran Unicorn and Soonicorn founders as mentors. They also provide entrepreneurs with access to senior business leaders and CXOs at top corporate organisations.
Venture Catalysts – Founders & Team
Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma – Cofounder & President of Venture Catalysts
Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Cofounder of Venture Catalysts
Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma graduated as an engineer from HBTI, Kanpur, and completed his MBA in marketing and finance from Asia Pacific Institute of Management. He also pursued his doctorate in management and role of business incubators in the economic growth of India from Amity Business School in Noida. Dr. Apoorva also holds a diploma in mentoring startups from Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.
He started his professional journey as a Project Manager at JSS Technology Incubator before joining as the General Manager of Amity Innovation Incubator, a position he held for 5 years. In May 2010, Dr. Apoorva joined as the Vice President of Indian Angel Network (IAN). Before launching Venture Catalysts, he was the Executive Vice President and Partner at VentureNursery for three and a half years between February 2012 and October 2015. He also became a charter member of TiE Global in November 2016 and have been serving as a member of its board since July 2018. At VCats, Dr. Apoorva is responsible for identifying valuable startups and managing the company’s investment strategies.
Anuj Golecha – Cofounder of Venture Catalysts Anuj Golecha is a veteran Chartered Accountant certified by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, as well as a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. Anuj is the owner of Chanvim Plastics and Dezire Jewels. He is a current Partner at Banshi Jain and Associates (BJAA) – a position he’s served with distinction since 2004. He is also the owner of Samyakth Group and has invested in startups such as CoutLoot, Siftr, Beardo, Fynd, Innov8, PeeSafe, Rapid Retail, BharatPe, and Koinex.
Apart from being a part of the founding team at Venture Catalysts, Anuj has co-founded Samyakth Capital. It is India’s first hybrid growth fund that invests in and partners with companies that create lasting value for customers. At VCats, he spearheads the value addition to their network and also manages the pan-India expansion.
Anil Jain – Cofounder of Venture Catalysts & 9Unicorns A seasoned businessperson and a finance industry veteran, Anil Jain is the co-founder of Wallfort Properties and has, since 2019, served as an advisor to PropCatalyst. He is also the co-founder of 9Unicorns, a unique idea-stage fund that is redefining early-stage investments and mentoring in India. In his role, Anil leverages his extensive industry experience and business contacts to add more credible people – investors, partners, and entrepreneurs – to the Venture Catalysts network.
Gaurav Jain – Cofounder of Venture Catalysts Gaurav Jain is the think-tank of the company. He’s a technology expert who holds a Bachelor’s degree from IIT Roorkee. He also has a certification as a Chartered Financial Analyst from CFA Institute in the US. Gaurav also holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Over the course of his career, he has worked as an Investment Banking Analyst with Credit Suisse, as an Associate with GenNext Ventures (the venture capital arm of Reliance Industries Ltd.), as a Product Manager (Chief Technology & Architecture Office) at Cisco, and as a Director of Product at AirDev. At Venture Catalysts, he is responsible for managing the end-to-end technological framework, deploying tech-led interventions to optimise existing workflows, and identifying how technology can make the processes more efficient.
The VCats Team Venture Catalysts has a team of more than 45 professionals working full-time across different functions at Venture Catalysts. They also have a strong pan-India presence through 80+ regional and venture partners.
The structure at VCats, like most startups, is a horizontal hierarchy which promotes individual ownership and accountability. They are always open to new ideas from their team that can help them to do something new or bring efficiency to the existing process. Every year, the company provides a 15-day holiday around the Christmas-New Year period. This is in addition to the annual leave balance that all employees get.
This is why, when hiring new people, they ensure that the candidates are a good fit for the culture. They prefer recruiting people who are passionate and unstoppable and have high integrity and a team-first attitude. These traits are essential for building trust, whether with in-house team members or external stakeholders, which is a non-negotiable requirement in the field of investment.
Venture Catalysts – Name, Tagline, & Logo
Venture Catalysts Logo
The name, Venture Catalysts, reflects the vision behind the company, as does the tagline ‘India’s 1st Integrated Incubator’. A catalyst is something that accelerates the process and creates a new by-product without essentially changing itself. This is what the founders want to do for new-age ventures across India as an integrated incubator. They want to accelerate their growth and help them achieve scale and success at a much faster pace.
The logo and the colour scheme are derived from a mix of diverse value systems. The succulent plant is a symbol of wealth and prosperity across multiple cultures, while the triangle represents growth. The logo encapsulates both these aspects to highlight how they constantly strive to create greater value and growth. The pink visual scheme symbolises kumkum, a symbol of prosperity and harmony, which strengthens these subliminal messages.
Venture Catalysts – Launch
When asked about the launch and the initial days of Venture Catalysts, Dr. Apoorva said:
When launching Venture Catalysts, I knew that we could find several promising business ventures. The main bottleneck was to gain enough investors to invest a good amount of money in each startup. I relied on my social circles, including friends and family, to find the first 50 investors. As we went about strengthening the angel ecosystem, the market credibility of our founding team – including me and my co-founders – helped us attract the right investors during the early stage of our growth.
Venture Catalysts – Growth
The initial success of the company drew a lot of angel investors. They saw a significant interest amongst regional investor networks that wanted to collaborate with them to gain access to startups across India. This, in turn, has helped them to grow at an accelerated pace.
I’ve always believed that delivering results and value is the best way of attracting meaningful relationships – and the only growth strategy that matters is collaboration. – Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma – Cofounder & President of Venture Catalysts
The biggest challenge for the founder team was lack of knowledge about Angel investing. It is a vital factor whenever anything involves money, especially such huge sums. Angel investment, traditionally, has not been an easy game. When they started Venture Catalysts, the angel community in India was very small and extremely tightly-knit. There were also many HNIs and business people with surplus capital looking to make long-term investments in more sustainable asset classes, following the collapse of the sub-prime housing bubble and its impact on the global real estate market. Before they could get them on board as investors in startups, the team had to win their trust.
We did this by teaching the science of angel investing to regional investors. We helped them understand the process of startup valuation, investment, and exits. Additionally, we empowered them with the knowledge needed to identify which ventures and founding teams had growth potential, and which didn’t. We gave them knowledge & practical insights to better manage their startup portfolio and how they, as angels, could help guide their investees onto an accelerated growth trajectory. So far, we have conducted over 150 such investor masterclasses around the world – and it’s worked wonders when it comes to building trust. – Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma
Venture Catalysts – Marketing
Venture Catalysts don’t invest in big marketing campaigns. A relationship-building approach delivers much better dividends for them. Especially in tier-2 and tier-3 markets where they have been strengthening their footprint and foresee the maximum growth potential. More and more HNIs and businesspeople in smaller towns and cities are now interested in startups as an asset class, potential growth drivers, and future business partners. They want to be angel investors for these upcoming ventures and are looking for avenues to do so.
These prospective angels trust the opinion of their peers. They value word-of-mouth recommendations. That is the reason, they saw exponential growth in tier-2 and tier-3 markets during the pandemic and brought on board more than 50 venture partners. Most of these new associations were driven by their relationship-building efforts in these regions. They came through references from their existing investors.
Venture Catalysts is headquartered in Mumbai and present in more than 36 cities across India through dedicated offices as well as regional and venture partners. They also have cutting-edge incubation centres in over 10 cities. Moreover, they are currently planning a capacity expansion to build more incubation centres across the country.
In addition to that, they are also present in London and are in the process of establishing offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and the US.
User base and notable partners
At present, VCats have more than 4,500 investors associated with the VCats community and have invested in over 100 startups. They also have 80+ regional and venture partners on a pan-India level to provide them with deeper market penetration in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. They have also partnered with JPIA, one of the most reputed investment firms in London.
Growth metrics
VCats completed 16 deals in the first year of their operations, 33 in the second, 59 in the third, and 63 in the fourth. In 2020, despite the market being in upheaval following the COVID-19 outbreak, they remain on track to close 70 deals. Their incubates have secured around $150 million in syndication value so far.
Even though the first and the second year were their investment phase, they still secured a lucrative exit opportunity in the second year. The third year of operations saw this number jump to seven. Last year, they secured around 25 exits. All of these exit opportunities delivered multifold returns on the original investments.
Venture Catalysts – Funding
The Venture Catalyst funding is not disclosed. The company raised an undisclosed amount of funding to expand its geographical reach throughout India and other countries. They are still using those funds to acquire better people and make a network of investors and startups.
Venture Catalysts – Advisors and Mentors
Ritesh Agarwal (Founder & CEO – OYO Rooms) has recently joined their board of advisors and will be investing in and mentoring emerging startups in the VCats’ portfolio. Some other prominent mentor names are Vishal Maheshwari (Country Head – Vuclip India Pvt. Ltd.), Ankush Tiwari (CTO – Mobilia), Daud Ali (Managing Partner – Peacock Industries), Samir Shah (Managing Principal – Sattva Investment), Anand Ladsariya, and Abhishek Bhagat (Managing Partner – Chryseum Advisors) on their advisory board.
Venture Catalysts – Acquisitions and Mergers
VCats acquired Incubate Hub, a corporate venturing platform, earlier in 2020. Aimed at plugging the white space between the corporate innovation market and startups, IncubateHub provides corporate players with access to curated solutions and services by new-age ventures.
On the one hand, this helps corporate entities bolster their innovation trajectory while, on the other, it allows the incubates to develop, pilot, and validate their ideas. Doing so significantly shortens the process of generating proof of concepts as well as the time to market while accelerating product development and capacity building.
Venture Catalysts – Competitors
I feel that, for a player as differentiated as Venture Catalysts, there are no competitors – only future collaborators. – Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma
VCats avoid competing with other funds, accelerators, or incubators. Instead, they choose to focus on identifying and building on mutual synergies towards a common end-goal – driving entrepreneurial growth and realising the untapped startup potential in both emerging and developed economies.
Venture Catalysts – Recognition and Achievements
VCats was recently named as the world’s seventh-largest integrated incubator, as well as one of the most active early-stage investors and incubators globally, by Crunchbase. Moreover, The Economic Times has named Venture Catalysts as the No.1 early-stage investor and incubator in India.
For its contribution to the startup ecosystem, Venture Catalysts was recently felicitated as the most active early-stage player by distinguished industry doyens such as Mr. Ratan Tata and Mr. Narayan Murthy.
Venture Catalysts – Future plans
In terms of business expansion, the company is looking at increasing its global footprint. They will continue to penetrate deeper into emerging tier-2/tier-3 markets across India. Internationally, VCats is targeting three key geographies: Southeast Asia, Europe (through London), and the Middle-East (through Dubai and Saudi Arabia). The startup ecosystem in these areas is growing at a rapid pace. By 2023, VCats want to complete 500 early-stage deals every year. Going by their current growth rate, they will reach their target.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What is Venture Catalyst?
Venture Catalyst is India’s first and largest integrated incubator. The core idea behind Venture Catalysts is to invest – whether capital, effort or time – in people and their ideas. The company focuses on developing and mentoring promising early stage startup ideas into viable business propositions.
What does venture capitalist mean?
A venture capitalist (VC) is a private equity investor that provides capital to companies exhibiting high growth potential in exchange for an equity stake. This could be funding startup ventures or supporting small companies that wish to expand but do not have access to equities markets.
What are the three initiatives from Venture Catalysts?
Venture Catalysts has three initiatives – 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, and 9Syndicate.
Who is the owner of Venture Catalysts?
The Venture Catalysts founders are Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Anuj Golecha, Anil Jain and Gaurav Jain.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs. 1,000 Crore seed fund for India Startups, to allow initial funding for startups. “This is going to help to launch and develop new businesses,” Modi said at the International Summit of Prarambh Startup India. Modi said, “India is trying to create a startup ecosystem based on the key principles of youth, youth, and youth.” The Government will also enable new companies to develop debt capital by providing guarantees.
PM Modi announced the Startup fund on 16th January, 2021
The GeM platform offers local startups the chance to take part in government tenders with large corporations. Modi reported that approximately 8,000 startups had so far registered and had done almost Rs 2,300 crore. He praised the startups for creating innovative solutions during the pandemic and for supporting the efforts of the government to normalize economic activity. More than 10 startups across sectors ranging from beauty to payments turned unicorn in 2020 against nine in 2019.
Startup Ecosystem facilitated through various Government Departments & Programs
4000+ Startups have benefitted in the last year through various programs of the Central Govt.
960 crore of funding has been enabled to Startups through various schemes.
With the objective to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and startups in the country the Government launched a Startup India Action Plan that offers the following support to recognized supports through:
Tax Exemption
IT exemptions for 3 years
Capital gains exemption to people investing such capital gains in the Government recognized Fund of Funds
Tax exemption on investments above the Fair Market Value
A panel of facilitators to assist in filing applications, govt. bears facilitation costs: 423 facilitators for patent & design, 596 for trademark applications
80% rebate in filing of patents: 377 startups benefitted
Easy Compliance
Self-certification and compliance of 9 environments and labor laws through Startup India web portal/mobile app. Online self-certification for Labour Laws enabled through ‘Shram Suvidha’ portal.
Relaxed Norms for Public Procurement
By easing the requirement of prior experience and prior turnover in tenders for application by startups.
Fund of Funds
₹ 10,000 Cr. Fund of Funds to be provided by Mar 2025: Avg. ₹ 1,100 Cr. Per year
Operating guidelines has changed to incorporate the following:
– 2x of FFS to DIPP Startups Allow funding of the entity after ceasing to be the startup (under DIPP)
– 600 Cr (+25Cr Interest) given by DIPP to SIDBI which further committed Rs 623 Cr to 17 VC. 56Cr has been disbursed to 72 startups catalyzing investments of Rs 245 Cr
Collateral Free, Fund & Non-Fund Based Credit Support
Loans of up to 5 Cr. per Startup to be covered
Status: EFC Memo circulated on 22 March 2017 to 6 Departments
Impact: Credit guarantee to benefit 7,500+ Startups in 3 years
Industry/Academia Support
Providing and building infrastructure across the country by setting/scaling up: 31 Innovation Centers, 15 Startup centers, 15 Technology Business Incubators, 7 Research Parks, 500 Atal Tinkering Labs.
Government e Marketplace (GeM) is a government and agency online procurement platform and the most commonly used public procurement channel in India. MSMEs and DPIIT recognized startups can be used to register as sellers on GeM, and directly to government bodies to sell their goods and services. GeM Startup The runway is the latest initiative laid by GeM to empower businesses to enter the universe of government purchasers through the provision of creative, design, process, and operation-specific goods.
To apply to Startup India Seed Fund, here are a few steps you are required to follow:
1. Registration of the Company:
The company needs to register itself through the GeM Portal. In the website, it has instructed on how to register the company in the portal and to check if the company is eligible.
Fill the Form Correctly and Upload the appropriate Document then Submit the Application.
Name of the firm: Provide name of the business firm which shall be used to sell products and services on GeM Portal. Please note you must carry registration proof in the name of business firm.
Address of the Business firm: Provide the registered address of the business firm.
Nature of the Business: Describe the business activity of the firm such as the manufacturer of goods, service provider, retailer, wholesaler, distributor, etc.
List of Products & Services to be sell in GeM: Enter all the goods and services needed for public procurement in the GeM Portal. By separating commas, a company may join many products and services.
Owners Name: Enter the company owner’s name. In the case of a company, LLP, or partnership firm, you may enter any one authorized partner/director details.
Owner’s Aadhar Or PAN Number: Provide the 12 digits Aadhar Number of the business firm owner. In the case of a company, LLP, or partnership firm, you may enter any one authorized partner/director details.
Type of Firm: Select the nature of your business entity.
E-mail ID: Enter the email id of the owner or authorized director/partner.
Mobile Number: Enter the mobile number of the owner or authorized director/partner.
Bank Account Details: Provide complete bank details of the business the firm under which payment shall be received after goods/services public procurement or on completion of tender.
Date of Business Incorporation: Enter the date of the company/firm incorporation which shall be available in partnership deed or certificate of incorporation or other business registration certificate (in case of the sole proprietor).
Income Tax Incorporation: Select yes if the income tax return of the firm or owner (in the case of the sole proprietor) has been filed for any previous year. Else select No.
3. Online Payment: Make an online payment to process your application with our Secured Payment Gateway.
4. Schedule Call-back: Schedule a call back for validation
5. Validate and complete registration: To receive a call from the validation department and complete your registration.
Startups are excluded from specific selection requirements such as Prior Experience, Preview and Earnest Money Deposits. The incentive to consult with the government on trial request, making it more likely to introduce a new product. On GeM, purchasers may rate their product or ServiceNow more restrictive definitions for GEM, meaning the publication on the website of new and creative products.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a foreign company register under Startup India hub?
Yes. Any company having at least on registered office in India can register on startup India hub as location preferences, for the time being are only created for Indian states. However, the government is working on international relations and will soon be able to enable registration for stakeholders from the global ecosystem.
How can I register a profile on the hub?
registering on the Startup India hub is very easy.
The “register” tab on the page will direct you towards “mygov” platform. On mygov you will be asked to fill details like name, email id etc. Then you will get an OTP for verification and a link to set a new password.
Sign in using the login credentials you created in step 1. This will direct you to the Hub where you can select and create the profile of a stakeholder which best defines your role.
How do we connect to enablers after creating a profile?
The system is build to connect you to your relevant stakeholders based on your industry and preferred stage. Under the profile of every enabler there will be an option to “connect/apply”. Upon clicking, a request will be sent to the respective profile for acceptance. Once accepted, you will able to see the enabler as a new connection.
Please note that you can connect with upto 3 users per week.
Almost everyone loves biryani. When you are eating biryani, it is not difficult to lose count of how many plates you are having. Whenever we smell this delectable dish, our mouth literally starts watering. Do you want to taste authentic biryani? Try out ‘Biryani By Kilo’.
Biryani By Kilo is a home delivery-based food service chain. The company strives to offer delicious meals at one’s doorstep. Biryani By Kilo serves popular dishes such as biryani, kebabs, phirni, and various other Mughal delicacies.
Read on to know more about Biryani By Kilo’s success story, founders, business model, revenue, growth, competitors, and future plans.
Biryani By Kilo falls in the ‘food service and delivery’ category. It prepares and delivers authentic biryani to the masses. The company was founded in 2015 and has come a long way since then. It has received overwhelming response from customers for its mouth-watering menu.
KaushikRoy, VishalJindal, and RiteshSinha are the founders of Biryani By Kilo.
Kaushik Roy is the founder and CEO of Sky Gate Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. Sky Gate Hospitality owns Biryani By Kilo. Kaushik has 22 years of experience in the food service industry and this made it easy for him to launch Biryani By Kilo. Kaushik is passionate about music, photography, cooking, and texting. His CB Rank as an individual is 56,176.
Vishal Jindal is the co-founder and director at Sky Gate Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. Sources say he is a big foodie. Vishal is also a Board Advisor at the Singapore- based Ecosystem Advisory. He studied finance at the London School of Economics.
Ritesh Sinha is the COO of the Sky Gate Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. He is also one of the founding members.
Vishal Jindal (left) and Kaushik Roy (right)
Biryani By Kilo – Startup Story
Kaushik Roy and his friend Vishal Jindal thought a lot and finally zeroed in on biryani as their favorite pick. The duo took the entrepreneurial plunge in May 2015 as a challenge with the idea of starting afresh. They thought of conserving the Khansama type of cooking through their initiative. Biryani By Kilo, the duo’s initiative, was a hit amongst the admirers of biryani. The company has outlets in Delhi NCR and Mumbai. Biryani By Kilo processes close to 1000 orders a day with an average order size of INR 900.
Biryani By Kilo’s tagline is “There’s always a reason to celebrate….” The logo is composed of three colors: white, black, and brown.
Biryani By Kilo Logo
Biryani By Kilo – Business Model
Biryani By Kilo serves biryani in earthenpots (Handis). It offers three kinds of biryani: Hyderabadi, Lucknowi, and Kolkata. The company primarily operates under the cloud-kitchen criterion with dine-in options at selected locations based on latent demand. Biryani By Kilo also offers home delivery of the traditionally cooked meals it is famous for.
The company has staff team members of 300 during the delivery time notwithstanding. It draws all of its Biryani lovers towards it because it’s trusted by the consumers of the concerned company. The startup company collected revenue from 2017-18 batch which stands at Rs 12.5 crores and it’s currently clocking Rs.2.4 crores a month. Unbelievable! Right? The idea was actually to challenge popular food such as pizza, burger, sushi, noodles etc. Their idea was to serve something desi to all.
Biryani By Kilo – Funding And Investors
Biryani By Kilo has raised an amount of $8.4 million in funding over 11 rounds.
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investor
April 30, 2020
Series B
INR 60 Million
–
June 20, 2019
Series A
INR 300 Million
IvyCap Ventures
November 30, 2018
Seed Round
$286.3,000
–
July 2, 2018
Seed Round
$1 Million
Ajay Relan, Vinay Mittal
April 1, 2018
Seed Round
$691.5,000
–
November 14, 2017
Seed Round
$609.8,000
Startup Equity Partners
October 25, 2017
Seed Round
–
–
February 20, 2017
Angel Round
$380,000
Chandigarh Angels Network
February 17, 2017
Seed Round
$164,000
–
October 10, 2016
Seed Round
$103.5,000
–
Biryani By Kilo is funded by 17 investors. Nitish Mittersain and Rajandeep Singh have recently joined the list of investors.
Biryani By Kilo – Franchise
The company currently has multiple outlets in Delhi NCR. Some of them are in Connaught Place, Shahpurjat, IP Extension, Vasant Kunj, Dwarka, Sector 41 Noida, New Friends Colony, and Rajouri Garden. Biryani By Kilo is also present in Mumbai: Andheri East, Chembur, Malad, Powai, and Khar West.
Biryani By Kilo – Growth
The company claims publicly that it is doing well and is growing its business exponentially at a rate of 70% to 80% per year with a current sales run rate of $3.4million, i.e., INR 24 crores annually. Biryani By Kilo says that it will reach $72 million in revenue by 2022. Now that is ambition! The team at Biryani By Kilo utilized its funds appropriately right from the start and that helped the company achieve stellar growth.
Biryani By Kilo – Competitors
The competitors of Biryani By Kilo are Bright Cellars, Paradise, Charcoal Eats, Biryani Blues, and Behrouz.
Biryani By Kilo v/s Bright Cellars
Biryani By Kilo was founded in the year 2015 while Bright Cellars was launched in 2014. Both companies work on different models. Bright Cellars offers a subscription facility to its customers, whereas Biryani By Kilo functions as any other restaurant. Both are private organizations but have different tags. Biryani By Kilo serves food and liquids within India while Bright Cellars serves manufacturing and industrial items in addition to food and beverages. Moreover, Biryani By Kilo is headquartered in India while Bright Cellars has its head office in Milwaukee, USA.
Biryani By Kilo v/s Biryani Blues
Biryani Blues was founded in the year 2013 in Gurgaon (India), a couple of years before Biryani By Kilo. Its revenue frequently exceeds $3 million which is much more than what Biryani By Kilo generates in revenue.
Biryani By Kilo v/s Paradise
Paradise is considered amongst the strongest rivals of Biryani By Kilo. It is headquartered in Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Paradise was founded in the year 1953, decades before Biryani By Kilo’s inception. Sources say Paradise’s revenue is approximately 1724% of Biryani By Kilo’s revenue.
Biryani By Kilo v/s Charcoal Eats
Both the companies were found in 2015. Charcoal Eats is headquartered in Maharashtra, India. It operates in the food processing space. Biryani By Kilo and Charcoal Eats are not direct competitors.
Biryani By Kilo v/s Behrouz
Biryani By Kilo and Behrouz are known to have an expensive menu. Online reviews do not mention a clear winner between the two. Some reviews favor Behrouz over Biryani By Kilo while the others place the latter over the former. However, you should try them out before forming an opinion.
Biryani By Kilo – Future Plans
The company is aiming for a sales run rate of more than $5.8 million (INR 40 crores) in the coming years. The company plans to export its Handi biryani to the UAE and the UK. The team at Biryani By Kilo is also researching healthy dishes such as quinoa biryani and brown rice biryani. There are plans to open 40-50 Biryani By Kilo outlets in North India in the coming year.
Educational institutes, professional training programs, schools and colleges have been going online for a while now, even e-learning companies are rising to this situation. This type of learning is not limited to high school and college students who are availing their services, even professionals/employees are availing their products for vocational courses and re-skilling programs.
Edtech startups are making it easier to learn on the digital platform and make it an effective alternative to classroom education besides it is a matter of security in a situation like pandemic which caters to a large audience across geographies at a fraction of the cost. Usually, all you need is a trusting internet connection and bandwidth and you are good to proceed with the learning and also India’s internet connection has grown and exploded in recent years is not to be missed.
Education-technology or Edtech startups have mastered the art of attracting the investors with a hue number of funding. For starters, in the initial months of 2020 in India, edtech ventures have experienced an astounding amount of $686.32 million in 21 funding rounds, a crisp surge from $450 million in 87 rounds in the entire year of 2019.
India’s biggest online education companies have seen a paradigmatic shift, one of the renowned names is Byju’s. Other well-known names include Board Infinity, Great Learning, Lido Learning, Pedagogy, Toppr, Unacademy, WhiteHat Jr and Vedantu, Handa ka Funda, Upgrad.
The data also shows that Bengaluru-based companies attracted $944 million of investments in the edtech space, the highest across cities in India.
Developing Edtech startups in India
India’s Edtech startups funding
According to a survey, Mumbai-based Education-technology startups were raised $109.3 million during the pandemic. Startups based in Gurugram raised a total of $33.19 million, coming the next in line.
In this year, Bengaluru-headquartered Byju’s have raised around $500 million, at an estimated valuation of close to $8 billion. Much later a developing organization called Unacademy raised $110 million in a funding round led by Facebook and General Atlantic. At the same time, Bengaluru-based developing online tutoring platform Vedantu raised $24 million.
Some of the developing edtech startups and their funding amounts.
Startup
Funding Amount
Udacity
$161,00,000
Auxilo
$67,00,000
Pedagogy
$400,000
Knorish
$323,000
Univariety
$11,00,000
Kangaroo kids
$20,00,000
CueLearn
$19,00,000
CollegeKhabri
Undisclosed
Callido
Undisclosed
Since a past few years, edtech companies are all charged up and looking forward to their interactive online tutoring content, targeting school students and candidates preparing for competitive examinations and government jobs across all over the nation with no geographical barrier to learn.
Other funding programs in this year for edtech startups include Testbook, which raised about $8.3 million in a Series B round. Noida-based edtech organization Classplus raised $2.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round from Blume Ventures, Sequoia Capital and many more. A Mumbai-based online interactive platform provides learning content and test prep for competitive government examinations.
EdTech startups in India are growing at an average rate around 55%.
Types of learnings through Edtech companies
Some developing edtech startups
The growth in Internet users have almost reached 730 million in India giving birth to a new wave of development in online education industry. The cost of Online Education is also low as compared to offline education.
InterviewBit this yearraised $20 million in a Series A round from Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global, and Global Founders Capital.
WhiteHat Jr has raised around $10 million in Series A funding led by existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India.
Doubtnut raised $15 million in a Series A round from Sequoia Capital India, AET, Omidyar Network India, Tencent, and Curefit’s Ankit Nagori.
Lido Learning has raised a Series B round in two rounds, $3 million from Alex Samwer’s Picus Capital, Paytm’s Madhur Deora, followed by $7.5 million from BAce Capital, along with the existing investors in the company.
Topprraised over $47 million, or near about Rs 350 crore, in a growth funding round as edtech startups continue to benefit from the pandemic-driven lockdown situation.
Embibe, Reliance-owned, have raised $12.6 million, followed by $66 million, from the parent company.
Hiring in Edtech Startups
Since the surge in the growth of online education has taken place this year, there is huge need of human resources in these edtech companies.
Edtech is be one of the very few industry that is creating jobs and hiring even during the pandemic. Giants in this sector like Byju’s is looking forward to hire 4,000 people in the next six months in business development, content, and tech roles. Following the company called WhiteHat Jr which is recruiting candidates for teaching coding online.
Conclusion
With the availability of funding across the various stages of growth of edtech startups, only situation will show if edtech companies can maintain the momentum in the future.
Several people have now more hours that they can invest and learn many more interesting things online. Many of them are investing that time in upskilling themselves through online courses.
