Additionally within the letter:
■ Fintech leaders meet RBI execs
■ PhonePe’s new CMO
■ Deeptech companies face money crunch
Founders on a second innings: For some, it’s a enterprise out; for others, a degree to show
Mayank Kumar, founder, Upgrad
Prior to now 12-15 months, because the expertise and enterprise funding ecosystem underwent a reset, greater than a dozen entrepreneurs stepped down from active roles at their startups to launch new ventures.
Founders on the transfer: Knowledge from Longhouse Consulting highlights that such founders emerged from firms in broadly two buckets:
- The place companies that achieved a sure scale and the entrepreneurs needed to construct in a special phase,
- The place the unique startups have been struggling, present process restructuring or shutting down totally.
New ventures:
- Upgrad founder Mayank Kumar, who stepped down from an govt function on the edtech agency in October final yr, raised $7 million for his new venture Borderplus.
- Equally, Priyanka Gill and Naiyya Saggi—cofounders of the struggling home of manufacturers agency Good Glamm Group—have every began new ventures.
The AI play: With deeptech and synthetic intelligence booming, a number of founders have pivoted to those rising fields. Inshorts’ founder Azhar Iqubal, who resigned from the CEO submit final April, has launched his new venture, Fenado AI—a platform that permits customers to create apps and web sites with out coding.
Dealmaker Rajeev Misra’s son units out with $150 million fund for Indian startups
Rohan Misra, son of former SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund chief govt Rajeev Misra, is launching his own fund, Gravity Holdings.
Fund particulars: The London-based fund has raised round $150 million to again Indian expertise startups. Gravity Holdings will ramp up its tech deal exercise this yr, with extra secondary transactions within the pipeline forward of IPOs and main late-stage funding rounds.
Wealthy pedigree: Rajeev Misra is among the many world’s most influential traders. He performed a pivotal function in elevating a $100 billion fund—the SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund—which grew to become the most important pool of personal capital that reworked expertise investing on a world scale.
Additionally Learn: Rajeev Misra’s OneIM upsizes to $8 billion to boost investments
Large image: The launch of Gravity Holdings comes when a number of enterprise fund executives are beginning their very own companies, elevating funds to the tune of $200-500 million.
HR providers SaaS startup Darwinbox closes $140 million spherical
(L-R) Darwinbox founders Rohit Chennamaneni, Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti, Vineet Singh
Software program-as-a-Service (SaaS) unicorn Darwinbox, specialising in human useful resource (HR) providers, has closed a $140 million funding round co-led by international personal fairness companies Companions Group and KKR.
Particulars:
- The spherical was largely secondary with a small major element.
- Sources mentioned the spherical’s blended valuation (a mixture of major and secondary) was round $950 million. Darwinbox mentioned the first portion was valued greater than its final spherical’s valuation.
- Darwinbox was final valued at $1 billion in 2022 after a $72 million funding spherical led by TCV.
Fintech business leaders, RBI officers talk about increasing digital funds, combating fraud
The fintech business met with the Reserve Financial institution of India’s (RBI) newly appointed governor, Sanjay Malhotra, and senior officers on Wednesday in a closed-door meeting on the RBI headquarters in Mumbai.
What was mentioned: The conversations revolved round:
- Methods to develop the digital cost market past India’s high 200 million customers.
- Addressing the actual menace of monetary fraud within the fintech ecosystem.
- Tackling points associated to multi-lingual platforms required for the following wave of digital cost customers
Trade influence: Amid regulatory hurdles and an ongoing funding slowdown, the fintech business sought to grab this chance to precise its issues to the RBI governor. Additionally they hope the brand new governor will undertake a extra tech-friendly method in direction of the fintech sector.
Different High Tales By Our Reporters
IPO-bound PhonePe set to rent Amit Doshi as CMO: PhonePe is set to appoint Amit Doshi, former chief advertising and marketing officer (CMO) at Britannia Industries, as its first group CMO, individuals briefed on the matter mentioned.
Deeptech companies dealing with money crunch regardless of govt push: India’s deep tech ecosystem is rising, but a lack of capital is slowing down the progress of early-stage startups within the sector, in accordance with a report by enterprise capital agency 3one4 Capital.
Collins Aerospace invests $25 million for testing lab in Bengaluru: Aeronautical and defence tools maker Collins Aerospace, an RTX group firm, has invested $25 million in a brand new engineering improvement and check centre in Bengaluru, its largest facility exterior the US.
International Picks We Are Studying
■ 1 million third-party Android gadgets have a secret backdoor for scammers (Wired)
■ Jeff Bezos injects robust Amazon tradition into rocket maker Blue Origin (FT)
■ Can Tesla’s EVs win over India’s price-conscious consumers? (BBC)
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