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|In: Venture Capital|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

M12, Microsoft’s corporate venture fund, would extend its investing coverage to India to help entrepreneurs innovate and grow with Microsoft’s reach, expertise, and technologies. Rashmi Gopinath, partner at M12, will be leading M12’s investments in India.  Microsoft continues its portfolio of investment in the Indian startup ecosystem with M12 announcing its first India investment, Innovaccer, a startup working to solve data interoperability challenges in healthcare and helping health systems enhance their clinical and financial outcomes with a data-first approach.

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Venture capital investments in Indian tech Business-To-Business [B2B] start-ups have been trending upwards with over US$3.09B raised in equity funding across 415 deals in 2018, 28 percent more than $2.41B invested in 2017 [Source: Tracxn 2018]. Moreover, an increasing number of enterprise B2B startups are being founded in India that cater to a global customer base, most notably in artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics, software as a service [SaaS], data analytics and Internet of Things [IoT]. These sectors continue to be top strategic priority focus areas for Microsoft and M12 as well. In addition, India offers unique competitive advantages by being home to top technical talent in the world including deep tech areas such as computer vision, robotics, blockchain and autonomous driving. These factors position India favorably to support highly innovative startups that can effectively compete on a global scale.

Nagraj Kashyap, Global head of M12 and Corporate Vice President, Microsoft, said

We are thrilled to broaden M12’s reach to include India. India is a market rich with entrepreneurs creating world-class startups that are poised for success on a global scale. In working with these innovative startups, we believe together we will help disrupt enterprises and industries ripe for digital transformation.

Innovaccer is a shining example of the startup opportunity in India. The healthcare SaaS startup has offices in both India and the United States, offering a comprehensive Healthcare Data Platform and intelligent care application modules for over 10,000 healthcare providers across 500 practice locations. Leveraging machine learning and healthcare-related contextual expertise, Innovaccer enables its users to consolidate financial, claims, patient, and operational data together to provide a comprehensive patient 360-view for better decision-making, care coordination, and reporting.

Abhinav Shashank, CEO Innovaccer, said

Our unique value proposition is a holistic healthcare data platform that offers data aggregation and key analytics to help healthcare systems and insurance providers to align with value-based care models and realize significant cost savings and operational efficiency. We are excited to work with M12 and Microsoft in order to leverage their best-in-class technical, industry, and go-to-market expertise to help address needs for healthcare organizations across the world.

M12 is comprised of experienced VCs and Microsoft veterans – with team members on the ground in North America, Europe and Israel. Globally, M12 has invested in over 70 startups in areas ranging from cybersecurity and artificial intelligence to business SaaS and industrial drones. While the investment team functions like a traditional VC firm, the portfolio development and venture engagement groups strengthen the lines of communication between Microsoft and many of the innovation communities around the world. It has access to, and knowledge of, Microsoft’s strategic assets, enabling it to value add in excess of the contributed capital.

About M12

As the corporate venture arm for Microsoft, M12 [formerly Microsoft Ventures] invests in enterprise software companies in the Series A through C funding stage with a focus on big data & analytics, business SaaS, cloud infrastructure, machine learning & artificial intelligence, productivity and security. As part of its value-add to portfolio companies, M12 offers unique access to strategic go-to-market resources and relationships globally. The Company has offices in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, London and Tel Aviv. Please visit M12 VC for more information.

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Trend Micro, a global leader in cyber-security solutions, have announced the launch of a corporate venture fund to explore emerging technology markets. With an initial investment of $100 million, this venture fund will allow Trend Micro to nurture a portfolio of startups that are incubating ideas and living at the epicenter of hyper growth markets, such as the Internet of Things [IoT]. According to Gartner estimates, 26 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020.

Eva Chen, Founder and CEO for Trend Micro noted

Trend Micro’s vision has always been to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. The explosion of devices is transforming how the world works, thinks and acts. It is clear that the ecosystem is still evolving and there is work to do to ensure organizations and individuals can operate and live safely in this new reality.

Trend Micro’s venture will offer companies financial backing, access to its world-class global threat intelligence, strategic alliances, as well as its channel of more than 28,000 partners. In return, working with these investments will uncover insights into emerging ecosystem opportunities, disruptive business models, market gaps and skillset shortages. These learnings will influence Trend Micro’s cyber-security solution planning across the company.

Eva Chen, Founder and CEO for Trend Micro added

We have a 29-year history of successfully anticipating technology trends to secure all types of environments. The first mega wave we caught was the growth of the PC marketplace; we committed early on to endpoint protection and remain a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms today. The second mega wave was all about the cloud; we made a bet early on to securing the cloud and so far we have secured over two billion workload hours on Amazon Web Services [AWS] alone. Now, we believe the next wave has arrived with IoT; our fund will help us harness this opportunity.

With a strong financial position and 72 quarters of consecutive profitability, Trend Micro is well positioned to invest funds to do research and make advancements consistent with its corporate strategy. The formation of this venture arm allows additional freedom to dive into new areas without disrupting core business resources. 

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cyber-security solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information.  Their innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. With over 5,000 employees in over 50 countries and the world’s most advanced global threat intelligence, Trend Micro enables organizations to secure their journey to the cloud.  For more information, please visit Trend Micro

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

News Corp VCCEdge, India’s leading publisher of alternative investment, deals and startup news, data and information and part of globally diversified media, education and information services group, News Corp, has today released its India Quarterly Deals report for Q1 CY2017.

Capturing funding deal activities encompassing private equity, venture capital, angel/seed investment transactions for the seventeen quarters ending March 2017, the report also offers information on mergers and acquisitions with sector and region-wise analysis.

Highlights of the News Corp VCCEdge India Quarterly Deals report

PE Investments see a sober start to the year

  • 238 deals worth $3.04 bn in Q1, CY2017 vis-a-vis 432 deals worth USD 4.19 billion in Q1, CY 2016.
  • Median deal value quadrupled to USD 2.25 million for Q1, 2017 compared to USD 0.6 million in Q1, 2016.
  • Angel investments at a 4-year low at USD 28 million with VC investments dropping by 14% YoY.
  • The top PE deal for the quarter was the Bharti Infratel-KKR, CPPIB deal which at USD 946 million pushed up the average deal value.

Fund infusion sees better times though investors tread cautiously

  • Investment values doubled against last quarter to USD 820 million for Q1 CY2017, though this was a fraction of the USD 2,500 million for Q1 CY2016.
  • There were no fresh investments of USD 250 million or more from investors, this quarter.
  • The top four fund infusions involving Oman India Joint Investment Fund II, KKR India Credit Fund, ICICI Venture Fund Management’s India Advantage Fund Series IV and IDFC Private Equity Fund IV captured a major share of total funds at USD 641 million.

Ominous times for PE funds as exit values fall

  • YoY, the situation seems grim with exits having fallen to USD 1.4 billion for Q1 CY2017 vis-a-vis USD 2.1 billion for the same quarter last year
  • Open markets dominated exit deal values at USD 945 million, bouncing back as the preferred exit route
  • Key exits recorded for the quarter were the Providence Equity Partners-Idea Cellular deal and the Khazanah Nasional Berhad-Apollo Hospitals deal.

Delhi NCR continues to rule the roost

  • At USD 1,246 million, Delhi saw more action this quarter than Mumbai [USD 692 million] and Bangalore [USD 441 million] put together.
  • Information Technology continued to dominate the space in Delhi NCR with 29 deals in the sector followed by 9 deals in Consumer Discretionary and 4 each in Consumer Staples and Industrials.
  • Coming second in terms of deal value was Mumbai with 47 deals amounting to USD 692 million, with Information Technology leading the way with 23 deals followed by Consumer Discretionary with  7 deals and Financials at 6 deals.
  • Bengaluru registered 53 deals amounting to USD 441 million with close to 60% being in the Information Technology space and ~19% in the Consumer Discretionary space. Pune with 8 deals to the tune of USD 62 million and Hyderabad with 18 deals amounting to USD 32 million made it to the top-5 investment destinations of India.

Vodafone-Idea deal dominates M&A space

  • M&A deal numbers came in at 226 as opposed to 237 for the last quarter, with the trend of a few large deals contributing to the total value continuing.
  • Of the total of USD 16 billion deal value for Q1 CY2017, the Vodafone-Idea deal saw a majority deal value of USD 12.4 billion.
  • Low median value across deals in the past 5 quarters vis-a-vis higher average deal values indicate a larger number of small ticket transactions in the space.
  • The Electronic Components space saw 3 deals followed by Wireless Telecommunications and Pharmaceuticals at 2 each.

Sharing her views on the News Corp VCCEdge India Quarterly Deals report, Nita Kapoor, Head India-New Ventures, News Corp & CEO, News Corp VCCircle said

PE sentiment seems to be extremely cautious and this is clearly reflecting in market performance. Appetite for risk is low with consolidation, job cuts and rollback of funding plans underway. A dip of 22% in deal values with simultaneous decline in exit figures is worrisome, though these are early days and a bounce back is possible, if not probable in the immediate future.

About VCCEdge

VCCEdge is an online financial research platform of the VCCircle Network which is owned by the global diversified media, news, education and information services company – News Corp. VCCEdge offers information on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital transactions including deal terms, structures, deal amounts and valuations. It also contains entity information on all companies involved in the transactions including target companies, investors and advisors. For more information, please visit VCCEdge

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Even as the Indian start-up ecosystem has enjoyed the best period in the last couple of years in terms of fundraising and getting global attention, starting-up is still not a cake-walk for many entrepreneurs. Considering the challenges associated while starting a company, ah! Ventures has created a marketplace that will provide startups with all kind of services right from creating a brand identity to hiring right kind of talent.

The ah! Marketplace, a unique platform, will help connect the start-ups to find relevant service providers at every step of their entrepreneurial journey.  The platform works on a model wherein accredited service providers from various realms like technology, legal advisory, design, content, finance, HR, etc offer their services to the enterprises looking for those.

The core proposition of this platform is not just to be a marketplace but to be a platform wherein every transaction is monitored and regulated. Every transaction between the parties is based upon a pre-decided package and the payments involved are thoroughly regulated by ah! Ventures. It is only after the successful delivery of the services that the payment processed. This feature is a game changer in a world where the start-ups interact with service providers unknown to them. It assures the entrepreneurs a fair deal with guaranteed services at customized one-time, annual or life-time packages.

Commenting on the need for a product like this, Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO of ah! Ventures, opined

Given the experience of being an active investing entity in the entrepreneurial eco-system of India, I believe that one of the key factors behind an idea becoming a successful enterprise is taking the right business decisions at the right time. Be it a branding overhaul or a technological innovation, it is these offerings that make the customer experience unique. With the launch of this marketplace, ah! Ventures aims to cut down on the time enterprises waste in finding the right partners and focus on bettering their core service offering.

Currently the platform is live with some of the niche service providers like PitchWorx, a creative design company offering Design, Presentation and Video Packages; Pronto Infotech offering Technology Resource Packages;ah! Ventures itself with its Investor Network offerings among others. There are a number of other service providers lined up to go live in a short while.

Commenting on offering viable solutions to startups, Abhijeet Kumar, Co-founder of ah! Ventures & Pronto Infotech said

In the nascent stages, start-ups have to be cost effective and yet they have to simultaneously focus on being technologically innovative. We truly understand the conundrum of such start-ups and hence Pronto Infotech is collaborating with ah! Ventures to offer holistic technological solutions to such deserving enterprises. These bundled monthly packages help the entrepreneurs follow a monetarily lean model. With such packages, we intend to extend high quality yet feasible options to entrepreneurs who wish to make it big in this startup world.

Dharmendra Ahuja, the Founder & CEO of PitchWorx-a creative design studio, understands the importance of getting access to the right pitching tools at the right time.

Commenting on offering PitchWorx services to the evolving entrepreneurs, Dharmendra Ahuja opined

Being an entrepreneur is every individual’s dream. Be it an investor presentation, an animated explainer video or even your website-we believe everything is a pitch! Having worked with more than 100 start ups and a number of global corporations we understand how important it is to pitch a business perfectly. Thanks to today’s booming visual content trends, we have been successful in helping startups captivate their audiences with a visually compelling story – every time! We are excited to be part of the ah! Ventures marketplace as a startup service provider in the creative design space.

Since its inception in 2012, ah! Ventures, spearheaded by Founder and CEO Harshad Lahoti and Co-Founder Abhijeet Kumar, has crossed numerous milestones. With an extensive network of 850+ investors, 17000 entrepreneurs and a over 100 crores of investment raised till date, ah! Ventures has strived to be the best guiding hand for the all the players in this ecosystem. With the launch of this unique marketplace, ah! Ventures is creating a positive disruption in a startup ecosystem which is in dire need of a service like this.

Startups looking for quality accredited Service Providers log on to ah! Marketplace. Service Providers looking to empanel, drop us a mail at marketplace@ahventures.in

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

YouWeCan Ventures, the investment company founded by cricketer Yuvraj Singh, has become a Limited Partner [LP] in a film and media-focused venture capital fund following investment of an undisclosed amount in the new investment vehicle.

The investment company, which started operations in April, will be an anchor investor in the Securities and Exchange Board of India-approved Media Fund, promoted by Mumbai-based DAR Media Private Limited, which has produced a number of critically and commercially acclaimed films such as The Lunchbox

YouWeCan

This will be the early-stage investor’s first investment in a fund, a departure from its strategy of making direct investments in ventures.

Speaking about the association, Nishant Singhal, co-founder of YouWeCan Ventures said

We are fascinated with work done by DAR Group in Indian cinema space. We will be working with the fund to develop sports and youth-oriented genre for both domestic and international audience over the next five years.

The Rs 100-crore Media Fund, which has a green-shoe option of an additional Rs 100 crore, has already received commitments of Rs 60 crore, and will co-invest in projects. Yuvraj Singh will come on board as a director of the asset management firm.

Arun Rangachari, chairman, DAR Capital Group said

The Media Fund will not have an exposure to more than 25% of the total project. The fund will invest in 11 projects in its first round, and has already identified projects for its pipeline of investments.

Till date, YouWeCan Ventures has announced four investments in startups, including in Moovo, a Delhi-based on-demand logistics booking platform, Gurgaon-based online healthcare marketplace Healthians.com, education services marketplace EduKart and mobile app platform Vyomo

About YouWeCan Ventures

YouWeCan is a 50 CR seed fund that is created to empower young entrepreneurs on their journey to build brands and successful business ventures and improve the life standard of society. More information at their website.

Image Credit – pixr8

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 2 Comments
In my previous article, I had mentioned about Proto[the Startup event] , that I missed but it is nice to see lot of blogs already updated with the coverage smile To start with, let us look at the startups that demonstrated at the event….

Startups that demonstrated at Proto:

Source : Webyantra

Amit Ranjan of SlideShare & one of the co-organizers of the event has a crisp coverage of all the startups here

Experiences as a presenter – Prateek Dayal, Muziboo:

Few months back, we had a guest article from Nithya Dayal, co-founder of Muziboo & it is nice to see Muziboo getting shortlisted for the presentation !!! Prateek Dayal has shared lots of interesting views about the event & his experience on pitching in front of the audience !!!

Notable experiences from Prateek Dayal’s blog:

Unlike some of the other startups, we had a walk through and no ppt. I think eventually turned out to be good as the response to the demo was very encouraging.

I liked the fact that proto mentioned that 3 companies have shut shop. I think its great to see that failure is no longer considered a bad thing. There was also a Proto for Dummies video which was pretty well done. I think the videos will be up on youtube pretty soon.

I had always heard that talking to investors gives you a good perspective and I think its true. I had also heard that there are quite a few senior startuppy people who give a lot of gyaan and try to pull you down and I think that is true too. In general its not very hard to find a few people in proto who look like they have come down there just to feel important by giving gyaan to clueless entrepreneurs like me.

You can read the complete article here.

Coverage across the Blogosphere:
There are lot of other blogs that have covered the event and you can find them here.

After checking the coverage of the event, I never felt that I have missed the event smile Thanks to all of them !!!!

|In: Elevator Pitch|Last Updated: | 4 Comments
Many times meeting investors becomes similar to applying for a job in a company.There are some set of basic questions which are repetitive and many times, the answer to these decide your fate.The only difference being in a job interview, the mistake may turn out to be less costly[since,it is only YOU who is affected] whereas any mistake while pitching to an investor won’t only affect YOU but everyone CONNECTED with you in the STARTUP.

Just came across an interesting and a worthy presentation which gives an insight into the basic questions and the answer to simple those simple questions biggrin

Reader Contribution:

Lakshman Srikanth shares this insights on OpenCoffee Club dated 21st June,2008 here

|In: Books|Last Updated: | 4 Comments
Few months back, I came up with an article titled “What before a Business Plan”.Today, we would focus on something which is inseparable from the Business Plan called “Feasibility Study”. It is true that once we have the B-Plan ready, the very next step is to get going and focus on how to achieve the optimistic figures mentioned in the B-Plan rolleyes However, few things mentioned the B-Plan is written keeping the investor’s in mind but along the entire journey; Customer is and will remain the HERO. !!! This leads to a report titled “Customer-Driven Feasibility Study” [from this point referred as Customer-Driven F.S. ] and my current read The New Business Road Test by John Mullins explained that to the core of it !!!

This article is divided into three parts namely:

  1. What is Customer Driven F.S ?
  2. Thin line of difference between B-Plan and Customer Driven F.S
  3. Contents of Customer Driven F.S

What is Customer Driven Feasibility Study
During the course of any opportunity, the Market Analysis/Study phase always remains iterative.However, at one point of time, the evidence gathered through the research would help us understand whether the opportunity is REALLY an opportunity.This feasibility study is Customer Driven because , unlike most organization charts which has the founder/ CEO at the top and people serving the customer at the bottom, the feasibility study begins with the target customer, without whom there would be no business. It is an internal document that should cater to the seven requirements which are discussed later.

Difference between Business Plan and Customer Driven Feasibility Study
Though there are a number of overlaps in the B-Plan and Customer Driven F.S , there are three major areas where they tend to differ :

1. Customer Focus :
The purpose of any business it to win customers and the Feasibility Study completely caters to that requirement which is quite different from that of most B-Plans – to win an investor. If there is no likelihood for customers, there would not be any investors.

2. Fundamental Economics :
The feasibility study addresses the fundamental economics of the business, by identifying the key drivers of cash flow: revenue, required capital investment, gross margins etc. If these drivers are satisfactory, than detailed strategies like marketing, operations and financing can probably be developed to make the venture economically viable.

3. Mindset :
The purpose of the study is not to sell the venture’s merit whereas a B-Plan organizes the answers delivered by the feasibility study and goes on to develop marketing, operating and financing strategies in an effort to sell the opportunity, in a focussed way, to the investors and other stakeholders.

7 step “Customer Driven Feasibility Study”

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY :
This briefly describes what follows [tells the reader(s) what you are going to tell them]

2. MICRO- level MARKET assessment :

  • TARGET market and it’s pain identified; benefits of your solution identified, with evidence that those in this segment are willing to pay a price that works.
  • Target market segment, size and growth rate.
  • Options to grow into other segments.

3. MACRO- level MARKET assessment :

  • OVERALL market size and growth rate.
  • Macro trends analysis to assess future market growth and attractiveness.

4. MACRO – Level INDUSTRY assessment :

  • Five forces analysis : Whether or not the industry is attractive.
  • Likely changes that may happen going forward.

5. MICRO – Level INDUSTRY assessment :

  • Any proprietary elements.
  • Any superior organizational processes, capabilities or resources identified that are not easily duplicated or imitated.
  • Economic viability of business model established :

– Revenue Forecast.
– Customer acquisition & retention costs and time required to obtain a customer.
– Gross margins.
– Break even analysis.
– Operating Cash Cycle characteristics.

6. TEAM assessment :

  • Team’s mission, aspirations and tendency for risk.
  • Team’s ability to execute the mission.
  • Team’s connectedness up, down and across the value chain.

7. SUMMARY and Conclusions :
Tell the reader(s) the key highlights of what you have told them – why this is/is not – opportunity attractive and future prospects of the opportunity.