Eleven out of 15 stocks under Inc42’s coverage ended the week with gains, rising in a range of 0.3% to almost 10% Tracxn Technologies slumped 10.5% this week after reporting weak Q1 FY24 earnings, while Fino Payments Bank, ideaForge, and EaseMyTrip also declined RBI’s MPC meet, inflation data, ongoing Q1 FY24 earnings season, crude oil inventories, US inflation data expected to drive the market in the coming week Foodtech giant Zomato reporting its first net profitable quarter this week seems to have completely turned the investor sentiment towards Indian new-age tech stocks. While it might be a bit too early to say if these stocks are out of the woods, it is clear that the market has started seeing the long-awaited positive signals from these companies. Riding on the back of Zomato’s surprise delivery of profit, 11 out of the 15 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage gained this week.  While Zomato jumped almost 10% this week, DroneAcharya rose 9.6%. PB Fintech soared 9.2%, while the likes of Nazara Technologies, Delhivery, and Paytm rose in a range of 0.3%-5% on the BSE. However, despite an overall positive sentiment towards IT stocks in the domestic equity market, Tracxn Technologies slumped 10.5% this week after its weak Q1 FY24 earnings report. Fino Payments Bank, ideaForge, and EaseMyTrip also declined in a range of 1%-4% on the BSE this week. Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty 50 slumped earlier this week but regained their momentum on Friday to end the session in the green at 65,721.25 and 19,517, respectively. However, both the indices fell 0.7% in the week. Commenting on the performance of the market, Siddhartha Khemka, head of retail research at Motilal Oswal, said domestic equities saw some respite on Friday after witnessing selling pressure in three consecutive sessions on the back of India’s services activity rising sharply to 62.3 – the highest level in 13 years. “A niche sector like ecommerce was also in focus after Zomato reported an excellent set of numbers and turned PAT positive. Global markets remained cautious after the US reported poor service PMI data and US jobless claim data, thus increasing rate hikes bets,” said Khemka. “Next week would be crucial from the domestic point of view as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to announce its interest rate decision. Thus, markets are likely to move in a broader range with some volatility,” he added. Meanwhile, it is pertinent to note that Morgan Stanley upgraded India’s status to “overweight” this week while downgrading China to an “equal-weight” rating. The brokerage believes that India is poised for substantial and sustained economic growth at a time when the rest of the world is slowing down. Arvinder Singh Nanda, senior VP of Master Capital Services, opined that the market will react to the upcoming RBI policy, inflation data, forex reserve data, ongoing Q1 FY24 earnings season, crude oil inventories, US inflation data, US Initial jobless claims, and UK GDP data in the coming week. Amid a rebound in the Indian IPO market, another new-age tech stock, Yudiz, launched its public issue this week. The blockchain and IT development company will get listed on the NSE SME platform. Before we further analyse the performance of the new-age tech stocks this week, let’s take a quick look at the financial health of these companies.   As evident, most of the listed new-age tech startups are now profitable or are marching ahead on their path towards profitability. Now, let’s dig deeper into the performance of some of the new-age tech stocks this week. The 15 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage ended the week with a total market capitalisation of $36.33 Bn as against $33.24 Bn last week. Zomato Delights Investors  Shares of Zomato surged 10.7% to INR 95.43 on the BSE on Friday, a day after the food delivery major reported its first-ever net profitable quarter, way ahead of its target and Street estimates, in Q1 FY24. Zomato shares also touched their 52-week high of INR 98.39 in the early trading hours of the last session of the week.  In The News For: Zomato reported its first profit after tax (PAT) of INR 2 Cr in Q1 versus a consolidated net loss of INR 186 Cr in the last year’s quarter. This was also a significant improvement from INR 188 Cr of net loss reported in the previous quarter – Q4 FY23. While a deferred tax of INR 17 Cr helped the company post the consolidated net profit, the growth in its food delivery business and operational efficiencies played a bigger role in helping it achieve profitability.  Zomato’s quick-commerce business Blinkit posted a slower sequential GOV growth in Q1 FY24, hurt by delivery partners’ strike and incessant rains in the northern part of the country. Zomato said it has a July to July appraisal cycle and the impact of it will be seen in employee costs in the next quarter – Q2 FY24. Meanwhile, the startup also approved INR 2.52 Cr shares as ESOPs to select employees this week. It remains to be seen how the company manages to maintain its profitability in the coming quarter and years. Zomato has now also started levying a platform fee of INR 2 per order for some users on its platform. Zomato’s market capitalisation surged to $10 Bn (INR 81,871.18) this week.  Several analysts raised their price targets (PTs) on Zomato following the impressive performance and now expect the stock to cross INR 100 mark. JP Morgan expects Zomato to evolve into a “triple engine profit machine” over FY24. Speaking to Inc42, Ganesh Dongre, senior manager, technical research, at Anand Rathi, said that the resistance for the stock is currently at INR 125 while the downside support is at INR 85-INR 80. “One should wait and watch this counter. If one wants to enter this, the comfortable zone would be INR 80-85,” he said, adding that the stop loss for the stock would be INR 75. “One can also buy on dips.”

Why INR 2 Cr PAT does not guarantee a complete turnaround for the foodtech giant Zomato’s first-ever profitable quarter brought a whole lot of cheer. Even union cabinet ministers couldn’t help themselves from congratulating the Deepinder Goyal-led company after the Q1 FY24 numbers were announced in the past week.  Of course, Zomato is not the first consumer services (B2C) tech company to report a profit, but one cannot overlook the fact that food delivery has long been called a cash guzzler. Zomato’s quarter busts this notion.  So, there’s certainly a feeling that this is a milestone not just for the company but also for the Indian startup ecosystem as a whole.  Well, congratulations aside, while the profits are definitely headline-worthy, some grains of salt are actually hiding between the lines in Zomato’s Q1 FY24 numbers. We wanted to take a more practical view on where Zomato is heading.  But before that, here’s our take, but after these major stories from our newsroom last week:  DealShare Dealing With A Lot: Amid bearish market conditions, DealShare is facing a series of challenges, including layoffs, scaling down of operations and now the CEO’s resignation Life After GoMechanic: GoMechanic cofounders Rishabh Karwa and Nitin Rana are working on two separate startups, six months after controversy hit the auto servicing startup. Read our exclusive story No End To Layoffs: Tiger-backed Spinny laid off 300 employees and ex-Tesla exec’s Tekion let go of 200 employees in India, while Increff and Actyv.Ai also went through layoffs this past week Zomato Peeks At Profits Zomato banked on Adjusted EBITDA till last quarter, but in Q1 FY24, it didn’t rely on this crutch. Instead, as we reported, the deferred tax of INR 17 Cr brought the company out of the red, but only JUST. At INR 2 Cr, the profit is 0.0008% of Zomato’s consolidated revenue in the fiscal. So, it’s not like the situation has been turned around completely. These are green shoots that may well die down in one bad quarter or unexpected tax jolts. Nevertheless, it has brought some optimism among those watching Zomato. The bullishness is because of how Zomato has pulled up its core food delivery business, and Hyperpure growth, which is proving to be a lynchpin for both restaurant partners as well as quick commerce dark stores.  The bottom line improvements have come largely as a result of cost cutting in employee benefits expenses (3% lower YoY) as well as some rationalisation in advertising and sales costs which only increased by 3% QoQ and 13% YoY, whereas revenue growth was north of 17% QoQ and  70% YoY.  One cannot deny that Blinkit’s revenue contribution of INR 803 Cr for FY23 has had a big impact on Zomato’s overall operating revenue. But Blinkit itself saw some headwinds in the past quarter.  For one, quick commerce revenue growth was not very encouraging, and secondly, perhaps more worryingly, the number of transacting users remained flat compared to the quarter ended March 2023.  Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa is confident of reviving this after the blip of delivery partner strikes (more on this later) and other logistical challenges such as adverse weather conditions in this period.  Blinkit Spoils The Picture For the purposes of analysing whether Zomato can sustain this profit breakthrough, let’s discount food delivery, which saw an operating profit of INR 181 Cr in the quarter.  The company still has to pick up the loss-making parts of its business — Blinkit, Hyperpure and dining out. Quick commerce saw Rs 133 Cr in loss, while Hyperpure’s bottom line contribution was a negative INR 35 Cr.  Hyperpure showed its worth with 29% QoQ and 129% YoY revenue growth in Q1 FY24, outpacing the overall revenue growth rate. But as usual, Blinkit proved to be the weight that dragged down Zomato in the quarter.  Nevertheless, Dhindsa believes that Blinkit can reach Adjusted EBITDA breakeven over the next four quarters after becoming contribution positive in June and July 2023. Despite the slow GOV growth, Blinkit’s Adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed to INR 133 Cr in Q1, an improvement of INR 70 Cr QoQ. The company has announced plans to add 100 dark stores to Blinkit’s network in FY24, which would require the most amount of investment for the business. This will undoubtedly complicate unit economics in the short term, especially if the problem of delivery partners striking comes back to haunt Blinkit.  Like we wondered after the Q4 results in May, food delivery might well become a dependency for Blinkit in the short term, as it looks to make these investments. It’s no wonder then that so many of Zomato’s improvements (financially speaking) are on the food delivery side.  Blinkit’s store additions are expected to be in cities where Blinkit is already present to increase the density of stores and thereby capture a larger market share in most active cities, where competition is also the highest.   Is Food Delivery Maturing? Speaking of competition, in May Swiggy claimed to have hit profitability in its food delivery business, as of March 2023, (after factoring in corporate costs; excluding ESOP costs).  At the time, CEO Sriharsha Majety said Swiggy was one of the few global food delivery platforms to achieve profitability, though this announcement was not accompanied with actual financials of the company.  On the quick commerce front, a Swiggy spokesperson told Inc42 at the time, “Instamart would reach unit economics positivity in the next few weeks.”  Like Zomato, Swiggy also looks to be relying heavily on food delivery profits to keep quick commerce fuelled up.  Given that Zomato also achieved profitability in the March-June quarter, we have to wonder whether food delivery as a sector is maturing and becoming more indispensable for the most active users, which are consumers in metros and Tier 1 cities.  Competing with Swiggy, which has its hands in various delivery pies (ecommerce, D2C brands, Instacafe), will not be cheap. Even on the food delivery front, both companies have adopted similar strategies in recent months.  Zomato Vs Swiggy:

What Is A Syndicate? In terms of investments, a syndicate functions as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) where multiple investors contribute money to make various investments. The lead investor creates a mini fund, and approved backers of the syndicate then contribute funds to this collective pool.  According to Inc42 data, there are over 125 syndicates and angel networks in India currently and this number is expected to go past the 250 mark by 2030. However, it is worth noting that angel networks are formal groups connecting investors and startups, while syndicates involve flexible, deal-specific investment opportunities for angels.  How Does It Work? It consists of a lead investor and members who contribute capital in proportion to their stake. This structure allows them to participate in larger investments led by the lead, in exchange for a carry.  For example, Mr X, a prominent angel investor, decides to lead a syndicate and the investors agree to invest $150K in his future deals and pay him a carry of 15% (another 5% goes to the syndicate advisors). Consequently, Mr X makes an investment of $200K in a startup. He personally invests $50K and the remaining $150K is invested by the syndicate members. If the investment is successful, the syndicate members receive the share they contributed to $150K, after which every dollar of the syndicate’s profits are split in 1:4 ratio — 20% goes to Mr X and the advisors, while the remaining 80% is distributed among the members.  Source: AngelList What Are The Benefits Of Joining A Syndicate? Access To Lucrative Investment Opportunities: Allows investors to pool their money together to invest in larger opportunities. Diversification: By investing across multiple companies, investors can diversify their portfolios, reduce risks and increase rewards.  Shared Costs & More Resources: By pooling resources with other investors, members can share the costs such as legal fees, transaction costs, or professional services. This sharing of expenses helps reduce individual financial burdens and makes participating in larger deals more feasible. Network Opportunities: Offers networking opportunities and industry connections to novice and emerging investors. Being part of a syndicate allows them to enhance their follow-on and future investments. What Are The Risks Of Joining A Syndicate? Some of the risks are:  Limited Decision Making Power: Members have limited influence on the investment choices made by the lead investor. Reliance On Lead Investor’s Expertise: The success of the investment depends on the competence and decision-making abilities of the lead investor. High Risk: Investments made carry the risk of losing the invested capital. Lack Of Liquidity: Syndicate investments cannot be liquidated, making it difficult to access funds quickly. Conflicts Of Interest & Delay In Decision Making: The members of a syndicate may have conflicting investment objectives and preferences. Diluted Returns: Distribution of returns among syndicate members can result in diluted profits. There are some other areas of concern as well. Speaking to Inc42 earlier, Alkesh Agarwal, CEO of Refeel Cartridge and a partner at Seeders, said ‘mushrooming’ of syndicates signals the need for consolidations in order to stay competitive. He also cited the need for improving the due diligence process to create trust among investors.  How Can Someone Join A Syndicate? The following can help increase your chances of becoming a syndicate member:  Network & Research: Connect with professionals and research syndicates that align with your investment goals. Identify Potential Syndicates: Find syndicates actively seeking members through personal connections, investment platforms, or online syndicate platforms.. Express Interest & Negotiate Terms: Communicate your desire to join and discuss membership details, including capital contributions and profit-sharing arrangements. Complete Documentation: Fulfil any required paperwork, such as membership agreements or subscription documents. Contribute Capital: Make the required capital contribution as per the syndicate’s terms. Active Participation: Engage in syndicate activities, attend meetings, and contribute your expertise to the group. Can Individuals Start Their Own Syndicates? Any seasoned investor can start their own syndicate. However, they must be clear about why they want to start their own syndicate over joining one as a member and reaping its benefits.  Following are some of the reasons because of which an individual can consider starting a syndicate: You aspire to start your own fund someday and are looking for a jump start. You want to work as a VC. You are keen about certain sectors and are looking for shared expertise in making informed decisions. You want to invest alongside like-minded investors. What Are Some Notable Examples Of Syndicates In India? Silicon Valley-headquartered AngelList is one of the most prominent syndicate platforms in India. The global syndicate forayed in India in 2018 and has funded over 500 Indian startups, including BharatPe, Jupiter Money, Teachmint, Plum, and DealShare, since then. Several homegrown syndicates and angel networks have also been launched in the last few years: What Is A Syndicate Agreement? A syndicate agreement defines how much money a member will receive from his/her investment and what percentage of ownership he/she will get in a company.  What Happens If A Syndicate Fails? Investments made through syndicates carry the risk of complete capital loss.  The post Here’s Everything You Need To Know About A Syndicate appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Zomato has introduced a flat Rs 2 platform fee on its food delivery app in certain markets. The Rs 2 platform fee is levied per order and is reportedly so far for select users. The platform fee is added irrespective of the cart value, meaning whatever the value of the order is. It is also being levied on users of its loyalty programme Zomato Gold. The markets where the company is testing this platform fee is not known so far. This follows a similar move announced by arch rival Swiggy, which started levying a similar platform fee of Rs 2 on all orders in April.Zomato’s Rs 2 platform fee is so far in an experiment stage. The experiment is likely to be implemented across the board, if successful, to boost profitability. “This is in an experiment phase right now, and we may or may not scale,” a spokesperson for the Gurgaon-based food delivery company told Economic Times in response to a query. The platform fee comes just days after Zomato posted its first ever quarterly profit of Rs 2 crore for the June quarter. Interestingly, Zomato’s chief financial officer Akshant Goyal had told analysts during the earnings conference that the company has not taken a call on imposing platform fees. “So, it’s a business call…we are aware about that and I think we’ll take a call when we think it’s right for business. At this point, we haven’t done that…there is no platform fee on our platform,” Goyal had said.He was responding to a question on whether Zomato was planning to roll out a platform fee, or had tried it in certain micro markets.Posted strong growth in June quarterStrong growth in core businesses pushed up the company’s income by 64% to Rs 2,597 crore in the June quarter. The company reported a profit after tax of Rs 2 crore in the June quarter, as against a loss of Rs 186 crore a year ago. “I can in hindsight say that most of our seemingly risky bets have changed the trajectory of the business significantly, much faster than expected,” founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said in a letter to shareholders. The food delivery business was aided by a recovery in demand in recent months after a few sluggish quarters. At the end of June 2023, Zomato had about 17.5 million monthly transacting customers.

As part of the next phase of implementation, BBNL will partner with village-level entrepreneurs and provide them with training and necessary equipment to set up connections at homes The entrepreneurs will be compensated based on a 50:50 revenue sharing model between BBNL and the local businesspersons 19.4 Lakh villages have already been connected under the scheme, with the remaining likely to be connected within two and a half years The union government has reportedly approved an additional outlay of INR 1.39 Lakh Cr for its flagship BharatNet initiative, which aims to provide last-mile broadband connectivity for 64 Lakh villages across the country.  Sources told The Hindu BusinessLine that the latest round of funds were approved by the union cabinet during its meeting on Friday (August 4).  “Cabinet has approved INR 1,39,579 Cr fund for providing last-mile optical fibre-based connectivity to homes in all the villages of the country. We have decided to scale it up in a significant way,” a top official said.  As per the report, 19.4 Lakh villages have already been connected under the scheme, with the remaining likely to be connected within two and a half years.  One of the world’s rural telecom projects, BharatNet has been envisaged with providing last-mile broadband connectivity to all 2.5 Lakh gram panchayats in the country in a phased manner.  As part of the next phase of implementation, Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) will partner with village-level entrepreneurs and provide them with training and necessary equipment, including routers and additional fibre optic cable, to set up connections at homes. An arm of state telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, BBNL, has been tasked with executing the BharatNet project.  The move to onboard local entrepreneurs was finalised after the successful completion of a pilot project that helped connect villages in four districts, said the official. The trial run was then expanded to more than 60,000 villages, involving 3,800 entrepreneurs, across the length and breadth of the country.  As per the official, more than 3.51 Lakh broadband connections during the pilot and average data consumption per household was recorded to the tune of 175 GBs per month (compared to 230 GB in urban areas). The ‘enhanced’ execution model will utilise village-level entrepreneurs, employing them as partners with full responsibility for connecting and maintaining internet connections of the residences in their respective villages. The entrepreneurs will be compensated based on a 50:50 revenue-sharing model between BBNL and the local businesspersons. It is pertinent to note that the monthly broadband plan price under the scheme starts from INR 399 and goes all the way up to INR 799 with a minimum speed of 30 MBPS.  The official stated that the initiative has the potential to generate 25 Lakh jobs in the country. He also noted that out of the total 37 lakh route kilometres of OFC laid in the country, BBNL accounted for 7.7 lakh route km OFC. The BharatNet project was first approved by the union cabinet in October 2011. The second phase of the project was approved in 2017, with a total funding of INR 42,068 Cr for both phases of the project.

Ola Electric’s head of strategy and planning, Slokarth Dash, and head of growth and corporate affairs, Saurabh Sharda, have resigned Two other senior executives have also reportedly tendered their resignations. However, Ola Electric rejected this claim Ola Electric, which is preparing for a $1 Bn IPO in 2024, posted a revenue of nearly INR 2,750 Cr in FY23 and raked up an operating loss of nearly INR 1,116 Cr Ahead of its planned public listing in 2024, electric vehicle (EV) maker Ola Electric has been hit by top-level exits.  Ola Electric’s head of strategy and planning, Slokarth Dash, and head of growth and corporate affairs, Saurabh Sharda, have resigned from the company.  Confirming the development, an Ola spokesperson, in a statement, said, “Slokarth and Saurabh have delivered well for the company for over seven years, and we wish them well in their future pursuits.” The development was first reported by Livemint. As per the report, two other senior executives have also tendered their resignations and are expected to depart in the coming two months. There was no clarity on the identity of these two executives. However, the EV major rejected this, calling it a ‘mischievous attempt’ to build a fake narrative.  “This is a mischievous attempt to build a fake narrative. At Ola, we’ve built a world-class and highly experienced leadership team and hired more than 50 veterans just in the last year from Indian & global firms like Tesla, Apple, LG, among others. India is the future hub for tech and top global talent is eagerly joining new age companies like ours. Ola is the largest EV company in India thanks to the efforts of our world-class team,” added the Ola spokesperson. Both Dash and Sharda are said to have worked closely with founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Bhavish Aggarwal.  While Dash joined the ride-hailing company in 2015 as the program manager of leasing operations and strategy, he was elevated as the head of strategy and planning at Ola Electric in 2020.  On the other hand, Sharda joined Ola as an associate director in 2016 and rose quickly to his current position, as part of the core team, at the EV maker in 2019.  The exits come just a month after Aggarwal told a publication that, “I have a purpose and passion. Sometimes in the journey of a business, people don’t align with it and those separations are not as one wants. That sometimes leads to bitterness and sometimes the bitterness gets amplified.” Dash and Sharda’s resignations come as Ola Electric prepares for its high-profile $1 Bn public listing next year. While the company is leading the two-wheeler EV ecosystem in terms of sales, it has been plagued by a series of issues, including a spate of fires involving its vehicles and the Centre’s decision to cut incentives under the FAME-II scheme. Not just this, it was reported last month that Ola Electric missed its revenue goal in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23). The company posted a revenue of nearly INR 2,750 Cr during the year and raked up an operating loss of nearly INR 1,116 Cr. 

Poco, a spun-off brand of Xiaomi, has launched a new smartphone – M6 Pro 5G – in India. The smartphone has a 90Hz display, Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset, and a 50MP dual camera setup, among other features. Here’s everything you need to know about the Poco M6 Pro 5G. Poco M6 Pro 5G: Price, availability in IndiaPoco M6 Pro 5G is available in two storage variants – 4GB + 64GB model – priced at Rs 10,999 – and – 6GB + 128GB – priced at Rs 12,999. You can purchase it on Flipkart from August 9t at 12 AM. If you use ICICI Bank cards, you can avail an instant discount of Rs 1000. Poco M6 Pro 5G: Specifications, features, and morePoco M6 Pro 5G features a 6.79-inch FHD+ LCD display with an adaptive refresh rate of 90Hz. The smartphone has a 91 per cent screen-to-body ratio, the panel is 550 nits bright at peak, and it is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.The smartphone has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and an IR blaster. Additionally, it has a 3.5mm audio jack and bottom-firing speakers.Powering the Poco M6 Pro 5G is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset, which is based on the 4nm process node, and features 2x 2.2 GHz A78, 6x 2GHz A55 Kryo CPU cores paired with Adreno 613 GPU. The smartphone has 4GB/6GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB/128GB of UFS 2.2 internal storage, expandable up to 1TB with a microSD card. The M6 Pro 5G runs Android 13 with MIUI 14 out-of-the-box. The smartphone boasts a 5000mAh battery with 18W fast charging.The smartphone has a dual camera setup consisting of a 50MP main camera and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, it has a 8MP camera housed inside the punch-hole cutout.Connectivity options include – 5G SA / NSA, Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.1, GPS + GLONASS, and USB Type-C.

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What Is Venture Capital Funding? Venture Capital (VC) funding is an investment route through which investors provide capital to high-potential growth stage startups in exchange for equity in the company. Venture capital firms also provide expertise and mentorship to their portfolio companies. A VC firm manages money from wealthy individuals, insurance companies, pension funds, foundations and corporate pension funds who pool their money to create a fund, aka VC fund. These funds are governed by VC firms that take all investment decisions. Typically, a VC firm raises capital for its funds from limited partners (LPs), with general partners (GPs) also making a capital contribution in some cases. The primary responsibility of a general partner is to allocate and manage the funds raised from limited partners. VC fund managers receive management fees and carry interest (a share of the profit made by the VC firm). About 20% of the profits made by the fund go to the VC firm, which manages the private equity fund. The remaining profits are distributed among limited partners who invested in the fund. The VC firm typically receives an additional 2% fee for its services. What Are The Benefits Of VC Funding? Venture capital provides startups with the necessary funds to scale their operations rapidly, hire talent, expand their market presence and develop innovative products or services. VC funding allows startups to focus on growth without any financial obligations like traditional bank loans or debt financing. VCs bring in their experience and expertise to assist startups with strategic planning, market research, and legal support, mitigating the chances of failure. VC  firms often provide long-term support to startups by participating in multiple funding rounds and acting as anchor investors, attracting other investors and providing stability to the business. Startups can leverage VC networks to connect with new clients, partners and employees, opening doors to new opportunities for growth and collaboration. VCs bring valuable mentorship to startups, helping them make informed decisions, overcome challenges, and optimise their operations. Venture capital firms facilitate collaboration among their portfolio companies, fostering synergies and mutual growth opportunities. Startups can benefit from partnerships within the VC’s network. A VC can enhance a startup’s credibility and visibility in the market and attract potential clients, partners, and investors. What Are The Risks Associated With VC Funding? To seek VC funding, startups often have to give up a substantial portion of their equity in exchange for funding. This dilutes their ownership and may lead to potential conflicts with investors’ short-term goals. A startup may lose substantial control over its company as investors may demand significant equity in the company. Raising venture capital is a time-consuming process, involving multiple rounds of negotiations, due diligence and investor pitches. Investors may seek a high level of expertise and experience in the startup’s team, making it challenging for first-time entrepreneurs to get investments. VCs may prioritise short-term gains over long-term growth, further conflicting with the interest of the startup founders looking to grow sustainably. Startups may face competition from portfolio startups when seeking VC funding as investors have multiple opportunities to choose from. How Do VC Firms Conduct Due Diligence? Initial Screening: Startup evaluation for due diligence starts with an initial screening to determine its viability. It usually involves the preliminary review of the startup’s business plan, market opportunity, and management team. It helps the VC firm filter out startups that are not aligned with the firm’s criteria or lack growth potential. Once a startup is selected, the VC firm proceeds to the subsequent stages of the due diligence process for deeper evaluation. Market Research: Investment analysts investigate the market size, product-market fit (PMF) competition, trends and growth potential. The analysts assess startups’ target market share and demand for their products. They also identify the risks and potential that come with these startups. Financial Analysis: They evaluate startups by examining their balance sheets, cash flows, revenues, expenses, and projections. They also study their capital structure and customer acquisition model and verify transparent accounting policies and practices. Legal Review: Analysts assess legal and regulatory compliance status to understand if the startup under review is under any legal or contractual liability that could potentially impact investments. They further review governance structure, contractual obligations, and intellectual property.  Technology Assessment: Investors also investigate the quality, capabilities, limitations and scalability of startups’ technology. Customer Validation: To validate the quality, uniqueness, and market appeal of startups’ offerings, VCs rely on customer feedback to ascertain if the founders have found the right product-market fit. Management Evaluation And Reputation Check: While assessing startups, investors evaluate teams’ experience, expertise and skills. Investors also seek feedback from peers about working with the founder. This helps them understand the founders’ ability to lead the company through growth and market changes. Once the due diligence report is ready, a VC analyst compiles all the evaluations of a report to present it to the investment committee with a recommendation. Conducting reverse due diligence on the VC firm’s background and reputation is also important for startup founders. What Is The VC Funding Scenario In India? How To Approach Venture Capitalist Firms To Raise Funding? According to experts, before reaching out to any VC firm to raise funding, entrepreneurs must thoroughly research the market and choose active investors within the respective sector.  Once the investor list has been narrowed down, startups must conduct background research on each investor and their VC firms. Founders must ensure that these investors have invested in their respective sectors before approaching them.  Once the research is conducted, potential founders can reach out to VC firms through networking events or online platforms like LinkedIn or directly through their websites.  Once the founders are connected to the VC firms and a meeting is arranged, they would be required to prepare a crisp pitch explaining the business plan, create an impact, and impress the investor in one meeting. How To Pitch For Venture Capital Funding? Following the MVP stage, founders can seek venture capital by preparing a to-the-point pitch to get venture

Petitions filed by startups such as Matrimony, Shaadi.com, Unacademy, Kuku FM, TrulyMadly, QuackQuack, Aha, Stage, and Kutumb, among others, were dismissed While the HC is yet to take a call on Disney+ Hotstar and Testbook’s pleas, it observed thatthe dismissed pleas fell under the ambit of the CCI The Madras HC also rejected Google’s contention that the cases ought to have been filed in the jurisdiction of the tech major’s headquarters in California In a major blow to Indian startups, the Madras High Court (HC) on Friday (August 4) reportedly dismissed 14 of the 16 petitions filed by homegrown players against tech major Google’s new user choice billing (UCB) system.  As per Moneycontrol, pleas filed by startups such as Matrimony, Shaadi.com, Unacademy, Kuku FM, TrulyMadly, QuackQuack, Aha, Stage, and Kutumb, among others, were dismissed. On the other hand, the court is yet to take a call on similar petitions submitted by Disney+ Hotstar and edtech platform Testbook.  The HC observed that the dismissed cases fell under the ambit of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), adding that the lawsuits filed by Indian startups were barred by Section 61 of the Competition Act. The HC noted that the remedies available under the Competition Act were ‘more comprehensive than that before a civil court’.  The HC observed that while any order passed by it on the pleas filed by the startups would only be applicable to parties that have challenged the policy, any directive passed by the competition watchdog would cover all concerned businesses.  The court said that the petitions filed by the startups were not maintainable and issued the order for dismissal of the pleas. Google had argued before the HC that the lawsuits filed by the Indian startups were not maintainable and a civil court could not adjudicate in such cases as they involved allegations of antitrust violations. However, the HC rejected Google’s contention that said that the cases ought to have been filed in the jurisdiction of the tech major’s headquarters in California.  “Competition Act enacted by Indian legislature with the sole aim of preventing practices having adverse effect on competition will be of no use (if such a request is entertained). The preamble to Competition Act reads that it is an Act to ensure freedom of trade carried on by participants in (the) Indian market. Freedom of trade is a fundamental right available to Indian Citizens under Article 19 of the Constitution of India,” said the HC order seen by Moneycontrol. Google Rejoices, Startups Seethe The order came as a blow to Indian startups. In the past, the Madras HC barred Google from delisting homegrown players from its Play Store for not complying with the tech major’s contentious UCB policy till the matter was decided.  Not just this, the HC had even directed the startups to pay a flat rate of 4% gross commissions to Google, against a slab of 11-26% in the new billing regime. The matter dates to October last year when the CCI slapped a fine of INR 936 Cr on Google for abusing its dominance in the app marketplace segment. The competition watchdog directed the company to undertake sweeping reforms in its operations in India, and flagged its Google Billing and Payments System (GBPS), which levied commissions in the range of 15-30% on developers and companies. Subsequently, Google unveiled a new commission structure, which offered a rebate of 4%, effectively setting the stage for 11-26% commission rates. Aggrieved by this, Indian startups approached the Delhi and Madras HCs and sought to keep the new payments system in abeyance till the CCI looked into the billing policy. With the Madras HC’s decision, the ball is yet again in the competition watchdog’s court.