Aadit Palicha

Thanks Bismah and Inc42 Media for the insightful coverage and deep dive into the vital role of operator VCs! Bismah's thoughtful analysis underscores the growing need for operator VCs in today's startup landscape. As an operator VC , I've witnessed firsthand how founders increasingly value more than just capital. They seek partners who bring operational expertise, strategic guidance, and an extensive network to the table. These elements are crucial for driving sustainable growth and navigating the complexities of scaling a business. At GrowthCap Ventures , we understand the unique challenges faced by early-stage startups, which is why we prioritize offering not just funding, but also hands-on support and access to our extensive network. Together, we're empowering founders to realize their vision and build transformative businesses. #OperatorVC #StartupEcosystem #Gratitude

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Co-lead a workshop (with Sumathi my business partner and Komal lath of Tute Consult) on branding and communication and why/how its' strategic & important for the portfolio companies of an early stage growth focused PE fund in Mumbai this noon. very interactive session. lots of takeaways. one of the biggest benefits of doing such workshops with founders and CXOs of growth companies is that you get to first hand understand their pain points and priorities. which makes you realize there is a long road ahead laden with great opportunity for those in PR & comms if we take off our hats and look at it from their perspective.

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Raised $26,000,000 with just an idea Lyskraft India Pvt Ltd - the latest kid in the block! So, Mukesh Bansal is back with another startup this time with Mohit Gupta, the former CEO of Zomato's food delivery arm. In July of last year, there were reports about Bansal and Gupta raising funds for a new venture. As per TechCrunch, both of them pitched a range of ideas to potential backers like a female-focused counterpart to Manyavar and "Infosys 2.0" a presumed upgrade to a multinational IT services and consulting firm. Now finally... The news is out and we know what they are building, Lyskraft: initially a women's only marketplace for premium brands mostly focusing on Gen-Z shoppers. Recently we have seen giant e-commerce platforms launching dedicated portals to attract GenZ shoppers, like SPOYL launched by Flipkart within its app, FWD by Myntra, also we are seeing the growth of new-age startups working in this space like Virgio(Mukesh Bansal is an investor in it), Newme(recently raised $4,500,000), Absolute Brands, Snitch, Styched and many more As per Inc42's Report, India's fashion and apparel sector is projected to reach a mouth-watering $112 Billion by 2030, which will be over a quarter of the country's $400 Billion e-commerce market!! Let's be honest, anyone will want a piece of this market. As we are already aware of how crowded this space is, let's see how Lyskraft differentiates itself from others. Mohit Gupts and Mukesh Bansal, in this crowded space building a community around your product, building digital IPs, and creating experiences through videos are the ways to elevate your brand to the next level. I the founder of Elevate would love to connect and assist Lyskraft in building a community, digital IPs and help create experiences through videos, if that sounds like something that interests you would love to connect and discuss!! sources of information : TechCrunch article 2021 - https://bit.ly/49UwkLI Inc42 article - https://bit.ly/3w0SDlb #mukeshbansal #myntra #fashion #startups #venturecapital #fundingwinter #norevenue #cultfit #community #communitymarketing #socialmediamarketing #india

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𝟗𝟗.𝟓% 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥 Here is an opportunity to learn from the founders of the top 1% which didn’t. We are organising a highly curated event where the founders of Sharechat, Apps for Bharat and Elo Elo will be having a focused discussion on ‘Building Consumer Tech for India’ Building for India is difficult- most apps are far from India’s realities. For example, they fail to optimise for low-bandwidth scenarios and lower-end devices to cater to a broader audience. This is important because 88% of users stop using or delete apps because of performance issues. 𝐈𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬: 1. Successful strategies for user acquisition, retention and monetization. 2. Understanding your target audience and building a strong brand in India.  3. How companies are leveraging AI/ML to understand consumer behaviour and improve personalization. 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: - Expected traction at each stage of fundraising. - Key things investors look for in a deck - Unique Insights from successful and unsuccessful investments - Challenges a founder can face during a round and the potential impact of that on your day-to-day operations. So, if you are building in the consumer tech space in India, I would love to see you in Bangalore at the event. The link to apply/sign up is in the comments below. Saurabh Pandey , Prashant Sachan , Farid Ahsan Kushal Bhagia, Simran Patel, Ansh Pratap Singh #founders #startups

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Building Consumer Apps in India - Series 1 Currently there are about 17L apps on Playstore out of which, 13.83L do not have any rating, not even from friends and family. You can consider them to be not so serious about pushing the app. If you care about your app, you are already ahead of 77% of the apps. Then comes the apps with rating less than 3.5 which shows your tech team is not actively debugging or your app is really short lived and has no consumer utility. If you stay consistent and do even bit of user research prior to build, you would be ahead of another 1.5L apps. Staying ahead of 86% apps. The real struggle for power happens between the remaining 2.5L apps. Considering the current scenario, about 1.6% of apps are social media and 4% are shopping apps and since we are building in the intersection of them, we are head-on with 14000 apps. This is where geography and other factors come in to support, and you finally have to fight against 5% of 14000 apps, ie. you effectively are competing against 700 apps to be the best amongst them. Now comes real product play. What do you think is the reason most apps fail? (Consumer Apps) #consumerapps #koo #product #appstore #playstore #developers #apps #shopping #socialmedia #social

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Today, we are excited to share our biggest investment as Antler, in India so far. At Antler, incl. our Elevate continuty fund (Fady Abdel-Nour, CFA), we're thrilled to co-lead a $11M pre Ser A in Namma Yatri, alongside Blume Ventures Karthik B. Reddy and Google In this business, a few times in your career, you come across a truly disruptive business model that challenges the way things have been done, and extremely obsessed founders creating a culture that is so unique, you have never seen it before. When that happens, despite all the things not clear, it’s a joy to jump on board that potential rocketship. That’s what we have seen in the way Namma Yatri is being built by Magizhan Selvan and Shan M S with (a) a disruptive business model in urban mobility, rethinking how to make the life of a driver better and (b) Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) at its heart. 46 million trips have already been completed, with >7 million registered users. For us, this is also a continuation of our commitment to investing in a future on DPI / Beckn / ONDC, started in 2022. h/t Susmit Patodia. Rajiv Srivatsa Magnus Grimeland Martell Hardenberg Teddy Himler Keerat Singh Sethi Vimal Kumar Sheetal Lalwani T Koshy sujith nair Pramod Varma

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💰 Surat-based IVY Growth Associates launches a ₹250 Cr VC fund, Arigato Capital aimed at investing in pre-Series A startups. 🤖 The fund, led by Prateek Toshniwal and team, targets sectors like agritech, cleantech, and generative AI, with an average investment size of $500,000. 🌍 Special focus on building global connections in the Middle East, US, and Europe. First close at ₹100 Cr expected by mid-2025. 🔗 Read more on the link in our comments section 👇

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Zepto announces its $ 665M Series F financing at a $3.6bn valuation yesterday. They started as KiranaKart (part of YC's W21 program) & re-branded to Zepto; the firm has defied all funding winters with crazy momentum ⤵️ June '20: $50K Contrary Capital fellowship Nov '20: $125K YC W21 program  Jan '21: $700K Seed round Oct '21: $60M Series A/B round Dec'21: $100M Series C round May '22: $200M Series D round Aug '23: $200M Series E round Zepto's investors include Y Combinator, Nexus Venture Partners, StepStone Group and even Glade Brook Capital (former investor in Zomato). 📈 And, their metrics in the last few months have been astounding: (1) ~4.5M (i.e. 45 Lakh) Zepto Pass subscribers in 3 months - Initially this was free, then they began charging > ₹99 per month (2) 75% of ~350 dark stores are EBITDA positive - Time to EBITDA breakeven per store is down from 23 months to 6 months (3) ~28% market share in Quick Comm - Impressive given they are an independent company (versus Instamart or Blinkit) ✅ And, Zepto is just getting started:  (a) Entry in non-metro cities next (b) Entry into private label (Zepto Cafe & Meats) (c) Going to x2 the number of dark stores ➡ What I've seen lately in the key metro cities: There is a shift from e-comm to QC. I think it is only going to accelerate as QC co's bring in more categories & tap into long tail SKUs via larger warehouses.. Product searches first moved from Google to Amazon, now they may move from Amazon to Zepto et al. incredible to see how the Power Law plays out - these folks are going to change Commerce in India. Congratulations Aadit, Kaivalya + team Zepto! #startups #india #venturecapital

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"We bought a 13-acre piece of land in a village called Sikra in Kutch which is enough for us to reach a revenue of 500 crores." 🔥 Ep#08 of The India Opportunity Podcast with Aditya Aagare from Thermoflyde is out now! 🔥 Watch here: https://lnkd.in/g6JjrGq6 We talk about: > The market opportunity in the refractory space - north of $30 Billion USD globally > How Thermoflyde is aggressively growing its market share by taking on RHI Magnestia (a $3 Billion revenue-generating, publicly listed business) and has grown 100% year-on-year in terms of REVENUE > How starting up in college taught Aditya lessons about entrepreneurship the hard way > Focusing on customer service as a competitive advantage > Building an IPO-able, cash-flow-positive business > 500 Crores revenue in sight with current capacity and potential to grow much bigger > Aditya's goal of positively impacting 1000+ lives > How traditional manufacturing businesses can be multi-baggers over decades in the public markets > How kindness from angels helped them survive in the first 2 years Great episode for founders looking to build IPO-able businesses, with key insights into how to prepare your business at the earliest stages if IPO is an outcome you're working towards. Thermoflyde Industries Private Limited is destined to be a big success story emerging in the traditional manufacturing space and we're early backers via Swadharma Source Ventures - SSV. Thrilled to share Aditya's story with the world. #india #manufacturing #makeinindia #rhimagnestia #refractory #steelplants #ipo

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THE LARGEST FUND RAISE OF 2024 IS HERE $665 M raised in the latest round of #venturecapital valuing the #ecommerce company at $3.6 B This one’s the largest fundraisers this year abd clearly signaling the spiralling growth of #quickcommerce in the country and thd changing consumer preferences in terms of his regularly grocery needs Big shout out to Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya V. These two young guns are creating history in the country with Zepto What’s interesting is that the venture partners like Nexus Venture Partners who had been part of the Series A and now this latest massive round also reinforces the point that the investors who believe in a product #startup continue to invest in the same while it’s the Founder’s vision who they really support We can only see more competitive offers for consumers be it from Blinkit Swiggy and bigbasket.com https://lnkd.in/dZAeBFSd

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Huge win for the Indian Startup ecosystem. Angel tax abolished for all classes of investors! Angel tax was levied on the startup if the valuation of the company exceeded the fair market value (FMV). In that case, the investment greater than FMV is categorised as "income from other sources and taxed at a rate of 30%. For eg. A startup received an investment from an angel investor of Rs 15 crore, and the investor got shares in exchange. But the total fair market valuation (FMV) of the shares issued was Rs 10 crore. The remaining Rs 5 crore was considered excess money and, therefore, taxable at a rate of 30.9%! The startup in this case had to pay ~1.5 crore in taxes. We need more such reforms to produce top startups from India! #startup #angeltax #budget

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If you want to understand more about the Indian startup and venture ecosystem, then the best place to start is the "Indus Valley Report" by Sajith Pai, Anurag Pagaria and Nachammai Savithiri R of Blume Ventures - https://lnkd.in/gj-7hjGq You can expect lots of insights about India's GDP, consumption by different types of customers in India, Digital Infra achievements, venture funding trends, Indian IPO market, and Indus Valley Playbook. My favorites in 2024 report 1. India123 - Slides 26-30 2. Storefront as a Service for Digital Native Brands - Slide 101 What do I expect in the 2025 report : How Indian startup and venture ecosystems are powering global Gen AI growth !!!

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Zomato stock gained 14% or so today, thanks to the huge profit that they just announced. However, they could be losing out on something. The customer love. As their delivery partners are making multiple deliveries in each ride, the UX is getting worse. The delivery time has gone up, orders are getting mixed up and in most cases food quality also gets compromised. In case of ice creams, it is a huge disaster. With the advent of ONDC, the customer now has the choice of ordering direct to the restaurant and getting pretty similar service as from an aggregator. Restaurants on the other hand might just start seeing some profits if this begins to happen as they wont have to cough out 25% fees to the aggregators. Plus customer data. I see an opportunity here. Opportunity for good brands to improve their unit economics. Opportunity for various kinds of SaaS cos to provide tech that can make these transactions seamless and a great experience. And more... let's see. Prabhat Ummat Sunil Nair Kabir Bose Vineet Sagar

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Can technical founders become effective CEOs? Srinath Sridhar knew he needed to step out of his comfort zone when he founded Regie.ai four years ago. Now he and cofounder Matt Millen have raised more than $20 million and landed on G2’s list of fastest-growing software products of 2024. My full conversation with Sri is in the comments.

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Slowdown in VC funding could slow late-stage investment activity. In addition, the continued strength of public equity markets makes IPOs more attractive for profitable late-stage companies. Good to speak with Ayanti Bera at Financial Express (India) cc: QED Investors #startupfunding #startups #fintech #QEDInvestorsforfintech

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{New pod 🎤} "𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐔𝐒-𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐆𝐓𝐌" Was super-fun to jam with Nivas Ravichandran and Nitya Baskar, the Marketing ninjas of Spendflo, on how US-India startups can use curated events to drive US GTM. We discussed what type and stage of startups are most suited for leveraging an event-based GTM strategy, operating learnings around event design and planning, a deep dive into the CXO roundtable format, and tracking the ROI of these events For all early-stage founders, GTM leads, and growth marketers in the US-India corridor, this is as operating & tactical as it gets. Let us know what you think! Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gtvWFN-B Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/gGysaHsW An Operator's Blog - https://lnkd.in/gkdV228e

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myHQ by ANAROCK offsite- after 4 years: Team size grown 4X, Spread across 8 cities- We dearly needed it (it was only a question of when can we afford it). The team had promised a stellar Q4 of last FY, which made us profitable and honestly made this ask- very tough to refuse. And Goa was finally happening! We wrapped the offsite last week and loved every bit of it. Whether it was a game of tug of war, some impromptu dance performances or just a fun gala night- connecting with everyone on a personal level outside work was worth every second spent. 🎊 My 4 learnings:- - Zoom /Hangout/virtual can never replace in person- would have had 100 hours of calls with the person, but in person is just different. - Play more games/activities & less sessions (Specially for hybrid/spread out teams- bonding happens only over games, activities) - Outsource liquor arrangements to the Hotel/Organizer- not worth the hassle + whatever you arrange will never be enough! 🥂 - This idiotic, yet addictive game- "Ek machli pani me gayi, chappak" (Must play with friends: 4+ group) Looking forward to a much grander offsite in 2025 as the team targets another 3-4X jump this year. Onwards and upwards! 😃🙌

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🔥Jyotika Gupta and🔥 Raj Shekhar Singh 🚀🌟Early-stage VC Z21 Ventures planning $40 million second fund🚀🌟 🌟🌟Z21 Ventures, an early-stage investment firm focusing on the India-US corridor, has fully deployed its first $5-million fund and is gearing up to launch a $40 million second fund. The firm, founded in 2022 by Abhinav Shashank and Raj Shekhar Singh, targets enterprise software and hardware startups with investments ranging from $100,000 to $150,000, backed by a community of Indian-origin technology executives like Google, Amazon, and Meta.🌟🌟 🚀Fueling Innovation: Z21 Ventures' $40 million second fund underscores their commitment to fueling innovation, providing essential capital to early-stage startups with groundbreaking ideas. 🚀Empowering Visionaries: By planning this significant fund, Z21 Ventures empowers visionary entrepreneurs to bring their creative solutions to market, driving progress and transformation. 🚀Building the Future: This new fund highlights Z21 Ventures' role in building the future, supporting startups that have the potential to reshape industries and improve lives. 🚀Championing Startups: The fund demonstrates Z21 Ventures' dedication to championing startups, providing them with the resources and support needed to succeed in competitive markets. 🚀Driving Economic Growth: By investing in early-stage companies, Z21 Ventures contributes to economic growth, fostering job creation and technological advancements. 🚀Seizing Opportunities: This initiative encourages entrepreneurs to seize opportunities and pursue their innovative projects, knowing that there is strong financial backing available. 🚀Supporting Diversity: Z21 Ventures' funding plans can support a diverse range of startups, promoting inclusivity and varied perspectives within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. 🚀Catalyzing Change: With the $40 million fund, Z21 Ventures acts as a catalyst for change, accelerating the development of new technologies and business models. 🚀Inspiring Confidence: The planned fund inspires confidence in early-stage startups, demonstrating that there are substantial resources available for promising ventures. 🚀Commitment to Growth: Z21 Ventures' continued investment efforts reflect a deep commitment to fostering growth and success in the startup community. ✅️Share Your Startup Story 🚀📲 https://lnkd.in/ggir3Qap ✅️visite our website🌐 https://lnkd.in/dad4nH #FuelingInnovation #EmpowerVisionaries #ChampioningStartups #BuildingTheFuture #EconomicGrowth #SeizeOpportunities #SupportDiversity #CatalyzeChange #InspireConfidence #CommitmentToGrowth #scoopearth

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Good on you Akshay Chaturvedi for speaking up. Serves as a reminder for other founders to record & track the conversations they have with journalists. Sad to see the current affairs at The Ken, which at one point was the only publication that conducted in-depth research on the startup ecosystem and had the guts to publish whatever the finding might be. Now though, as you said, I've seen numerous examples of this where they decide a narrative (actually not even a narrative, a headline first :) and then figure out the rest. Their stories nowadays are so loosely held that sometimes there isn't even a single analysis of merit. It's lazy at best and malicious at worst. P.S. I'm not an investor in LeverageEdu nor do I know Akshay personally. Thread --> https://lnkd.in/gNUjpTP7 #startup #news

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