Saurabh Agarwal

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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Given the changing paradigms in technology and media, we know that the next 10 years will look nothing like the last 10 years. Thanks to The Economic Times for capturing our interactive media thesis for the years ahead. As we crystal ball gaze into the future, there has been no better time to invest in India. In the last few years, we have seen the market mature across key vectors - propensity to pay, quality of talent, capital inflows, and exits. This represents meaningful upside for founders and investors in this space over the coming decade. With the incredible shifts in tech, media and gaming, there are some exciting times ahead! 🚀 https://lnkd.in/gTfYa3Kw

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Miracles can happen in DTC SaaS. Don't believe me? Just see what came into this week's Fulfil.IO Support CSAT highlight reel, for Dhairya Goel and the team that worked with him on this ticket: 🤩 "Very amazing support" 🚴‍♂️ "truly handled with urgency" 📈 "We can't do what we do without this" 💫 "Thanks for making miracles happen" Software isn't perfect, and having help when you need it the most matters. It's okay to expect more from your ERP; perhaps even a miracle. 😉 Support lives at the ❤️ of Fulfil.IO, and we pipe every CSAT submission into our Slack so everyone can read it. Nice work team. 🙌

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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's New Wheels Got Me Thinking: Small Vehicle, Giant Innovation! 🛻 Check out this little vehicle I spotted zipping around Bangalore - part of Zomato's solution for larger orders! 📦 It's a small change, but it sparked a thought... Remember when Zomato's biggest challenge was just getting people to order food online? Now, they're tackling a whole new beast: Adapting to customers ordering in bulk! 💪 This 3-wheeler might seem like a small tweak, but it represents a HUGE shift in thinking. It's like Zomato is saying, "We're not just keeping up, we're anticipating what's next." And what IS next? 🤔 Drone deliveries? Food vending machines on every corner? Something we haven't even dreamed of yet? One thing's for sure: Necessity is the mother of invention. As our needs change, so do the solutions. And that's something to be excited about! 🤩 What do YOU think the future of food delivery holds? Share your predictions in the comments! 👇 Follow me (Vellanki Sriharsha) for more insightful observations and discussions about the ever-changing world around us! 😉 #innovation #fooddelivery #tech #startups #india #bangalore PS: Co-author #GeminiPro

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49% Market --- Sab bech do policy makers. Kya fark padta hai! The power of capital is clearly winning. Truly speaking I know many entrepreneurs who can create phonepe-like products but damn no one gives capital to them. Foreign funded entity has 49% market share. There are reasons for it. Why don't we have domestic companies building such businesses. What are our regulators doing? @competiton commission of India National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI) #Payments #fintech

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Zepto has seen a rapid rise in its gross merchandise volume(GMV) over three years and currently has a GMV run-rate of $1.2 billion, that is doubling every year as per Google. Time to analyse, from a product managers lens, some of the features they have incorporated in their product to achieve these numbers. In this analagy, I have used only one screen (homepage) and analysed the features and product design and flow on/from same screen. #productmanagement #product

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PhonePe's Indus App Store has been making inroads in the Indian market. Do read this story from Inc42 Media and Suprita Anupam about how the competitive landscape in India is evolving, and if new app stores would have an impact on the dominance of the Google Play Store in India. Check out my observations and comments and share your views on whether Indus could become The Atmanirbhar App Store of India. Read the article here;

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In just one week since Meri Bhakti - Aapka Digital Dharmik Saathi launched on the Google Play Store, we have achieved phenomenal growth, and we couldn't be more excited to share this with you all! 👥 Active Users: 1.3K (a whopping 781.08% increase!) 👥 New Users: 1.26K (an incredible 912.0% increase!) Our team is doing a crazy job, and the numbers speak for themselves! We are on a mission to revolutionize the way devotees connect and engage with their faith. To ensure we deliver the best experience, we've started calling our users individually to gather their feedback. Their insights are invaluable as we strive to make Meri Bhakti better every day. We have a long way to go, but with our passion, dedication, and the amazing support from our community, we know we'll get there! We're also actively searching for seed funding to fuel our growth and take Meri Bhakti to new heights. If you're interested in being a part of this incredible journey, please DM me. Let's make this vision a reality together! Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far. The best is yet to come! #MeriBhakti #StartupGrowth #SeedFunding #FaithTech #UserFeedback #CommunityFirst #StartupJourney

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Catch me and Rajinder discuss Sumit Chhazed and Harsh Saruparia's journey of scaling OTO to a leading 2W commerce + financing platform in the country. Sumit and Harsh's focus on providing a seamless consumer experience (discovery + "Amazon-like" buying journey) coupled with innovative financing options has enabled OTO to sell 1 Lakh+ 2Ws in a short span of time. Some ingredients of their success captured below: >> Founders' obsession to disrupt a large, yet under-served space seeing massive tailwinds (changing buyer demographics, premiumization, EV penetration etc.) >> Conviction in building a "full-stack model" from day 1 >> Enabling "win-win-win" partnerships between brands/OEMs, dealers and financiers >> Building a robust and scalable commerce stack to handle the operational nuances of a 2W purchase + financing journey >> The team's past experience, that helped them gain a "right-to-win" for the re-sale leg of the business >> A frugal, cost-conscious mindset and company culture Link to the episode below Sumit Chhazed Harsh Saruparia Vikram Vaidyanathan Rajinder Balaraman Matrix Partners India #MatrixMoments

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The total number of NRIs and PIOs stands at about ~3.3 crores, possibly the best Indians to sell any homogenous Indian product. Just the top 6 countries account for ~1.9 Crores. The minimum income/month would be around 1-1.5 Lakhs, and net-worth easily 30 Lakhs+ Should Finsire map their net worth across geographies?

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Ayna, a generative AI startup by Aastha Rajpal and Yash Bansal for product photography for e-commerce, recently raised $1.5M in a seed funding round led by Inflexor Ventures, with participation from Faad Network Pvt. Ltd and Lead Angels. Their concept is quite interesting and addresses some real problems in this space. ✅ Ayna can create and customize an entire virtual human model around clothes or any product, eliminating the necessity of human models for photoshoots. ✅ It allows the creation of virtual human models with multiple options across ethnicities such as American, Russian, Indian, and Indian sub-cultures such as Kashmiri, Bengali, and others. It also gives options to choose different body types, genders, ages, as well as eye and hair colors. ✅ The startup counts apparel brands like Reliance Retail’s Clovia, WomanLikeU, Bummer, and D2C furniture and mattress brand Wakefit among its clients. Photography involving actual human models of different ethnicities is a time-consuming and expensive process, and for industries like innerwear, the problems are even greater. So in terms of value add, Ayna seems to be a great product, reducing cost and time substantially. #AI #Ecommerce #Startup #ProductPhotography #GenerativeAI

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Kudos to Urban Company’s Abhiraj Singh Bhal! 👏👏 Using a secondary transaction to give your ESOP holders a chance to create wealth is a beautiful move. And while ace angels Kunal & Rohit minting dream returns on their investment in the company deservingly gained a lot of attention. It is this other thing that made me happier. .. The thing is, we are still in funding winter times. Startups are no longer raising as wildly as they were. And thus they are also not buying back ESOPs in the same way. In fact, buybacks have become fewer and smaller. And this has had ramifications. .. What ramifications? -> Not many employees yearn for ESOPs anymore -> And the ones who hold them, don’t attach much worth to their holdings -> As a result, companies, specifically younger ones find it increasingly difficult to retain talent and resources at an effective upfront cost And this is a big challenge. .. And it is in this scenario, that Urban Company’s move comes out so good. As Dharana Capital bought $50mn worth of shares of the company, Abhiraj ensured that a chunk of this would be from ESOP holders. This way, it gave early employees a well-deserved reward, paving the way for a new generation of founders. .. Why do I say that? This move echoes the success stories of Paytm, Zomato & Swiggy. Flush with wealth from ESOP buybacks, their early employees were inspired to venture out. And that led to the creation of over 200 startups, collectively referred to as the MAFIA! Probably, it’s time for an Urban Company mafia as well! .. Think of it this way: Probably this could inspire many more founders to use secondary transactions in their companies to create wealth for employees. That will be a big win for the ecosystem, restoring the allure of ESOPs, and driving more demand for them. What do you think? .. PS: At Dexter Ventures, we are always on the look for good founders. Reach out at deals@dexter[dot]ventures keeping me in CC anuradha@dexter[dot]ventures :) Anuradha

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At Rio we are building a credit card but building any product requires deep user understanding. So who really are the existing credit card users in India? We break it down into four cohorts, The Convenience Users, Short Term Limit Users, The EMI Converter and The Revolver. The Convenience Seekers are consumers who prioritize convenience and often use their credit card for large purchases, and always paying their balances in full each month to avoid interest charges. Cashback or rewards cards are what attracts them towards choice of cards. They may never need anything related to “credit” in the card.  The Short term limit users need the credit card for paying their non discretionary/everyday purchases for managing their cash flows effectively. They mostly pay their balances full in each month, but depend on the Credit limit to ease out monthly payments. They may occasionally not be able to pay their balances fully. This forms the largest part of the “Transactors” Base (i.e - Those who repay Credit Card bills on time).  The EMI Converters are consumers who want to have an affordability for bigger-ticket purchases. For them, splitting their purchases into manageable monthly instalments, and credit cards with low or no-cost EMI options become their go-to choice. Finally, the Revolvers are consumers who tend to carry a balance on their credit card quite often, and depend on cards which may have lower fees or charges. For credit cards, a one-size-fits-all approach rarely exists. So which credit card consumer do you see most around you?    www.rio.money #creditcards

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Ola Cabs CFO Kartik Gupta steps down Full Article Link >>> https://lnkd.in/gXftQfG6 MUMBAI: The chief financial officer (CFO) of Ola Cabs Kartik Gupta has stepped down from his position, less than three weeks after the firm’s CEO Hemant Bakshi quit the company. In a statement, Ola said that Gupta’s departure was part of an ongoing restructuring. “This restructuring is aimed at productivity enhancement in an AI-led era […] . . Latest IND . . . . #trendingnews #newstrending #trendingtopicnews #lifestyle #business #news #healthylifestyle #smallbusiness #supportsmallbusiness #lifestyleblogger #luxurylifestyle #businessowner #businesswoman #smallbusinessowner #businessnews

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Prashan Agarwal, first of all let me applaud you on your incredible entrepreneurial journey, that includes founding PropTiger.com, and FanTV and as CEO at Gaana. Scaling , securing funding and exiting a venture that you have founded is a commendable feat. In today's challenging times, and fast evolving one, where on one side the India is the 3rd largest Startup Ecosystem in the world, after US & China, and the other the survival rate of Indian startups is a poor 10%. Education system in India is in complete shambles. Students after completing their education from MBA business schools are unable to seek jobs of their choice. Moreover I believe that India is divided into India - a nation of the metro cities, and Bharat - the new rising India of the Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities. With the wealth of your experience, suggest that you focus on educating the young graduating students from the rising India - Apna Bharat, on how to become an entrepreneur. They have the will, skills and passion, but lack direction.

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