Rohit Goyal

Funding Alert! Exciting developments at Artha Venture Fund as we announce InstaAstro’s successful raise of ₹18.50 crores ($2.30m) in a Pre-Series A funding round that we led with amazing co-investors including @logX Ventures, Singularity Ventures, IR Capital Partners, Blume Ventures Founders Fund, and Aloke Bajpai of Ixigo.   Why InstaAstro? Nitin Verma's brainchild, InstaAstro has rapidly ascended as a leader in the online astrology market. With a robust user base engaging in over 50,000 minutes of consultations daily and consistently growing to a $5M ARR, their trajectory is nothing short of stellar.   What’s Next? InstaAstro is not just scaling—they're innovating. With the new funding, they're set to unveil an expansive suite of spiritual e-commerce and Reiki healing services. These initiatives aim to deepen user engagement and expand InstaAstro's reach into comprehensive spiritual guidance.   👉 https://bit.ly/4dG1Yj9   #arthaventurefund #funding #VentureCapital Artha Group

30

1 Comment

Almost all early-stage founders make this mistake. While much is made of investors scrutinizing founders, smart founders should be equally focused. Focused on what? On ensuring the fit is right before partnering with any investor, especially in the early stages when the relationship is so crucial. .. Myth 1: "It's a One-Sided Power Dynamic" While investors do hold leverage, strong founders recognize they're being courted too. Asking insightful questions about the potential investor's track record, value proposition, and alignment with your long-term goals is a sign of strength, not desperation. .. Myth 2: "My Passion Will Win Them Over" Passion is vital, but investors are looking for data-backed reasons to believe in your business model. Be prepared to defend your market size analysis, go-to-market strategy, and financial projections with evidence, not just enthusiasm. .. Myth 3: "They Just Look at the Big Picture" Experienced investors know the devil is in the details. Expect deep dives into your cap table, any existing investor agreements, IP ownership clarity, and other elements that signal potential red flags down the road as the company grows. .. Flipping the Script: Questions Founders Should Ask: 1> Track Record: Look beyond overall fund performance (which may mask a few huge wins amidst many duds). Ask about their involvement at the board level, and seek honest references from OTHER founders they've backed, both the successes and the failures 2> The 'Value-Add': Is this a 'blank check' investor, or do they bring industry connections, operational support, or other resources beyond funding? Get specific about what help you can realistically expect in the trenches 3> Alignment: Ask about their investment thesis for the next few years. Are they likely to push for a quick exit out of sync with your vision of building a sustainable long-term enterprise? .. Due diligence protects both sides from getting into a mismatch. Taking money isn't always the right move! A well-structured 'no' beats signing a deal that hamstrings your growth. And every early-stage founder must remember that! .. As founders ourselves, Anuradha and I are always on the look for founders with whom we find a fit. If you would like to get in touch, do share what you are building. Write to us at deals@dexter[dot]ventures keeping me in CC at devendra.agrawal@dextercapital[dot]in Best, Devendra Tags: Dexter Capital Advisors | Dexter Ventures

115

12 Comments

Now to India

5

Thrilled to partner with Anurag Arjun and Prabal Banerjee as they build the future of data availability at Avail! Anurag, former co-founder of Polygon Labs, has built one of the leading blockchain infrastructure networks, along with Prabal, one of the leading cryptographer globally today. Together, they are set to revolutionize the blockchain ecosystem. Despite its transformative potential, blockchain still faces fundamental infrastructure issues. This is where Avail comes in - they address the critical data availability problem, making blockchain technology more scalable, flexible, and accessible. Avail's innovative solutions ensure transaction verification, prevent fraud, enhance scalability, and support advanced applications like Layer 2 rollups. Their approach also reduces costs, improves efficiency, and supports Industry 5.0 and IoT. At LocalGlobe, we are excited to partner with Avail and look forward to the future they are building. Stay tuned for more updates! #Blockchain #Investment #TechInnovation #FutureOfTech #LocalGlobe More about our thesis here: https://lnkd.in/gjJfCVuE

135

1 Comment

The Council's first SPV of 2024 is down in the books and oversubscribed. Running SPVs where we have pro rata or extra allocation in fund deals is a muscle we are building pretty late in the game as a firm. As a solo GP with a tiny team, it's crippling to think of the extra work required and risk of not meeting platform minimums to run an SPV. But 7 of our port co's have recently raised follow on funding where we had pro rata. These are awesome deals for our LPs, angel members, and syndicate community. We simply can't afford to let them slip through the cracks. These allocations are only becoming more valuable as our firm grows, so we must start NOW! Proud to say this one went off without a hitch and our syndicate community is small but THRIVING. Wish us luck as we keep building. Note our SPVs are now on Sydecar. The best way to get access is to know someone on The Council Fund team and be on our SPV email list. **What's an SPV?** An SPV is a Special Purpose Vehicle. It allows multiple angel investors to pool together into one larger investment into a company. This helps the founder keep paperwork and investor relations to a minimum (less names on the cap table = simplicity!). When people say they're investing with a "syndicate" or they are "syndicating a deal," SPV is the entity and process by which they do that. A "syndicate" is like a community of people that invest via SPVs together.

62

10 Comments

Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) shared two simple methods that can help founders to find whether they have achieved Product-Market Fit (PMF) 👇 The First is "Retention Curve" - "The retention curve is what percentage of your users keep coming back over some time while using your product/service." Essentially, there are 3 kinds of retention curves, and you should plot this curve by day, week, or month, once you launch your product. 1. Declining Curve (dark grey line), let's say you’ve launched a consumer internet app on day 0, and every week your retention rate declines by 10%, which essentially means that by the end of 3rd month, all your initial users would have churned, then that's a declining curve, which indicates that you don’t have a product-market fit. 2. Flattening Curve (orange line) is actually good, although it kind of varies depending upon the category (Health-Tech, EdTech, etc.,) but generically speaking if the retention curve flattens between 20%-40% that could be quite good. 3. Finally the best one is the Smiling Retention Curve (green line), which means that retention drops but then as time goes on you keep reactivating users, which indicates that you're getting close to your product-market fit. Another question that founder should think is - 2. Do Customers Love Product? Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric that organizations use to measure customer loyalty toward their brand, product or service. NPS works by asking your customers a single question: "How likely are you to recommend our products/services to others?" NPS = % Promoters (score 9-10) - % Detractors (score 0-6) If the magic score is = 70% or more, then you have an amazing product-market fit. But if the number declines to 40% or below, then you don’t have it. It's that simple! What do you think of these two methods? 🚀 Check out my free newsletter for insights: https://lnkd.in/dKZQKHg2 . #startup #fundraising #venturecapital #funding #fundraising #founders #founderjourney #entrepreneurship #entrepreneur #founderstories #startuptips #sharktankindia #siliconvalley #startups #vc #vcfund #vcfunding #funding #startups #pmf #product #sequoiacapital

91

4 Comments

✨ Chet Kapoor ✨ is quite the Silicon Valley legend. Three-time founder and currently the CEO of DataStax his wisdom for founders is incredibly spot-on ✅ and timeless ⏰ ! In this most recent and probably best-ever episode of The Enterprise GTM podcast, Chet discusses what it takes to build enduring tech companies. Some 🎤 soundbites 🎤 from our conversation: 👩‍🏫 The quality of people influences the outcome of your startup the most. 🔥 You do not need smart people who sit around and pontificate. ☄ Momentum is everything. Never underestimate it. 🌟 Having complete clarity of thought at any given time is very important--who are you doing this for, and how will it change their lives? 🌈 One of the best ways to create a large company is to create a parade or join one. ☝ Know who you are. There's a high likelihood that the company will become more like who you are rather than who you want to be. 🛑 Don't make the mistake of hiring sales execs too soon. Be extra cautious about partnerships. 📣 Tune in to hear about what he has to say about AI startups getting started today, the future of the data layer, the evolving importance of data roles (data science, data engineering), and so much more! #devtool #founder #startup #data #ai https://lnkd.in/gW-58nvE

31

1 Comment

DePIN & RWAs dominance isn't as far off as most people think. Across every innovative cycle, three fundamental pillars emerge: foundational technology development, proliferation of infrastructure, and a surge in application development. As we venture into the third cycle, DePIN and RWA protocols are poised to become market leaders paralleling the dominance witnessed by infrastructure projects from 2015 to 2024.

28

2 Comments

Almost 3k people signed up within a day! 🚀 That's how quick our newest initiative (India Multipliers) scaled last month, we announced it. This was a WhatsApp community, with the intent of building a collaborative discourse and fuelling insights on the rising India Story, that so many of us are invested into. .. But, unfortunately, for reasons unknown to date, WhatsApp decided to take down the community groups just the day after the community went live. .. However, we were down, but not out. As Jayant mentioned in one of the interactions after this, builders don't break down, but build on. .. Delighted to re-introduce you to India Multipliers as a newsletter series. Subscribe here for regular doses of insights on niches and sub-niches that make the rising India Story so special: https://lnkd.in/dz3KMyFX Looking forward to welcoming you in! .. PS: We at Dexter Ventures ($50k-$500k early-stage investments) and Dexter Capital Advisors (advise $3MM-$100MM) are always eager to work with like-minded founders, angels and other members of the PE/VC/Family Office ecosystem. Do reach out to us at deals@dexter.ventures keeping anuradha@dexter[dot]ventures in CC if there is anything we can help you with :) Best, Anuradha Tags: Devendra | #Startups #VC #IndiaStory #Funding

53

Venture capital exists to capitalize and create hallmark entrepreneurial business building stories, and this one, from Eric Tarczynski, Founder of Contrary, one of the earliest investors in Indian commerce start-up Zepto, is one of those outstanding stories and a must-read below! The growth and progress of this Indian start-up are truly remarkable, especially given it was only founded in 2021! Zepto recently raised $665 million in a new round of funding, more than doubling its valuation to $3.6 billion from $1.4 billion in less than a year, as the #Mumbai-based startup doubles down on its efforts to capture the contested quick commerce market in #India. US-based Glade Brook Capital Partners LLC, Nexus Venture Partners and StepStone Group co-led the “highly-oversubscribed” Series F round. Avenir, Lightspeed India and Avra (former Y Combinator Continuity exec Anu Hariharan’s new fund) as well as existing backers Goodwater, Lachy Groom and Contrary followed. It is clear that US investors are still active and keen on the India start-up market. The startup said its revenue has risen 140% from a year earlier, and its annualized gross merchandise value (GMV) is on track to exceed $1 billion. It works with more than 50,000 delivery partners and is adding over 5,000 delivery partners each month. The company said about 75% of its dark stores were EBITDA positive as of last month. Congratulations Eric Tarczynski and the Zepto Team! #fundraising #indianmarket #venturecapital #earlystage #indianentrepreneeurs #capitalmarkets #highgrowth #unicorns #seed

34

1 Comment

SaaS is a hotbed of opportunities for founders and investors to create disproportionate returns on capital. Amidst this growing landscape of Indian SaaS startups, a critical component often gets shadowed by the immediate goals of growth and market capture — the exit strategy. Accounting for exit outcomes over the longer term should start early so founders can optimize for the success of themselves, their employees and their investors. We at Matrix Partners India spent some time speaking with founders, corp dev professionals, investment bankers and other leaders in the space to understand the exit scenarios including M&As, PE acquisitions and IPOs (India and US) and have compiled our learnings. Link to the article in comments. Would love to hear from you if you have insights on the topic / further questions :) Avnish | Ashwin | Pranay | Vikram #SaaS #IPO #ExitStrategy

154

5 Comments

Cap Table Red flags in early-stage start-ups Over the past two years, we at Transition VC have evaluated close to 1,000 deep technology or Engineering start-ups in the energy transition domain in India. More than two dozen are actively working on innovative ideas and developing technologies or products with significant potential. Still, we had to reject a few start-ups due to Cap Table issues. Disproportionate allocation of shareholding percentage among the founders: Disproportionate allocation among the founders has resulted in potential conflicts leading to founder issues and the collapse of the start-ups. These human issues are complicated to solve in the later stages, and it also means one of the founders with a majority stake is perceived to have a significant influence & role, and the other founder whose role is perceived to be a supporting one. For us, at Transition VC, the maximum difference between dual founders shall not be more than 20%, i.e., the maximum disproportionate split can be 60% versus 40%. Allocation of a significant percentage of passive participants: We have observed that few start-ups gave up significant stakes to non-active participants such as advisors, universities, accelerators, or incubators, This substantial allocation of shares to passive participants hinders the start-up’s capital-raising ability in the further rounds, as the co-founders’ stake might come down significantly below the minimum stake, as every investor at each stage expects the founders to have more significant skin in the game. A single investor holding more than >30% with special powers related to exit, monetary and strategic rights is perceived negatively by the new investors, who would want to avoid existing investors having too much control over the start-up. Bringing in a strategic investor early in the game: Having strategic investors, suppliers, and customers on the cap table can be detrimental to attracting new investors, customers, and strategic partners. It is better to avoid them until they have a very minimum stake and don’t have a direct overlap. Single founders: Entrepreneurship is very tough mentally and, many times, exhausting. It can drain all your energy, resulting in burnout within a short time. Things could be smoother and more linear when building or scaling start-ups. There are a lot of ups and downs during the entrepreneurial journey; you need someone who can share your vision and passion and support each other during tough times. There is a high chance of solo founders burning out if things go south and potentially giving up. Having multiple founders in a start-up is not mandatory, but we prefer multiple founder start-ups as the key personal risk comes down significantly with multiple founders. Transition VC #start-ups #Venturecapital

81

7 Comments

The 2024 Ultimate Guide to Venture Capital for Startup Fundraising. Very interesting set of insights about the current market and nice guide on the VC world. (Big shoutout to Rohit Yadav for putting all this info together.) An essential read for both founders and investors, particularly the fundraising segment. #fundraising #venturecapital #entrepreneurship #startup

20

1 Comment

Startup Equity Distribution Guide for Founders. Founders often ask how they should split equity with their co-founders & early employees.... If you search web on this topic, you will see horrible advice, typically advocating for significant inequality among different founding team members. Lot of founders follow this trend because of following reasons: - I came up with the idea for the company - I started working n months before my co-founder - This is what we agreed to - My co-founder took a salary for n months and I didn't - I started working full time & months before my co-founder - I am older/more experienced than my co-founder - I brought on my co-founder after raising n thousands of dollars - I brought on my co-founder after launching my MVP - We need someone to tie-break in the case of founder arguments Founders tend to make the mistake of splitting equity based on early work. All of these lines of reasoning screw up in four fundamental ways: 1️⃣ It takes 7 to 10 years to build a company of great value. Small variations in year one do not justify massively different founder equity splits in year 2-10. 2️⃣ Startups often fail, so the more motivated the founders, the higher the chance of success. Giving founders a larger equity stake can increase their motivation and drive. 3️⃣ Investors view founder equity splits as a signal of how the CEO values their co-founders. Unequal splits can imply that certain founders are not highly valued, which can deter investment. 4️⃣ Dramatic equity disparities can overemphasize the initial idea rather than the team's ability to execute and generate traction. Startup success relies more on execution than the original concept. Equity should be split equally (or near equally) because all the work is ahead of you. My advice : Split equal (or close to equal) equity splits among co-founders. - These are the people you are going to war with. - You will spend more time with these people than you will with most family members. - These are the people who will help you decide the most important questions in your company. Finally, these are the people you will celebrate with when you succeed. I believe equal or close to equal equity splits among founding teams should become standard. If you aren't willing to give your partner an equal share, then perhaps you are choosing the wrong partner. Check out the attached PDF to learn more about how to compensate your co-founders & early employees with equity. It includes 👇 1️⃣ Founder's pie, 2️⃣ Slicing the Founders’ Pie, 3️⃣ Distribution Issues and Consideration of Values, 4️⃣ Stock-Vesting Agreement, 5️⃣ Founder Relative Contribution, 6️⃣ Rules of thumb for founders and employees equity distribution& More. PDF Credit: Frank Demmler . #founders #equity #funding #fundraising #founder #money #vc #investors #angelinvestors #startuptips #rules #employees #venturecapital #fund #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #tech #investor #startup

80

2 Comments

The evolution of India's alternative investment fund (#AIF) ecosystem has been remarkable. Just 5-6 years ago, there were fewer than 150 AIFs, especially in the VC scenario. Today, we have more than 1000, including micro-VCs, angel funds, and Category 1 and 2 funds. It's fascinating to observe the amount of money and dry powder available in the country. A noteworthy trend is increasing domestic participation in AIFs. Previously, 10-15% of the money was raised domestically, with the rest from overseas sources. However, this balance is rapidly shifting, with domestic #fundraising gaining momentum. The diverse range of funds and increasing domestic participation reflects the maturity of the Indian #investment landscape. It also signals rapidly growing #investor confidence in India's economic potential.

44

CROWDINVEST update - "A Case for Integrating Blockchain-based Smart Contracts in Cross-Border Investments" CROWDINVEST : Blockchain-Based Cross-Border Alternative Investment Crowdfunding Platform. Nakul Garg, Co-Founder and Director of CrowdInvest, comments on their latest Whitepaper, titled "A Case for Integrating Blockchain-based Smart Contracts in Cross-Border Investments", that has been published in the esteemed SSRN. "...This paper is a must-read for those interested in the intricate world of blockchain technology in the investment space. We've meticulously explored the intersection of blockchain-based smart contracts with cross-border investments, and our interdisciplinary research delves into the legal, financial, and technological aspects, offering insights that can simplify complex investment processes across borders..."   Read the full article [here]. https://lnkd.in/ewgtqi8Q REMINDER. CrowdInvest is a blockchain-enabled alternative investments platform that makes the tokenisation of real assets and cross-border crowdfunding possible. The vision is to connect investors from developed markets with emerging markets startups and UK-based startups led by immigrant founders. While we are currently working towards facilitating the UK-India corridor, we hold the vision to go global. CROWDINVEST is a portfolio company of XSS Capital. Join us on this investment journey? Contact me for more info.

1