1947 Tech 🇮🇳: 114

Once a week newsletter: Insights on Tech, markets, startups, venture capital, and foreign investments in India

1. API startup Postman in talks with Insight Partners to raise new funds at $2 billion

Postman was valued at $350M just a year ago. 

That’s quite impressive. 

Postman is a collaboration platform for managing, developing and testing application programme interfaces (APIs). APIs are a set of tools for building applications used by software developers.

If the deal goes through, Postman would be the 5th SaaS unicorn from India.

Others — Zoho, Freshworks, Druva, and Icertis.

This is just a beginning. India could eventually end up becoming the SaaS hub of the world

According to SaaSBOOMi, which is a community for SaaS companies in India, India’s SaaS industry clocked $1.5 billion in revenues in 2019, and is expected to grow to $10 billion by 2025. In that time, India is expected to grow from controlling a 2.6% share of the global SaaS market to 8%.

API startup Postman in talks with Insight Partners to raise new funds at $2 billion

2. Cover Story: Sridhar Vembu’s Vision From The Village | Forbes India

Just one word — Inspiring!

Sridhar Vembu, founder and CEO of Zoho. He owns 88% of the company and is worth around $1.4 - $1.8B.

Never raised outside capital. Zoho is bootstrapped. 

Yes, you heard it right — bootstrapped.

Why the Zoho founder moved from San Francisco to a village 650 km from Chennai.

Great read.

Cover Story: Sridhar Vembu's Vision From The Village | Forbes India

3. New VC funds in India

As the ecosystem matures, naturally more capital becomes available for startups.

And we are seeing this unfold in India

Every 2–4 weeks, a new fund is in the market.

India would become one of the most competitive early-stage investing markets globally in the next 3–5 years.

• Arkam Ventures announces the first close of its Rs 700 Cr early-stage tech fund, to focus on startups building for Middle India

• Zomato, Policybazaar backer Info Edge raising $100M VC fund

A few tweets

Amit Agarwal @AmitAgarwal

On this day, back in the year 2013 Amazon.in went live for the first time in India. I vividly remember the day when the entire team could fit in one room! It has been an extraordinary journey and even after 7 years, it still feels like Day 1.

vikalp sahni @vikalpsahni

It's a high unlimited building @SetuAarogya with these magical bunch of engineers under the guidance of Govt of India. Among d top 10 most downloaded apps since launch, more importantly, helping nation flight COVID. We unanimously say nothing more fulfilling than pure #deshseva

Worth your attention:

1. Tiger Global to move court over denial of tax relief on Flipkart stake sale Link

2. My father spent nearly a year’s salary on my plane ticket to the US, says Google CEO Sundar Pichai Link

3. WeWork commits $100 million investment into India operations Link

4. Walmart’s Flipkart rolls out voice assistant to make shopping easier Link

5. Unacademy in talks to raise $100-$150M, eyes unicorn club Link

A week in review:

Shiva Singh Sangwan @shivassangwan

This week in 🇮🇳! • Postman in talks with Insight partners to raise a new fund at $2B • Unacademy in talks to raise $100-$150M • WeWork commits $100M investment into India operations • HealthPlix raises $6M • YoloBus raises $3M • Info Edge is raising $100M VC fund

Shiva Singh Sangwan @shivassangwan

• Arkham Ventures announce the first close of its $100M fun’s • India allows Startups to issue Sweat Equity within 10 yrs of Incorporation • My father spent nearly a year’s salary on my plane ticket to the US, Google CEO Sundar Pichai

Thank you for reading. Please share any feedback, questions or comments with me on Twitter :)