1947 Tech 🇮🇳: 178

a house of DTC brands, becomes unicorn in just six months

1. India’s top startups make staff richer by $5 bn this year

Indian startups are giving their employees reason to cheer in the festive season. Ten companies, including Paytm, Oyo, Zomato, Nykaa and Pharmeasy that have either listed this year or are preparing to do so, have generated close to $5.2 billion for their workers through their employee stock option plans (Esop).

What a moment for the Indian tech ecosystem.

Early employees will leave to start companies. 

Early employees will fund their friends and colleagues. 

The ideas and the teams going after them would be much superior to what we have seen in the past.

India’s top startups make staff richer by $5 bn this year

2. India’s Mensa, a house of DTC brands, becomes unicorn in just six months

The speed at which the repeat founders / operators are executing is insane. 

Mensa Brands, an Indian startup that acquires direct-to-consumer brands and helps them scale within the home market and overseas, has become a unicorn just six months after launching its business.

Falcon Edge Capital led Mensa Brands’ $135 million Series B financing round that values the Indian startup at over $1 billion, the two said Tuesday.

Prosus Ventures, as well as all existing investors including Tiger Global, Norwest Venture Partners and Accel also participated in the new round, pushing Mensa’s all-time raise to over $300 million in equity and debt.

Mensa Brands — founded by Ananth Narayanan, who previously served as the chief executive of fashion e-commerce giant Myntra that was eventually scooped by Flipkart — operates in the same space as Thrasio, the Boston-based startup widely credited with the success of this model.

India’s Mensa, a house of DTC brands, becomes unicorn in just six months

A podcast

Shiva Singh Sangwan @shivassangwan

Hey, this is the peak time of our lives. Living in the US is great but it comes with tons of limitations Indian tech ecosystem is booming, so let's swing big! The rest is legacy in the making. @1947Rise is cheering for Amrit (@acharyaamrit) and the team

anchor.fm10: Amrit Acharya (Zetwerk) by 1947 RiseAmrit Acharya is the Co-Founder & CEO of Zetwerk. Currently valued at $1.33 Billion, Zetwerk is a universal manufacturing network powered by new-age technology. SHOW NOTES The journey from growing up in India to moving to the US and then moving back to India (1:00) How did Zetwerk come about (6:2…

Worth your attention

1. Policybazaar shares end nearly 23% higher on market debut Link

2. Zomato may invest $500 million in Grofers to push its quick commerce play Link

3. Freshworks, Dream11, Swiggy and Indifi founders invest in Pine Labs Link

4. A91 Partners closes second fund at $525 million Link

5. Decoding Zepto last funding round, shareholding and ESOP pool Link

6. 3one4 Capital to increase size of its third fund to almost Rs 1,500 crore Link

7. Vaibhav Domkundwar’s Better Capital raises $15.28 million maiden fund Link

8. GoKwik raises ₹112 cr funding led by Sequoia Capital India Link

9. CoinSwitch Kuber in talks to acquire mutual fund platform Symbl Link

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