1947 Tech 🇮🇳: 195

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1. India’s 100 Unicorn Startups — Today Marks A New Milestone For India’s Startup Economy

What an incredible milestone! 1st Indian unicorn was in 2011. Here we are — 11 years later welcoming the 100th Indian unicorn,” tweeted Rajan Anandan, managing director of Sequoia Capital India.

Excellent read. All things unicorns in India

After a whopping 42 unicorns in 2021, the milestone of a 100 unicorns was just a touching distance away for the Indian startup ecosystem. By the end of 2021, India had doubled its unicorn count to 84, and two publicly-listed companies — MapmyIndia and EaseMyTrip — also joined the unicorn club. And in the first quarter of 2022, this number grew by 13 more to 99 startups with a valuation of over $1 Bn.

Now, with the entry of neobanking startup Open, which raised a Series D funding round from IIFL with participation from Temasek, Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital. With its $50 Mn fundraise, the startup claims to have become the 100th unicorn in India.

The announcement of the 100th unicorn in India saw a range of reactions from the ecosystem, with many pointing out the glorious run for startups in the past decade.

India’s 100 Unicorn Startups — Today Marks A New Milestone For India’s Startup Economy

2.Andreessen Horowitz plans $500 million investment in Indian startups

Andreessen Horowitz, which made its maiden India investment last year, is looking to get aggressive in the world’s second-largest internet market.

The Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm has earmarked about $500 million to back Indian startups, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

The firm, which led a funding round in the Bengaluru-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch Kuber last year, is also looking to hire for several investment roles in the country, people familiar with the matter said.

A number of partners at the firm including Seema Amble and Sumeet Singh have engaged with several Indian startups in recent months, people familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity as the matter is private.

Andreessen Horowitz plans $500 million investment in Indian startups

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A Podcast

Shiva Singh Sangwan @shivassangwan

Joined Binance early on. A combination of intuition and bold decisions led him to move back to India to build @biconomy. @aniket_jindal08's personal mission is to onboard a billion people. Well, this is new India. Highly ambitious and courageous 🚀 🔥 anchor.fm/1947-rise/epis…20: Aniket Jindal (Biconomy) by 1947 RiseAniket Jindal is the founder of Biconmy. Its mission is to make blockchain transactions simple. Prior to Biconomy, Aniket was an early employee at Binance. Aniket is also nurturing the Indian tech ecosystem by backing the web3 founders. SHOW NOTES Aniket’s journey from growing up in India to mov…anchor.fm

May 4th 2022

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Worth paying attention to:

1. Quick commerce firm Zepto valued at $900 million, gets $200 million Link

2. Open becomes 100th unicorn of India, raises $50 million led by IIFL: Sources Link

3. Insurtech startup Turtlemint bags $120 million as valuation tops $900 million Link

4. Pantera Capital to increase India focus as it closes crypto, blockchain funds Link

5. Early-stage deals in India more than doubled to $2 billion in Q1 2022: report Link

6. Venture capital firm Rise Capital sets up shop in India Link

7. Coinbase appoints former Snap India head Durgesh Kaushik to grow emerging markets Link

8. Dental startup Toothsi raises $40 million funding led by Eight Roads Ventures and others Link

9. Dental startup Toothsi raises $40 million funding led by Eight Roads Ventures and others Link

10. Stride Ventures expects final close of second fund in next two months Link

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