1947 Tech 🇮🇳: 84
Once a week newsletter: Insights on Tech, markets, startups, venture capital, and foreign investments in India
1. AngelList as a Scout: VCs ready tools to plant seeds in startup ground
The pre-seed / seed-stage space in India is becoming highly competitive.
The 10-year-old startup ecosystem in India is maturing thus we are seeing more and more repeat founders going for the second time, executive-level employees at unicorns are starting startups and the overall quality of the founders and deals have tremendously gone up.
To realize the highest venture returns, venture capital firms are launch separate seed-stage funds, accelerators and mentorship schemes.
Top funds in India are also closely tracking AngelList — a website for startups, angel investors and job-seekers looking to work at startups — to scout for founders in a more organized manner.
2. Valley ahoy: A slew of Indian B2B founders are shifting base to Silicon Valley
Go-global from day one is the new mindset of Indian entrepreneurs. Not a huge surprise, but B2B companies in India are increasingly moving to the US to develop their business.
Last year, the cofounder of Lucideus, a cybersecurity startup, spent four months in Silicon Valley. This year, in the first four months itself, he had to make seven trips from Delhi to California. Eventually, in July, Modi, who was living out of a suitcase, rented a studio apartment in Palo Alto and shifted base to the US.
Valley ahoy: A slew of Indian B2B founders are shifting base to Silicon Valley
3. Companies in India are raising massive rounds.
Udaan raises $300M from Altimeter, GGV Capital, existing investors link
SoftBank Vision Fund, Naspers Ventures and Tiger Global Management looking to infuse $500M into sports fantasy company Dream 11 link
Kedaara Capital is in talks to buy shares in omni-channel eyewear retailer Lenskartthrough a secondary deal, valuing the company at $1 billion link
Lenskart is also in discussions with SoftBank Vision Fund for a primary infusion, a financing round of around $300–350 million link
A week in reviewÂ
