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Yourstory
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Kunal Bahl on Titan Capital’s new fund, investment thesis, and encouraging domestic capital
- Titan Capital, founded by Snapdeal’s Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, has made the final close of its new fund at Rs 333 crore. The venture capital firm wants to exclusively invest in follow-on rounds of some of the top-performing companies from its portfolio of 280 startups.
- Titan Capital has selected many large, reputed family offices, CEOs of large listed companies, and founders as well from the startup ecosystem who have scaled good businesses to back their Winners Fund.
- It is predominantly domestic capital. Bahl passionately feels about activating domestic capital. The recent data reveals that only 15% of startup funding in India last year came from domestic sources. He hopes that other good investors also give an opportunity to domestic capital to participate in the startup economy.
- The VC firm is looking to invest in 20 startups with an average ticket size of Rs 15 crore. The additional capital will serve as a mark of confidence in its portfolio.
- The strategy behind the new fund is to invest in the standout companies within the Titan Seed Fund portfolio that they already know well, making it an ideal opportunity for them to double down on their best prospects.
- They prioritise great founding teams that have demonstrated success in various fields, interesting market spaces specifically companies targeting 'laughably small TAM (Total Addressable Market)', and importance of generating solid unit economics, as they represent the core of any business.
- Titan Capital has backed tech-enabled companies and understands these business models well. However, there has been a recent outcry about there being no money for growth-stage companies in India. He said, for now, they just felt setting up the Winners Fund was for their founders.
- The firm said there are 2-3 deals in the pipeline as part of Winners Fund, one company is in the business-to-business (B2B) space, another in construction material space and another in the quick service restaurant (QSR) space.
- There is no strict timeline as such but roughly around 2-3 years, Titan Capital expects to disperse the entire fund. It depends on if more companies mature faster, they will invest faster.
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TechCrunch
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India’s Neysa bags $30M to compete with global AI hyperscalers
- Indian startup Neysa has raised $30 million in a Series A round to compete with global AI hyperscalers.
- Neysa offers AI and machine learning infrastructure and platform as a service to enterprise customers in India.
- The startup differentiates itself by offering flexibility, including both public cloud and private clusters.
- Neysa plans to expand its product lineup, target local businesses, and enter global markets with future funding.
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Medium
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The Role of Sales Enablement: Helping Revenue Growth and Supporting Sales Teams
- Sales enablement equips sales teams with the resources they need to close more deals through access to training, content, tools, data, and insights.
- Sales enablement is a strategic process that aligns sales and marketing efforts and provides consistent support through centralized teams to remove friction from the sales process, leading to increased efficiency, higher win rates, and stronger revenue growth.
- Organizations with strong sales enablement strategies see a 20% increase in win rates and a 66% faster ramp-up time for new hires.
- One of the most important aspects of sales enablement is its role as a shared service that conserves key functions into a single unit to provide uniform and consistent support to the sales organization.
- Centralizing sales enablement efforts in one platform enables sales reps to quickly access the tools, content, and support they need without having to navigate through multiple systems, improving efficiency and enhancing the overall experience for the sales team.
- For organizations looking to scale their sales enablement efforts, adopting a shared services model is crucial to creating efficiencies and improving collaboration across departments.
- StartingPoint is a powerful tool that can help sales enablement teams centralize operations, initiatives, projects, tasks, and requests from sales or other departments, streamlining workflows, improving visibility, and enhancing collaboration.
- Sales enablement is a critical function that drives revenue growth and supports sales teams, creating a more efficient and effective sales process.
- Implementing a platform like StartingPoint can enhance the effectiveness of sales enablement efforts and ultimately drive revenue growth and support sales teams in achieving their goals.
- Visit StartingPoint at www.startingpoint.ai for more information.
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Medium
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How to Raise Pre-Seed Funding in 2024: Lessons from TestSprite’s Journey
- To make the most of your pitch, founders should have a clear and compelling vision of their product and be able to communicate that vision clearly to investors.
- Startups that address urgent and unmet needs in growing markets are more appealing to investors and worth refining the pitch until it feels undeniable.
- Highlighting the unique strengths of the founding team builds investor confidence in the ability to execute.
- Early feedback from validating your product with real users shows investors that there's real demand for the product.
- Before approaching investors, founders should have data which shows traction.
- Investors may take time in pre-seed fundraising due to the competitive fundraising landscape.
- Providing regular updates on the progress of the startup shows investors that steady strides are being made, leading to an increased level of credibility.
- Create a financial model that clearly lays out the projected costs, revenue streams, and runway to show investors how their money will be used.
- Startups should focus on investors who have a track record of supporting early-stage startups in their niche. Thoroughly researching investors is key to finding the right match.
- Pre-seed investors expect flexibility in terms of valuation caps and equity. Startups should be open to negotiation and to keep the long-term vision in mind.
- Founders should highlight not only the product milestones already accomplished but also their vision for the continued growth of the company.
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Medium
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3 Tips on Building a Shared Services Group Inside Growing Startups
- A shared services model addresses issues like silos, redundancy, and waste within departments of a growing startup by consolidating core business functions into a single, unified team that provides support across all departments.
- Firstly, identify business functions to centralize, which typically includes administrative tasks, HR tasks, procurement, and accounts payable or receivable. This reduces operational redundancy and frees up teams to focus on strategic work.
- Once you have centralized your shared services functions, it is critical to define workflows and responsibilities clearly to ensure smooth communication between the shared services team and other parts of the organization.
- Project tracking becomes a key component of this process, ensuring that tasks are completed efficiently and nothing falls through the cracks.
- Relying on shared inboxes for communication and task tracking can quickly become a source of inefficiency. Startups should adopt project management and ticketing systems to manage incoming requests from various departments to create accountability and ensure no request is overlooked.
- Using tools like Slack for informal discussions and real-time collaboration is fine, but startups should integrate ticketing or project management tools with Slack to manage tasks.
- Regular team check-ins, problem-solving sessions, and sharing best practices among departments can improve efficiency and foster innovation. Communication tools like Slack can help break down silos and create a more collaborative culture across departments.
- It is essential to establish key performance indicators (KPIs) for your shared services group, such as metrics for efficiency, effectiveness, and customer satisfaction, in order to gauge how well the team is functioning and whether they're meeting the needs of the rest of the organization.
- StartingPoint is a powerful workflow and automation platform designed to help startups manage the growing complexity of their operations by consolidating multiple functions into a unified platform, with centralized project tracking that enables shared services groups to assign tasks, manage deadlines, and monitor progress.
- As your startup continues to grow, StartingPoint will scale with your operations, ensuring that your shared services team remains efficient and productive, ultimately driving long-term success.
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Gritdaily
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The Hard Lessons of Partnership Building
- In today’s rapidly changing markets, strategic partnerships must enable each other’s long-term growth, where both partners have skin in the game and see their future success as intertwined.
- Historically, B2B partnerships in IT were bilaterally direct agreements between companies, lacking flexibility needed to keep pace with evolving technological landscapes.
- The rise of cloud technologies transformed partnerships by introducing new approaches to fluid, scalable collaborations and data sharing.
- Cultural and operational alignment, package deals, and a shared vision are essential to successful, long-term partnerships.
- Partnerships must unlock potential achievable by multiplying resources and knowledge.
- In today's market, competition is at an all-time high and differentiating oneself from others can only be done by aligning two brilliant teams, expertise, and goals.
- Working together to develop adaptable, scalable package deals that offer clear value, we can strengthen the partnership and create more attractive, long-term opportunities for larger clients.
- B2B partnerships are evolving and moving towards ecosystem-based subscription models, introducing recurring revenue streams that offer stability and predictability in the volatile market.
- Collaboration helps increase customer stickiness, grow retention, and expand potential market reach.
- True success in B2B comes from finding partners open to co-creation, where the benefits are mutual, and both sides see their value amplified.
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Siliconangle
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Haiper debuts new flagship video generation model
- Haiper Ltd. has debuted Haiper 2.0, a video generator that creates short clips based on user prompts.
- Compared to the previous release, Haiper 2.0 generates clips faster and in a more realistic style.
- An upcoming update will enhance the resolution of the videos to 3840 by 2160 pixels.
- Haiper uses AI models to power cloud services for generating short clips, and the new DiT architecture of Haiper 2.0 improves its performance.
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6 Likes
Massivelyop
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Tarisland is adding a roguelike mode and a ‘Fair Raid’ mode in tomorrow’s Blight Dragon Elegy
- Tarisland is launching its first full season's worth of content with new gameplay features.
- The update includes several new PvE modes, such as Temple Maze, Twisted Dreamland, and Fair Raid.
- The video teases a new team battle mode for PvP and fresh boss battles for guilds.
- The release of the new content is scheduled for tomorrow.
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Medium
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The Maker Studios Scam: How Lisa Nova, Danny Zappin, and Shay Carl Pulled Off the Grift of the…
- The Disney acquisition of Maker Studios was a major blunder, driven by starstruck decision-making and overlooking the company's sustainability.
- Danny Zappin, a key figure, was involved in manipulating the company's valuation and profiting before its eventual collapse.
- Maker Studios served as an unnecessary middleman for creators and became obsolete with YouTube's direct monetization options.
- Zappin went on to start Zealot Networks, another venture focused on personal gain rather than creating lasting value.
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Gritdaily
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Image Credit: Gritdaily
This App is Revolutionizing Screen Time for Kids
- Suzy is an app designed to transform how kids engage with screens while keeping parents in control.
- The app emphasizes both safety and learning, with a unique mechanism that unlocks games only after engaging in an educational activity.
- Suzy provides built-in screen time recommendations tailored to each child's profile, backed by collaborations with screen time associations and experts.
- The app aims to disrupt the screen time management market by becoming the go-to solution for parents introducing their children to screens.
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13 Likes
Inc42
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Image Credit: Inc42
PB Fintech Subsidiary Gets Account Aggregator Licence
- PB Financial Account Aggregator Private Limited, a subsidiary of PB Fintech, has received a Certificate of Registration (CoR) from the Reserve Bank of India.
- The subsidiary can now operate as a non-banking financial institution as an account aggregator, without accepting public deposits.
- The account aggregator framework enables secure transfer of customer information with their consent and consists of financial information providers (FIPs) and financial information users (FIUs).
- PB Fintech is also planning to enter the payment aggregation business and the healthcare space.
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Startup Pedia
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Swiggy Staff Flags System to Stalk Girlfriend! A LinkedIn Viral Story
- A Swiggy professional allegedly misused his access to Swiggy's systems to monitor his ex-girlfriend's whereabouts through her food delivery orders.
- The incident raises concerns about data privacy and the misuse of consumer data.
- The man flagged his ex-girlfriend's account in Swiggy's system to have real-time access to her delivery locations.
- This incident highlights the potential dangers of data in the wrong hands and the need for stricter protocols to protect user privacy.
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15 Likes
Medium
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Image Credit: Medium
Beyond innovation: How AI startups can capture real value
- AI startups face the challenge of building a business that not only creates value, but effectively captures it.
- Technical innovation does not guarantee financial success or pricing power.
- Strategic execution, GTM strategy, and value-added services play a crucial role in capturing value in the enterprise AI space.
- Verticalization and bundling are recommended as two strategic paths for capturing long-term value in AI startups.
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ISN
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Image Credit: ISN
PhonePe's revenue rises 74% to over Rs 5,000 crore in FY24, but is it profitable now?
- PhonePe's revenue for FY24 jumps 74% to over Rs 5,000 crore.
- The growth is attributed to payment services and interest income.
- Losses narrow by 28.6% with adjusted net profit of Rs 197 crore.
- PhonePe remains the market leader with 53 crore registered users and $1.5 trillion payment value annually.
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6 Likes
Gritdaily
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Image Credit: Gritdaily
Nubio AI Is Redefining Skincare Through Innovation and Inclusivity
- Nubio AI, a skincare company, is using artificial intelligence to personalize skincare solutions for every skin type and gender, including men.
- Founder Murat Bazarov aims to simplify skincare and make it more accessible for men by leveraging AI to provide personalized product suggestions and tailored routines.
- Nubio AI analyzes users' skin and predicts skin changes due to environmental factors, offering personalized recommendations.
- Bazarov envisions expanding Nubio into a complete wellness platform that includes nutrition and mental health.
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