Tag: start-ups

Business

Gruhas Gusto kicks off its maiden Cohort accelerator program with the selection of 7 exciting start-ups

Mar 21, 2024 by Sujata Muguda 0 Comments #Abhijeet Pai, #Cohort accelerator program, #DLF Family Office, #Gruhas, #Sailesh Sigatapu, #start-ups

March, India, 2024: Gruhas, Jubilant Bhartia Family Office, DLF Family Office, and Anthill Ventures are thrilled to announce the unveiling of the first cohort of Gruhas Gusto – a unique food and food tech accelerator program. This Cohort features seven remarkable startups poised to reshape the landscape of the food and food tech industry. This dynamic initiative will empower these startups with strategic investments, expert guidance, and unparalleled market access opportunities, fostering innovation and sustainability throughout the sector. The program officially launches on 18 March 2024 with an event that will circulate on introductions, keynote addresses, and extensive networking.

F Gusto LAunch

The selected start-ups encompass a diverse range of ground-breaking solutions aligned with focus areas including food logistics and infra, health foods, tech-powered solutions, agritech and packaging tech, food waste, FMCG, cloud kitchens, restaurants, and QSRS along with retail distribution.

Abhijeet Pai, Co-Founder of Gruhas, said, “The Food & Beverage Tech industry is at its inflection of innovation, market size and potential. Gruhas understands that after AgriTech, food and foodtech demand more attention going forward. With this thought, we look forward to supporting this first incoming Cohort of Gruhas Gusto as they navigate the F&B Tech industry and scale new innovations and concepts.”

Sailesh Sigatapu, Partner at Anthill Ventures, stated, “With our extensive experience, our objective is to offer these startups a speed scaling ecosystem like no other that helps expedite their growth while establishing a viable business model. We accomplish this by building a strong product-market fit from the start and refining their business model before assisting them in developing a measurable plan for long-term growth. We provide a venue for founders to bring their vision to life while ensuring that their idea is commercially feasible and financially healthy by delivering a combination of concentrated mentoring, information sessions, and money. We are devoted to assisting each cohort to exceed its potential and making a difference in the industry.

The program is further bolstered by strategic partnerships with RPSG Capital Ventures, Omnivore, Caspian Equity, Sathguru Catalysers, Venture Catalysts, Mumbai Angels, Upaya Social Ventures, Lead Angels, FAAD Network, HT Media, Startup Story, Tamada Media, Let’s Influence, StartupNews.fyi, Food Safety Works, Fierce Kitchens, Finance Box, TiE Mumbai, WEQ Technologies, Ciba Goa, Headstart, CoKarma, Indigram Labs, F6S Partner Network, Kanchan Metals, SocialPi, The Mend Packaging, The New Shop

The second brainchild of Gruhas, Jubilant Bhartia Family Office, DLF Family Office, and Anthill Ventures, Gruhas Gusto comes shortly after the success of their foray into Proptech with Gruhas Aspire rounding off its second successful cohort.

Amongst the selected start-ups are:

1. Evolve Snacks- Offering health-focused snacks; The product catalog includes nuts, dry fruits, chews, chips, and other snacks.

2. Grabenord- Plant-based gourmet food brand that offers a variety of products such as vegan cheese, vegan butter, kombucha, apple cider vinegar, and plant-based cheese assortment.

3. The Fresh Press- A Cold-pressed Juice Company with the belief that everyone is entitled to live a healthy life; Serves Cold Press Juices, Smoothies, Shakes, Fruit Platters, Deserts & many more delicious and healthy natural fruit-based items.

4. Rio- From the refreshing BUBBLY FRUIT DRINK (BFD) with exotic blends, honey, and Vitamin C, offering a “better for you” option, to the invigorating BOOM ENERGY DRINK, a value-packed energy booster targeting 18 to 35-year-olds and gaining popularity in Tier 2 towns.

5. The Naturik Co- Focusing on becoming the preferred breakfast brand through its protein-rich, healthy, tasty, and convenient product mix.

6. Hemptyful- Hemp seeds-based products; provide dips and cold-pressed oils crafted using premium hemp seeds, ensuring a rich source of protein, omega-3, and essential nutrients for a wholesome and balanced diet.

7. Recipeat- Building a centralized recruitment SaaS for restaurants and hotels to hire all their staff 3x faster using its AI-driven match-making algorithm and rating.

Gruhas Gusto aims to foster innovative solutions for enhanced well-being and dining experiences, offering start-ups extensive support in various business aspects. The program provides scaling opportunities and market access through collaborations with industry pioneers. It will conclude with an event where each startup will have the opportunity to pitch to a room full of sector-specific investors.

Business

TBDC takes 25 Indian start-ups to participate in Collision- the world’s largest start-up technology conference

Jun 13, 2022 by Agency 0 Comments #Conference, #start-ups, #TBDC

Toronto Business Development Centre (TBDC) which is Canada’s India-focused incubator has announced to take 25 selected Indian start-ups to Toronto and participate in Collision 2022. Collision is the world’s largest start-up tech conference, which takes place in Toronto. This year’s Collision conference will be held in Toronto from June 20th to June 23rd, 2022. TBDC in the recent past has assisted many Indian founders with innovative start-ups in expanding internationally and is determined to do the same this year as well. This TBDC’s initiative is in collaboration with BHIVE, Brampton’s premier start-up incubator program.

Engineer bringing Technology to Life Pvt Ltd (EBTL), Mapmygenome, Make Stories, and UnRemote are among the selected start-ups that will participate in the Collision conference.

During the visit, the founders of the start-ups will get the opportunity to meet investors, technology innovators, potential partners and mentors, and ecosystem players who will assist them in succeeding in the lucrative North American market.

“We are excited to welcome the founders of these startups to Canada, a promising startup destination. Engaging with relevant and meaningful investors, technology innovators, potential partners, mentors, and ecosystem players will undoubtedly be critical to boost and accelerating the growth of these start-ups and will assist them in expanding internationally. The program is divided into two parts: group programming and individualized programming tailored to the specific needs of the Entrepreneur, which will position the start-ups for success in North American markets,” said Mr. Vikram Khurana, Chairman of TBDC and CEO of BHive.

Specially designed workshops will assist 25 Indian start-ups in gaining clarity on issues such as incorporation, immigration, raising capital, and overall successful business setup. The conference will also enable founders of the start-ups to participate in meaningful networking events, such as one-on-one meetings with TBDC’s mentors, angel investors, funders, subject matter experts, and other ecosystem influencers in Ontario.

Other than the Live Pitching, Mentorship, Workshop, the Collision conference also promises to aid and make a commitment of investment to the participating startups. When a startup will receive a commitment from a designated organization, each applicant will hold 10% or more of the voting rights attached to all outstanding shares of the corporation, and up to 5 people can apply as owners. Applicants and the designated organization will jointly hold more than half of the total voting rights attached to all outstanding shares of the corporation at the time of commitment.

As the North America’s fastest-growing tech conference, Collision’s annual event brings together market leaders, technology experts, and the media to determine where the world is headed next. It’s therefore widely known as “the Olympics of technology.”

Business

Venture Catalysts Group closes 207 deals in 2021, invests 178 unique start-ups

Dec 20, 2021 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Anil Jain, #Anuj Golecha, #Gaurav JainDr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, #start-ups, #Venture Catalysts, #Venture Catalysts Group

Venture Catalysts Group, India’s leading early-stage investment firm has doubled its growth by closing 207 consolidated deals in 2021. It invested in 178 unique startups during the year.

The Mumbai-based investment firm runs and operates –India’s first and most active early-stage investment platform Venture Catalysts, and 9Unicorns, a $100 million accelerator fund.

The sector-agnostic group co-invests with marquee VCs like Sequoia Surge, DSG Consumer Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Lightspeed Ventures, Matrix Partners, and other early-stage and angel investors like Astarc Ventures, Earlsfield Capital, Anicut Capital, Titan Capital, Anupam Mittal, Ramakanth Sharma, Pankaj Chaddah, Sanjiv Bajaj, SOSV, Kunal Shah, Nikhil Kamath, Pravin Jadhav, Lalit Keshre and many other prominent figures. Some of its key active family offices include the Nanavati family, Manish Modi, Puzzolana Group, and Salarpuria group.

Venture Catalysts Group is known to have democratised start-up investing in the country with a focus on strengthening the ecosystem in the smaller Indian towns and cities. About 15% of the startups come from these towns. A few names include Silvassa-based peanut butter brand MyFitness, Panaji-based Numadic, Lucknow-based IGP.com and Keeros and Bhopal-based Agrigator amongst others.

Commenting on the milestone, Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-Founder and President, Venture Catalysts Group said, “The pandemic has created many gaps in service deliveries which are being addressed by startups. We envisage a huge blue-ocean opportunity in backing such businesses in its early stages of growth. Considering the stage of investing, the valuations help us realise lucrative exits, thereby contributing to our business growth by many folds.”

Founded by Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Anil Jain, Anuj Golecha and Gaurav Jain in 2016, the group has made it to the list of top 10 global most active accelerators and incubators, second time consecutively. It is has surpassed popular accelerators such as Techstars, Bpifrance,500Global, and SOSV and now only behind YCombinator.

venture catalysts 2

Some of the prominent investments for the year includes BluSmart, Dukaan, Klub, Melorra, Kala Gato, Mitron TV, Rage Coffee, Power Gummies, Coutloot, Prescinto, Resolve AI, Toch, Zingbus, RoundLabs, and Stage, amongst others. Among the sectors, DeepTech, B2B Saas, FinTech, InsureTech, F&B, HealthTech, and Media dominated the investments this year.

Some other unique investments include

Fintech – Basic, Numadic, Vital, Reevoy, Castler

SaaS – ANS Commerce, Nimblebox.ai

FemTech – Healofy, Fembuddy

Robotics/Deeptech – Ethereal, Cynlr Robotics, Botsync

Vernacular focused – Kahanibox, Sutradhar

Voice Tech – TinyChef, Callify

Defence Tech – Optimize Electrotech

Speaking on the sectoral vision, Dr. Sharma, added, “We will continue investing in sectors such as FinTech, EduTech, AgriTech, FMCG, e-commerce, logistics and supply chain management. DeepTech is another sector that we are bullish on since businesses will continue to be online in the post-pandemic would as well.”

With a strong and robust network of over 5,000 angel investors across Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, Venture Catalysts has aggressively expanded its domestic and global footprint to over 70 Indian cities and nine countries, respectively. Venture Catalysts invested in 15 start-ups from Tier 2 cities, constituting 15 percent of the overall investment portfolio. 33 Founders and 28 women from Tier 2 cities received backing, as well.

Venture Catalysts witnessed 62 cumulative exits and liquidity events in 2021, unimpacted by the ongoing socio-economic crisis of the pandemic. The most successful exit for the year remains BharatPe with 80X returns as well as other significant exits such as Dukaan, ImpactGuru and Rooter. This also indicates the growth potential for late stage investment activity valuations.

Business World

Employer Branding with Start-ups is now becoming more important than ever

Oct 15, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Han Digital, #HR and recruitment, #Indian ITBPM, #Jim Collins, #start-ups

It’s a myth that employer branding is only for huge companies. In this digital world, start-ups that ignore building their employer brand are missing out on a great opportunity.

Did you know that only 9% of Indian ITBPM employees prefer to work for start-ups? Randstad Employer Brand Research 2019 report found that while 55% of Indians preferred to work for MNCs, only a meagre 9% showed an inclination to join start-ups. That’s how unfairly small the talent pool is for start-ups. If you want to attract the right talent from amongst this small pool, competing with over several other start-ups, you shouldn’t be ignoring employer branding.

Moreover, with the current Covid-19 crisis, start-ups could be constrained with selecting available candidates in their respective catchment; further reducing the talent pool and hence making the focus on employer brand even more important. There are many examples of successful new start-ups and existing start-ups that have come out stronger from the previous 2008 global financial crisis. An effective employer brand strategy attracts the right talent for such start-ups making it a win-win for the employee and the company.

As Jim Collins, renowned management speaker and author, says, great vision without great people is irrelevant. Also, as start-ups and companies or business units with a start-up mindset, it matters who joins you in your formative years.

We are small, how can we focus on employer branding?
Most start-ups think that as a small outfit, they do not have the time, money or the luxury to focus on a seemingly high-level concept like employer branding. But that’s exactly the myth Handigital wants to bust. Han Digital as an expert in RPO Solutions has seen that it is for the very reason that you are a small outfit that you should be putting your energies in creating your employer brand.

Unlike big organizations, start-ups work on lean HR and recruitment functions and have to manage with minimal resources. Given such a scenario, creating an effective employer brand will be one of your smartest moves. A positive employer brand image will do the toughest job of attracting the right talent for you. This, in fact, will reduce the burden on your HR department as the brand will do the job of a recruitment tool when you don’t have a full-fledged and dedicated HR function.

We don’t have the resources to work on an employer brand
One of the best ways to find the resources to work for your employer branding effort is to rope in your marketing department. Elena Bajic, founder and CEO of Ivy Exec, writes in Forbes, “You’re a small company with limited resources, so it makes sense to marry marketing and human resources to align your branding and business strategies.”

Align your organizational brand with your employer brand and back it up by bringing together all the stakeholders – HR, marketing, leadership and employees. The employer branding efforts then become organic and much easier to execute.

We don’t have budgets to allocate to employer brand
One of the advantages that we have is that we are now a digitally connected world. In the digital world, with LinkedIn and other social media channels, the employer branding message can be disseminated without incurring huge costs. Also, your employees can themselves become the ambassadors of your brand which becomes hugely beneficial for start-ups and companies or business units with a start-up mindset. Engage with your employees on social media and offline because the credibility that your current employees can add to your brand image is indeed invaluable.

Here are the must-haves that start-ups should keep in mind to establish their Brands
· A well designed and informative website that talks about your values and culture

· Company page on key social media channels

· Social Media strategy that is engaging and interactive through storytelling about your brand, employees, company and culture

· Location featured on google

· Fun company and employee videos – some off-beat videos that could go viral. You can source ideas from your employees and make this an engaging project

· A career page on the company’s website

While you can achieve these branding goals within minimum budgets, you will also be saving a lot on other fronts. A good employer brand will reduce recruitment costs by attracting the right talent that fits your start-up’s culture. Between culture and brand lies an amazing two-way relationship; while your brand attracts the right people for your culture, your culture creates the right brand for you.

A brand true to the organization’s culture will also relieve you from huffing and puffing around to retain your employees. Also, be mindful of creating amazing online and offline candidate experiences as it reflects positively on your brand. In short, a little bit of stretching with the employer branding is sure to bring you great benefits.

Business World

SpeakIn honours Experts who guided start-ups during lockdown

Sep 26, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Alok Goel, #Deepshikha Kumar, #Rajan Anandan, #Sanjay Mehta, #SpeakIn, #start-ups

India’s fastest-growing online business learning platform, SpeakIn honoured India’s top mentors for start-ups in the last quarter. Ankur Pahwa (Partner, EY); Jaideep Mehta (CEO, VCCircle); Rajan Anandan (Managing Director, Sequoia Surge); Sanjay Mehta (Founder & Partner, 100X.VC); and Alok Goel (Partner, SAIF Partners) are named as top start-up experts by SpeakIn.

While the entire economy has faced enormous challenges due to COVID-19 pandemic, start-ups, in particular, have been the most affected during this crisis. With the objective of empowering young entrepreneurs and businesses, many accomplished business leaders are helping out start-ups with their unparalleled guidance and expertise. Honouring the contributions and extreme dedication towards start-ups of such leaders, SpeakIn has named these five leaders, who have extensively provided subject-matter expertise and mentorship to start-ups across India.

All five mentors have successful and glorious track records in their respective fields. With over 20 years of consulting experience, Ankur Pahwa is at the helm of the e-commerce and consumer internet sector. His areas of expertise lie in strategy and transactions, start-ups and innovation. Jaideep Mehta is another business leader with a track record of delivering winning results. He is an expert in angel investments, market research and change management.

Rajan Anandan, in the past 15 years, has invested in many technology-based start-ups. He has deep knowledge about business transformation and is an established investment advisor, always looking for the next big unicorn. Sanjay Mehta is another leader whose immense knowledge of the start-up ecosystem makes him an incredible coach. He has invested in 103 start-up companies to date in diverse sectors and start-ups seek his guidance on topics such as financial planning, management consulting, vendor management, and sales negotiation.

Alok Goel is the next name in SpeakIn’s top-five list of start-up experts. He is a noted venture capital investor besides a successful entrepreneur. Alok is phenomenal in providing coaching to entrepreneurs and business professionals about e-commerce and product management.

While revealing the names of these start-up experts, Deepshikha Kumar, Managing Partner & Founder of SpeakIn, said, With the backing of over 15,000 industry stalwarts, at SpeakIn, our focus is facilitating learning and connecting start-ups to the best experts from India and abroad. During the lockdown, these industry experts have contributed greatly to several organizations, filling critical gaps and stand to be a huge asset to any startup advisory board. SpeakIn is proud to feature these experts and looks forward to recognising many more industry experts.

Business World

ICICI Bank introduces ‘iStartup2.0’, the country’s most comprehensive programme for start-ups

Sep 10, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #‘iStartup2.0, #ICICI Bank, #Mr. Pankaj Gadgil, #start-ups

Mumbai: ICICI Bank announces the launch of a programme for startups that takes care of their banking as well as beyond-banking needs such as regulatory assistance, analytics, staffing, accounting, customer acquisition and digital outreach to customers, among others.

Named ‘iStartup2.0’, the country’s most comprehensive programme offers customers an eponymous Current Account which is available in three variants–Platinum, Gold and Silver– the widest range by any Bank for start-ups. New businesses (up to 10 years old) including partnerships, private and public limited companies as well as limited liability partnerships can opt for the Current Account. Further, startups can seamlessly open an account and get the account number instantly at the time of incorporation as the Bank has integrated its APIs with the website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). It offers significant convenience to founders/entrepreneurs as it saves time and efforts since they don’t have to fill details again to apply for an account. As a further convenience, the Bank sends an official to startups at a time of their choice to verify the original documents for KYC.

Other benefits of this Current Account include the availability of a dedicated Relationship Manager, premium savings account for promoters and salary accounts for employees and waiver of quarterly average balance for a year. Additionally, startups can customise and choose the facilities required in their account and use the single account for both domestic and international trade transactions with preferential pricing, both industry-first services.

The beyond-banking services are available under an umbrella, named ‘Startup Assist’ that offers services, in association with partners, to help startups in their early stage as well as growth stage. Typically, start-ups spend a lot of time and bandwidth to reach out to individual service providers. With ‘Startup Assist’, they get the convenience of single-point access to a host of services. It consists of a ‘Set-up’ concierge, which gives them access to an array of experts at a discounted price to help the startup with complex services like company registration, taxation, compliance, logistics, facility management among others.

Additionally, for start-ups wanting to expand business digitally in the virtual world, a ‘Digital concierge’ is available. It offers a one-stop solution for services ranging from website development & hosting, social media marketing, SEO & SEM among others, thus making the digital transformation of a start simpler and easier. All of these services are available through a dedicated concierge helpline or via an app or an email. Further, the Bank has tied up with various other companies to bring in attractive offers on solutions for instance on ‘Work-From-Home’, IT hardware deals, web-hosting, accounting software, telecom packages, printing and stationery among others.

With the above array of services, ‘iStartup 2.0’ offers a 360-degree holistic and most comprehensive proposition for startups with a combination of banking and beyond banking services across their life stages in a single place.

Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Pankaj Gadgil, Head- Self Employed Segment, ICICI Bank said, “The MSME & self-employed segment in India is the backbone of the economy. Within this, we foresee that the startup segment in the country is poised for rapid growth with favourable regulations in the ecosystem and high spirit of entrepreneurship. We believe that ‘iStartup 2.0’ is the most comprehensive programme available in the country. It offers them unprecedented convenience of getting onboarded with us instantly in a digital manner during incorporation with MCA. It undertakes all business, trade and personal banking requirements within this one relationship and transact digitally using the robust mobile and internet banking platforms on-the-go.

Our research shows that startups also need immense hand-holding initially for other areas of business like website development, digital marketing, staffing solutions, regulatory and tax solutions and accounting. Armed with this insight, we have tied up with companies who are leaders in their fields to offer services under ‘Startup Assist’. It provides a ‘one-stop-shop’ for nearly all the early stage as well as the growth stage needs of a startup. We believe that this ‘all-in-one’ and comprehensive iStartup 2.0 programme will provide easy banking and beyond banking services to startups, free up their bandwidth from paper-intensive procedures and
thus boost their business growth by improving overall productivity and efficiency.”

The other key prominent features of the ‘iStartup 2.0’ programme are:

Banking features:

 Access to state-of-the-art ‘InstaBIZ’ mobile application: With over 150 services, this comprehensive mobile app enables businesses to complete almost all their banking transactions digitally, without visiting a bank branch. It offers many industry first features namely instant payment of GST, easy bulk collection & payments of funds through multiple modes, automatic bank reconciliation and inward/outward remittances among others.
 Availability of Corporate Internet Banking platform and Trade Online, a specialised digital
platform for export-import transactions
 Automatic bank reconciliation feature via ‘Connected Banking’ with over 40 popular accounting / ERP platforms
 Business debit card and FD backed business credit cards
 Preferential pricing on ‘Loan Against Securities’ and ‘Overdraft facility against Fixed Deposit’
 Zero processing fee and commitment charges on Fixed Deposits / Overdrafts
 Group Health & Personal Accident cover

‘Beyond Banking’ features with ‘Startup Assist’:

 Start-up set up concierge: Especially curated to assist startups in the set upstage. Offers single-point service to startups at a special discounted price for ICICI Bank customers. They can get access to services like company registration, taxation, compliance, logistics, facility management among others through a dedicated concierge helpline or via an app or an email
 Digital concierge: Useful for start-ups wanting to expand the digital business. It offers a one-stop solution ranging from website development & hosting, social media marketing, SEO & SEM among others. The digital packages come with a host of benefits for ICICI Bank customers at an exclusive discounted price offered by a partner through a dedicated helpdesk & mobile app.
 Additional offers: For attractive discounts on solutions for ‘Work-From-Home’, IT hardware package deals on purchase of laptops consisting of free accessories like printer, hard disk & monitor. Also offers exclusive packages at an attractive price for ICICI Bank customers with leading accounting software, website hosting company and for cloud services among others. Further, they also get exclusive packages for advertising with a leading online streaming network with complimentary additional advertising value.

Any start-up can apply for the ‘istartup 2.0’ programme, whether or not ICICI Bank customer. The promoters can apply digitally for the iStartup Current Account either from the MCA website during incorporation or visit https://www.icicibank.com/business-banking/currentaccount/start-up-current-account.html?ITM=nli_business_static_1_istartup_d or SMS ‘STARTUP’ to 5676766. They can also visit their nearest ICICI Bank branch.


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