Tag: Urban Clap

News

PointOne Capital announces first close, plans corpus of INR 50 crore for pre-seed startups

Dec 19, 2020 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Archana Priyadarshini, #Ex- Letsventure, #Managing Partner, #Mihir Jha, #PointOne Capital, #PointOne Capital): Ex-Unicorn India Ventures, #Ravish Ratnam, #Urban Clap, #Urban Company

Bangalore: PointOne Capital, a pre-seed focussed VC fund, recently announced the first closing of its maiden fund. The SEBI registered CAT-1 AIF which targets early seed stage startups, plans a total corpus of INR 50 crore with a ticket size of up to INR 1 crore per startup.

The fund counts successful entrepreneurs, PE & VC firm partners, CXOs & seasoned senior corporate leaders as its LPs. PointOne aims to solve the funding gap for start ups at the pre-product and revenue or the beta launch phase with very early traction.

The team comes with an in-depth experience and success in early stage investing and includes Archana Priyadarshini, Mihir Jha and Ravish Ratnam. All the three have collectively worked with over 1000 startups. Closing over 60 investments in their tenure apart from collaborating with 100+ VC funds and 1000+ angel investors, provides them an edge in identifying success patterns and enabling future rounds of their portfolio companies.

Adding further, Mihir Jha (Managing Partner, PointOne Capital): Ex- Letsventure, Urban Company (formerly Urban Clap), said, “Raising funding at a beta stage or pre-PMF stage is challenging for founders – it becomes too risky vis-a-vis the traction for larger VCs unless the founders come with a proven entrepreneurial track record. We are willing to take those risks in favor of the opportunity and the new insights the team brings to the table. Another problem is feedback in cases where an investor is not interested in investing. PointOne believes in changing that paradigm. Our conviction is that a pointed feedback at early stages of venture building will contribute manifold to increasing the overall efficiency of the Indian startup ecosystem. We aim to provide this to every entrepreneur whom we engage with.”

Ravish Ratnam (Managing Partner, PointOne Capital): Ex- Letsventure, added, “Our country is producing entrepreneurs at an unprecedented rate – needless to say, capital needs to catch up. PointOne has been set up to partner with the founders at the most fundamental stage, one which has the most number of variables(and hidden variables). We are glad to have the backing of industry experts from India and abroad in our first close as it opens up a powerful network which our portfolio founders can leverage as they navigate through their zero-to -one journey.”

Speaking about this, Archana Priyadarshini (Managing Partner, PointOne Capital): Ex-Unicorn India Ventures, said, “Having met over 500 startups in the last 5 years, I have seen that initial days are the most difficult in a founder’s journey. At such a stage, guidance along with capital becomes very important as founders need support in clearly articulating their vision, preparing a focused output-oriented pilot and defining the initial GTM. Through PointOne, we strive to be that pillar of support for the founders and also learn from them during that process.”

PointOne calls itself the “earliest early stage VC” and vouches for its speed of decision making. Their focus is on providing a clear investment feedback to founders whom they engage with. Their major USP includes the fact that the fund offers a dedicated Venture Partner to its portfolio companies post investment. These are entrepreneurs in the specific sector with a successful track record of scaling tech businesses.

Prior to this, PointOne has been investing in similar ventures through their angel syndicate. Some of these ventures have already raised their next round of funding within 6 months of PointOne’s syndicate investment. Although largely sector agnostic they are primarily targeting large untapped opportunities in Fintech, Consumer Internet, Gaming, SMB SaaS, Enterprise SaaS, Healthcare and Ed-tech. They plan least 1 investment per month going forward.

 

Business World

5 platforms that have uplifted women in the last decade

Oct 22, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Meesho, #Momspresso, #Otipy, #SHEROES, #Urban Clap, #Women's empowerment

Since the first wave of women empowerment hit in 1950 across India, this concept has been gaining huge momentum. Women empowerment has never been about just offering equal rights to women, but also about ensuring that they are intrinsic and equitable partners in the workforce.

Women’s empowerment and their status plays a crucial role in the population stabilization in India. In the last decade, multiple organizations have emerged who have acknowledged the importance of this concept and are working towards empowering women by providing resources for earning, creating opportunities, medium for expression and much more.

Here is the list of platforms that are continuously working towards the upliftment of women in India:

Momspresso
India’s largest user-generated content platform for women has recently completed 10 years. Momspresso allows women to express themselves through text and video across 10 languages on a safe platform. The finely-brewed content on Momspresso offers support to moms across the country, not just parents but also in their lives as wives, daughters, and – most importantly – as women! It provides answers to moms on all their parenting queries, while also acting as a catalyst for self-discovery and as an engine for them to reinvent their own identities along the way. Momspresso has also launched, Supports Groups – India’s first anonymous social network for women to initiate conversations about lesser talked about topics such as single motherhood, sex & intimacy, depression and more have created a safe space for women.

OTIPY (by Crofarm)
Otipy is a social commerce venture by Crofarm, currently operating in Delhi/NCR and empowering more than 1000 women homemakers and professionals in the post-COVID era. Founded by Mr. Varun Khurana to strengthen the supply chain of fresh produce (vegetables and fruits) in India, this platform launched in February 2020, offers an opportunity to earn up to INR 1 Lac per month by collaborating with the platform and creating a WhatsApp group. Today Deepa Singh, whose art business was hit due to pandemic has regained her confidence after collaborating with Otipy and has become an entrepreneur, powered by WhatsApp. These stories underline Otipy’s commitment to empowering Indian women through collaborative opportunities and well-paid jobs.

SHEROES
It is a women’s community platform, offering support, resources, opportunities and interactions. Members can discuss health, careers, relationships and share their life stories, achievements and moments. The app also offers a dedicated helpline where community members can talk to counselors on all aspects of their growth journeys. It is a platform for fashion, health, lifestyle, relationships, career and news. Here Women can share their life story with the other members in a safe environment.

Urban Clap:
A firm supporter of equality for all, UrbanClap is recognized as the fastest-growing startup in India. Most importantly, it is a mobile marketplace for local household services that provides equal and exciting opportunities for all women. Through this platform, women can monetize their skills and knowledge by offering classes, training sessions or guidance to interested candidates and also get paid for it. It also helps individuals in terms of leveraging their skill sets and creating wonderful business opportunities from it. In the month of January, 2020, UrbanClap entered into a partnership with Electronics Sector Skill Council of India (ESSCI) to empower professional and improve skills training services. Under the MoU, ESSCI would support UrbanClap to setup an effective and efficient ecosystem for developing and imparting outcome-oriented skills to its professionals. As per this partnership, the professionals would undergo a six-day training program prior to their onboarding, helping them gain knowledge in a particular domain and helping them to upskill. The training module is aligned with the NSQF defined by the NSDC. This MoU is focused on UrbanClap’s model of empowering professionals to deliver the best services to customers at home.

Meesho:
Meesho is an Indian-origin social commerce platform. The platform has enabled women from all over India to become independent by starting their own business. You too can join the platform and kick start your entrepreneurial journey now. It enables small businesses and individuals to start their online stores via social channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram etc. All you need is an internet connection and a desktop or mobile device. Meesho, India’s best money earning app trusted by over 1 crore resellers across the country.