Tag: Venture Catalysts

Business

Reevoy raises $4m in seed round led by 9Unicorns and Venture Catalysts

Jan 26, 2022 by Praveen 0 Comments #Reevoy, #Venture Catalysts

B2B cross-border trade startup Reevoy, has raised a total of $4m as seed money, led by 9Unicorns and VCAT. The round also saw participation from Better Capital, Earlsfield Capital Partners, Kunal Shah, Anupam Mittal, Ketan Patel and Hanumantha Kumar.

Started in Oct 2020, by IIT Delhi, IIM, ISB alumni Ankur Khetan, Ishan Dadhich and Mohit Agarwal, Reevoy is a platform – which helps importers source high quality products from Indian exporters and provides working capital to finance the transactions. The funds will be invested in building its supply-chain technology and embedded finance capabilities. Dexter Capital was the advisor to Reevoy for this deal. Previously, in June 21, Reevoy had raised $1 million in a pre-seed round.

Global trade in textile, home goods and lifestyle category is a trillion-dollar industry. Indian exports are benefiting from global supply chain realignment and domestic support through the ‘Make in India’ initiative. This space is already witnessing a double-digit year on year growth. However, importers continue to face a lot more uncertainties when buying from India, compared to the vertically integrated supply chains of China and South-East Asia.

Reevoy is enabling big global brands in fashion and home décor to buy from India at the click of a button. Reevoy’s integrated tech platform is a one-stop destination for importers to find the right exporters; streamline the production process – from design to final quality checks; and purchase the goods on credit.

Reevoy is on a mission to create tech-powered, quality-assured supply chains for fashion and home-décor between India and the world. Reevoy supercharges mid-sized audited Indian factories with tech, bringing them on the cloud with their production management software. Reevoy has built a strong on-ground team which manages and inspects production ensuring that anything leaving the warehouses of Reevoy-accredited exporters exceeds the expectations of global importers – thus turning ‘Made in India’ into a hallmark of quality.

Ankur Khetan, co-founder of Reevoy said, “In today’s world, where ordering a Rs 50 coffee on an app gives us hundreds of restaurants to choose from and shows us minute-by-minute visibility on the order progress – it is surprising that export orders worth millions are being managed the same way they were 50 years ago. Reevoy aims to turn this on its head, unlocking the India opportunity for global importers.”

Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, co-founder of 9Unicorns and VCATs said, “Reevoy is a first of its kind startup that is using technology to solve some real pain points for the Indian exporters with regards to supply chain and payments, helping them compete globally. With India’s share of global exports hitting record numbers and forecast to cross $400 bn in current fiscal, we expect massive opportunities for players like Reevoy.”

Anupam Mittal, CEO of People Group and founder of Shaadi.com said, “Reevoy is a matchmaker between Indian suppliers and global exporters. They are filling a gap which had so far made sourcing from India cumbersome, thus improving the performance and perception of ‘Made in India’. I wish this winning team all the best!”

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.

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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.