The Thrive Report presents a comprehensive overview of the impactful work undertaken by Chiratae Thrive Fund with the Sethi Foundation, Siva and Royan Foundation to mitigate the far-reaching impact of the Covid-19 pandemic with the intention of alleviating distress within the Chiratae community and the broader ecosystem.​

The Chiratae Impact Report talks about the meaningful impact that is being created by Chiratae’s portfolio companies across sectors, by way of reaching those previously underserved, bringing down costs, increasing access, and improving quality, while also scaling successfully through disruptive technologies.

B2B Marketplaces are a huge untapped opportunity in India, with equal interest from founders and investors alike. The article goes over why B2B Marketplaces are an attractive space, how we as investors evaluate them, and what are the different ways in which they can scale, with a case study on Bizongo, a B2B Marketplace in the packaging and apparel industry.

Music has been the soul that has driven civilisations since aeons and India has been at the forefront of musical revolution. From the breadths of Kashmir to Kanyakumari and in the past century music from India has been globalised to every corner of the world with the advent of internet accelerating the boom exponentially. Today we believe the total size of music learners is more than …..

‘Mega M&A’ has been a big chatter topic for the past few weeks in the technology world. While in the US, everyone has been discussing if the next home for their favourite Tiktok videos would be Microsoft or Twitter…..

Chiratae Ventures leads the Series A round in agri-tech startup — Ergos along with existing investor Aavishkaar Capital. Below is the story…

2021 was a landmark year for the Indian SaaS space, with the industry witnessing 50% growth in revenue and 3X growth in venture capital funding – which the Chiratae-Zinnov SaaS report had predicted last year. Hardly four months into 2022, India has already produced nearly the same number of SaaS unicorns as it had in the whole of 2021, suggesting that the tailwinds will continue strongly, this year too.

The Chiratae Impact Report talks about the meaningful impact that is being created by Chiratae’s portfolio companies across sectors, by way of reaching those previously underserved, bringing down costs, increasing access, and improving quality, while also scaling successfully through disruptive technologies.

Indian SaaS shows remarkable resilience, with steady growth projected for 2023 and beyond June 07, 2023 Continued momentum in the creation of SaaS unicorns will propel India to surpass China and become the 2nd largest SaaS nation in the world expected to cross the USD $100 Bn milestone by 2026 India on track to leapfrog China and become the 2nd largest SaaS nation by 2026 Next wave of digital talent expected from tier-2 and tier-3 cities Investments in Indian SaaS grew 3X to over USD $4 Bn in 2021; expected to top USD $6.5 Bn this year Bangalore, 7th June 2023: The Indian SaaS industry’s resilience shines bright in the face of a stiff funding winter, defying expectations with a projected ~2.5X growth to reach USD 26 Bn in revenues by 2026. According to “India SaaSonomics: Navigating Growth and Efficiency,” the latest edition of the India SaaS report, jointly done by Chiratae and Zinnov, Indian SaaS companies are doubling down on growth (revenue generation) while ensuring operational and capital efficiency. Global Recession – A Concern but Not a Deterrent for Indian SaaS Though concerns of a recession loom large, the Indian SaaS industry has displayed remarkable antifragility to withstand turbulent times. In a recent survey by Chiratae Ventures and Zinnov, an overwhelming 93% of the founders surveyed, anticipate an increase in revenues in the next 12 months. Amidst the wariness of global macro-economic headwinds, 9 out of 10 investors continue to believe in the India advantage and are betting on existing and newer growth areas. While the world and India – to some extent – witnessed layoffs, 96% of the Indian SaaS unicorns and potential unicorns grew their headcount throughout 2022. In a remarkable contrast, US tech start-ups announced 3X higher layoffs than their Indian tech counterparts between January 2022 and March 2023. Despite a widely acknowledged funding winter in the Indian start-up ecosystem, seed-stage funding witnessed a 1.5X increase, while early-stage funding experienced a notable 1.6X surge in value during 2022. In fact, Indian SaaS start-ups secured 3X more funding in 2022 compared to 2019, demonstrating a steady CAGR of 47% . However, the decline in SaaS company valuations in the public markets has greatly affected private markets, driving down late-stage funding. But stable deal volumes in Q1 2023 indicate that the funding slowdown for Indian SaaS companies has bottomed out, signalling a gradual recovery to look forward to in the upcoming quarters. The Numbers Game – Indian SaaS witnesses a Normalization Housing 1650+ funded SaaS start-ups, India also witnessed a surge in the number of companies surpassing the USD 1Mn+ ARR in 2022. 2022 was also a record-breaking year with ~280 SaaS companies clocking in revenues between USD 1Mn – USD 10Mn, a significant leap from previous years. Notably, global public valuation multiples, which were accelerated by the pandemic, underwent corrections in 2022. However, they have shown a gradual recovery since October 2022, with today’s median valuation multiple standing at 6.6X. Although slightly lower than the pre-pandemic median, this trend indicates that Indian SaaS valuation multiples have displayed higher resilience compared to their global counterparts and that the impact of macro-economic variables are less pronounced on them. These numbers evidence the fact that the Indian SaaS ecosystem exhibits greater resistance to economic shocks in comparison to global markets. They also underscore the unwavering belief that founders and investors have in the industry’s potential for growth and success. The India advantage also extends to key opportunity areas – DevOps, Cybersecurity, and Vertical SaaS – which will lead the next phase of growth and innovation across SaaS categories. India has emerged as a disruptor in the global DevOps market, becoming the number one contributor to global AI-related GitHub repositories, a function of 10% of the global developer base being located here. Furthermore, the increasing global VC funding in Cybersecurity, coupled with the rapidly evolving threat landscape, presents Indian SaaS companies an opportunity to create and offer innovative Cybersecurity solutions. Vertical SaaS also emerges as an attractive investment opportunity, as 80% of the investors surveyed are more likely to invest in Vertical SaaS start-ups in 2023 as compared to the previous year. India’s 70Mn+ SMBs present a lucrative opportunity for Vertical SaaS players to dive into. With approximately 16% of the global AI workforce, India takes the lead in AI product development and emerges as a frontrunner in the latest global trend of Generative AI. This demand arises from a heightened focus on enabling customer experience and content generation, and is being serviced by the 800+ Indian start- ups focused on this technology. The global Generative AI market projected to reach USD 110 Bn by 2030 makes for an attractive investment area in 2023 and beyond. Moreover, India’s emergence as a leading player in the global Web 3 market, further solidifies its position. With 11% of the global Web 3 talent in India growing at the fastest rate, this investment theme is hard to miss in the coming years. On the report’s launch, Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman, Chiratae Ventures stated, “We are excited to present the India SaaS report. The SaaS industry in India has hit global scale, and Chiratae leads that scale. Through our advised funds, we have invested over $160M in over 35+ SaaS companies, supporting and nurturing notable names such as Pixis, Uniphore, Hevo Data, Healthplix, Pando and Deepfence to name a few, which have eventually gone on to raise more than ~$850M in follow on capital. We have seen successful exits in this sector, including IPO (Newgen), secondary sales (Hevo Data, Uniphore, Manthan), and acquisitions (UnBxD, CloudCherry, Netcore).” On the launch of this report, Venkatesh Peddi, Managing Director at Chiratae Ventures, and head of SaaS investments stated, “The steadfastness of the Indian SaaS industry, coupled with its ability to adapt to changing market dynamics, has led to its outperformance on a global scale. Given India’s robust foundation, presence of visionary leaders, and strategic exploration of key sectors, we predict that the Indian SaaS industry is

Presenting Chiratae Sonic, our flagship seed program with an accelerated process of decision making for companies raising seed funding. Chiratae Sonic is for entrepreneurs who are raring to scale up quickly with their disruptive tech ideas. We aim to provide you with an accelerated process of raising the seed investment for your tech business

Presenting Chiratae Sonic, our flagship seed program with an accelerated process of decision making for companies raising seed funding. Chiratae Sonic is for entrepreneurs who are raring to scale up quickly with their disruptive tech ideas. We aim to provide you with an accelerated process of raising the seed investment for your tech business

Presenting Chiratae Sonic, our flagship seed program with an accelerated process of decision making for companies raising seed funding. Chiratae Sonic is for entrepreneurs who are raring to scale up quickly with their disruptive tech ideas. We aim to provide you with an accelerated process of raising the seed investment for your tech business

Presenting Chiratae Sonic, our flagship seed program with an accelerated process of decision making for companies raising seed funding. Chiratae Sonic is for entrepreneurs who are raring to scale up quickly with their disruptive tech ideas. We aim to provide you with an accelerated process of raising the seed investment for your tech business

Chiratae Ventures Maiden Growth Fund-I announces its close at INR 1001 cr, oversubscribed by 34% May 03, 2023 To invest in growth opportunities, startups raising Series C and beyond rounds, and new opportunities. Made first growth-led investment of INR 100 crores in Lenskart. Bengaluru | May 3rd, 2023: Chiratae Ventures, India's largest homegrown venture capital fund, has successfully concluded the fundraising for its first Chiratae Growth Fund (CGF-I), raising INR 1001 cr. On a targeted INR 750 crore, CGF-I has been oversubscribed by 34%. The announcement of the close of CGF-I comes on the heels of Fund 4, which was oversubscribed by 22%. This marks a continued trend of Chiratae’s funds being oversubscribed, highlighting the confidence and faith placed in the firm’s ability to identify and nurture promising startups poised for growth and success.CGF-I will invest in the growth rounds of market-leading technology startups from its portfolio and other new opportunities, making it a sector-agnostic fund to support the growth and expansion of companies.CGF-I is supported by Chiratae’s existing investors, including Pratithi (Family Office of Kris Gopalakrishnan, the Co-Founder of Infosys), 57 Stars (a global alternative asset manager) and Manish Choksi (Vice Chairman and non-executive board member of Asian Paints) and his Family Office and, new investors including State Bank of India, IIFL, Axis Bank and others. With this new CGF-I, Chiratae Ventures will continue its mission of supporting innovative technology startups in their growth stage and unlocking their potential. Chiratae Ventures has a successful track record of investing in early and growth-stage startups over the past 16 years. The Chiratae Funds collectively (across 6 funds) have $1.1 Bn in AUM, 130+ investments, 48 exits, 8 Unicorns, 3 IPOs and a track record of having returned capital to the investors in each of the last 12 years. Chiratae Ventures has been an early backer of technology-led companies such as Bizongo, Curefit, Fibe, Firstcry, Lenskart, Myntra, PolicyBazaar, Pixis, Vayana, and Uniphore, amongst others. Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman of Chiratae Ventures, said, “We are excited to have raised our first Growth Fund, enabling us to continue supporting the growth and expansion of market-leading technology startups in India and beyond. The oversubscription of the fund by 34% is a testament to the trust and confidence our investors have placed in us. As we embark on this exciting new chapter, we remain committed to identifying and investing in innovative startups that have the potential to drive transformative change and create long-term value. Thank you to our existing investors Pratithi (Family Office of Kris Gopalakrishnan, the Co-Founder of Infosys), 57 Stars (a global alternative asset manager) and Manish Choksi (Vice Chairman and non-executive board member of Asian Paints) and his Family Office and, we welcome the new ones, State Bank of India, IIFL, Axis Bank and others.” On closing the Chirataes’ first Growth Fund, TC Meenakshi Sundaram, Founder and Vice-Chairman of Chiratae Ventures, said, “The successful fundraising for Chiratae’s First Growth Fund is a testament to the quality of the investment strategy and our team’s ability to identify and support exceptional entrepreneurs. With the Growth Fund -I, we are well-positioned to continue to support promising startups through their growth journey and create value for all stakeholders by becoming market leaders. We thank all our investors for their continued support to Chiratae.” About Chiratae Ventures:Chiratae Ventures is a 16-year-old Indian technology venture capital fund, which collectively (across 6 funds) have $1.1 Bn AUM, 130+ investments, 48 exits, 8 Unicorns, 3 IPOs and a track record of having returned capital to LPs in each of the last 12 years. The Chiratae funds have investments across sectors such as Consumer-Tech, SaaS, Fintech, and Healthtech and have been early backers of companies such as Myntra, Flipkart, Lenskart, FirstCry, PolicyBazaar, Bizongo, Uniphore, Pixis, and Fibe, amongst many others.Chiratae Ventures is a 16-year-old Indian technology venture capital fund, which collectively (across 6 funds) have $1.1 Bn AUM, 130+ investments, 48 exits, 8 Unicorns, 3 IPOs and a track record of having returned capital to LPs in each of the last 12 years. The Chiratae funds have investments across sectors such as Consumer-Tech, SaaS, Fintech, and Healthtech and have been early backers of companies such as Myntra, Flipkart, Lenskart, FirstCry, PolicyBazaar, Bizongo, Uniphore, Pixis, and Fibe, amongst many others.Chiratae Ventures’s Global Advisory board consists of esteemed personalities such as Mr Ratan Tata (Chairman), Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan, Mr Manish Choksi (Vice Chairman Asian Paints), Mr Bruno Raschle (Founder Adveq Zurich), Dr Andreas Hettich (Chairman Hettich Corporation Germany) and Dr Ferzaan Engineer (Founder Cytecare and Nightingale).

Indian SaaS to reach USD $ 100 Bn in revenues by 2026 April 19, 2022 Continued momentum in the creation of SaaS unicorns will propel India to surpass China and become the 2nd largest SaaS nation in the world expected to cross the USD $100 Bn milestone by 2026 India on track to leapfrog China and become the 2nd largest SaaS nation by 2026 Next wave of digital talent expected from tier-2 and tier-3 cities Investments in Indian SaaS grew 3X to over USD $4 Bn in 2021; expected to top USD $6.5 Bn this year Bangalore: The Indian SaaS juggernaut is experiencing a ‘coming-of-age’ moment, with an incredible bull run that has firmly anchored its position on the global stage. The SaaS industry is set to clock in a massive USD $ 100 Bn in revenues by 2026. This was underscored by the 2022 edition of the Chiratae-Zinnov India SaaS report titled, “India SaaS – Punching Through the Global Pecking Order.” As the industry has matured, profitability has become a realistic milestone for SaaS companies, and they have cracked the Enterprise conundrum with over 40% revenue contribution. On the global stage, India is gearing to supersede China as the second largest SaaS nation in the next few years. Key Facts and Figures SaaS Industry: 1,150+ Active Firms, USD $8 Bn revenue in 2021, expected to cross the USD $100 Bn milestone by 2026 India on track to leapfrog China and become the 2nd largest SaaS nation by 2026 Next wave of digital talent expected from tier-2 and tier-3 cities Investments in Indian SaaS grew 3X to over USD $4 Bn in 2021; expected to top USD $6.5 Bn this year The report identifies the key attributes that have accelerated the success of the SaaS industry – ‘SPARK’ – Supportive Policies, Proven Global Caliber, Abundant Liquidity, Rearing Domestic Talent, and Kindled Exit Options. Today, leading SaaS firms have been at the forefront of localizing innovation by putting robust engineering and product teams in the top markets that they are catering to. The focus for the firms is to capitalize on the overall value delivered to consumers, thus improving their propensity to pay. The early SaaS companies are attracting unicorn valuations and also successfully listing on the public markets. These successes, coupled with stronger fundamentals and the path to profitability, are making SaaS companies in India an attractive investment theme. The industry aims to attract a strong private capital infusion of close to USD $ 6.5 Bn in the coming year alone, notes the report. Key findings on the year gone by a.Indian SaaS witnessed massive growth at a ~55% CAGR in 2021, with revenues well-poised to cross USD $ 100 Bn by 2026< b.The next wave of digital talent is expected from tier-2 and tier-3 cities; a vast pool of ~3 Mn+ digitally skilled workforce will be the perfect munition for SaaS companies to scale up in the coming years c.The tremendous growth in the sector as well as the significant reduction in the time to achieve unicorn status have created ~90% of all SaaS unicorns in the last four years alone, with the potential for many more in the offing, thus adding to a large pool of Soonicorns d.Post surpassing UK this year in the number of SaaS unicorns, India is all set to leapfrog China and become the 2nd largest SaaS nation by 2026 e.The various pro start-up policies will play a key role in attracting more founders and investors. On the launch of this report, Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman, Chiratae Ventures, stated, “India is a global SaaS leader, and Chiratae Ventures has been fortunate to be at the center of this surging momentum, with over 35 SaaS companies in our portfolio like Uniphore, which recently raised USD $ 400 Mn, and others like Pixis, Hevo Data, Healthplix, CropIn, Pando, Deepfence, and Squadcast which are valued over USD $ 3.5 Bn and last year overall raised USD $ 600 Mn. Chiratae predicts that investments in Indian SaaS will continue to grow at a massive pace with the revenue poised to cross USD $ 100 Bn by 2026.” Pari Natarajan, CEO, Zinnov, said, “2021 was a watershed year for Indian SaaS – including exponential valuations, successful IPO debuts, a vast influx of VC investments, and an unprecedented number of unicorns. Not only have Indian SaaS companies come of age, but they have also been at the forefront of creating new for India and new for the world products, led by visionary founders and a critical mass of engineering and product teams serving this purpose. All this has firmly put Indian SaaS on the global stage, and on the path of crossing the milestone of USD $100 Bn in revenue by 2026. In fact, India is fast emerging as a clear leader in SaaS, and will supersede China to become the second largest SaaS nation in the next few years.” The report identifies Cloud Security, Cloud-Native Enablers, Hyper Intelligent Automation, Web3, and Verticalized solutions as key areas of interest for investors in 2022 and beyond. Some of the key SaaS categories expected to gain traction in 2022 and beyond are: Cloud-Native:is an approach to building and running applications as a Cloud-based delivery model, which is expected to accelerate modern application development based on its various advantages. VC investments in this space are exceeding USD $ 7 Bn in funding, giving rise to many unicorns in the segment Hyper Intelligent Automation:the new avatar of Automation, has become a top CXO priority within enterprise digital transformation charters. With a 15-20% growth forecasted in digital transformation spend, Automation platforms are attracting immense interest from investors Web3:based on Blockchain, is another segment garnering a lot of attention from investors. Perceived as a compelling SaaS opportunity, areas such as Data Analytics, DevTools, and Security have bubbled up Verticalized SaaS is also gaining popularity for solving industry-specific use cases. The global VC funding in this category exceeded USD $ 11 Bn in 2021 You

Indian FinTech market is expected to be $1 Tn in AUM and $200 Bn in revenue by 2030 December 26, 2022 Mumbai, August 09, 2022: According to a report released by Chiratae Ventures in collaboration with Ernest and Young (EY), the Indian Fintech market is expected to record a 10X growth to achieve $1Tn in Assets Under Management (AUM) and $200Bn in revenue. The report titled ‘$1 Tn India FinTech Opportunity’highlighted that much of the growth will be driven in the digital lending market, which is expected to grow to $515 Bn in book size by 2030. Market expected to reach $1Tn in AUM with contribution from lending to be highest at 50%+, while from a revenue standpoint payments and lending make 75%+ of the pool Payments, Digital Lending, WealthTech, InsurTech, and Neo-banking will all be contributing to growth in the FinTech space with Agri+FinTech and Prop+FinTech considered to be big bets New asset classes, Crypto & NFT will continue to attract investor interest Regulatory support will enable the industry further as already established models go international through collaborations With 5X growth in the digital tech talent, India has the opportunity to address the global digital skill gap and establish itself as the destination of digital and tech talent India is now being recognized as one of the largest FinTech unicorn ecosystems, home to 21 FinTech Unicorns as of March 2022. An organic and collaborative ecosystem is driving this growth, which is being supported by key government initiatives, such as Digital India, Smart City, the development of UPI and other initiatives. Tailwinds due to favorable demographics, growing technology adoption, higher disposable incomes and an aware customer is further fuelling this growth. Fintechs have been innovating in product and delivery to cater to the evolving needs of the customers. On the launch of the report Sudhir Sethi, Founder, and Chairperson, Chiratae Ventures said, “The Indian Fintech market has been a formidable global force, contributing to the largest share of unicorns in India. We have been a technology first investor believing in the power of both data and technology and hence have backed companies such as EarlySalary, Kristal.ai, PB Fintech, ShopSe and Vayana amongst others” Key trends in the supporting ecosystem are: Regulatory environment: actively encouraging innovation through regulatory sandboxes, new distribution models, and the launch of innovative products; The Metaverse: Global metaverse is still nascent with a significant runaway ahead, FinTechs have started to innovate to tap into business opportunities exploring various use cases Financial inclusion: Innovative solutions are being deployed to serve Tier 3+ markets, enabled through India stack. India as a hub of FinTech and talent: With a 5X growth in digital tech talent, India has the opportunity to address the global digital skill and establish itself as the destination of digital and tech talent FinTech becoming a horizontal: Due to emerging technology, changing cultural trends and a favourable regulatory landscape, FinTech has been growing beyond boundaries with clear intersections seen in Agriculture, Retail, Health as well as Prop Tech “FinTechs have innovated for the underserved financial markets through a strong and supportive ecosystem, which will continue to keep accelerating growth and penetration of Fintech in India. These include fast-growing digital adoption and mobile penetration on the back of the cheapest data rates in the world offered by private telecom players, to enabling regulatory environment coupled with world-leading digital infrastructure (Aadhar, UPI, BBPS etc.), and structural reforms and initiatives (GST, TReDSetc.). We also expect FinTechs to continue solving for the substantial and growing sub-markets with novel solutions,” said TC Meenakshi Sundaram, Co-Founder and Vice Chairperson, Chiratae Ventures. The report also highlights that Buy Now Pay Later has become mainstream and is on an accelerated growth trajectory, emerging strong not only in B2C but also B2B payments space. Co-lending to emerge as a preferred model that supports lending partners to mitigate their risk exposure. New asset classes, Crypto & NFT will also continue to attract investor interest as fintechs continue to solve for traditionally underserved customers. Technology based Innovation on underwriting side of the insurance value chain will help deliver solutions for the highly unpenetrated market at affordable rates. Rajiv Memani, Chairman and Managing Partner, EY India said: “India is recognized as a strong FinTech hub globally and is increasingly becoming a talent destination for fintech businesses. We are glad to partner with Chiratae Ventures and delve into the emerging trends in regulatory innovation, technology advancements, new business models, industry convergence, and inclusive digital financial services in the Indian fintech space.” About Chiratae Ventures Launched in 2006, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors is India’s leading technology Venture Capital funds advisor. The funds advised by Chiratae Ventures India Advisors collectively have over $1Bn under management and 125+ investee companies across SaaS, Consumer Media & Tech, Health-tech, and Fin-tech. The fund has been an early backer of Cure.fit, FirstCry, Flipkart, Globalbees, Lenskart, Manthan, Myntra, Uniphore and has invested in leaders like AgroStar, Bizongo, Bounce, Cropin, EarlySalary, GoMechanic, HealthifyMe, Hevo Data, PolicyBazaar, Pyxis, Vayana, amongst others. Chiratae closed its fourth fund, oversubscribed at $337 million in 2021. The team has delivered value for its investors through the years with over 43 exits, 3 IPOs and 8 Unicorns. About EY EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, strategy and transactions and consulting services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients.This news release has been issued by EY Services Limited, a member of

The Chiratae Impact Report talks about the meaningful impact that is being created by Chiratae’s portfolio companies across sectors, by way of reaching those previously underserved, bringing down costs, increasing access, and improving quality, while also scaling successfully through disruptive technologies.

2021 was a landmark year for the Indian SaaS space, with the industry witnessing 50% growth in revenue and 3X growth in venture capital funding – which the Chiratae-Zinnov SaaS report had predicted last year. Hardly four months into 2022, India has already produced nearly the same number of SaaS unicorns as it had in the whole of 2021, suggesting that the tailwinds will continue strongly, this year too.

CropIn Technology raises $8 million from Chiratae Ventures, Gates Foundation November 20, 2018 New Delhi: CropIn Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which provides agri-businesses with farm management software and mobile apps, has raised $8 million in a Series B funding round from Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Strategic Investment Fund, the company said on Tuesday. The Bengaluru-based company had previously raised $4 million from investors including BEENext, Invested Development, Denmark-based Sophia Investment, Ankur Capital and BSP Fund LLC. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has also backed Indian agri-tech startup Stellapps. Founded in 2010 by Krishna Kumar, Kunal Prasad and Chittaranjan Jena, CropIn is a SaaS based service provider for agri-businesses. It enables data-driven farming through the ‘SmartFarm’ platform, which helps derive real time insight on standing crop and projects across geographies based on local weather information and high-resolution satellite imagery. The company plans to utilise the fresh funding to strengthen its technology and machine-learning platform, expand to over 10 million acres of land and reach seven million farmers in India and globally. “To feed the 9.7 billion people in the world in 2050, agriculture efficiency must increase by 35% – 70% and technology is the key. India’s rich mix of farming practices and small landholdings provide a massive data set to inform our models,” said Kumar, co-founder and chief executive officer at CropIn. CropIn claims to use Big Data analytics, artificial intelligence and remote sensing to analyze data for 265 crops for agriculture processors, distributors, inputs providers, lenders and insurers through its APIs. The start-up is also building an agri-information dataset to detect patterns and predict the future of a variety of crops. CropIn’s clientele include PepsiCo, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, and McCain along with banks, government bodies and development agencies. It is present in 29 countries including across South East Asia, Europe and Africa and has engaged with nearly 2 million farmers holding 3 million acres of land in farm management, crop cycle monitoring, harvest and brings in produce traceability from farm to fork. According to the company, the global market of digital-based agriculture services is estimated at $4.5 billion by 2020. Other players in the agri-tech industry include Aibono, Intello Labs and Matrix-backed Gobasco. “The potential to revolutionize agriculture leveraging technology and machine learning has never been greater,” said Karan Mohla, executive director at Chiratae Ventures. CropIn has grown three times year-on-year, added Kumar. Last year, the company also invested $5 million in building digital platform ‘Smart Risk’ for microfinance, banking and non-banking institutions to identify and minimise the risk in lending and insurance business.

Bike Sharing Startup Bounce Raises $7 Mn Led By Chiratae January 24, 2019 The fresh round was participated by Chiratae Ventures, Accel India, Sequoia India The company claims to have a fleet of more than 1,000 bikes Bounce acquired assets of dockless bicycle sharing platform Ofo in India in 2018 Bounce, a bike and scooter rental platform has raised over $7 Mn in a Series B round. Chiratae Ventures, Accel India, Sequoia India and On Mauritius participated in the Series B round. Here’s a breakdown of the latest funding round according to a RoC filing seen by Inc42 IDG Ventures India Fund III LLC invested in 115.73K shares worth INR 20.99 Cr ($2.94 Mn) Vistra ITCL (India) Ltd invested in 77.14K shares worth INR 14 Cr ($1.96 Mn) Accel India V (Mauritius Ltd) invested 38.59K shares worth INR 7 Cr ($980.8K) SCI Investments invested 38.59K shares worth INR 7 Cr ($980.8K) On Mauritius invested 7,951 shares worth INR 1.5 Cr ($210.17K) According to the filing with MCA, the company raised the funds on December 27, 2018. The fresh capital infusion comes after Sequoia and Accel led $12.2 Mn (INR 84.64 Cr) Series A funding round in August last year. After the Series A round, the company also rebranded itself from Metro Bike to Bounce. Last month, a TechCircle report claimed that Bounce is in talks to raise a bigger round of about $50 Mn. The company had acquired assets of Alibaba-backed dockless bicycle sharing platform Ofo that had shut down its operations in July 2018 in India. The move signals that the company may foray into the bicycle sharing segment soon. Founded as Wicked Rides in 2014 by Vivekananda HR, Varun Agni and Anil G, the company offers premium motorcycles for rent under the Wicked Rides banner, and commuter bikes under the Bounce brand. The company aims to solve last-mile connectivity problem and claims to have a fleet of more than 1,000 bikes. It allows users to pick up scooters from locations closest to them and drop them at end-trip spots, priced by the hour and distance. Bounce currently offers its services in select areas of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mysore, Jaipur, Udaipur, Belagavi, Manipal, Jaisalmer, Gokarna, and some other cities. The startup has tied up with the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) and provides bike rentals at metro stations across the city. It plans to work on improving its delivery models and expand to other major cities across India by 2020. Bounce aims to add 30K scooters by the end of current calendar year. Bounce Earnings For FY18 Apart from funding, the bike/scooter sharing platform also filed its financial report for the year ending on March 31, 2018. The company’s revenue grew by 24.4% to INR 5.44 Cr ($762.8K) in FY18. During the same period, its losses almost doubled to INR 7.02 Cr ($980.8K) while the expenses saw an increase of 62.5% to INR 12.47 Cr ($1.74 Mn) In bike/scooter rental segment, Bounce competes with Vogo, Tazzo Bikes, RentOnGo, ZipHop, ONN Bikes, among several others

Patrick J McGovern Lifetime Achievement Award conferred upon Ratan Tata November 12, 2019 Iconic Indian industrialist and Chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata was presented the Patrick J McGovern Lifetime Achievement Awards by Chiratae Ventures, formerly known as IDG Ventures India. Chairman emeritus of Tata Sons and scion of the Tata family, Ratan Tata was felicitated with the Patrick J McGovern Lifetime Achievement Award 2019. The award, instituted by then IDG Ventures India in 2016, commemorates the legacy of Patrick Joseph McGovern Jr., founder of the International Data Corporation and a visionary who redefined the way the enterprise consumed technology. The MIT graduate was the first to spot a business opportunity in a newsweekly for the IT community – he foresaw the potential of how technology could help businesses grow, and thus was born Computerworld on 21 June 1967. In a 2017 article, his son Patrick McGovern III highlighted McGovern Jr.’s innate ability to spot new and emerging trends in technology before they were recognized by everyone else. McGovern spearheaded the launch of over 300 magazines and newspapers and is credited with expanding IDG’s network to include over 460 websites, 200 mobile apps, and 700 events all around the globe. The tech visionary passed away on 19 March 2014, leaving a USD 350 million fortune to the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. Ratan Tata joins an elite list of awardees Over the years, the Patrick J McGovern Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred upon global leaders who have left a lasting legacy to their businesses. Past winners include John Chambers, former executive chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems, Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman and co-founder of Happiest Minds Technologies, Kris Gopalakrishna, co-founder of Infosys, Saurabh Srivastava, an entrepreneur and co-founder of IAN, and Bruno Raschle, founder, MD and non-executive vice chairman of Schroder Adveq. Ratan Tata is best known for putting the Indian enterprise on the global map. Under his stewardship, Tata Motors acquired the Jaguar and Land Rover businesses from Ford. In 2000, Tata Tea acquired the largest tea company in the UK, the Tetley group. Just three years later, TCS became the first Indian software company to cross USD 1 billion in revenue. In 2007, he oversaw Tata Steel’s acquisition of Corus, which was then the second-largest steel manufacturer in Europe. ­­ On being felicitated with the Lifetime Achievement Award, Ratan Tata said “It is a pleasure receiving this award from the Chiratae team. I have personally known Sudhir and the team for a few years now. I have witnessed the company’s and team’s growth as IDG, now Chiratae. I’m proud of the impressive portfolio they have built over the years. I am happy to have been a part of their success story.” What makes Pat McGovern’s philosophy so relevant and why Ratan Tata fits the bill Chiratae Ventures, formerly known as IDG Ventures India, believes that the startup ecosystem is all about stellar entrepreneurs, disruption, and creating impact for masses through technology innovation and perseverance – values that are perfectly in sync with Pat’s philosophy. Carrying forward his father’s legacy, Patrick J. McGovern III, Chairman of the Judge’s committee said that all the judges, which includes past recipients, and Sudhir Sethi and Meenakshi Sundaram from Chiratae, unanimously selected Ratan Tata as the awardee. “We have been through a great journey together and we are honored to have Mr. Ratan Tata accept the award from the Chiratae team. He has been a great motivation and mentor to the team. The time invested by him in advising us is of immense value,” added Sudhir Sethi, founder & chairman of Chiratae Ventures. The VC major believes that one of McGovern’s favorite quotes: “The best is yet to come” is a key driving factor for the startup ecosystem.

Chiratae Ventures announces Chiratae Sonic: An industry- first initiative to enable quicker access to capital for Founders July 14, 2021 Unprecedented 48 hours seed fund approval for investments less than or equal to $500,000 The first phase of applications under Chiratae Sonic is open for 30 days starting July 7th, 2021 Making fund-raise more seamless and accessible for founders through the templated application form and a dedicated website for the initiative (https://sonic.chiratae.com/) AWS to offer credits up to USD $100,000 per eligible startup through the AWS Activate program Chiratae Sonic is the 8th seed investment program rolled out by Chiratae Bangalore, 07 July 2021: Chiratae Ventures, India’s leading Venture Capital advisory firm today announced their landmark seed initiative Chiratae Sonic to accelerate and democratize the fund-raise process for founders. The initiative guarantees a 48 hours turnaround time on seed fund requests/pitches for investments less than or equal to $500,000. Chiratae has also introduced an application form and a dedicated website (https://sonic.chiratae.com/) to make the process even simpler for early-stage founders. Aligned to Chiratae’s commitment to empowering the homegrown startup ecosystem, the initiative aims to enable quicker access to capital for founders and help them prioritize innovation. The initiative will be rolled out in phases, with the first phase going live today and Chiratae is accepting applications under Chiratae Sonic for the next 30 days. Chiratae Sonic is the 8th seed investment program rolled out by Chiratae in line with their efforts to empower and support early-stage ventures. Commenting on the initiative, Sudhir Sethi, Founder & Chairman, said, “As an entrepreneur- first VC, our focus has always been on prioritizing the success of our portfolio businesses. We are constantly on the lookout for ways to make our relationship more efficient and productive. One of the biggest challenges an early-stage entrepreneur faces is the tedious and time-consuming process behind raising capital. We believe innovation needs to be at the core of why and how founders interact with investors. By solving and simplifying the ‘how’ of that conversation Chiratae Sonic strives to empower founders to focus on innovation above all.” In addition to the promise of rapid decision-making for investments via Chiratae Sonic, the initiative entails standard investment terms for equity investments. Diligence for all investments under the initiative will be completed rapidly and remotely with trusted partners. Chiratae remains focused on investing in startups with technology at the core, irrespective of end-use application in dynamic industries like Consumer Tech, Enterprise Tech/SaaS, FinTech, Health-Tech, Deep-Tech, Ed-Tech, and Agri-Tech among others. In addition to capital, Chiratae also offers its portfolio businesses access to the expertise and insights from its Global Advisory Board and India Advisory Council. Chiratae Venture’s Global Advisory Board has Mr. Ratan Tata – Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan – Co-founder of Infosys, Mr. Bruno E. Raschle – Founder, Managing Director, and Non-Executive Vice Chairman of Schroder, and Mr. Manish Choksi – Non-Executive Vice Chairman of Asian Paints and Dr. Andreas Hettich, Chair, Hettich Group Advisory Board with the additional support of Dr. Ferzaan Engineer – Co-founder and Chairman of Cytecare Hospitals from the India Advisory Council of Chiratae. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a key collaborator in the Sonic program and will offer credits up to USD $100,000 per eligible startup through the AWS Activate program, which provides resources like AWS credits, business mentorship, and technical support to help early-stage founders build and scale successful businesses. About Chiratae Ventures Launched in 2006, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors (formerly IDG Ventures India) is India’s leading technology Venture Capital funds advisor. The funds advised by Chiratae Ventures India Advisors collectively have close to $900 M under management and 99 investee companies across Consumer Media & Tech, Cloud/Software, Health-tech, and Fin-tech. Notable portfolio companies include Bounce, Cure.fit, FirstCry, Flipkart, Forus, Lenskart, Manthan, Myntra (acquired by Flipkart), NestAway, Newgen (NSE: NEWGEN), PlaySimple, PolicyBazaar, Rentomojo, Unbxd, and Uniphore among others.

Chiratae Ventures, India’s leading Tech VC closes oversubscribed largest Fund IV at $ 337 m August 6, 2021 Bengaluru, 06 August 2021: Chiratae Ventures announced the closing of its fourth fund at $337 Mn oversubscribed by 25%. Chiratae Ventures is backed by marquee global and Indian investors. Over half of Fund IV is from Indian investors including Family Offices and industrial families from India. Global investors include those from the US, UK, Europe, Japan and Singapore. Chiratae Venture Funds are ESG compliant. With a cumulative AUM of approximately $ 950 Mn Chiratae Ventures has invested in more than 100 deals since its inception in 2006, delivered 2 IPOs, 4 unicorns while completing 38 exits with a record 8 consecutive years of capital distributions to investors. CloudCherry, Flipkart, Manthan, Myntra, Newgen, PlaySimple, and Xpressbees are some of the portfolio companies that have been fully exited. Today 40% of the early-stage Tech VC’s portfolio has scaled globally to more than 35 countries. Chiratae Portfolio has filed a total of 120+ patents, with 27 of these granted. Commenting on the Fund close “We are pleased to continue to back stellar Indian entrepreneurs in technology startups assisting them to grow to dominant leaders in India and globally. It is a testimony to the startup ecosystem in India and high-quality tech entrepreneurs. We have the backing of Marquee Global and Indian Investors repeatedly. Chiratae has delivered stellar exits including a recent 43X return from PlaySimple”, said Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman, Chiratae Ventures Chiratae Ventures has backed homegrown unicorns such as FirstCry, Flipkart, Lenskart, and Policybazaar. PolicyBazaar just filed its DRHP. Its portfolio also includes Tech leaders such as Agrostar, Bizongo, Bounce, Cropin, Curefit, Emotix, GoMechanic, HealthifyMe, PlayShifu, Pyxis, Uniphore, and Vayana, among others. TC Meenakshisundaram, Founder and MD, Chiratae Ventures, added “We are seeing over 3000 new companies every year. This number will increase further as India grows to a $ 5 Trillion economy. Indian Insurance companies have also now backed us which is a game-changer for us” In addition to capital, Chiratae also offers its portfolio businesses access to the expertise and insights from the team and from its Global Advisory Board. Chiratae Venture’s Global Advisory Board has Mr. Ratan Tata – Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan – Co-founder of Infosys, Mr. Bruno E. Raschle – Founder and Non-Executive Vice Chairman of Schroder Adveq, Mr. Manish Choksi – Non-Executive Vice Chairman of Asian Paints and Dr. Andreas Hettich, Chair, Hettich Group Advisory Board and Dr. Ferzaan Engineer – Co-founder and Chairman of Cytecare Hospitals from the India Advisory Council of Chiratae. Chiratae Ventures India leadership team includes Sudhir Sethi – Founder & Chairman and TC Meenakshisundaram – Founder & MD as well as partners Karthik Prabhakar, Karan Mohla, Venkatesh Peddi, Ranjith Menon, and Swaminathan Shankar – Chief Financial Officer. Chiratae continues to focus on investing in startups with technology at the core, irrespective of end-use applications such as but not only limited to Consumer Tech, Enterprise Tech/SaaS, FinTech, Health-Tech, Deep-Tech, Ed-Tech, Agri-Tech, etc. About Chiratae Ventures Launched in 2006, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors (formerly IDG Ventures India) is India’s leading technology Venture Capital funds advisor. The funds advised by Chiratae Ventures India Advisors collectively $ 950 Million under management and 100+ investee companies across Consumer Media & Tech, Cloud/Software, Health- tech, and Fin-tech. Notable portfolio companies include Bounce, Cure.fit, FirstCry, Flipkart, GoMechanic, Lenskart, Manthan, Myntra (acquired by Flipkart), Newgen (NSE: NEWGEN), PlaySimple, PolicyBazaar, and Uniphore among others. To date, the fund has recorded 2 IPOs, 38 exits, and 4 Unicorns.

TCM Sundaram elevated as Vice Chairman of Chiratae Ventures December 17, 2021 Bengaluru, 17th December 2021: TCM Sundaram elevated as Vice Chairman of Chiratae Ventures Bengaluru based Chiratae Ventures has announced the elevation of its Founder, TCM Sundaram, to Vice Chairman. TCM Sundaram brings over 35 years of industry experience, including 16 years of venture experience. Some of the notable leaders he has backed are Lenskart, PolicyBazaar, AgroStar, Vayana, Kristal.ai, ShopSe, amongst others. In 2006 Sudhir Sethi and TCM Sundaram co-founded Chiratae Ventures. Welcoming TCM Sundaram’s elevation to Vice Chairman, Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman, shared, “I have had the privilege of working with TCM over the past 30 years as well as being close friends over these many years. TCM’s Contribution to the success of Chiratae has been notable and exceptional not only as a professional but also as a strong team player. Characterized by intellect, immense energy, and multiplexing TCM is a fine role model within Chiratae.” In the past fifteen years, TCM has led many initiatives in investments, exits, firm building, finance, and legal, amongst others. TCM has also led the Fintech Sector, contributed and led fundraising, including opening new investor platforms such as Rupee Capital, DFIs and Insurance companies partnerships, and more recently taking a portfolio to scale and IPO. Well respected and regarded by the Indian VC/PE ecosystem as a pioneer, TCM is also a Chartered Accountant by qualification. He is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE). A marathoner and an F1 fan, he invests in public markets too. About Chiratae Ventures A homegrown early-stage tech VC backing stellar entrepreneurs disrupting or creating new ecosystems, the fund has been an early backer of Curefit, Firstcry, GlobalBees, Lenskart, and Myntra, and has invested in leaders like AgroStar, Bizongo, Bounce, Cropin, EarlySalary, GoMechanic, HealthifyMe, NestAway, Pyxis, Uniphore, Vayana, amongst others. This year Chiratae completed 15 years in the Indian Startup Ecosystem and announced its final close of the fourth fund oversubscribed at $337 million in August. Through the years, the team has delivered value for its investors with over 39 exits and driven portfolio growth as demonstrated by $1 billion AUM since its inception, 3 IPOs and 6 Unicorns, with more round the corner. L-R: Sudhir Sethi, Founder & Chairman with TCM Sundaram, Founder and Vice Chairman, Chiratae Ventures.

Chiratae Ventures announces key elevations in its growth journey of three Managing Directors and AVP December 20, 2021 Bengaluru, 20 th December 2021: Chiratae Ventures announces key elevations in its growth journey of three Managing Directors and AVP Chiratae Ventures, formerly known as IDG Ventures, has announced the promotion of four key members. Karthik Prabhakar, Ranjith Menon, and Venkatesh Peddi have been elevated to Managing Directors, and Gayatri Menon has been elevated to Associate Vice President – Legal. Karthik Prabhakar, Ranjith Menon and Venkatesh Peddi have spent over a decade at Chiratae and have worked as a close-knit team. Karthik leads fundraising at Chiratae Ventures and has led investments in EarlySalary, NestAway, PlaySimple and PlayShifu, amongst others. Ranjith, leads Health tech sector and has led investments in GoMechanic, Bizongo, Zumutor, Redcliffe and Uniphore amongst others. Venkatesh, leads the SaasS sector and has led investments in Deepfence, Healthplix, Hevo, Pyxis, among others. Chiratae Ventures is a leading homegrown early-stage tech VC backing stellar ventrepreneurs disrupting or creating new ecosystems. The Bengaluru based VC fund was co-founded by Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman and TCM Sundaram, Founder and Vice Chairman in 2006. Speaking about the team and its culture, Sudhir Sethi, the Founder and Chairman of Chiratae Ventures shares: “At the outset my congratulations to Ranjith, Venkatesh, Karthik and Gayatri on their elevation. Their contribution in staging Chiratae Ventures to a leadership position has been outstanding. In pursuing our goal of growing 3x Chiratae leaders are poised to raise multiple funds, invest faster and deliver 3x more exits year by year.”  Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman, with TCM Sundaram, Founder and Vice Chairman, Chiratae Ventures This year also marks a milestone for Chiratae Ventures. It completed its 15 years in the Indian Startup Ecosystem and announced its final close of the fourth fund oversubscribed at $337 million in August. Through the years, the team has delivered value for its investors with over 39 exits and driven portfolio growth as demonstrated by $1 billion AUM since its inception, 3 IPOs and 6 Unicorns, with more round the corner. Chiratae has been an early backer of AgroStar, Bizongo, Bounce, Cropin, Curefit, EarlySalary, Emotix, Firstcry, GlobalBees, Go Mechanic, HealthifyMe, Lenskart, Myntra, NestAway, Pyxis, Vayana, Uniphore, amongst others. Matching its scale and growth aspirations, the fund has been beefing up its leadership. The recent promotions are aligned to an overall strategy to provide an accelerated growth path for its team that is expected to grow by 60 percent in the coming months with the addition of another 15 professionals. The elevations come on the back of seven recent appointments made by Chiratae in its Investment and Marketing teams and align with their growth vision. TCM Sundaram, Founder and Vice Chairman, shared, “Over the past decade Karthik, Ranjith and Venkatesh have been at the forefront of investing in very successful companies as well as leading sectors for Chiratae Ventures and been role models for our new and younger team members. Gayatri, as legal counsel, has contributed significantly to Chiratae’s investments, divestments and fundraising over the past four years and has become an integral part of the Chiratae Team. I wish the team long and successful innings at Chiratae in creating unicorns and IPO candidates in years to come.”  L-R: Karthik Prabhakar, Ranjith Menon, Gayatri Menon and Venkatesh Peddi SaaS and software: 7. Clientell● Clientell is a no-code decision landscape, empowering business leaders to take data backed decisions and streamline business strategies by leveraging self- evolving AI. Founded by Saahil Dhaka and Neil Sarkar batchmates from BITS Pilani, Chiratae Ventures led the investment as the sole investor. 8. Goodmeetings● Goodmeetings is an online video and AI-enabled platform that helps sales teams sell 10X better over video calls. They do this by providing AI powered dynamic nudges, checklists, help on the fly, workflow automation and useful insights to improve sales productivity, efficacy and decision making. Founding team comprises of serial entrepreneurs Srinivasan Narayan, Soumya Mohapatra, Abhijeet Sahoo, Alok Mishra and Ajay Srinath. Chiratae led the investment round with participation from FortyTwo.VC, Adept Ventures, 100X.VC, Atrium Angels and marquee angels. 9. HUVIAiR● HUVIAiR is a construction technology company that helps businesses through its visual intelligence technology platform to enhance on-site productivity and reduce progress monitoring time while cutting down on overall project costs. HUVIAiR was founded by Vikshut Mundkur and Arjun Janananda. Chiratae Ventures led the investment with participation from SOSV, Artesian Venture Partners and RMZ Management LLP. 10. Locale• Locale is a control tower for central oversight and localised decisions for real-world operations. It optimizes your operations with powerful map-based analytics, hyperlocal insights and granular decisions. Locale currently works with some of the world’s largest companies, including those in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, India, and Singapore, to name a few. Locale was founded in 2019 by Aditi Sinha, a BITS Pilani graduate, and Rishabh Jain, who worked extensively on geographic information systems at Social Cops. Chiratae led the company’s seed round in August 2021. 11. NetBookAI● NetBook is a platform to abstract out the entire compute infrastructure layer from Machine Learning workflows, thus enabling Machine Learning developers to save 90% of their time that is lost due to compute bottlenecks. NetBook enables teams to connect all their private and cloud servers to manage workloads across their entire infrastructure seamlessly from a single dashboard. NetBook was founded by Sachin Chandra Bonagiri and Siddhardha Sukka who possess a broad experience in developing ML solutions and products after graduating from IIT Bombay as batchmates earlier. Chiratae Ventures led the investment as the sole investor with participation from marquee angels. DeepTech: 12. DreamVu● DreamVu is a pioneer and the leader in omnidirectional 3D vision systems. It leverages patented optics with visual imaging software to create affordable omnidirectional 3D vision systems to solve some of the most challenging problems in vision globally with large scale use cases in the industrial automation space. DreamVu was founded in 2017 by IIIT Hyderabad alumni Rajat Aggarwal, Rohan Bhatial and Professor Anoop Namboodiri. Chiratae led

The article explores the transformation of India’s payment landscape in the aftermath of demonetization, pondering the potential emergence of a cashless society driven by fast-evolving digital payment solutions and its impact on the startup ecosystem.

The FDA’s groundbreaking approval of IDx-DR, an artificial intelligence-powered software by IDx, marks a significant advancement in healthcare by aiding doctors in interpreting medical imagery.

Why Chiratae Ventures led a $9m Series A investment in Pando.

Oversubscribed Chiratae Ventures Growth Fund -I announces its first close at INR 759 cr November 28, 2022 Chiratae Ventures Growth Fund – I (CGF – I) announces its first close at INR 759 Cr; final close by the end of the year with substantial oversubscription Plans to invest in growth opportunities, startups raising Series C and beyond rounds Bengaluru | November 8, 2022: Chiratae Ventures, India’s leading early-stage technology-focused venture capital fund, has announced the first close of its fundraising, which will be dedicated solely to growth-stage portfolio. The Chiratae Ventures Growth Fund – I (CGF – I) has been oversubscribed at INR 759 Cr. Chiratae plans to now close its green shoe commitments by Dec 2022. Chiratae Growth Fund -I will invest in the growth rounds of market-leading technology startups from its portfolio and outside. It will be a sector-agnostic fund to support the growth and expansion of tech companies. The fund is targeting to invest across 15-20 companies. Chiratae Ventures has raised five early-stage funds and manages $1.1 bn in AUM. The firm has a successful track record of investing in early and growth-stage startups across its 16-year history. It has been an early backer of technology-led companies such as Bizongo, Curefit, EarlySalary, Firstcry, GoMechanic, Lenskart, Myntra, PolicyBazaar, Pyxis, Vayana, and Uniphore, amongst others. Chiratae is unique as it’s the only VC firm in India to have returned capital every year for a decade. Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman of Chiratae Ventures said, “We are pleased to announce our fund close at INR 759 cr for our maiden Chiratae Growth Fund 1. This is one of our fastest fundraisings. We thank our investors for recognising our performance, strategy, returns and governance. The fund will be focused on fueling the growth of 15-20 technology startups at growth stage.” This is the first growth fund raised by Chiratae Ventures. The fund counts domestic institutional investors such as Kris Gopalakrishnan FO, Choksi Family Office (promoters of Asian Paints), SBI and IIFL Wealth & Asset Management and other Family Offices, as well as existing global investors and key LPs. TC Meenakshi Sundaram, Founder and Vice-Chairman of Chiratae Ventures, said, “This is one of the fastest fundraise we have seen. Thanks to our Investors, we are oversubscribed and are looking to close this by the end of the year. We are excited about investing in companies that solve population-scale problems.” Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Member, Global Advisory Board, Chiratae Ventures, and Co-Founder of Infosys, said, “I am glad that Chiratae, as the largest home-grown venture growth firm, has achieved its fastest fund closure of Chiratae Growth Fund 1, on the back of a decade plus long history of stellar returns, high governance, firm institutionalization, backing Unicorns with capital from Indian as well as global investors repeatedly.” About Chiratae Ventures: Launched in 2006, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors is India’s leading technology Venture Capital funds advisor. The funds advised by Chiratae Ventures India Advisors collectively have close to $1.1Bn under management and 128+ investee companies across SaaS, Consumer Media & Tech, Health-tech, and Fin-tech. The fund has been an early backer of Cure.fit, FirstCry, Flipkart, Globalbees, Lenskart, Manthan, Myntra, PolicyBazaar and has invested in leaders like AgroStar, Bizongo, Bounce, Cropin, EarlySalary, GoMechanic, HealthifyMe, Hevo Data, Pyxis, Uniphore Vayana, amongst others. Chiratae closed its fourth fund, oversubscribed at $337 million in 2021. The team has delivered value for its investors through the years with over 45 exits, 3 IPOs and 8 Unicorns, with more around the corner. Chiratae Ventures is India’s leading early-stage technology-focused venture capital fund backing stellar entrepreneurs disrupting or creating new ecosystems. With a team of over 30 professionals having a cumulative VC experience of 100+ years. Chiratae’s Global Advisory board consists of esteemed personalities such as Mr. Ratan Tata (Chairman), Kris Gopalakrishnan, Manish Choksi (Vice Chairman Asian Paints), Bruno Raschle (Founder Adveq Zurich), Dr Andreas Hettich (Chairman Hettich Corporation Germany) and Dr Ferzaan Engineer (Founder Cytecare and Nightingale).

Presenting Chiratae Sonic, our flagship seed program with an accelerated process of decision making for companies raising seed funding. Chiratae Sonic is for entrepreneurs who are raring to scale up quickly with their disruptive tech ideas. We aim to provide you with an accelerated process of raising the seed investment for your tech business

Presenting Chiratae Sonic, our flagship seed program with an accelerated process of decision making for companies raising seed funding. Chiratae Sonic is for entrepreneurs who are raring to scale up quickly with their disruptive tech ideas. We aim to provide you with an accelerated process of raising the seed investment for your tech business

Presenting Chiratae Sonic, our flagship seed program with an accelerated process of decision making for companies raising seed funding. Chiratae Sonic is for entrepreneurs who are raring to scale up quickly with their disruptive tech ideas. We aim to provide you with an accelerated process of raising the seed investment for your tech business

Presenting Chiratae Sonic, our flagship seed program with an accelerated process of decision making for companies raising seed funding. Chiratae Sonic is for entrepreneurs who are raring to scale up quickly with their disruptive tech ideas. We aim to provide you with an accelerated process of raising the seed investment for your tech business

Presenting Chiratae Sonic, our flagship seed program with an accelerated process of decision making for companies raising seed funding. Chiratae Sonic is for entrepreneurs who are raring to scale up quickly with their disruptive tech ideas. We aim to provide you with an accelerated process of raising the seed investment for your tech business

Presenting Chiratae Sonic, our flagship seed program with an accelerated process of decision making for companies raising seed funding. Chiratae Sonic is for entrepreneurs who are raring to scale up quickly with their disruptive tech ideas. We aim to provide you with an accelerated process of raising the seed investment for your tech business

Reflections on brand name, identity, change and re-branding.

Packaging, the old brown cardboard boxes of the yore has come a long way. Today, it is a big influencer for consumers while making purchasing decisions, key lever for brands to communicate good experience and ensure brand recall.

Disrupting Seed Investments – Chiratae Ventures invests in 19 companies through the first edition of Sonic February 23, 2022 Bengaluru – February 23, 2022 Chiratae Ventures, the country’s largest homegrown venture capital firm, announced investments into 19 companies as part of the first edition of Sonic, its flagship seed investment initiative, identifying and investing into disruptive tech ventures raising up to USD 2Million. Launched in July 2021 with the vision of accelerating and democratizing the fund-raise process for founders, Sonic assured for the first-time time in the history of the Indian startup ecosystem a turnaround time of just 48 hours on the investment decision from the first pitch session for companies raising up to USD 500,000. In addition to the promise of rapid decision-making for investments via Sonic, the initiative entailed standardized deal terms for equity investments. Diligence for all investments under the initiative was completed rapidly and remotely with trusted partners. The founding teams of these 19 companies will be mentored by leading founders, industry veterans, investors and receive perks and support across services in their next stage of growth. Commenting on the success of the first edition of Sonic, Mr Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman, Chiratae Ventures said, “Chiratae Sonic, our seed program has facilitated entrepreneurs to build stellar companies in India and abroad. We were an early backer of companies like Uniphore, Miko, Playshifu, Deepfence, Hevo, Squadcast, HealthPlix, amongst many others. Under our seed program Chiratae Sonic, last year we backed 19 startups. With eight unicorns in our portfolio, we are more than ever driven to support and back tech startups solving for India.” Aditya Singhal, Founder-CEO of ByteLearn the first company from Sonic-2021 to raise a follow-on round within six months of closing the pre-seed round said “We at Bytelearn are super thankful and happy that we made the right choice by partnering with Chiratae’s team. Their team has helped, supported us and guided us in all crucial decision making. We found lot of gravity and maturity in all their decision making which we are sure will help us in future as well.” Building on the success of the first edition, Chiratae would be launching the 2022 edition of Sonic shortly. Highlights from Sonic 2021 ● Chiratae Ventures evaluated over 3000 deals in 2021 across stages and sectors. ● While Consumer-tech, SaaS, Health-tech, Fin-tech and Deeptech were the top startup themes, very interesting sub-themes were seen across AI &amp; ML applications ranging from hiring, education to sales and consumer behaviour. The Chiratae team also evaluated promising proposals in emerging spaces such as gaming, no-code infrastructure, EV mobility, battery tech, medical device tech, insurance-tech, etc. ● While a majority of the startups were based in metro hubs like Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata, Sonic saw a record deal flow from across India &amp; the world with Kochi, Ahmedabad, Indore, Guwahati, Dehradun, California, London and Israel brimming with startup activity. ● Chiratae saw a 90% increase in seed stage deals through Sonic, as the fund had made 10 seed investments in 2020. ● Of the 19 startups in the first Sonic cohort, ByteLearn raised a Pre-Series A round within six months, with many more currently in the process of raising their next rounds in the next couple of quarters. The following are the companies that raised investment in Sonic 2021: Consumer Tech: 1. Aura Smart● Aura Smart is building a unified intelligent home platform to control and monitor any smart devices, sensors and internet services across different brands and ecosystems for residential and commercial property use cases. The company provides a mobile app and/or a smart home gateway that enables this. Ashwani Agrawal and Abrar Ahmed, batchmates at BITS Pilani founded Aura Smart in 2018. Chiratae led the investment round with participation from angel investors. 2. BeepKart● BeepKart is a full-stack online retailer of used two-wheelers which provides buyers the required confidence on price, quality and after-sales service using a tech- first approach to address the trust deficit in the massive used two-wheeler market. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Hemir Doshi and Abhishek Saraf who bring rich experiences with stints at top venture capital firms, conglomerates and high growth startups. Chiratae Ventures co-led its investment with Stellaris Venture Partners. 3. BuyStars● BuyStars is a real-money player card trading platform, where users buy, sell, trade and manage a virtual team with digital player cards across Cricket, Football, Kabaddi and other sports. Founded in 2021 by Aman Satija and Sriram Krishnamoorthy, they bring a wealth of experience across growth, marketing and product management functions leading multiple marquee startups before across multiple categories. Chiratae Ventures co-led its investment with Leo Capital with participation from angels. 4. ByteLearn● ByteLearn is an AI-powered teaching assistant that helps students with maths problems, evaluates performance, grades tests, and enables them to learn any topic via its AI-powered tutoring engine while providing actionable insights for the teachers to leverage from the identified learning gaps. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Aditya Singhal and Nishant Sinha, the team carries 15+ years of prior ed-tech experiences. Chiratae Ventures has partnered with company since the pre-seed round and co-led the seed investment with 9Unicorns and Leo Capital. 5. Tamasha● Tamasha is building a gaming ecosystem, where creators can engage communities through live social games and instantly monetise their engagement. While game developers can utilise the creator ecosystem to develop and publish community-driven games for the masses. The platform was founded by IIT Bombay graduates Saurabh Gupta and Siddharth Swarnkar. Chiratae led the investment round with participation from Incubate Fund India, 9Unicorns, Good Capital, Founderbank Capital, FirstCheque, PointOne Capital, Ice.vc and leading angels. 6. VisioApps● VisioApps has created Louie Voice Control an assistive tech platform for individuals with low vision and upper body mobility impairment. The platform is an immersive voice solution that lets users fully control the phone & apps with just voice commands while helping them navigate the world better and be more productive, socially connected and independent. Founded by serial entrepreneur Pramit Bhargava, Chiratae co-led the

Disrupting Seed Investments – Chiratae Ventures announces the launch of Sonic-2022. March 3, 2022 Bangalore, 3rd March 2022: Building on the success of the first edition, Chiratae Ventures, the country’s leading venture capital firm, announced the launch of the second edition of Sonic today. Last month, Chiratae announced investments into 19 startups in 2021 as part of the first edition of Sonic, their flagship seed investment program. The first edition saw companies across Consumer-tech, SaaS, Deeptech, Metaverse, Web3 and B2B Enterprise tech raising seed investments from Chiratae. ByteLearn, one of the Sonic-2021 companies, also raised a follow-on round of funding within six months of closing their seed round. Chiratae Ventures saw over 3,000 deals across the calendar year of 2021. Most of them came from founders at seed and pre-series-A stages. With a platform like Sonic, the team expects to receive over 4,000 applications from the startup ecosystem through the year. Sonic was born from the vision of accelerating and democratising the fund-raise process for founders at an early stage. Through this initiative, the team at Chiratae assures a 48-hour turnaround on investment decisions on funding requests up to USD 500,000 from the first pitch session. In addition, Chiratae invites applications from founders of companies looking to raise up to USD 2 million as part of Sonic. The promise of rapid investment decision-making via Chiratae Sonic will entail standard investment terms for equity investments and accelerated diligence for all investments. Commenting on the launch of the second edition, Mr Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman, Chiratae Ventures, said, “Chiratae Sonic promises to be even more exciting. We invite young entrepreneurs, especially in high-end technologies in various verticals, with an ambition to build large, globally scaled companies. Our seed investments, Uniphore, Emotix, Hevo Data, Redcliffe, Bizongo, PlayShifu, ByteLearn and Pyxis, are a testimony to the success of the Sonic program.” To make this process seamless and much easier for early-stage founders, Chiratae has opened up the application process through its website. Unlike the first edition, which had an application window open for just seven weeks, Sonic’s current and future editions will receive proposals from startups throughout the year without compromising the agility of response. In addition to investments, the companies in each edition of Sonic will receive value addition in the form of mentorship from Chiratae’s founder network and Industry veterans through a structured set of webinars and learning sessions, and perks and support across services for their next stage of growth. Through the Sonic program, Chiratae also plans to engage more deeply with student entrepreneurs passionate about technology and innovation. Chiratae aims to identify, mentor and invest in startups with technology at their core, across dynamic industries such as: Consumer Tech SaaS B2B Enterprise Tech FinTech Health-Tech Deep-Tech Ed-Tech Agri-Tech Web3 Also, Sonic has collaborated with over 20 ecosystem players, including AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, Mixpanel and Razorpay, to name a few, to bring their resources and experts to accelerate the initial technology and product journeys. The cumulative benefits of partners-led benefits for each portfolio company account for over USD 500,000 and is expected to rise as more collaborations are being stitched in the weeks ahead. (List of our Ecosystem Partners – https://www.sonic.chiratae.com/) About Chiratae Ventures Launched in 2006, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors, a homegrown early-stage tech Venture Capital Fund backing stellar entrepreneurs disrupting or creating new ecosystems, the fund has been an early backer of Curefit, Firstcry, GlobalBees, Lenskart, and Myntra, and has invested in leaders like AgroStar, Bizongo, Bounce, Cropin, EarlySalary, GoMechanic, HealthifyMe, NestAway, Pyxis, Uniphore, Vayana, amongst others. In its 16th year of existence, it closed its fourth fund oversubscribed at $337 million in 2021. The team has delivered value for its investors through the years with over 40 exits and driven portfolio growth as demonstrated by $1 billion AUM since its inception, 3 IPOs and 8 Unicorns, with more round the corner.

Mr Prem Watsa, Mr Uday Kotak, and Ms Falguni Nayar receive the prestigious Chiratae Patrick J. McGovern Awards 2022 November 3, 2022 Mr Prem Watsa, Chairman &amp; CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited receives the ‘Global Lifetime Achievement Award’ Mr Uday Kotak, MD &amp; CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, receives the ‘India Lifetime Achievement Award Ms Falguni Nayar, Founder of Nykaa receives the ‘Exceptional Entrepreneurial Achievement Award’ Bengaluru | October 12, 2022: Chiratae Ventures, India’s leading early-stage technology focused venture capital fund, with $1Bn under management and 125+ investee companies across SaaS, Consumer Media & Tech, Healthtech, and Fintech, concluded its Annual General Meeting today. The evening that brought together the ecosystem witnessed the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Awards being received by business leaders and entrepreneurs for their outstanding achievements. Mr Prem Watsa, Chairman &amp; CEO, Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, received the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Global Lifetime Achievement Award 2022 for contributing to India’s tech entrepreneurial ecosystem. Mr Uday Kotak, MD &amp; CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank received the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern India Lifetime Achievement Award 2022 for the substantial impact he has made on the Indian banking industry. And Ms Falguni Nayar, Founder &amp; CEO, Nykaa, received the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Exceptional Entrepreneurial Achievement Award 2022 for her outstanding achievements, growth and contribution towards the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Awards were instituted in 2016 to honour the legacy of Mr Patrick J. McGovern, the legendary Co-Founder and Chairman of International Data Group (IDG), the leading global tech-media company with over 200 magazines and 460 websites. Pat, as he is fondly known, set up IDG Technology Ventures and anchored funds in multiple countries, including India, China, the USA, Vietnam and Korea. He was one of the earliest venture capitalists to believe in emerging markets, and his support led to the formation of Chiratae Ventures (then IDG Ventures) in 2006. Chiratae Ventures instituted and named Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Awards in memory of their first investor, who passed away in 2016. The Awards celebrate individuals with exceptional contributions to business, entrepreneurship and economic impact. Celebrating the recipients at the event, Sudhir Sethi, Founder &amp; Chairman of Chiratae Ventures, said, “We have been celebrating exceptional leaders and entrepreneurs for the impact they have generated with the prestigious Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern awards every year. We are honoured to have Mr Prem Watsa, Mr Uday Kotak and Ms Falguni Nayar accept the awards for 2022.” Commenting on the winners, Patrick McGovern, Trustee at the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation said, “My father believed in investing in new opportunities and markets in India. He was the anchor investor for the first three funds at Chiratae Ventures. I am delighted to present the recipients, and I wholeheartedly thank them for their contributions to the industry and the ecosystem.” Mr Prem Watsa, Chairman &amp; CEO, Fairfax Financial Holdings, in his acceptance speech, mentioned, “It is a great honour to receive the Patrick J. McGovern Global Lifetime Achievement Award from Chiratae Ventures. I was very excited to learn about the work that Chiratae Ventures has done in the field of startups in India. It is indeed very heartening to learn that Indian startups make USD25 Bn in revenue and that this will ramp up to USD150 Bn in the next five years. This is fantastic and wonderful for these companies and for India as a country. India is the best country to invest in right now, with the right policies and leadership, it is truly India’s time under Prime Minister Modi.” In his acceptance speech, Mr Uday Kotak, MD &amp; CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank said, “I am honoured by the quality and eminence of the jury who has decided to give me this prestigious award. We all come from being a startup once upon a time. We started small, and then we had the opportunity to grow and build a firm. The journey of an entrepreneur is fascinating and Chiratae is focused on venture capital and early-stage support to entrepreneurs who have dreams. What is even more interesting is to see many of these companies flourish and become more sustainable companies over time.” In her acceptance speech, Ms Falguni Nayar, Founder and CEO, Nykaa said, “I am very grateful for the honour that this award bestows on me. As India’s leading early-stage tech focused VC fund, Chiratae has played a key role in developing several industries. Especially in its foundational premise, Chiratae’s focus on building an entrepreneurial growth mindset by developing scalable strategies is commendable.  At present, the technology space and the startup environment in the country has evolved to the point of becoming truly mainstream. Across industries and businesses, entrepreneurs are creating new innovative solutions to resolve real problems. This is an exciting time to learn from and develop business models that use state-of-the-art technology, prioritising sustainability over short-term growth.” Chiratae Ventures has been celebrating individuals with exceptional contributions to their respective domains through the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Awards. Some of the previous winners include: Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons Kris Gopalkrishnan, Founder and Former Executive Vice Chairman, Infosys Nandan Nilekani, Founder and Non-Executive Chairman, Infosys Bruno Raschle, Non-Executive Vice Chairman, Schroder Adveq John T. Chambers, Former Executive Chairman and CEO, CISCO Systems Saurabh Srivastava, Entrepreneur, Policymaker and Former Chairman, NASSCOM Ashok Soota, Co-Founder, Mindtree and Happiest Minds Technologies. Desh Deshpande, Venture Capitalist and Entrepreneur Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder and Executive Vice Chairman of Infoedge and Co-founder Ashoka University All the previous recipients become part of the jury that selects the following year’s recipients. This jury is chaired by Patrick McGovern, Trustee of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. The criteria for selection include an exceptional contribution to the Indian entrepreneurial and business ecosystem, Indian policymaking and driving risk capital investments to India. About Chiratae Ventures: Launched in 2006, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors is India&#39;s leading technology Venture Capital funds advisor. The funds advised by Chiratae Ventures India Advisors collectively have close to $1Bn under management and 125+ investee companies across SaaS, Consumer Media &amp; Tech, Health-tech, and Fin-tech. The

Indian SaaS to reach USD $ 100 Bn in revenues by 2026 April 28, 2022 Continued momentum in the creation of SaaS unicorns will propel India to surpass China and become the 2nd largest SaaS nation in the world Venture Capital investments will continue to flow into SaaS companies and is projected to touch USD $ 6.5 Bn, a 55% increase over last year’s investments of USD $ 4.2 Bn Cloud Security and Web3 are emerging as key areas of interest for investors within SaaS Bangalore, 19th April 2022: The Indian SaaS juggernaut is experiencing a ‘coming-of-age’ moment, with an incredible bull run that has firmly anchored its position on the global stage. The SaaS industry is set to clock in a massive USD $ 100 Bn in revenues by 2026. This was underscored by the 2022 edition of the Chiratae-Zinnov India SaaS report titled, “India SaaS – Punching Through the Global Pecking Order.” As the industry has matured, profitability has become a realistic milestone for SaaS companies, and they have cracked the Enterprise conundrum with over 40% revenue contribution. On the global stage, India is gearing to supersede China as the second largest SaaS nation in the next few years. The report identifies the key attributes that have accelerated the success of the SaaS industry – ‘SPARK’ – Supportive Policies, Proven Global Caliber, Abundant Liquidity, Rearing Domestic Talent, and Kindled Exit Options. Today, leading SaaS firms have been at the forefront of localizing innovation by putting robust engineering and product teams in the top markets that they are catering to. The focus for the firms is to capitalize on the overall value delivered to consumers, thus improving their propensity to pay. The early SaaS companies are attracting unicorn valuations and also successfully listing on the public markets. These successes, coupled with stronger fundamentals and the path to profitability, are making SaaS companies in India an attractive investment theme. The industry aims to attract a strong private capital infusion of close to USD $ 6.5 Bn in the coming year alone, notes the report. Key findings on the year gone by Indian SaaS witnessed massive growth at a ~55% CAGR in 2021, with revenues well-poised to cross USD $ 100 Bn by 2026 The next wave of digital talent is expected from tier-2 and tier-3 cities; a vast pool of ~3 Mn+ digitally skilled workforce will be the perfect munition for SaaS companies to scale up in the coming years The tremendous growth in the sector as well as the significant reduction in the time to achieve unicorn status have created ~90% of all SaaS unicorns in the last four years alone, with the potential for many more in the offing, thus adding to a large pool of Soonicorns Post surpassing UK this year in the number of SaaS unicorns, India is all set to leapfrog China and become the 2nd largest SaaS nation by 2026 The various pro start-up policies will play a key role in attracting more founders and investors. On the launch of this report, Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman, Chiratae Ventures, stated, “India is a global SaaS leader, and Chiratae Ventures has been fortunate to be at the center of this surging momentum, with over 35 SaaS companies in our portfolio like Uniphore, which recently raised USD $ 400 Mn, and others like Pixis, Hevo Data, Healthplix, CropIn, Pando, Deepfence, and Squadcast which are valued over USD $ 3.5 Bn and last year overall raised USD $ 600 Mn. Chiratae predicts that investments in Indian SaaS will continue to grow at a massive pace with the revenue poised to cross USD $ 100 Bn by 2026.” Pari Natarajan, CEO, Zinnov, said, “2021 was a watershed year for Indian SaaS – including exponential valuations, successful IPO debuts, a vast influx of VC investments, and an unprecedented number of unicorns. Not only have Indian SaaS companies come of age, but they have also been at the forefront of creating new for India and new for the world products, led by visionary founders and a critical mass of engineering and product teams serving this purpose. All this has firmly put Indian SaaS on the global stage, and on the path of crossing the milestone of USD $100 Bn in revenue by 2026. In fact, India is fast emerging as a clear leader in SaaS, and will supersede China to become the second largest SaaS nation in the next few years.” The report identifies Cloud Security, Cloud-Native Enablers, Hyper Intelligent Automation, Web3, and Verticalized solutions as key areas of interest for investors in 2022 and beyond. Some of the key SaaS categories expected to gain traction in 2022 and beyond are: Cloud-Native is an approach to building and running applications as a Cloud-based delivery model, which is expected to accelerate modern application development based on its various advantages. VC investments in this space are exceeding USD $ 7 Bn in funding, giving rise to many unicorns in the segment Hyper Intelligent Automation, the new avatar of Automation, has become a top CXO priority within enterprise digital transformation charters. With a 15-20% growth forecasted in digital transformation spend, Automation platforms are attracting immense interest from investors Cloud Security, the fastest growing segment within Enterprise Cybersecurity in 2021, witnessed a staggering 6X growth in funding, especially across growth-stage deals Web3, based on Blockchain, is another segment garnering a lot of attention from investors. Perceived as a compelling SaaS opportunity, areas such as Data Analytics, DevTools, and Security have bubbled up Verticalized SaaS is also gaining popularity for solving industry-specific use cases. The global VC funding in this category exceeded USD $ 11 Bn in 2021 You can download the entire report from the following links: https://www.saas.chiratae.com/https://zinnov.com/india-saas-report/ About Chiratae Launched in 2006, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors is India’s leading technology Venture Capital funds advisor. The funds advised by Chiratae Ventures India Advisors collectively have close to $1Bn under management and 110+ investee companies across SaaS, Consumer Media & Tech, Health-tech, and Fin-tech.

The Chiratae Impact Report talks about the meaningful impact that is being created by Chiratae’s portfolio companies across sectors, by way of reaching those previously underserved, bringing down costs, increasing access, and improving quality, while also scaling successfully through disruptive technologies.

Indian FinTech industry serves one of the most demanding and price-sensitive consumers globally. It has successfully cracked the consumer-centric aspect of financial services, resulting in significant growth in mobile wallets, applications, and other digital solutions aimed at consumers. The quick adoption and creation of innovative businesses in the last half-decade have made India a unique FinTech market for investors.

The State of Preventive Health report by Chiratae Ventures in collaboration with AWS and our knowledge partner Redseer puts forward our view on the rising consumer awareness on their health and the increasing contribution of digital technologies to the growing preventive healthcare landscape.

The Consumer Tech report by Chiratae Ventures, in association with their knowledge partner PGA Labs talks about the unique evolution of Consumer Tech in India, the opportunities that lie ahead for India in the overall context of global trends that are shaping the sector.

2021 was a landmark year for the Indian SaaS space, with the industry witnessing 50% growth in revenue and 3X growth in venture capital funding – which the Chiratae-Zinnov SaaS report had predicted last year. Hardly four months into 2022, India has already produced nearly the same number of SaaS unicorns as it had in the whole of 2021, suggesting that the tailwinds will continue strongly, this year too.

India’s preventive healthcare sector to reach a value of USD $197 Bn by 2025: a report by Chiratae Ventures, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Redseer July 21, 2022 With a value of USD $93 Bn in 2021, the preventive healthcare sector accounts for approximately 36% of the overall healthcare industry As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the preventive healthcare sector is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22% during 2022-25, as compared to 15% for the curative sector Startups are at the forefront of driving preventive healthcare in India, leveraging digital technologies and unlocking the power of consumers’ health and lifestyle data at scale July 21, 2022: According to a report released by strategy consulting firm Redseer Strategy Consultants in collaboration with Chiratae Ventures and Amazon Web Services (AWS), India’s preventive healthcare sector, which includes fitness and wellness, foods and supplements, early diagnostics and health tracking among others, is projected to reach USD $197 Bn by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 22%. “India is looking to effectively deliver quality healthcare to a billion people through rapidly evolving technology that can provide affordable, accessible and personalized healthcare. We have invested over $150M in healthcare companies in India, such as Cure.fit, Redcliffe, HealthifyMe, Smiles.ai, HealthPlix, Onco, and others, who are revolutionizing care delivery in nutrition and wellness, cancer, genomics, and other critical areas,” said Sudhir Sethi, Founder, Chairman, Chiratae Ventures. India has traditionally focused on curative care as opposed to preventive care. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, preventive care has increased in importance across India. A survey conducted with over 1,000+ individuals reveals that at least 40% of the respondents were highly inclined towards preventive health. Another survey conducted with a group of 300+ Health-Conscious Individuals (HCIs)* reveals that they actively track different aspects of their health such as lifestyle, physical wellness, and more, to maintain and prolong wellness. These HCIs are familiar with health monitoring devices and apps and use them regularly to monitor their health. Further, the study revealed that these HCIs spend on an average between INR 4,000 and INR 10,000 on various preventive healthcare practices annually and are also willing to pay up to 50% more in the future. More than 40 preventive healthcare technology (“HealthTech”) startups have raised approximately USD $1 Bn in funding over the last three years to tap the preventive health opportunity across segments such as nutrition management, condition management, lifestyle monitoring, health checkups, and mental and physical wellness. They are leveraging cloud computing to build and scale their applications, which generate, digitize and analyze vast amounts of health data using advanced technologies such as internet of things (IoT), data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). For instance, over 30% of the top 40 funded preventive HealthTech startups leverage AI/ML for use cases such as medical image analysis, document extraction, chatbots, personalization, and health risk prediction. The rollout of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) will further augment the availability of data and utilization of these technologies. Kumara Raghavan, Head – AWS Startups India, Amazon Internet Services Private Limited said: “Startups are known for their ability to invent new solutions that address society’s problems and inefficiencies, and the digital transformation happening in India’s healthcare sector is an example. At AWS, we’re on a mission to empower the startups at the center of this change with the tools they need to build new digital healthcare solutions for the betterment of all Indians. AWS provides the security and privacy that HealthTech startups require, as well as the expertise and breadth and depth of services that founders can rely on to build transformative healthcare solutions to enhance the health and wellbeing of individuals. Cloud technologies like machine learning, analytics, and Internet of Things have the potential to open new channels to help monitor health and wellness, decrease the cost of care, improve collaboration, make data-driven clinical and operational decisions, and enable faster development of new therapeutics and treatment paths. Whether our customers are building telemedicine, remote monitoring, diagnostics, fitness, or personalized wellness solutions, we are committed to providing the tools that enable HealthTech startups to support preventive care.” Redseer’s report also said that not only startups, but diversified corporates and healthcare businesses, are entering the preventive health space by partnering with startups or building their own programs and digital platforms.The Indian consumer is expected to benefit from the shift from curative to preventive, with the delivery of better health outcomes and lower healthcare costs “Startups can unlock the potential of preventive healthcare in India by focusing on the 3A’s – Awareness, Accessibility, and Affordability for consumers. Creating more HCIs, tapping into existing ones and leveraging partnerships with corporates, providers, and insurers ways that can help move in this direction.” said Amitabh Kumar, Senior Manager, Redseer Strategy consultants. *Note: Health-Conscious Individuals (HCIs) refer to NCCS A (refers to households with the highest number of consumer durables owned, and with the highest level of education) individuals who have scored 40 or more on Health Consciousness Score (HCS). HCS is the sum of scores obtained on 10 different activities, rated on a scale of 1-5 (1 being never and 5 being always). These activities are eating regularly, sleeping 8 hours, exercising, drinking water regularly, visiting the doctor for annual check-ups, eating unhealthy foods in moderation, practicing stress relief activities, spending less time on screen, maintaining work-life balance and using self-monitoring tools. About Redseer Strategy Consultants Redseer Strategy Consultants is a leading strategy consulting firm. Founded in 2009, Redseer works with new-age consumer-focused businesses and offers growth advisory, digital strategy, and investments thesis. The company is a thought leader in the Internet economy space and is the most widely quoted consulting firm in the media. The company boasts of a 90% + market share of new-age IPOs. Zomato, India’s first major consumer tech IPO, and GoTo, one of the world’s largest consumer tech IPO, Nykaa, Paytm, Cartrade, and Delhivery are other noted IPO engagements of Redseer. The company also enjoys more than

Patient, culture-oriented Chiratae Ventures has grown and diversifed in step with India’s gradually blossoming VC market. AVCJ MagazineJuly 22, 2019 Patient, culture-oriented Chiratae Ventures has grown and diversifed in step with India’s gradually blossoming VC market. Its latest expansions suggest this trajectory is set to accelerate WHEN INDIA’S CUREFIT RAISED $75 million for its Series D round last month, it marked a turning point in the level of sophistication of local digital consumers as well as the start-up ecosystem they support. But this evolution is more clearly refected by the story arch of the investors behind the deal. Chiratae Ventures, which has backed Cureft since its frst institutional round in 2016, holds the company up as an example of how India has changed and how the investment industry has had to change with it. Cureft, which operates a chain of brick-and-mortar gyms tied together with a suite of ftness apps, represents a deeper way of engaging Indian consumers, beyond the straightforward business remodeling associated with the country’s frst internet forays. The VC frm started in the frst decade of the 2000s with a pure online retail focus that beftted the buzz around India’s initial digitization boom. Early successes under this strategy have revealed the changing landscape, however, and the need for nimble, opportunistic maneuvering. These investments include eyewear platform Lenskart, which has rapidly morphed into a complex ofine- to-online model with an empire of 500 physical stores, and fashion retailer Myntra, which was bought by local e-commerce giant Flipkart, which itself was later acquired by Walmart for $16 billion. Chiratae has duly gravitated toward the later- stage end of the spectrum and broadened its investment thesis. It has also demonstrated that the local VC industry may be close to reaching sufcient depth to be a self-perpetuating machine. Cureft, for example, was founded by the same entrepreneur responsible for Myntra, Chiratae’s connection to Flipkart and by extension a range of other opportunities. All the while, the parabolic digital growth story unfolds. India’s internet user base has increased 10x since Chiratae began operations, but the frm expects 20x growth in the decade to come. “India today has more than 500 million internet users and many of them are mobile consumers, so it has evolved from a mere e-commerce strategy to content, commerce, and community. We’re looking at a combination of consumer brands that are tech-enabled,” explains Karthik Prabhakar, an executive director at Chiratae. “By our second fund, we became a combination of a bottom-up and top-down investor, still allocating to seed stage, but also in Series C onwards. That portfolio construct keeps a lookout for new trends and also creates early returns.”  Changing its spots Chiratae was founded in 2006 as IDG Ventures India by Sudhir Sethi, T.C.M. Sundaram, Sethi, an engineer who worked for local tech heavyweights such as Wipro and served as India head for Walden International, played a key role in the initial set-up. After leaving Walden in 2002 and weathering two fzzled attempts to raise an independent fund, he struck a chord with Patrick McGovern, co-founder of International Data Group (IDG). A 30-minute meeting between the two men turned into a fateful 2.5-hour session. Impressed by Walden exits like IT services company Mindtree, McGovern anchored a $150 million debut fund for the new frm in 2007, although Sethi’s proposal had only contemplated $100 million. It was a familiar model for IDG, which had lent its name to similar ventures across Asia. McGovern was highly engaged, making some 30 visits to India during the frm’s early years. A second fund closed at $95 million in 2013 and Fund II raised $225 million in 2016, including a $17 million sidecar. After McGovern’s death in 2014, IDG was acquired by IDG Capital – the China VC afliate – and China Oceanwide Holdings Group. As part of the deal, they assumed ownership of LP interests in funds managed by other LP afliates. These were then sold of to secondary investors. IDG Ventures India decided a rebrand was in order and chose Chiratae (meaning “leopard” in Bangalore language) as a way of inspiring a sense of group ownership. Several Chiratae team members, including Sethi and Prabhakar, are wildlife photography bufs, keen to translate the risk-taking, responsiveness, and agility that the hobby entails into an emerging venture industry. “We realized that we had to reinvent ourselves, because India and the entrepreneurs were reinventing themselves. It became a strategic intention being communicated to the market,” says Sethi. “The name came from our passion, and we’re doing this because of a passion to build a new India, where the goal is to build Indian brands, which not only dominate at home but also in other parts of the world.” The frm set up its headquarters in Bangalore and within two years opened a second ofce in Mumbai, which was quickly shuttered when deal fow in the city proved unpromising. A Delhi ofce followed in 2013 and another small Mumbai base was established last year, this time strictly as an investor relations exercise. Deal fow continues to fow mostly from Bangalore and Delhi. A fourth ofce in Silicon Valley is planned for next year as a way of helping larger portfolio companies go global and tapping growing interest among US-based LPs. Going local Fundraising to date comes about two-thirds from international LPs and one-third from local investors, a ratio Chiratae aims to get closer to 50-50 in the years to come. The frm has about 20 global and 50 local relationships. About 40% of the Fund III corpus was sourced from India. “We are the only VC in the top-fve in India that is raising Indian capital, so I think we believe in India much more,” Sethi adds. “But it’s not just from a money point of view. The returns will come – we’re building this frm for the long term.” The increased focus on domestic capital represents another parallel with the macro picture as India experiences a new phenomenon of high-net-worth individuals launching family ofces

ET Women’s Forum: ‘She-preneurs ask for more permission, men for more forgiveness’ VC CircleFebruary 21, 2022 The Economic Times Women’s Forum 2019 took forward the mission that it launched last year — to collaboratively and urgently build a sustainable culture of empowering India’s half a billion women — through a scintillating day of conversations and debates about encouraging greater participation and reducing gender inequality in every sphere of life, work, and play. The march of women into India’s entrepreneurial space is underway, but more opportunities, greater self belief and a higher number of role models are required for their growth in this sector, industry captains said at the ET Women’s Forum. Sudhir Sethi, founder of venture capital firm Chiratae Ventures, said that 14% of the founders of companies it has invested in are women. Two years earlier it was 9%. Saloni Malhotra, vice-president of Invest India, a partly state-owned investment promotion and facilitation agency, said 65% of the workforce is women. Anjana Reddy, CEO of Bengaluru-based fashion startup Universal Sportsbiz, said 60% of the company’s leadership team consists of women. Priyanka Gill, founder of POPxo, a digital media startup for women, said 65% of its top managers are women. Chiratae is an investor in POPxo. While the speakers agreed the overall numbers of women leaders in the sector needed to grow, success wasn’t skewed to gender per se. “I don’t think it’s gender but DNA, conditioning and how you are built,” said Gill. Nor did it specifically influence funding, said Sethi. “Capital will run after competence. If there is some affirmative action required, it must be the food chain which is early on, not at this stage,” he said. “When we set up BPOs and KPOs in small towns and villages, we used to get 100% resonance from women sometimes. Once we did it for three years, we would see men applying for the jobs, because then they considered it to be a stable, good option to work in those areas,” said Malhotra. “Scale is important. Scale is something you have to love, enjoy and live with since this is a venture-funded game. You have lovely investors who want to back you but they also want their return on investment,” said Gill, whose platform has 39 million monthly active users. Her aim is to eventually take it up to 100 million. But there are issues in the very prerequisites of entrepreneurial success: self belief and conditioning, said the speakers. “The stereotype that I see: Women ask for more permission; men ask for more forgiveness. That’s what changes the game a lot,” said Malhotra, adding men and women still sometimes have different approaches to challenging tasks. Sethi recalled a woman employee who, when offered a promotion, questioned if she was really “capable” for the post. A woman Gill had offered the post of product head, declined it because she didn’t have prior experience. The paucity of role models is an issue. “I don’t think we have too many women role models to look up to. There are a lot of issues that women in general face that a guy in the room just doesn’t understand,” said Reddy. “Female founders and CEOs build companies when women feel supported, encouraged and they are given space to grow. Change actually happens when male founders and CEOs do the same,” said Gill. But that’s changing too. “For domestic and international investors, their focus on gender diversity within the firm is very high, which is good and brings the recognition to a higher level,” said Sethi. 

11 October, 2018, New Delhi: Elawoman has raised $3 Mn in Series A funding round, led by Chiratae Ventures (Formerly IDG Ventures India) along with co-investor – Alkemi Venture Partners, a healthcare and consumption focused early growth stage fund.

Bangalore, Oct 9, 2018: IDG Ventures India, one of the country’s leading venture capital firms with over $470 m assets under advisory and a presence in 3 locations, has today announced a re-branding to Chiratae Ventures.

Health and fitness start-up Cure.fit announced today that it has raised $120 million in the series C round of funding. Led by IDG Ventures, Accel Partners and Kalaari Capital with participation from Chiratae Ventures and Oaktree Capital*,

HealthPlix will use the funds to strengthen its technology and expand its team and services in other geographical markets.

Mumbai, April 25, 2018: Emotix, a new age Indian robotics and consumer Electronics Company founded on the pillars of Artificial Intelligence, and Internet of Things has secured a $2M investment through funds advised by IDG Ventures India and YourNest.

Half of our VC exits came via domestic M&As, 40% of LP money is local : IDG’s Sethi VC CircleApril 4, 2018 Sudhir Sethi Follow-on investments outpaced new deals for most venture capital firms in 2017. IDG Ventures India was no exception. And in 2018, its follow-on investments will keep pouring as many of the firms it invested in are now growing, said founder, chairman and managing director Sudhir Sethi, in an interview with VCCircle. However, he added, the follow-on focus will not come at the cost of striking new deals. Sethi also talked about expectations from the government, attractive sectors and valuations, among other things. Excerpts: IDG Ventures India was among the top three investors last year in the venture capital space. In terms of new deals, it was the second-most active in the space. What drove investments last year for the venture capital firm and do you expect to maintain the pace this year as well? The quality of the deal flow, entrepreneurs and sectors are crucial for IDG’s investment decisions, and we find them to be positively trending. We don’t see any shortage of deals at any stage for us now. New sectors keep coming up, so last year we added fin-tech, which was a major thrust and, to that extent, we saw many companies there. IDG has invested in many companies in the fin-tech space now. IDG Ventures India made the final close for fund-raising for its third fund last year. Give us a sense of the fund-raising climate and the limited partners’ view on India? I think in the last three years, the sentiment on India has shot up. All those sitting on the fence earlier are looking at India seriously or actually putting money into funds and investing directly in India. There is no question that the sentiment has become very positive and more investors are looking at it. What could be done by the government to shore up more rupee capital? I must say that the government’s Sidbi Fund of Funds, under Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi), has kick-started a great flow of investments. Sidbi is one of our domestic limited partners and we are impressed by their professionalism. I would recommend this initiative of Sidbi be rebranded as the ‘Startup Fund of Funds’. This will gain significant recognition on a global level and benefit general partners (GPs)/fund managers here. Hence, GPs/fund managers should be enabled to say that we have a sovereign startup fund backing us. That would be like Singapore’s sovereign fund, Temasek Holdings, or Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, coming in, and giving tremendous confidence to international investors as well. IDG Ventures India is attracting more rupee capital than other venture capital firms operating within India. How is this turning out for your firm? I think we are a very local firm. We have always tried to build expertise on India. If we are not an expert on India then why would people invest in us? Fundamentally, we are an India expert firm. How have we achieved this over the last many years? First and foremost, 75% of the companies we have invested in are solving problems in India using technology. Second, of all the 14 exits, half of them have been through selling to Indian buyers. This is very unique. Third is that 40% of the capital is from India, from industrial houses. Effectively, we are a very local team. That is our expertise. We have built it through exits, investments and fund-raising. In 2017, follow-on investments outpaced new deals for most venture capital firms, including IDG Venture Partners. What are the factors behind this? The engine of follow-on investments will always hum because many companies we have invested in are now growing. It could go up this year as well. Follow-ons will always be a focus but not at the cost of striking new deals. In 2017, follow-on rounds in 17 of our companies were completed. In 2018, 30 firms in IDG’s portfolio will raise follow-on capital. We are seeing fewer Series A deals, while the number of mid-stage to end-stage deals seems to be stabilising. Is this the new normal for the Indian startup ecosystem? These are nothing but cycles. I won’t read too much into it. It only indicates that the angel investment and startup activity had taken a hit one to two years ago, which has resulted in fewer Series A deals now. However, the startup activity has picked up and we will see more Series A deals in the coming year. One has to be on a constant lookout for promising teams working on big ideas. India is about innovation and we see that increasing every day. The Budget speech highlighted venture capital and alternative investment funds, and the stakeholders were quite upbeat. The Budget promised some innovative measures for the industry. What actions should the government immediately take? The Budget has made a promise of good things to come. But I think there are certain things the government needs to look at urgently. First, the government must help shore up rupee capital in venture funds. Currently, the total quantum of rupee money coming into venture-capital- funded and private-equity- funded companies in India, compared with the dollar money, is very small. It is certainly anywhere between 5% and 10%. The message that comes is if Indians are not willing to put money in India, why would international capital be willing to invest in the country? I also don’t see the logic of the government authorising what a startup should be, to be entitled to benefits. It goes against their philosophy of minimum government but maximum governance. I think it should be a free market. There is also a host of niggling issues, such as the angel tax, which has taken more than a year to just address it. I think we need to speed up to resolve these niggling issues.  Which sectors are the most attractive at

Fund Scan: IDG Ventures India makes hay out of rising share of rupee capital VC CircleMarch 6, 2018 IDG Ventures India’s fundraising experience for its first two funds is a study in contrast. But with its third fund, the venture capital firm appeared to have found a balance as it turned to rupee capital. The move was in stark contrast to the way most of its peers raised money, but exits remained a worry, mirroring the industry story. The journey, which dates back to 2006, saw IDG Ventures India co-founder and chairman Sudhir Sethi looking to raise a $100-million early-stage venture capital fund. To begin with, the going was good. On 21 May, Sethi was scheduled to meet IDG Inc. founder and chairman, the late Patrick McGovern, at Bengaluru’s Oberoi Hotel for about half an hour. The discussions, however, went on well beyond two hours, and subsequently spilled over to the next few days. The conversations on the telephone resulted in a four-page plan by Sethi. McGovern went through it in details and, finally on 21 June, suggested that the VC firm should look at raising a $150-million fund instead of the planned $100 million. “Pat (McGovern) also said that he was keen to anchor the fund and commit the entire $150 million,” said Sethi, who had, by then, roped in his “buddy” TC Meenakshisundaram as the second co-founder. The third, Manik Arora, moved out of the firm in 2015, and Sethi had little to share about his role. The founders pressed on the gas to meet the 1 September, 2006, launch target and built a robust team around them. By the time the fund marked the final close at $150 million in February 2007, it had a host of other foreign players joining in as limited partners, besides IDG Inc.  Fast forward to 2012-13, IDG Ventures India hit the streets to raise its $175-million second fund, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The situation, however, was starkly different. According to Sethi, the VC firm had initially set out to raise a “sizable fund“, but finally had to settle for just about $95 million. The poor macro environment and absence of a showcase exit were the root cause, he said. Sethi and Meenakshisundaram realised that a change in strategy was the way forward, and shifted their focus to domestic investors. This, at a time when most of its global and homegrown peers were still dependent on foreign institutions and individuals to raise capital. With the third fund, IDG Ventures India met the targeted fund size of $200 million comfortably with domestic LPs contributing significantly to the fund. “IDG definitely has set an example among VCs to raise rupee capital. Of course, because of confidentiality issues, it would be difficult to examine each and every VC fund to find their (respective) domestic LP share base,” said an industry veteran.  The trigger The strategic shift towards domestic investors was, however, not easy. After nearly three months of scanning the domestic market, the broad feedback was “not to waste time, as domestic investors were not ready to take the plunge on such long-term assets”. But the founders were not in a mood to relent, despite the fact that some of its peers, such as Nexus Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and Kalaari Capital, formerly IndoUS Venture Partners, continued to raise sizeable amounts for their new funds. Though IDG Inc. continued to anchor the funds with significant commitment, the pressure to expand the investor base was growing, Sethi added. But despite the odds, there were a few positive signals in the domestic market as Sethi’s team continued to meet domestic investors. Finally, discussions with over 100 family offices started reaping the results with the rupee ratio of its funds slowly growing from about 20% to breach the 40% mark in the past five years. Today, IDG Ventures India counts Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, Asian Paints Family Office and Small Industries Development Bank of India as its limited partners. “Not only have they raised rupee capital, but they have been able to raise nearly 50% of their exits in rupee money, too. I think both the factors validate the coming of age of the domestic economy in the VC market,” the industry expert cited above said. He was referring to a string of exits IDG Ventures India made in the past two-and-a-half years. “I think, we need people who are focused on India. IDG is an exemplar of venture capital funds and new domestic firms should be guided by its model,” he added. Another fund manager was of the view that the capital should come from the domestic market, especially in a country like India, which is resourceful enough. International money should only be a top-up, he added. The fund manager’s views were reflected in yet another industry insider. VC firms have been forced to take international money because the culture of turning to domestic investors barely existed. But with the local market developing, not only are domestic LPs have deeper understanding of the market, they can also co-invest with it, he added. Besides, local capital is an important and significant element to drive confidence for international capital to flow world over, explained Sethi.  Focus on technology IDG Ventures India was the only venture capital player to have a 100% focus on technology right from the very outset, unlike most of its peers, which moved between tech and non-tech businesses, as the internet and mobile market was not considered deep enough a decade back. The full bias towards technology could, however, be attributed to the background of the founders. Sethi has spent his career spanning 35 years in the technology sector, starting with software services firm HCL and Wipro, where he met Meenakshisundaram 25 years ago. Sethi’s appointment as the country head of Walden International in 1998 marked his entry into the venture capital world. He led investments in IT major Mindtree Consulting and Venture Infotek in the fintech space,

Bangalore, July 25, 2016 – Quikr, India’s No. 1 cross category classifieds business, today announced that it has acquired Hiree, an online hiring platform focused on white collar jobs. Hiree which counts world’s largest IT companies and India’s highest valued startups in its customer list will be merged with its jobs vertical QuikrJobs

Financing platform Vayana Network raises $4mn in Series A funding Team YS July 17, 2017 Pune’s technology based third-party B2B trade financing platform Vayana Network has raised $4 million in Series A funding from IDG Ventures and Jungle Ventures. This follows an earlier round of investment in the company by Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings (RIIHL) and a couple of other investors, a press release from the company has stated. Vayana Network claims to have processed over Rs 4,000 crore ($600 million) in financing via nine lending partners including five banks and four NBFCs across large, medium corporate and SMEs in India so far. The equity investment will be used to further strengthen its B2B trade financing network both in India and abroad. In a press statement, RN Iyer, Founder and CEO, Vayana Network, said, “This funding comes at an exciting time with GST driving a digital invoicing ecosystem in India and in the backdrop of increasing velocity for trade-based financing led by third-party platforms globally. Our mission from day one has been to focus on designing the simplest possible process for corporate of all sizes and from different industries to avail short-term financing for their buyers and suppliers. Our special focus on trade documentation has also enabled us to play an important role in the GST regime. We plan on offering several value-added services for our clients to help them take advantage of the trade data.” Besides Bengaluru and Chennai, Pune-based Vayana also has offices in the US and Middle East. It provides tools for paying, collecting and monitoring the financial transactions for corporates as well as to retail customers. According to TC Meenakshi Sundaram, Founder and Managing Director, IDG Ventures India, Vayana Network has built a strong leadership position in the short-term trade finance space by bringing together the suppliers, buyers and the lenders on a single platform. “With its role as a GSP, Vayana is in a unique position to bring the much-needed financing to the SMEs and help them grow faster,” he said in the release. IDG Ventures, which has invested in Nestaway, and Lenskart, among others, has been proactive this year with investments in Unbxd, POPxo, m.Paani, CreditMantri, Sigtuple, and BlowHorn over the last six months. Jungle Ventures, an investor in Livspace, CrayonData, and Milaap, among others, has already invested in Wydr (Series A), Moglix (Series B), and PaySense (Series A) this year. Amit Anand, Founding Partner, Jungle Ventures, said in the release, “Like many other things India is going to leapfrog existing supply chain financing solutions. Today’s supply chains must be dynamic and as a result supply chain financing is a data and performance analytics oriented business. With years of transaction data and GSP, Vayana Network is best positioned to help banks and financial institutions capture this opportunity in a forward-looking manner.” 

The BSE 30 is under threat: IDG Ventures’ Sudhir Sethi Forbes June 14, 2017 Sudhir Sethi, founder and chairman of IDG Ventures India, on how innovation and technology are changing the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India and why new-tech companies are the gamechangers. Image: Nishant Ratnakar for Forbes India India-focussed technology venture capital fund IDG Ventures India has raised about Rs 2,600 crore over the last 10 years of which it has invested about Rs 1,700 crore in a slew of Indian startups. To date, the fund has exited from 13 startups that it had invested in, including Myntra, Lenskart, Hiree and Manthan. Sudhir Sethi, 58, founder and chairman of IDG Ventures India, tells Forbes India that he’s now betting big on “deep-tech” startups. “We are investing in technologies which will be relevant 5-7 years down the line,” he says. In a freewheeling chat, Sethi, who was a part of the launch team of HCL’s and subsequently Wipro’s computer division, shares his views on the Indian startup ecosystem, high valuations of startups and what excites him about Indian innovation. Edited excerpts:  Q. IDG Ventures India (along with Axilor Ventures) launched a Frontier Tech Innovators Programme, which would invest in and partner with new-age disruptive startups. What was the need for such a programme? The Frontier Tech programme is interesting. We saw innovations over the years, not in a wave, but in pieces. We saw them in software and medical devices. The thought of Frontier Tech came to our minds in the last three months of 2016. In India, robotics will improve and other technology will come in as well. We got in touch with TeamIndus as we loved their audacious approach to land a rover on the moon. That’s what innovation and entrepreneurship is all about. We continue to talk to them (we have not invested in them as yet). When I think of technology, I think of Artificial Intelligence (AI), virtual reality, machine language, robotics, defence/space, so we thought we will look for these companies through the Frontier Tech programme. Our internal name for the programme is ‘hatke’ technologies. In three weeks (between March and April), we saw about 455 companies. Many of them are under evaluation; we will go through the process and hopefully invest in a few of them. What excites us about India is innovation, deep technology, the ability of an entrepreneur to take risks and also the high quality of entrepreneurs. I have been investing in India since 1998 and these four things haven’t changed. In fact, they have accelerated. If I look at our first investment under the IDG banner, it was a software company called Manthan Software Services, which was into analytics for the retail sector. We invested in 2007 from our first fund and we exited fully in 2014 with a handsome return. In 2008, we invested in Perfint, which was into medical robotics. It’s the first medical device company from India to get FDA approval in China (the only company I know of to have achieved that), USA as well as in 12 other countries. We are still invested in them. We have also invested in a company called Forus Health, which is in the space of ophthalmology device, which enables retina scans. They have done over a million scans so far.  Q. How different are these companies, which you are looking at through the programme, to your portfolio of investments so far? They are very different. We have 62 companies under our portfolio of which 50 are active. The portfolio is a mix of internet, media, ecommerce, software, health care and financial technology startups. That said, we believe that the exit timeframes, which used to be many years, have now come down. We are able to now sell a very high-tech company in two years in India. In the last two-and-a-half years, we sold Pluss [hyperlocal medicine delivery startup] to Netmeds.com, Hiree [online recruitment firm] to Quikr; we have just completed the sale of Zimmber to Quikr and we sold Momoe [mobile payments app] to ShopClues. In two-and-a-half years, from the date of investment, the companies got sold. Fundamentally, these companies were not bought for scale, but for technology which the buyer didn’t have. So, we have seen that buyers from India are recognising technology and the missing product gap in their own product profile and are willing to buy. That never happened before. There’s a shift that has happened in the market, which is anecdotal in nature, and not planned for by us. Investors like us want to be ahead of the curve and by doing so, our investments can get more returns.  Q. Could you elaborate on how ‘exit timeframes’ have come down? If I look at the last 10 years, the exit cycles are reducing. In Myntra and Manthan Software Services, our exit cycle was seven years. We just exited Fintellix and I think that was five years. If we look at some of the exits which are in process, they would be after 5-8 years. As India scales, I think exit timeframes would reduce even more. It would be about 5-6 years as we move forward, which is very healthy. By design, our exit valuations are between $100 million and $500 million. We don’t have too many unicorns to have exits at billion-dollar valuations. If we want our investments to work, we can’t wait for a billion-dollar valuation to happen in all cases. Those would be exceptions; those also need a lot of luck. Q. Speaking of unicorns, are some in India seeing a correction in their valuations? From a capital supply point of view, last year, the total private equity/venture capital funding in the country was about $12 billion. It was $17-18 billion the year before and $10-11 billion in its preceding year. Broadly, India has been absorbing private equity/venture capital funding of around $10 billion, plus or minus. In the middle, a few years ago, it spiked to $17-18 billion a year. It was

m.Paani, mass-market consumer and retailer data and loyalty company, raises $1.35m in a round led by IDG Ventures India, Blume Ventures & Saha Fund

IDG Ventures India launches the Frontier Tech Innovators Program #FTIP2017 in partnership with Axilor Ventures

Rentomojo Raises $2 million in Pre Series A from Accel Partners and IDG Ventures India

New Delhi, 4th November 2015: POPxo, India’s first and fastest-growing community for young women, has raised $2 million in Series A funding. The investment round was led by IDG Ventures India and Kalaari Capital, with participation from 500 Startups.

Lenskart to gain out of Premji Invest’s extensive experience across retail brands The funding comes three months after IFC’s 400 crore investment in the brand

May 26, 2016: Little Black Book, a media-tech enterprise based out of New Delhi, has raised $1.2 million from IDG Ventures India and Indian Angel Network. Reaching out to over 1 million users every month, Little Black Book is currently available in Delhi and Bangalore

New Delhi & Bengaluru May 16, 2016: Leading tech-focused venture capital firm IDG Ventures India has launched a Digital Consumer Innovators Program to provide assistance to startups across consumer technology and digital media space

Bangalore, 10 May 2016: India’s leading mobile health and fitness startup HealthifyMe, today, announced Series A funding of US$6 million led by IDG Ventures India, Inventus Capital and Blume Ventures. The funding comes just a year after they announced their

Mumbai, February 10th, 2016: Online marketplace for recruitment, Aasaanjobs recently raised $5 million in Series A round of funding led by Aspada Advisors with participation from existing investors. This was a follow-up from the seed round where the platform

Mumbai, November 3, 2015:Cityflo, India’s largest and fastest-growing bus-aggregation startup, has raised a seed round of $750,000 led by IDG Ventures. Mumbai, November 3

Bangalore, September 09, 2015: India’s leading technology venture capital firm IDG Ventures India announced that Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, has joined their advisory board as a Senior Advisor.

Bangalore, May 18, 2015: myNoticePeriod.com, the company that pioneered just-in-time hiring and revolutionized recruitment in India, has rebranded itself as Hiree.com. The company has acquired 800+ paid customers in less than a year.

March 18, 2015 New Delhi: Online travel community company, Tripoto, has raised its second round of funding led by IDG Ventures India. Existing investors Outbox Ventures also participated in the round. Karan Mohla from IDG Ventures India would be joining

Nestaway is India’s first “managed home rental” marketplace attempting to provide better rental solutions via design and technology to singles in the cities. It turns unbranded, unfurnished houses into fully furnished & managed apartments and provide them at affordable prices to pre-verified tenants.

myNoticePeriod.com raises INR 18 crores from IDG Ventures. It had earlier raised over INR 2 crores from individual angel investors and IDG Ventures, in September 2014.

February 2, 2015: Valiant Capital Partners, led a $26 million Series D investment into Brainbees Solutions Pvt Ltd, which owns the ‘FirstCry.com’ brand, India’s #1 baby and kids focused e-commerce site. San Francisco-headquartered Valiant Capital,

Bengaluru, December 29, 2014. Bengaluru-based SuperProfs.com, a product of Aurus Network, has raised $3 Million from venture capital firms Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures India. This round of funding will be used for scaling up its product offerings

Bangalore, 4 September 2014:
India’s fastest growing recruitment startup myNoticePeriod.com announced that it has raised over 2 Crores in Seed Round funding, led by IDG Ventures India. Other investors include Prashant Kirtane, CTO and co-founder of travelmob.com, Shamsunder

Mumbai, July 28, 2014: Peel-Works, the leading SaaS and big-data analytics company enabling sales-force & traditional trade transformation, has raised a Series A round of $2 million from Inventus Capital Partners and IDG Ventures India.

New Delhi, April 16, 2014: Yatra Online Travel Pvt. Ltd. (‘Yatra’), one of India’s largest online travel companies, today announced a Rs 140 crores funding round led by new investors IDG Ventures and Vertex Venture Management Pte. Ltd.

Newgen Software, a leading global provider of Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Customer Communication Management (CCM) solutions has raised equity capital from IDG Ventures India and Ascent Capital

January 21, 2014: Vertex Venture Management, through one of its funds, led a $15 million Series C investment into Brainbees Solutions Pvt Ltd, which owns the ‘FirstCry.com’ brand, India’s #1 baby and kids focused e-commerce site.

Heckyl Technologies Pvt. Ltd has raised over $3.5 million in Series B investment led by IDG Ventures India. Existing investors Seedfund Advisors also participated in the round. Seedfund Advisors had invested $1mn in the start-up in the first round.

Bangalore, 11th December 2013: Zivame.com, India’s largest lingerie destination has received a Series B Funding Investment of $6 million. This round has been raised from Unilazer Ventures Private Limited, a strategic private equity investments company promoted

Theramyt, a niche Bangalore-based, bio-pharma enterprise, has raised significant funding to pursue its goal of developing treatment-altering biological drugs.

Bangalore – October 10, 2013. Unbxd, a leading product recommendation platform for eCommerce companies, today announced that it has raised USD 2 Million in its Series A round of funding, from venture capital funds, IDG Ventures India and Inventus

Spotlight on Enterprise
With over a decade’s experience of investing in early stage technology, we know that selling software to an enterprise can be difficult. But not when you know what’s on the top of a CIO’s mind.

Bangalore, March 14, 2012: Zivame.com, India’s premium online lingerie store, announced series A funding from IDG Ventures and Indo-US Venture Partners.

February 13, 2012: IDG Ventures India led a $14 million Series B investment into Brainbees Solutions Pvt Ltd., which owns the FirstCry.com and GoodLife.com brands, India’s #1 babycare and #1 beauty e-commerce sites respectively.

Bangalore, India — May 11, 2011
DG Ventures India and Sequoia Capital today announced an investment of $5 million each in Sourcebits, the global leader for consumer and enterprise mobile app development.

New Delhi, October 31, 2011: Valyoo Technologies Pvt Ltd, which runs the leading eyewear e-commerce site Lenskart.com, has raised $4 million in the first round of funding from IDG Ventures India. Lenskart.com is India’s first and only online portal selling prescription eyewear

Chennai, October 9, 2011: IDG Ventures India has invested an undisclosed but large sum of money in eShakti.com – backing the unique value proposition of this leading brand of customized women’s apparel in the American market. eShakti.com

Mumbai, July 19th, 2011: Vserv, the leader in Mobile In-App Advertising in India, announced today that it has closed $3 Million in Series A funding by IDG Ventures India. Vserv is a leading mobile advertising network focused on emerging markets having

Delhi, May 11th, 2011: iProf Learning Solutions India Pvt., Ltd. today announced an investment by Kaplan Ventures and a distribution partnership with Kaplan Test Prep to enable the iProf platform to offer test preparation in GMAT® and GRE®

Tablet Based e-Learning Marketplace Company Enables Anytime-Anywhere-Any Pace Top Quality Interactive Education for targeted 25 Million Indian Students; iProf Ties Up with IGNOU, World’s Largest Distance Learning University with 3.2 Million Students

Mumbai, 2nd May, 2011 Indian BFSI software products company, Agile Financial Technologies (www.agile-ft.com), announces the successful completion of its US$ 5.7mn Series A financing, led by IDG Ventures India (IDGVI). This funding will enable Agile Financial Technologies (Agile FT)

Bangalore, January 28, 2010: iCreate Software (www.icreate.in), a Bangalore-based Business Intelligence company focused on Banking products & solutions, today announced the successful completion of a Series A round of financing of Rs. 15 crores.

Bangalore, October 14, 2009: Apalya Technologies, a Hyderabad based company providing India’s No.1 Mobile Video platform, announced funding of US$ 3 million from IDG Ventures India and Qualcomm Ventures. Mumbai Angels, a leading angel investment

Leading global VC fund managing $3.7B conducts its global review in India

Tuesday May 19, 2009, Bangalore: IDG Ventures family of funds from across five countries- China, India, Vietnam, South Korea and USA held their annual global review meeting for

Bangalore, March 13, 2009: In a bid to provide access to entrepreneurial, technology and financial resources in one place to accelerate the success of high-potential technology startups, IDG Ventures India and Microsoft India today announced an Early Stage

Bangalore, November 4, 2008: Myntra.com, India’s leading platform for personalized products and gifts and a company which pioneered the on-demand personalization space in India, today announced receiving an investment of $5 mn.