Founders Unfiltered

Souvik grew up in Kolkata in a middle-class neighborhood where entrepreneurship was something alienated and mainly constituted of generational family businesses. After completing his CA he started working at a construction company. He worked there for 5 years, then went on to pursue an MBA. He graduated in 2016 and witnessed the Indian startup ecosystem booming.   However, the B2B space was something that remained largely unexplored. Being familiar with the construction industry landscape, Souvik was aware of the inefficiencies and the large opportunity at hand.  His thesis constituted of 2 insights:  - the majority of the market is fragmented and served by many local manufacturers - Companies mostly set up centralized mega factories and use multiple distribution channels. Souvik started Infra.Market with the mission to digitize procurement of raw materials using an asset-light model. In 2019, they started receiving investor interest and began expanding rapidly.  Today, Infra.Market supplies across 10 Indian states and exports to markets like Dubai, Singapore, Italy, etc. For more details visit: ajuniorvc.com/podcast

Last fortnight, India added a record 20th unicorn for the year, almost double in the number of 2020, surpassing the amount of funding raised in all of the last year. Article link - https://ajuniorvc.com/india-startup-tech-upi-jio-infosys-flipkart-gold-decade/ More info - https://ajuniorvc.com/

Abhinav grew up in a traditional middle-class fashion and went on to college to study engineering. Becoming a part of the institute’s entrepreneurship cell, he got exposed to the world of startups. Interacting with founders and hearing their experiences, he had realized that he ultimately wants to become a founder one day. After graduation, he got a high-paying job at Goldman Sachs. After working for a few months in the Indian office, he went to work at the US office where he met his co-founder. The two loved discussing product ideas and study emerging market trends. While living in the US, they witnessed the Black Friday sale and were awestruck. Everyone goes on a massive shopping spree with items getting out of stock in a matter of hours. This observation made them interested in the Indian space. Amidst the Flipkart amazon rivalry, they were confident that offline retail also has an important role to play. Digging further into the Indian retail market revealed its inefficiencies and presented the large opportunity at hand. Wanting to give their best shot at the problem, they both quit their job and came back to India. Thus, Perpule was born. For more details visit: ajuniorvc.com/podcast

Last fortnight, Digit Insurance raised a $200 million round to make it one of the largest funding rounds in India’s general insurance industry, valuing the company at $3.5B. Article link : https://ajuniorvc.com/digit-insurance-lic-unicorn-india-startup-tech-general-acko/   More info on: ajuniorvc.com

Ranjeet grew up in a small village with less than 1000 population. He used to go to the nearby city on weekdays to attend school and return to the village on the weekend. As a kid he was a voracious reader, starting with first his school textbooks, later devouring Hindi literature, comics, and novels. As he grew up, he slowly shifted to reading English as there was no regional content available online. Coming from a humble background, getting a stable job was what his family wanted for him. After completing his MBA, he got a job at Vodafone. He liked the job but after a few years, he wanted to do something more challenging. So quit his job and decided to startup. As he started searching for business ideas, many of his friends advised him why doesn’t do something to solve online regional content - a problem Ranjeet often cribbed about. As he started talking to people about this problem - he received many suggestions - Indians don’t read, People don’t read long-form content anymore, No one wants regional content. But he knew that wasn’t true and had a deep conviction that there was a space for an Indian regional content player. Thus, Pratilipi was born.  Today Pratilipi is India’s largest regional content platform with over 3 lac writers and more than 2.5 crore monthly active users For more details visit: ajuniorvc.com/podcast

Last fortnight, BrowserStack raised $200M, at a valuation of $4Bn, making it India’s most valuable SaaS startup.  Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - AJVC Unfiltered 28: Can BrowserStack be the World’s Software Tester? For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/browserstack-saas-unicorn-bootstrapped-testing-app-browser-india-startup/

Arjun Vaidya was brought up in a family with a rich culture in Ayurveda. His Grandfather had started an ayurvedic clinic about 150 years ago. He went to study in the US, where he saw yoga repackaged and being sold all over the country. He pondered why India was lagging behind in it’s adoption, the land where it originated from. He returned to India and started a brand to bring ayurvedic products to the Indian audience. His vision was to contribute to India’s renaissance, by making ayurvedic products for Indian consumers. He started by repackaging ayurvedic products for new use cases. Capsule Chawanprash and Hangover shield being 2 such items that received a great demand. To build a D2C brand for Bharat, Arjun advises it’s crucial one should not consider their friends & themselves as the consumers. It’s important for the founders to talk to users every week at all times of the startup’s journey. He mentions that constant feedback and suggestions from users gave birth to many of Dr. Vaidya’s products that are now very successful. Today Dr. Vaidyas is trusted by over a million users from 1000+ cities. For more details visit: ajuniorvc.com/podcast

Last fortnight, Tata Digital acquired 1mg for $200M, hot on the heels of its acquisition of BigBasket and its investment in Cure.fit. Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - AJVC Unfiltered 27: Can Tata's 20-Year Tech Pivot Spin Up a SuperApp? For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/tata-digital-tcs-super-app-startups-unicorn-titan-ratan-tata/

Chinmay grew up in Bombay where he was surrounded by small businesses. His father had a textile factory and his mom ran a boutique tailor shop. They emphasized on Chinmay’s education so that he could get a stable job. After graduating from college, Chinmay got a job in Singapore as a software engineer. He later became a product manager and worked in Southeast Asia for 6 years. While working he met his co-founder Abhinay and found some great mentors, who encouraged them to startup. The two brainstormed over a lot of ideas and tried narrowing down one. Building for MSMEs was one that stood out.  In Indonesia, SMEs’ contribution makes up 60% of the GDP, indicating a huge opportunity. And the majority of the business was still carried out using traditional ways. Bukuwarung started out as a bookkeeping app for small shops, helping merchants maintain their cash flow. In just 2 years after its start, Bukuwarung is now trusted by over 6.5 million+ users in Indonesia. For more details visit: ajuniorvc.com/podcast

Last fortnight, D2C brand acquirer Mensa raised $50M, hot on the heels of beauty brand SUGAR’s $21M fundraise. Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - Can India Consume D2C Brands?  Article Link: https://ajuniorvc.com/d2c-brands-startups-mamaearth-unicorn-nykaa-boat-influencer/ More info on: https://ajuniorvc.com/