SeedToScale | Curated by Accel

Banking opportunity in India is tremendous, with overall banking assets expected to reach $3T by 2025, with deeply under-penetrated private credit markets which account for ~50% of GDP (vs. 150%+ for developed economies).Despite this large opportunity, customer experience and engagement in traditional consumer banking in India is broken and has been so for over a decade.With the increasing digital penetration in the country, customers armed with their smartphones are looking for an easy, seamless, quick and personalised experience and their expectations are ever-evolving.Neo-banks attempt to fix the broken customer journeys and provide a superior banking experience, serving as a layer over traditional banks. This means that customers no longer need to spend hours at their physical bank branch queues, mired in paperwork for everyday banking needs. While doing so, a neo-bank improves access to a whole suite of financial products across wealth management, lending, and insurance through a single platform.As Accel, we’ve always believed that technology can revolutionise banking and attempted to enable that ecosystem, first through our investment in Monzo in 2018, then through our investment in Zolve in 2021, and recently through a growth investment in Niyo - Niyo is a leader in the consumer neo-banking segment in India with a base of 5 million users.To understand this new era of banking which is fast unfolding, we spoke to Vinay Bagri, Co-founder and CEO of Niyo, who is a long-standing veteran in the banking industry in India.In this conversation, Vinay talks about how Niyo came into being, shares some of his reflections on the ongoing changes in the banking ecosystem, draws parallels from other fintech segments and discusses the need for regulatory support.Key segmentsThe large market opportunity for a neo-bank in India - 18:05 - 19:48How neo-banks provide a completely new banking experience - 20:22 - 22:41The success of neo-banks globally - 24:00 - 25:20Customer segmentation in neobanking - 30:25 - 32:12State of neo-banking regulations in India - 36:28 - 39:10We thank Vinay for coming on and sharing these insights with us and we wish him and Niyo team all the best for this amazing journey of revolutionizing consumer banking for India.Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

B2B marketplaces are different. There are tremendous opportunities, but also different challenges. This arises from the business model itself. Having to cater to both the supply and demand side is one thing, the other is adjusting to the nuances of the products and commodities being bought and sold. This is different for every domain and therefore there is nothing that can be replicated. Everything had to be thought through first principles.One example of a company that did exactly this is Bizongo, the largest business-to-business online marketplace for packaging needs in India. Bizongo has been a phenomenal success story in the last few years, witnessing exponential growth during the pandemic. Founded by Aniket Deb, Sachin Agrawal and Ankit Tomar, the company is now at a significant point, poised to scale. The team raised funding of $110 million in December 2021 and now stands at a valuation of over $600 million.  As Bizongo scales, we thought this was the best time to get CEO Sachin Agrawal to talk about their First 500 days.I also have on the podcast Prayank Swaroop, my colleague, and partner at Accel, who led the seed round in Bizongo. Prayank has been a part of Bizongo’s journey from the beginning, and he will help us shed light on some of the decisions that helped Bizongo get here.We’ll be diving into the initial days, the evolution of the business model, pivots, and finally the challenges due to the pandemic and how Bizongo overcame them. With Prayank here, we will also take the opportunity to dive into how investors think about such businesses and what they look for in founders and the team when they invest.I thank Sachin and Prayank for coming on and sharing all of these stories and insights about Bizongo’s first 500 days. We wish Sachin and the Bizongo team all the best, they have an amazing few years ahead of them!Summary of the conversation:GMV versus profitable business - 17:14 - 18:31Creating a culture of trust at Bizongo - 26:14 - 27:06Building a bond as co-founders - 29:23 - 30:24What is working capital? - 32:06 - 34:18Business expansion during Covid times - 35:59 - 38:11Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

The D2C ecosystem has truly found its feet in India. There are now a lot of great brands making niche, high-quality products for targeted audiences. The e-commerce wave has given them a channel of distribution that they own. But as the market matures, there are other needs for young D2C startups. They need marketing, sales, and brand talent, things which they can’t easily get access to in order to grow as fast as they want to.Ananth Narayanan’s Mensa aims to solve this problem for the new D2C economy. Mensa is a house of brands that invests in digital-first, D2C brands, and scales them globally. Previously, Ananth was CEO of Myntra, which was acquired by Flipkart, and co-founder and CEO of Medlife, which was acquired by Pharmeasy.Remember, Mensa is not even 500 days old!Subrata’s presence is also notable here, as he has had a long relationship with Ananth. Fun fact: Mensa was co-created as a concept by Ananth and Accel working together from the start. We’ll go into more details in the podcast, but Subrata has been in the trenches with Ananth: from ideation to team expansion, and from strategy to building out their tech platform.I thank Ananth and Subrata for coming on and sharing all of these stories and insights about Mensa’s first 500 days. We wish Ananth and the Mensa team all the best, we are definitely rooting for them!Summary of the conversation:6:55 - 8:16 - The India opportunity for a digital house of brands.8:34 - 9:58 - How did Mensa achieve Unicorn status in 6 months?16:35 - 18:55 - How did Mensa use technology top scale?19:37 - 21:37 -  How did Mensa convince founders to sell their brands to Mensa?27:05 - 29:25  - Advice for founders from Ananth & Subrata.Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

How is the world of Open Source faring in a landscape that is being overturned by Web3 and its ascendant new technologies? It’s an important question  and not just in the realm of entrepreneurship and products. Open Source was the first promise of some kind of a technological revolution, where everyone could build and use things they want to with help and support from a real, tangible community.Where is that promise now, what is being built out of it, and where does it stand with the advent of new technological paradigms?That’s the topic of the conversation I have the pleasure of bringing you today.My colleague, Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel, is talking to Abhishek Nayak, founder and CEO of Appsmith. Appsmith is a startup that provides an open-source low code tool that helps businesses build any custom internal application within hours. And the company has just raised its Series A of $8 million.There's one more Accel connection here: Abhishek was also part of the Accel team for a while.In the podcast, we try to understand from Abhishek about where the open-source world is, how far it has come, and what we can look for from it, and all of it from the lens of Appsmith.This podcast has a lot of takeaways for founders thinking about building open-source projects and companies. Thanks to Prayank for the interview and thanks of course to Abhishek for taking time away from the grind of entrepreneurship to come talk to us!Summary of the conversation 16:00 - 17:57 - Why did Appsmith take the open-source route?11:44 - 13:24 - Why internal apps & not consumer facing apps?24:50 - 25:53 - How to build an engaged community on Discord?30:03 - 31:40 - Why aren't business users adopting open source tools?35:10 - 37:08 - How did Appsmith acquire users?38:52 - 40:50 - Do developers care about design?44:18 - 46:27 - Challenges raising money for an open source project48:24 - 49:32 - Advice for founders thinking of open source projectsCheck out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

If you know about Crypto, you can’t have missed FalconX, I’ll still give you a brief: FalconX is a blockchain, cryptocurrency, and fintech-focused cryptocurrency brokerage and digital asset trading platform. Accel has been proud partners since the startup’s inception, and we’ve been cheering on their success loudly!Crypto is definitely here. With the slew of recent advertising and coverage around it, plus the FOMO that investments in it are generating, we are definitely overdue for a discussion on the space.And we have just the thing for you.Pratik Agarwal, my colleague at Accel has been interested in this space for a long time, and he is interviewing Raghu Yarlagadda, CEO of FalconX, one of the world’s fastest-growing companies of the last half-decade.But that’s not just why we are talking to Raghu for this episode. As reported by Bloomberg in August 2021, FalconX saw its revenue grow by a multiple of 30 times in the 12 months (up to June 2021).Evidently, Raghu and the team know something we don’t.And that’s not all.The crypto world is moving at a pace that is beguiling to even seasoned market watchers. There is just so much happening every day. Raghu and Pratik will also attempt to give us a lens into this world and how to make sense of a rapidly changing scene.This podcast has all this and more. It has been one of my favourite episodes recently and we hope to bring Raghu back for more next year.6:57-7:59: Insights that helped in starting FalconX; building a tokenization gateway for institutions8:15-10:26: Why was it critical to focus on institutions and not retail customers?16:00-18:20: Convenience in the institutional adoption of crypto assets 20:39-22:21: De-Fi(decentralised finance) explained23:15-25:35: Nuances of De-Fi; Comparing it with conventional banking system27:22-29:50: Global overview on the regulatory landscape in crypto31:06-33:01: Future white spaces that could be chased starting today in crypto33:03-33:55: Newer opportunities on the infrastructure side in the crypto marketCheck out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

Edtech is a category whose time has come. The pandemic and its attendant ramifications have meant that Edtech is now one of the hottest spaces for innovation and growth globally. This also means that a lot of new Edtech startups are coming up, with newer visions and interpretations of what the future of learning and education can look like.And they have a lot to navigate around and wade through in a rapidly evolving landscape.Which is why we bring to you this conversation with Bob Meese, the Chief Business Officer of Duolingo, one of the most innovative Edtech companies in the world. You know the company, of course, and we are delighted to be bringing you a glimpse into its history and workings.Bob is interviewed by my colleague Manasi Shah, Vice-President at Accel. She is deeply interested in the space and has been looking at Edtech startups for a while now.What resulted from this meeting of minds is a far reaching conversation, about the nature of online education itself, how the world is embracing it, what the challenges are, and what the future will look like.13:10-15:30: Monetization at Duolingo and it's framework; Audience growth more critical than monetization17:52-19:41: Frameworks of monetization and the key areas of focus with each approach23:15-24:52: Perception of experimentation and subsequent failure with monetization28:07-30:00: Empowering teams to come up with newer and better ideas; also taking help from the ecosystem31:10-33:24: Retention metrics and how Duolingo approaches them39:32-41:46: Approaching GTM at Duolingo; how growth of mobile devices helped them scale44:10-46:34: Challenges during Bob's early days at Duolingo; not having the right set of people; setting up ambitious goals and missing out on them consistently48:54-50:56: Future of edtech; how Duolingo saw edtech transform from being a "bad word" to a promising vertical51:55-53:50: Shaping up the product as a key source of customer delightCheck out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

Credit cards are one of the most ubiquitous financial products in the world. We all use them everyday, they are part of our lives.But as the world changes and our spending and consumer behaviour changes along with it,  so have our needs with regard to financial products. We now have different financial behaviors and the exciting field of fintech is ready to serve us according to our own preferences.Credit cards are the first logical step in this revolution.Over the last couple of years, several startups in India are trying to disrupt and change the credit card ecosystem in India, and literally all of them are tremendously exciting.One of the foremost among them is Uni, and Nitin Gupta, the CEO is one of the domain’s most knowledgeable.  Which is why I’m delighted to present to you this conversation between Rachit Parekh, Vice President at Accel, and Nitin. It’s a far reaching dialogue on the evolution of Indian fintech, what the future holds, global trends, and challenges the field is facing.The conversation is also insightful in that it makes clear the opportunities that exist in a nascent fintech space like India’s, in which credit cards may be the first step in a boom of new and innovative products the country has never seen. But, and here’s what I think is the more important part of the conversation, Rachit and Nitin also spend time on the regulatory challenges faced by Indian fintech. This is important not just for the fintech and credit card ecosystem, but for anyone who needs to navigate the Indian system.I learnt a lot from the conversation, and I know you will too. And yes, watch this particular space in fintech. There’s going to be a lot of action here in the decade ahead0:00 - 8:00: Intro8:08 - 9:37: Why go after credit card business?11:35 - 13:36: Global trends in the financial services business26:39 - 29:11: Challenges in the Indian financial services industry31:29 - 32:10: Making customer data available  34:39 - 36:44: How to manage regulators?Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

From lipsticks to hair care to bath and body -- there’s little to nothing that the average shopper cannot find that covers all beauty and personal care needs. And what’s more, the shopper can browse through multiple brands within the same unified platform.It is to talk about this vision that I am joined today by Prashanth Prakash, senior partner at Accel and the man behind the glam himself -- Darpan Sanghvi, CEO and co-founder of MyGlamm, India’s fastest growing direct-to-consumer beauty brand. MyGlamm is one of our more recent investments in the beauty and personal care (BPC) segments that has seen tremendous success with its house of brands model and direct-to-consumer (D2C) business approach. It was enervating to hear Darpan’s unique take on the growing BPC market from an entrepreneurial perspective, along with Prashanth's keen and experienced insights into the burgeoning business. In this episode we discussed everything from MyGlamm’s journey, building a scalable beauty company using technology, the challenges and opportunities of the Indian market, tackling the COVID-19 crisis, leveraging social media, creating a data engine, and more -- all while keeping an eye on the offline sales game as well. 0:00 to  - 6:25: Introductions and beginnings! Darpan isn’t your average CEO, and MyGlamm wasn’t born without some serious on-ground work that began with a keen interest in brands, and a never-say-never attitude. 6:30 to 10:51: Prashanth’s thoughts on the brand space with specific insight into BPC, and what is unique about the sector. 10:53 to 20:45: How Darpan navigated this space from an entrepreneur point of view. How did Darpan decide what product to launch with?20:50 to 24:00: Prashanth gives us the investor perspective. 24:03 to 27:51: What are the challenges and advantages that startups face in this segment, when they come up against the goliath brands that have been around for longer. 27:52 to 30:40: Darpan tells us how he learnt from the foundations of the business, and in the BPC space the challenges that exist, are actually opportunities in disguise. 30:35 to 31:45: Prashanth on how brands and businesses have to look to survive. How they must leverage the offline muscle that they built, to stay relevant in digital times. 31:5o to 34:47: Does Darpan believe in the offline sales concept as well? How does it apply to his D2C brand and platform? 34:50 to 39:20: The impact that COVID-19 has had on this industry and the surprises that came along with it! 39:22 to 46:55 : Internet penetration in India has been far more successful and higher than the BPC penetration. What does this mean for aspiring companies in this space? 47:00 to 55:34 - What does the future hold for BPC brands as well as the broader D2C segment. Our experts have predictions, aspirations, and hope for the future.  Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

In the latest episode of Grit Stories, I spoke with Baskar Subramanian, founder and CEO of Amagi. Baskar has been an internet entrepreneur and startup founder since before either of those terms were really a thing. Having started and sold his first startup in his mid 20s, Baskar, along with a group of friends, started looking for new problems to solve.  The group set their sights on disrupting television advertising with technology, the startup that became Amagi.The startup ecosystem, Indian or international, sometimes focuses too much on the loud and the noisy. But there’s another kind of startup, quiet, tough and resilient, focused on their business and their goals. It’s clear which kind Amagi is, and this was a great insight into the people behind it.Amagi has been in the future since 2008, and we wish them the best with their rocketship.2:44-3:45: Baskars Story; Coming from a small time; being dyslexic but still finding a connect with the computers3:45:20-5:14:09: First business stint in grade 11! Building financial products from small businesses!07:45:23-09:19: Making the decision of leaving Texas Instruments although being a top coder there and thoughts on starting up16:34-19:06: Amagi Story: Empowering the smaller players to advertise on TV!20:30-22:36: Challenges faced operationally; Extensive traveling in tier-2 cities; facing the cable mafia and getting them onboard!25:23-28:34: Facing the problem of scale and changing the targeting through research on larger brands32:48-39:03: Friction with the TV channels; Broadcasters v/s Amagi35:51-38:59: Changing the model and almost starting afresh; tough times as a founder!41:16-44:22: Grit of continuing even during tough times; Unconditional support from the employeesCheck out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

Aprameya is no stranger to the entrepreneurial journey. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Koo, a microblogging platform catering to the Indian vernacular. Koo was born as an offshoot of Vokal, a vernacular question and answer platform. Within one year, it amassed over a million users and became a force of its own.Before this, he was at the helm of TaxiForSure, leading it to a successful acquisition by Ola Cabs back in 2015. I was part of this journey, and Aprameya’s clarity and grit has been something I’ve been aware of throughout.This was among my favourite conversations, and not just because of having known Aprameya for so long. It helped me better understand the fast-shifting world of content, and the directions in which it is headed.Koo is about to make some noise, and we are excited for it. Listen and find out more.00:00 - 3:10 - Introduction6:35-8:38- Parents not agreeing for his startup stint; Shift in his own inclination towards startups and getting conviction9:04-10:24- Grit to start TFS; anyhow getting people from point A to point B10:57-12:32- Angel Investors being very scarce and lack of information12:34-14:25- Market explosion and TFS being not really ready for it18:09-20:05- Grit to build for local language and not English: Vokal story- empowering non-English speaking crowd20:27-22:41- Challenges as a founder of shifting from a transactional business into a non-transactional business27:28-29:05- Pursuing the right person to rope him in as a co-founder32:08-34:04- Atmanirbhar Bharat victory, being just a 3 month old product!34:59-35:57- Moving fast to capture the Nigerian market44:11-45:03- Advice to new founders: Start early & Always trust in your first thought!Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India