Tag Archives: entrepreneurs

Founders of @firstcryindia @dhingana @sokrati to talk at @SAIFPartners Ignition Event

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SAIF Ignition is a startup event by Venture Capital firm Saif Partners. The event is divided into two sessions:

Session 1 will have some startups sharing their learnings on go-to-market strategies on sales and customer acquisition. In addition, we will have Supam Maheshwari from FirstCry, Swapnil Shinde from Dhingana and Ashish Mehta from Sokrati share their learnings on how they scaled their ventures.

Session 2 – Startups pitch to the SAIF Team: Startups who would like to pitch to the SAIF team may send their pitches to saifignition@saifpartners.com.

Saif will shortlist 7-8 pitches. Please try to answer the following questions in your pitch

  • Market you are going after and the problem/pain point that exists currently
  • Explain the product and how it is solving the problem
  • Team behind the startup
  • Initial traction, if any
  • Funding requirement

You can look at a sample presentation here for reference.

Following is the detailed itinerary of the event

  • 9 – 9.30 AM – Registration
  • 9.30 – 10 AM – Networking over coffee
  • 10 – 11 AM – Panel discussion with Ashish Mehta (CEO & Co-founder, Sokrati), Supam Maheshwari (CEO & Co-founder, FirstCry) and Swapnil Shinde (Co-founder, Dhingana)
  • 11 – 1.30 PM – Problem solving session with startups (3-4 startups will present on their go-to market strategy)
  • 1.30 – 2.15 PM – Lunch
  • 2.30 – 5 PM – Pitch session with SAIF Team

In case of any queries or clarifications, please feel free to reach out to rohit@saifpartners.com or call Rohit at +91.98111.09541.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here

Tech companies in Pune that have recently raised funding

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Here is a list of technology companies that are fully, or mostly based in Pune, and have raised angel, seed, or venture capital in recent times. If you know of any company missing from this list, please leave a comment below so we can update the list.

Companies that raised Series A or better in recent times:

  • TripHobo – online travel planning portal [Kalaari Cap]
  • Helpshift – Mobile SDK for customer support/service/feedback [Intel Capital, Nexus, True Ventures]
  • Swipe Telecom (Makers of cheap tablet PCs) – [Kalaari Cap, Mantra Ventures]
  • SoftTech Engineers – Civil, Construction and Infrastructure ERP Software Company [Rajasthan Venture Capital]
  • Uniken – Enterprise Security Software Products [Nexus]
  • LinguaNext – Localization Software for the Enterprise Software Products Market [Helion]
  • Vaultize – Enterprise File Sharing and Sync [Tata Capital]
  • TastyKhana – Online Food Ordering Service [Delivery Hero]
  • Dhingana – online Indian music streaming [Lightspeed, Inventus, Helion]
  • Pubmatic – Online Ad Optimization Platform[August Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Nexus, Helion]
  • Druva – Enterprise Backup Software Products [Sequoia]
  • Sapience (Previously Innovize Tech) [SEED Enterprises & IAN]
  • FirstCry – Online Baby Products [IDG Ventures, Saif Partners]
  • Krayon Pictures – Animation (makers of Delhi Safari) [Jhunjhunwala, Maneesh Bhandari]
  • ShopSocially – Shopping Social Network [Valhalla Partners]
  • TrueSparrow [Acquired by Fab.com]
  • Cumulus Systems [Acquired by Hitachi]
  • Ever Sun Enervy [Acquired by Techpro Systems]
  • IRIS Energy [Plexus Capital Ventures]

Companies that raised an angel or seed round in recent times:

  • EZMove – Online packers and movers marketplace [Various HNIs]
  • AdSparx – Video ads platform [IAN, Mumbai Angels, GrowX]
  • Function Space – Online Platform for Social Learning / Science and Maths [Nexus]
  • CarIQ – Connecting cars to the cloud for better decision making [Pose Ventures]
  • Ayojak – Online Ticketing and Event Management [HBS Alumni Angels, Blume, Srijan]
  • ShoppingWish.in – price comparison website (by ex-Dhingana co-founder)
  • Simplibuy (Wicfy) Hyperlocal price search
  • AppSurfer (previously DroidCloud) – Try-before-you-buy solution for mobile apps [Vijay Sharma, Alok Kejriwal]
  • BootstrapToday – App lifecycle management SaaS solution
  • ViralMint – Product to create and analyze smail, facebook, twitter, affiliate marketing campaigns
  • Jombay (previously YourNextLeap) [Nirvana Venture Advisors]
  • Sokrati – Digital Marketing Analytics Solution [Inventus Capital]
  • MindTickle – Gamification of Employee Engagement
  • LifePlot (Sofomo) [Fusion Tech Ventures]
  • MaxiMojo (Hotel Software on Cloud) [Mumbai Angels]
  • Rolocule – Gaming company – [Mumbai Angels / Blume]
  • Shantani Proteome Analytics – Services for studying protein structures [India Innovation Fund / Blume]
  • Shashwat Oorja – Renewable Energy (Biogas)
  • Gram Oorja – Rural electrification / computerization
  • Abgenics – R&D in novel therapies for Animal and Human Health
  • Tridiagonal Solutions – Computational Fluid Dynamics software solutions and services

[Older] Sort-of Established Companies who raised significant funding in the
past, or were acquired a while back:

  • QuickHeal – Antivirus Software
  • Airtight – Wireless Security Software Products
  • SEED Infotech – (Training Institute) [Ashmore Alchemy]
  • Vertex [acquired by NTT Japan]
  • Kenati – Home Networking Products [acquired by 2wire]
  • IdeaS – Airline Inventory Optimization Software [acquired by SAS]
  • PACE – Gaming Software [acquired by nVidia]

Pune’s Ayojak (Online Ticketing & Event Management) raises funding

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Online Ticketing and Event Management startup, http://Ayojak.com has just secured funding from HBS Alumni Angels, Blume Ventures, and Srijan Capital. The majority of the investment will be used to launch new products to serve segments such as training & educational institutions, seminars, workshops, lifestyle activities, last minute tickets, adventurous trips and social activities. Also, part of the investment will go towards providing solutions for last-mile services such as entry management and Box-Office.

Here is Ayojak’s description from their press release:

Ayojak.com offers a cloud hosted online suite of event solutions platform offering four pillars of services such as event ticketing/registration software (for ticketing, conference, RSVP, charity), payment processing (online, retail, cash-on-delivery), event marketing and logistics. Since 2009, Ayojak.com has been powering 1000s of events pan India including large scale events such as Live in Concerts, World Series Hockey, Patna Marathon, Joy Run, India Resort Fashion Week and many more.

And about the events being hosted by Ayojak, founder Santosh Panda says:

“We are having significant growth with 425+ events in Q3 FY 2012 vs 381 events in the entire FY 2010-11; with ‘sports’ being the fastest growing event category while ‘business & education’ topped the chart.”

See also NextBigWhat’s coverage of Ayojak’s funding. Includes an interview with Santosh.

PuneConnect 2012 application date extended to 19 Nov

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Since this is Diwali Week, and people are on vacation, we have received a number of requests to extend the deadline for submission. The deadline has now been extended until end of day, Monday, 19th November.

For details of how and what to submit, see the Submit A Proposal page at PuneConnect.com. For more information about PuneConnect itself, see [the original Pune Connect call for applications[(http://puneconnect.com/puneconnect-2012-dec-1-apply-now/)

Remember, this event is absolutely free for all participants, so you have no excuse to not apply.

(Note: all those who have already submitted applications, you should have received an email acknowledgement. If you have not received an acknowledgement, please re-submit your proposal, or leave a comment on this post and we’ll get in touch with you.)

Here are some selected testimonials from companies that presented at PuneConnect 2011:

Anand Kekre, CEO and Co-founder of Vaultize

Overall it was a good experience in PuneConnect 2011. We got some publicity as well as used the “Best Startup” accolade and ET Now coverage in our marketing. […] I would recommend such events to all startups.

Saurabh Jain, Co-founder, Intellista Software Studios:

The PuneConnect experience was really helpful.

[…]

However, I thought the following were really helpful:

  1. Getting insightful feedback from many experienced and senior people from the Indian startup ecosystem – who have been there and done that. This is difficult to get for many young startups with few connections.
  2. We were short listed for the ETNow show – which as an interesting experience in itself 🙂 Taught us a few things on how to pitch, especially on the TV. The feedback by the judges helped too.
  3. We got to get the entire team out (even though it was just four of us) and everyone got to pitch and explain to other people what our product does. This is always helpful and provides good exposure to the team. And lets face it, how often do we get such chances?
  4. The format of the event was such that we did not have to spend a LOT of time preparing for it – maybe a couple of days. Which is always good – because you do not end up wasting time.

Overall, the event lived up to more than my expectations and we all had a great time.

Rahul Sawant, Director, BizPorto:

It was indeed excellent initial push for bizporto. One of the early recognition by 4 prominent organizations together gave us confidence to move ahead. Well, we couldn’t get into the ET Now session nevertheless the opportunity was big. The visibility through this event was big & it helped us networking with few industry dignitaries & we are getting an excellent guidance from them in running the business.

Pune’s HelpShift (Infinitely Beta) gets $3.25 million funding

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Pune company Helpshift (previously known as Infinitely Beta), which is focusing on helping mobile app developers do better customer service, has received $3.25 million in funding from True Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners.

According to TechCrunch

Last year, Abinash Tripathy and Baishampayan Ghose founded Helpshift to address what they perceived to be a significantly underserved market in customer service: Mobile. After months of testing their mobile solution, the startup is getting ready to pull the curtains back on its business.

Basically the product is:

[a] mobile-focused, SaaS solution, which aims to be “the first embedded support desk for native apps,” allowing developers to capture device info from their users so that they can troubleshoot problems quicker and more effectively.

and:

To do so, Helpshift provides a native SDK that integrates with mobile apps to offer an “in app” customer experience that remains true to the look and feel of the app, rather than shoehorning its own design into each different mobile UX. Helpshift’s support screens can be customized to match the app’s visual style and is designed, the co-founder and CEO says, to be instantly searchable and available in offline mode, i.e. when a device isn’t connected to the network.

For more details about Helpshift’s product, see also PandoDaily’s coverage.

PuneTech readers would be familiar with Abinash Tripathy and Baishampayan Ghose the co-founders of Helpshift. A few years ago, Abinash started the company, then known as Infinitely Beta, whose first product was the website paisa.com. However, they shut down paisa.com to focus on “qotd.co” last year. Qotd.co has morphed into Helpshift.

PuneConnect 2012: An event to connect Pune Startups to Enterprises – 1 Dec

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After the huge success of PuneConnect 2011, we are back again with PuneConnect 2012, a mega event for Pune startups to showcase their products and services to the world at large, and specifically to larger companies in Pune. PuneConnect 2012 will be on 1st December 2012, and the idea behind the event is to allow the best startups in Pune a platform where they can find customers, mentors, business partners, affiliates amongst Pune’s established companies, and successful senior entrepreneurs.

PuneConnect is a joint initiative of Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP), TiE Pune, PuneStartups.org (POCC), PuneTech, and NASSCOM. SEAP and NASSCOM have large communities of established companies, and PuneStartups.org, TiE Pune and PuneTech represent thriving communities of Pune’s young startups. PuneConnect represents a one-of-its-kind activity that bridges the gap between the new companies and the established ones.

Any startup company from Pune or nearby areas, who has a product that they would like to demo, should submit a proposal by following the instructions at http://PuneConnect.com. A panel of selectors drawn from experts in the industry will select the most promising startups who will be allowed to set up a stall at PuneConnect on 1st December.

Benefits to selected startups include:

  • Exposure to Pune’s top companies, potential customers and potential mentors
  • Exposure to Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors who are being
    invited to the event
  • Press and media coverage before and after the event
  • Winners of the event get automatic entries to other country-level events (e.g. those organized by NASSCOM)

PuneConnect 2011 showcased 12 Pune startups. All the companies got a lot of exposure to potential customers, angel investors, VCs and media.

Media Coverage: The Financial Express, the Financial Chronicle, Business Standard, and the top Marathi newspapers Sakal and Maharashtra Times all carried detailed articles about PuneConnect and the companies. All 12 companies got mentions in various articles. One company, World Without Me, got a half-page article in Pune Mirror as a direct result of being featured in PuneConnect 2011.

Entries to other prestigious events: 4 of the selected companies (InnovizeTech, ReliScore, DroidCloud, and AdMogul) were selected to be featured on an episode ETNow TV Channel’s Starting Up show. 4 of the companies (kPoint, Vaultize, InnovizeTech and DroidCloud) were selected for participation in a national-level conference organized by Zinnov, where they got to demo their products to companies from all over India. Two of the companies (BizPorto, and InTouchId) went on to be a part of the TiE Pune Nurture Initiative where they got in-depth mentoring in becoming ready for funding.

Funding: DroidCloud (now known as AppSurfer) got an invitation to the SuperAngels show on the ETNow Channel as a direct result of being in PuneConnect 2011, and a chance to win Rs. 1 crore in funding on the show. AppSurfer actually went on to win the show and secure the funding.

If you’re interested

SLP-Pune: Startup Leadership Program for Entrepreneurs

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The Startup Leadership Program, a global entrepreneur discussion/training group now has Pune Chapter. Apply before 7th Aug here – http://www.startupleadership.com

The Startup Leadership Program (SLP) is a selective, training program for entrepreneurs who are or want to be startup CEOs, and be connected to a global network. SLP Fellows have founded over 300 breakthrough startups including Duron Energy, Gharpay, ixigo, Innoz, Momelan, Runkeeper, SideTour, Shareaholic, Solar Junction, Ubersense, Savored, Voicetap, and have won many awards.

The program brings together about 25 high impact entrepreneurs in every city to coach and create the next generation CEOs. The unique curriculum is co-designed by Serial Entrepreneurs, Academicians, Researchers, VCs, and Analysts. The complete list of Mentors can be seen here http://www.startupleadership.com/main_nav/mentors-2/.

The Startup Leadership Program is a NOT FOR PROFIT entity, registered in US and INDIA.

*What will entrepreneurs get? *

  1. Avoid entrepreneurial mistakes – as you learn from your peer group (that comprises of entrepreneurs from different background) and mentors (serial entrepreneurs, VCs, bankers, etc) and experts.
  2. Get solutions to your growth challenges – as you get feedback from super peer group and mentors.
  3. Connect to VCs/Investors and raise funding. Make real-life pitches.Understand what VC looks for.
  4. Get an understanding of term-sheet, legal aspects and exiting ventures.
  5. Be part of high-profile and high impact SLP Global alumni that will help you to scale up.
  6. Last but not least, make friends with entrepreneurs, as all know – its lonely at the top.

As a testimonial, from the class of Mumbai Chapter 2012-2013, 3 people
raised capital (with total to tune of USD 5 Mn!). One of them is part of
SLP Pune organizing team.

Commitments and pedagogy

  1. The program runs from mid-Sept to March and requires about 60 hours of time commitment on the part of entrepreneur. Usually there is a session once in every three weeks and on Saturday.
  2. The session comprises of brain storming, role plays, VC pitches, HBR case studies, etc.
  3. There are usually 2-3 mentors per session. You can expect people from Angel Community and VC firms (last year our chapter had mentors from Indian Angels, Mumbai Angels, Cannan Partners, IvyCap Ventures, Blume Ventures, Sequioa, Kanakia Ventures, Anand Rathi Group, Kae Capital, Nexus Capital, etc) and serial entrepreneurs!
  4. SLP is volunteer run and not for profit. The entrepreneur will need to pay fees of 6000 Rs. which cover costs of food, certification and logistics.

It is observed that the SLP Class usually hangs-out for a beer or coffee and develops strong bond.

Venue

For Pune, the sessions will be held at Venture Center, NCL Innovation Park.

Contact

For any details/doubts on SLP Pune, please contact Dhiraj Khot (dhirajk@gmail.com) +91-9850 682 789

Pune based RainingClouds (AppSurfer) get 1cr Angel Funding

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Pune based software startup RainingClouds Technologies has just raised Rs. 1cr in angel funding from Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of One97 Communications. RainingClouds makes AppSurfer, which allows people to access any android app from any browser.

The funding happened as part of the Finale of the Super Angels show of ET Now. (We’ll update this post with a link to the video of this show once it appears on YouTube.) RainingClouds got into the Super Angels show as a result of being one of the winners of the PuneConnect 2011 event organized by PuneTech along with Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP) and Pune Open Coffee Club. (There, AppSurfer is referred to by its older name, DroidCloud).

Here is a description of DroidCloud from PuneConnect 2011:

DroidCloud allows users to try and use Android apps from any desktop web browser. Normally, applications intended for Android phones cannot be used by people who do not have an Android phone. DroidCloud gives every user a virtual Android phone in the cloud that they can use to run apps. This is useful for app developers to demo apps to clients, app publishers to show demo of apps to potential customers and users, and different teams in large organizations to collaborate on apps.

The DroidCloud team consists of Aniket Awati, Ratnadeep Deshmane, Amit Yadav and Akshay Deo, all techies from Pune.

Pune’s InnovizeTech receives Rs. 4.5cr funding from Seed Enterprises

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Pune based startup, InnovizeTech software, which makes productivity measurement software, has just announced that it has closed a Series-A investment of Rs. 4.5 crores from Seed Enterprise. Seed Enterprise is a newly established fund focusing on software products in emerging markets. It has been started by Mitesh Bohra, Avinash Sethi, and Siddharth Sethi (previously co-founders of InfoBeans). Innovize had previously received $350k in angel funding from Indian Angel Network.

Innovize Tech has built a software product, called Sapience, that helps companies measure the exact amount of time spent by employees in various work related activities. When Sapience is installed on employee PCs, it automatically figures out what work was done, by whom, for how long, and for what purpose. It produces reports that highlight gaps and deviations from pre-determined goals. The basic idea is to provide managers with data that can be used to drive efficiencies, detect underutilization, and compare with industry metrics. Sapience protects privacy of individual employees by only providing aggregate data and trends for teams > 10 employees in most cases.

Here’s their pitch from the press release:

Sapience’s key USP is that it delivers automated visibility into Enterprise Effort. It is cloud based, though an on-premise option is available for large enterprises. Their client portfolio is expanding rapidly, and currently includes large and medium IT Services firms like Zensar, product ISVs (IDeaS, Bio-Analytical Technologies), KPOs (SG Analytics), and Engineering Services companies such as EnVenture and Excelize.

Innovize has been founded by Shirish Deodhar, Madhukar Bhatia, Swati Deodhar, Hemant Joshi – Each has 25+ years of technology and leadership experience in US and India. They are Serial Entrepreneurs with 2 previous successes (Veritas Software India, and In-Reality (sold to Symphony)) in outsourced product development. Shirish, Madhukar, and Hemant were first together in Veritas Software

Innovize is also one of the companies to get multiple honours in the PuneConnect 2011 event recently held in Pune, (which PuneTech helped organize).

Read the full press release about this funding

Get a 25%+ PuneTech discount on Unpluggd tickets for 2 days

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As we wrote earlier, Pluggd.in is one of the most influential sites as far as coverage of Indian startups is concerned, and their flagship event, Unpluggd is coming to Pune on the 19th. By long-standing policy, PuneTech does not explicitly promote paid tech events on the front page unless the event is exceptional, or the rates are very low, or, ideally, both. In case of Unpluggd, both of these are true, but for PuneTech readers, the rates are even better because:

Get a 25%+ discount on Unpluggd tickets (buy here (Ayojak – Pune startup) or here (doattend)) until 13th November by using the discount code PTECH. This gives you the ticket for Rs. 500 instead of the full price of Rs. 700.

What to expect at Unpluggd? Demos from 10 startups, selected from over 340 nominations received from all over India. Talks by some of India’s most successful startup founders and VCs. And networking. The community in Pune does an excellent job of holding lots of tech/startup events in Pune and giving opportunities to network locally; but events like Unpluggd give the opportunity to network with the startup community from all over India.