Nishant Sinha

Most of the good early stage VCs in India now have visibility of at least 1-2 IPOs/year in their portfolio for the next 3 years. Understandably, this is becoming a barometer for investor-partner selection by the best founders at the early stages.

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Agilitas x Virat Kohli partnership is one of the masterstroke deals I have seen in recent times. Virat invests 40 CR in Agilitas for a 1.94% stake, putting Agilitas’s valuation around 2000 CR. 📈 In turn, Agilitas acquires one8world, making Virat a co-founder and shareholder. They now get two very important growth levers: ⬇️ 1. A powerful manufacturing (via Mochiko Shoes - a 600 CR+ footwear brand that Agilitas acquired in 2008 ), 2. India’s biggest athlete — exclusively aligned. Easily becomes a 4000 CR revenue brand in the next 5 years. Footwear + retail scale requires capital — but this partnership compresses customer acquisition, product cycles, and brand-building like few others. Even Virat said in his podcast with Abhishek Ganguly, the co-founder of Agilitas that, “I didn’t want a brand deal… I wanted to build something that outlives me.” And Abhishek said something even beautiful - “An ambition to build from India but be globally relevant.” This isn’t marketing. This is legacy building with shared skin in the game. And that is how startups work - shared ambition with one goal (to make the company big) and food (read stake) in the table for everyone! A company that can be built in the long term with culture, capital, and conviction aligned. This might be the first time in India, where an athlete joins hands with a sport company to re-imagine and build the sport ecosystem of India - truly revolutionalising the game with a clear vision. 🙌

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Kluisz.ai, led by former OYO senior executive Abhinav Sinha, has raised $9.6 million (INR 82.9 crore) in seed funding. The round was led by RTP Global and saw participation from Unicorn India Ventures, Blume Ventures Founders Fund, Climber Capital, and prominent angels. Founded in early 2025, Kluisz.ai is building an open-source, AI-native cloud platform to help enterprises deploy and manage AI and edge computing workloads. Check out the full funding details : https://lnkd.in/gjs3UKNB Team Kluisz Abhinav Sinha | Venkata Surya Tej | Vamshidhar Reddy | Abhijeet Singh | #oyoCOO #OYOemployee #AiStartups #SeedFunding #CloudStartups #FundingUpdates #startupro #startupUPdates

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Pleased to announce that Karekeba Ventures, among others, has invested in Stylework SaaS-based co-working/managed workspace aggregator Stylework on Wednesday announced the closure of Rs 30-crore Pre-Series B funding, which is planned to be deployed towards technology enhancement, domestic and international market expansion, and hiring key leadership personnel. Of the total funding, the company had achieved the first close of Rs 10-crore led by Equentis Angel Fund last month, with participation from Karekeba ventures /Cogniphy AIF Fund alongside continued subscriptions from Lets Venture Fund, MoneyVyapaar, HNIs and other strategic investors, Stylework said. Karekeba Ventures Kshitiz Anand Vishal Nikumbh

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Recko | A Stripe company's $150M acquisition proved that India Talent can build world class software. Here are the top learnings from my podcast with Saurya, Co-founder, Recko: 1. Recko was founded in 2017 by Saurya and Prashant to fix the complex and broken process of financial reconciliation in fast-growing B2C companies like Flipkart and Blinkit. 2. Getting the product off the ground was really tough. Early customers openly said they didn’t need it, and investors thought the idea was pointless. Recko was trying to build in a new category where there were no benchmarks or clear paths to follow. 3. Their first big break came from Myntra, who reached out just when Recko was down to their last $500. Over the next 3 to 4 months, they worked closely with Myntra’s finance team to solve huge reconciliation problems involving millions of data rows. That work earned them the credibility to build the product. 4. Indian VCs passed on Recko for several reasons: Lack of investor-focus on B2B during 2017-18 , the perception that back-office products were unsexy and the pressure for fast hockey stick growth. In some cases, even customers denied they had the problem Recko was solving, which confused potential investors further. 5. Saurya shares that India’s B2B ecosystem has “over-indexed” on cost advantages and marketing-heavy models. But to truly compete globally and reach higher valuations, companies should start with a solid product that offers real value through Tech and product superiority, not just by being cheaper. 6. For early-stage B2B startups, the most important metrics is not ARR, but product shape & product usage- how often the product is used and how critical it is to the workflow of the business. If your product becomes part of a company’s core workflow, it’s much harder for them to stop using it- even if it’s tough to sell at first. 7. Stripe's acquisition of Recko was primarily a product acceleration and product suite completion strategy. With financial operations closely tied to payments, Recko brought deep expertise in that space- something Stripe's customers were already asking for. 8. Recko was acquired at a 75X revenue multiple of $2 million ARR - A result of the product's unique strength, very specific domain knowledge, and "thickness" in its product layer. This contrasts with companies offering easily replicable solutions or operating in crowded, benchmarked categories, which give them lesser leverage in acquisitions. 9. The acquisition process took about six months, with four of those months spent on intense due diligence. Founders must manage conflicting expectations from investors and employees while maintaining highly confidential communication throughout. 10. Saurya advises founders to prioritize long-term relationships over attempting to "squeeze the last drop" of money during an acquisition, as future collaborations are likely. 

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At Atomic Capital, we are committed to backing exceptional founders building for the next wave of India’s consumption story. The country’s consumer market is expected to more than double by 2030, reaching over $4 trillion, with fashion emerging as one of the fastest-growing categories. By 2030, India’s apparel market is projected to cross $125 billion, driven by a rising middle class, increased digital adoption, and evolving consumer preferences. Fashion, particularly women's apparel, will play a significant role in this growth. Despite being a highly competitive category, we believe there's still white space for brands that combine customer insight, product excellence, and operational efficiency. We are incredibly excited to announce our investment in ANNY. From our very first interaction with the founding team, we felt there was strong alignment in vision, strategy, and focus on building a lean, sustainable, and scalable business. Here's why we chose to partner with them: 1. Aligned Operating Philosophy: The founding team - Japjot, Aveen, and Rahul, shares our belief in building a capital-efficient brand. They focus on solving scale challenges with systems, data, and discipline—not by burning cash. From day one, they valued our partnership beyond just the capital contribution. 2. Distinctive Product Supply: Anny excels at the intersection of freshness × fabric × fit. Thanks to rigorous efforts in curation and sizing, Anny has achieved some of the lowest return and cancellation rates we’ve seen in the category. 3. Lean Inventory Model: The team has cracked a unique approach to managing inventory. Their system allows for timely sourcing of new designs that often become hero products—ensuring working capital efficiency while minimizing stockouts and lost sales. 4. High Consumer Love: With 100% of revenue coming through their own website and a substantial share from repeat customers, the brand has cultivated a deep and loyal customer base. 5. Efficient Acquisition Strategy: Anny has built a robust content engine, helping consumers visualize style and fit on real people. This “real-world relatability” has significantly improved conversion and reduced acquisition costs. 6. A Complementary Team: The founding team brings the perfect blend of design and curation, finance and analytics, and technology—a necessary trifecta to scale a modern, digitally native apparel brand. The founder-market fit here is strong and clear. 7. Strong Revenue Momentum: The team has scaled 7x in 12 months. Consistent growth, increasing repeats, and strong unit economics are a testament to the brand's product-market fit and sharp execution. In our experience, operational discipline, new launch velocity, a data-driven approach, and sharp storytelling can collectively build an enduring brand in Fashion. We believe the Anny team is uniquely positioned to do just that. Atomic Capital Nikhil Patil Manish Jain #ConsumerBrands #Fashion #D2C #IndiaConsumption #AtomicCapital

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🚀 Thrilled to announce that we’ve raised ₹37 Crore ($4.3M) to accelerate our mission SaveIN: making quality healthcare and wellness accessible and affordable for every Indian This round was led by our existing backers — 10x Founders, Oliver Jung, and Leblon Capital, and we’re excited to welcome STEM AI SAS to the journey With this, we’ve now raised a total of over ₹100 Crore ($12M+), backed by some of the most forward-thinking global investors, including Y Combinator Just 3 years ago, we were a small team with a bold idea — what if everyday healthcare could be accessible, affordable and instant, without claims, approvals, or red tape? Fast forward to today: - India’s largest no-cost EMI network for outpatient care - 7000+ healthcare centers in 130+ cities of India offer instant no-cost EMIs with SaveIN - 5 lakh+ customer applications processed - 250% YoY revenue growth in FY25 with solid economics - Partnered with top financial institutions including leading banks And now: welUp, our newest platform built for B2B wellness — giving employees access to 200+ preventive and holistic health services that are unaddressed by traditonal health insurance! This new capital will help us scale our EMI offerings, deepen our provider network, and supercharge welUp to reach companies across India — from growing startups to large enterprises I’ve always believed: healthcare shouldn't start at the hospital gate. It should start earlier — with access, awareness, and affordability That’s the future we’re building A big thank you to team SaveIN and our partners! 👉 Full story here: https://lnkd.in/gkZQuhvQ Gaurav Luthra Rahul Gupta Navdeep Soni Shantanu Vishnoi Pritam Singh Niharika Sharma Aayush P. Rishabh Agarwal Alankrita Bhattacharyya CA Anju Gahlawat Nikhil Singh #SaveIN #welUp #Healthtech #Fintech #Funding #Fintech #YC

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Excited to share this News, 888vc, Our Early-stage venture capital firm based in Bangalore, India has launched platfrom Gro8 backed by ₹175 crore (US$ 20M) fund to back startups focused on AI, deep tech, Enterprise SAAS and sustainability over the next three years. 💡 Key Focus Areas: 🔹 Average ticket size of ₹2–4 crores 🔹 Sector Agnostic Angel fund 🔹 Focus on globally scalable solutions 🔹 Launch of GRO8 angel platform for cross-border funding, mentorship & market access 📌 If you’re building in AI, deep-tech, or sustainability with ambitions to grow globally, let’s talk. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gtUcYkrx #888vc #gro8 #venturecapital #angelinvestments #startups

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Part 2: A relatively under discussed trendline in India that has been exploding in last 5-6 years has been B2C cross border e-commerce. These are subscale ecom merchants supplying globally (mainly US) via Amazon, ebay, etsy or even direct! This segment has inflected from <$300m GMV sales 6 years back to $3.5b+ currently. The key 'why now' behind this has been COVID - which forced supplier digitization when offline sales were restricted as well as direct global access via AMZ.   The interesting part is this inflection has happened despite low awareness (<10k active sellers vs 2m+ in India domestic ecommerce) and highly broken support ecosystem for sellers (logistics, payment reconciliation, global selling know-how, taxation, custom clearance). This is reminiscent of where domestic ecommerce was back in 2014 where there were real questions on how large the ecommerce supplier base in india can be (and why companies like shiprocket should exist).   This inflection has mainly been in design-led categories where India has expertise (and already did B2B experts) e.g., home, jewelry, apparel. This has resulted in multiple players (Skillmatics, California Design Den, Miko, Ultrahuman, eShakti) reach $50m+ GMV each in a relatively short time span and most importantly more capital efficiently vs domestic serving peers. Primary reason being high gross margins given US appetite to pay as well as limited need to venture offline which takes away non-linearity in growth to some extent (e.g., most domestic D2C brands are going offline as soon as they hit INR 100 cr GMV)   Feel this trendline has just begun! There were multiple additional tailwinds that are yet to play out. DGFT (export ministry) creating separate ecom export hubs, planning to change taxation/ reconciliation norms as well as digital paper-work to enable faster custom clearance Headwind for China x-border ecom - talks to impose import duty taxes (20-60%) on likes of Temu/ shein. Sudden cancellation of De-minimis loophole (low tax/ minimal scrutiny for items <$800) for China that impacts its ability to offer low prices.   This is the most ideal time to build cross border B2C commerce businesses from india. China has proven that you can build $2B+ brand (Anker) or $30b+ GMV marketplace (Tiktok shop) based on this trendline. Rahul Taneja

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Lessons: performance of listed startups At the xto10x IPO academy, we track listed startups - financials, market updates, stock price, peer comparison, analyst coverage and earnings calls. The intent? Understand the patterns behind sustained performance vs. underperformance - defined as movement in the stock price vs. the Nifty 500 over the same timeframe. Of the 30+ companies we track, here are headlines from 8 (data as on 8/4/25) #1 (2021 IPO): significant challenges for the first eight quarters - profitability doubts, acquisition anxiety. But the script flipped in 2023: delivered on guidance, turned the core business profitable and demonstrated sustained improvement in operating metrics. Outperforming by 134% #2 (2024 IPO): listed at a discount to its peer. Latest results show a widening gap with the peer on core metrics - revenue, market share and MTUs, with the CM gap narrowing slightly. Underperforming by 8% #3 (2021 IPO): A SaaS company, did an outstanding acquisition, improving EBITDA margin from 15% to 20% from FY23 to 24, leading to outperformance. Now facing challenges with revenue churn and no subsequent acquisitions (discussed in earnings calls) - underperforming by 35% #4 (2024 IPO): Not just another coworking play — 43% return on capital employed, driven by high utilisation and the managed aggregator model. Analysts now compare it with hotel peers given the ROCE profile. Outperforming by 68% #5 (2021 IPO): Beat 8Q guidance with growth in core business at 23%, new business at 115% and EBITDA margin of 47%. The stock outperformed by 46%. Then came bolder guidance relying heavily on the new business. Growth in the last 2Q is significantly below expectations, the stock is now down 30% from its peak #6 (2021 IPO): Ecomm player, gained 96% on listing day. In 2 years, revenue grew by 30%, while EBITDA margins remained flat (5% to 5.7%). Underperforming by 37% #7 (2022 IPO): Logistics player that delivered meaningful earnings growth from -₹319 Cr to ₹561 Cr, but missed market expectations of Rs. 1325 cr. Underperforming by 98% #8 (2023 IPO): D2C brand that went public with a bold offline expansion plan. But near-expiry stock issues, distributor churn, & retailer resistance to its SKU mix showed challenges in offline. Trading 31% below its IPO price So what are the patterns? At the risk of oversimplication, here’s what we have observed: Outperformers compound earnings & ROCE over a longer timeframe - quality execution translates into strong input metrics which translate into superior financial performance. This is so hard to do. Underperformers don’t have compounding yet - many challenges get in the way, e.g. high expectations (and a high issue price), widening gap with peers, relying on uncertain M&A/ new businesses/ channels to deliver earnings guidance, limited operating leverage. One overall takeaway for founders trying to decide on an IPO? Please test your recipe for compounding before you go public.

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Thrilled to share that Uolo has raised $7M in a Pre-Series B round, led by global EdTech fund Five Sigma, with continued support from Blume Ventures and Morphosis, and Alicorn. For us, this milestone is not just capital raised—it is a reaffirmation of our belief that AI in education must be built inside the school system, not outside it. Every school leader tells us the same truth: Learning can sometimes be fun, but it is always hard. The real challenge is adherence. Schools solve adherence during the day. With our AI powered curricular programs, we extend that structure into the home—helping students maintain consistency, build habits, and stay motivated beyond classroom hours. Today, Uolo’s AI-powered curricular programs support 2,500+ schools and 1.1 million paying students across India. This funding will help us:  • Expand school partnerships across the country  • Strengthen our GenAI-based learning companions  • Deepen our integrated learning ecosystem so the school-to-home learning loop stays intact India has ~25 crore K–12 students, nearly half in private schools—one of the strongest indicators of the country’s aspirations. The opportunity to build trusted, school-aligned AI that genuinely improves learning outcomes has never been greater. A big thank you to Peter Mobbs and the Five Sigma team for their conviction, and to our long-term partners Blume Ventures, Morphosis Venture Capital for their continued belief. And most importantly—thank you to the school leaders, teachers, parents, and students who make this mission meaningful every single day - Ankur Pandey, Pallav Pandey

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