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Will there be a shift and change in the Indian startup funding trends this year?

According to the India Startup Outlook Report 2021 by InnoVen Capital, startup funding scenarios are changing for the better. Despite the pandemic, over two-thirds of founders who tried to raise capital had a favourable experience in 2020, driven by a strong October to December quarter. 

In fact, founders from sectors like enterprise/SaaS, logistics, ecommerce, and fintech were most optimistic about the funding environment in 2021.  

Commenting on the report, Ashish Sharma, CEO, InnoVen Capital India, said, “The year 2020 was an eventful year for the venture ecosystem… However, the resilience of entrepreneurs meant that startups navigated this crisis rather well, and many companies have come out stronger.”

According to the report, in 2020, 54 percent of founders had a positive fundraising experience, while 24 percent claimed otherwise. Meanwhile, an overwhelming 71 percent of founders believe that the fundraising environment will improve in 2021.

The Interview

SaaS startup Freshworks, Inc recently announced that it surpassed $300 million in ARR, growing the business by 40 percent year-over-year despite the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, in 2020, Freshworks unveiled new product offerings, expanded the executive team to fuel its next phase of growth, and more. Its next target is to achieve the billion-dollar revenue milestone. In a conversation with YourStory, Freshworks Founder and CEO Girish Mathrubootham deep dives into the business of SaaS and its future.

Editor’s Pick: Prime Venture Podcast

A serial entrepreneur, Amar Goel has founded three companies — Pubmatic, Komli Media, and Safeter. He is the former CEO and now Chairman of Pubmatic, which went public a month and a half ago. Amar shares his experience, lessons learned, and insights gleaned from his 14-year journey to success in the latest episode of Prime Ventures Partners podcast with Amit Somani, Managing Partner, Prime Venture Partners. Read more. 

Startup Spotlight

Promoting art with pocket-friendly alcohol inks

Harish S and Gayathri Gupta used to work together in a software development company. They both would indulge in art as a hobby and would use the medium of alcohol inks to create artworks as a stress-buster in their free time. However, the market for alcohol ink-based art was almost non-existent in India and the prices of the products were high. Thus, in March 2019, the duo started Beyond Inks to manufacture alcohol-based inks in India and offer them to the community at affordable prices. Read more. 

News & Updates

• Tesla Founder and CEO Elon Musk has been turning heads with his increasing interest in cryptocurrency. Taking to Twitter today, he said, “I just set up some little Doge mining rigs with my kids. It was fun.” With this, Dogecoin’s prices briefly shot up to $0.58990.

• PM Narendra Modi, addressing the Governing Council meeting of Niti Aayog, made a strong case for repealing archaic laws and making it easier to do business in India, stating that the centre and states need to work closely to boost economic growth. 

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“Most VCs scale around AUM and the number of exits they’ve made. Because that’s why LPs give you money and founders come to you. But it’s growth in a one-dimensional way.” 

— Sanjay Nath, Co-founder and Managing Partners, Blume Ventures

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