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The Indian startup ecosystem has seen a meteoric rise in the recent past, with Indian startups looking at expanding into global markets. 

Founded by Anurag Goel and Amit Sharma in late 2020, Mumbai-based Cactus Venture Partners believes it has much to offer entrepreneurs on how they can take their startups global with sound business fundamentals.

Cactus made four investments in 2021 – Auric, AMPM, Vitraya, and Rubix Data Science. Auric is an Ayurveda beverage brand and AMPM is into lifestyle clothing. Vitraya and Rubix are hard-core tech startups.

Anurag believes that their previous experience in running a company will help them guide new-age startups. He co-founded Cactus Communication in 2002 as a science communication company catering largely to research and has now grown into a global firm with a presence in multiple geographies like US, the UK, China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore to name a few.

“Having been entrepreneurs ourselves, we understand what it takes to deliver that growth and this helps us connect better with the founders,” Anurag tells YourStory. 

Amit firmly believes despite its size, these are still very early days for the Indian startup ecosystem and cites the example of China, where there are over 15,000 funds operating compared to India, where we have just 550 funds.

“There are a lot of opportunities and we expect more fund managers to come in, but we stand apart due to our business-building capability,” he says. Read more.

The Interview

Sumukhi Suresh is a standup comedian and a creator who can keep people glued to their seats with her hilarious content. On this episode of Influencers Inc by YourStory, Sumukhi talks about her journey and discusses the road ahead.

Editor’s Pick

The pandemic-induced lockdown has made many of us plant parents. With newfound time on our hands and YouTube tutorials, we explored the world of gardening. But, not many of us have green fingers. However, there is help!

In this week’s App Friday, we feature Blossom, a plant identification app that helps users improve their gardening skills. Released in February 2021, the app is rated 4.2/5 on Google Play Store and has recorded more than a million downloads. Read more. 

Startup Spotlight

Taking Kashmir’s handlooms to the world

According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, the Indian pashmina industry is worth Rs 2,000 crore. 

Taking Jammu and Kashmir’s handlooms to the world, Mubasher and Zahoor Hassan Mir started Srinagar-based All Things Kashmir as a one-stop-shop for original high-grade pashmina shawls, hand-knotted carpets, scarves, spices, and other state handicrafts. Read more.

News & Updates

• Workplace productivity app Kaagaz has received an investment from Y Combinator as part of the global accelerator’s Winter 2022 batch. Backed by the likes of Pravega Ventures and Axilor, Kaagaz started as a document scanning app.

• The Renal Project, a Mumbai-based affordable dialysis centre chain, has raised undisclosed equity capital from Thapar Vision LLP, an affiliate of Namita Thapar, ED at Emcure Pharmaceuticals, and Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta, Co-founders of boAt Lifestyle.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

The ability for founders to change the destiny of India by building is truly unprecedented. They are the hero(ine)s of this story. 

– Anand Chandrasekaran, General Catalyst

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