Amit 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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I want to share some insights on how certain Founders are treating their Investors nowadays.  Here’s a brief timeline of the events that unfolded: -Jan 2021 Successfully raised ₹5 crore at a valuation of 25Cr. -Oct 2021 to Jul 2022 Another impressive round brought in over ₹65 crore at a valuation of 132Cr -The company ambitiously claims it's on a path to becoming a unicorn in just three years, backed by a $200 million IPO commitment from The Global Emerging Markets Group (GEM). -Apr 22 YourStory Media publishes an article titled: "[Funding alert] Instoried raises $200M from GEM, seeks to go public" (Read more at: https://lnkd.in/d35MEJBh) -From then until Dec 22, the company maintains an average monthly revenue of ₹50 lakh. However, from Jan 23, this figure plummets to merely ₹5 lakh. -The explanation? They attributed this downturn to the launch of ChatGPT. -Fast forward to Oct 23: The company announces a pivot from AI text generation to AI video generation. -Dec 23 The sudden conclusion— the company shuts down. On the surface, everything seemed fine. I understand that valuations can be inflated and funding announcements might stem from paid PR without and fact checking. But then reality hits hard…  -The Founder relocates to another country. -Claims the company shut down was a success; she touts that she raised $200 million and “exited.” In truth, she never raised beyond $9 million and didn’t exit — she shut it down and vanished, leaving investors unable to recoup losses. -To top it off, she blocks all investors on social media, despite boasting 13,000 followers and over 500 connections. Her profile hails her as a “3X Entrepreneur | Keynote Speaker | Fortune 40 Under 40 | Angel Investor | Creator of 10,000+ Jobs | 8-Figure Exit & $200M Raised | Generative AI Leader.” What comes next? She starts new ventures: -AI (which is the Pivot product of old company with old investor money)-> PiePie AI -Mental Health -> https://lnkd.in/dN5H4trJ It’s one thing for a business to wind down; it's entirely different to flee, fabricate stories, and play the victim. Here are some takeaways from my 4-5 years in Angel Investing: -For investors putting in ₹3-5 lakh, it's wiser to target companies valued under ₹25 crore. -For startups with valuations over ₹100 crore, funding should primarily come from institutional investors rather than smaller angel investors. -Be cautious about angel networks; their survival relies on a 3-4% funding fee from startups, not your membership or carry fees. Their interest may not be aligned with investors. -Pursuing legal avenues often leads to wasted time and money. As a side note, I've had investments shut down where the Founder remained communicative, worked alongside investors to attempt revivals, closed gracefully, and even bought back shares to help investors book losses. This is my first attempt at writing such a post, so please let me know if there are any disclaimers I should include. 🙏

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PVR is struggling as it does not produce the content it shows As Bollywood movie quality plummets, all streamers that produce content are benefitting PVR's competitive advantage of being a distributor for all has become a huge disadvantage Distributors who produce are winning

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For decades, our parents made a major mistake. They stood in lines outside banks and post offices to invest in the Public Provident Fund (PPF), Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) and the National Savings Scheme (NSS). PPF's 7.1% interest rate, KVP's 7.5%, and NSS's 7.7% rate hardly beat India's 5.22% inflation rate. Neither do they attract any attraction in the new tax regime. If that money were invested in the Nifty Index, which grew by 12.92% in the last 20 years, your wealth would be 10 times right now than what you had. 🙏

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Indian startups are ditching Silicon Valley for home! The great Indian startup ghar vaapasi is in full swing. Let that sink in. Razorpay. Zepto. Groww. udaan.com. Pine Labs. Meesho. What we are witnessing is not a series of one-off moves, but a broader return from Delaware to India. For over a decade, the playbook was crystal clear: Build in India, incorporate in Delaware, raise from Sand Hill Road, list on Nasdaq. That playbook is dead. Here's what changed: A startup that would have raised capital in Silicon Valley can now raise more capital in India. Same company. Better terms. Home ground advantage. The IPO math is even more brutal for those who stayed offshore. Indian companies listing domestically are fetching better valuations compared to their US-listed peers. Meanwhile, compliance costs for offshore structures have tripled, and regulatory scrutiny has intensified. This isn't just about money, though the money is compelling. This is about where value gets created in the next decade. Boardroom conversations now have the question: "Should we come back?" And increasingly, the answer is becoming obvious. But here's the catch: The decision to flip goes beyond geography. It is a rethink of how startups build, scale, and create wealth in India. A SaaS company optimised for Silicon Valley metrics operates very differently from one built for Indian public markets. The investor base is different. The growth expectations are different. The exit strategies are fundamentally different. That's why this homecoming wave is a complete recalibration of how Indian startups think about wealth creation. In my latest Create Wealth newsletter, I break down: - Why startups went offshore - The roll call: startups making the move - The big flip: Why India looks better today - The IPO math- Why India now offers better outcomes - The challenges of homecoming Read the full analysis here: https://lnkd.in/dhr9kBiQ #CreateWealth #Dezerv #Startups #IPO #VentureCapital #StartupIndia #Founders

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There's buzz across the market that HUL is looking to acquire Minimalist for ₹3,000 crores. While I personally feel the valuation is a bit nutso (new favourite word), it's heartening to see India Inc embrace new age companies who are creating differentiators and appealing to broader consumer bases than the traditional. Some great examples across the past decade include: 1. Dr. Vaidya's by RPSG Group: Built by the phenomenal Trisha Rajani Vaidya and Arjun Vaidya, in 2019. By no means the biggest exit, it was one of India's first D2C exits, opening up the pathway for other India Incs to follow suit. 2. Flipkart by Walmart: India's largest startup acquisition and the World's largest E-commerce acquisition at $16 billion, this deal was Walmart's commitment to what's expected to the biggest growth market for the next decade and a chance to incorporate a lot of Flipkart's processes and in-house technology into Walmart's global e-comm efforts 3. CaratLane - A TATA Product & Tata 1mg: Clubbing the two, since Tata has been an active player across M&A, the teams here beautifully showcased a synergistic (ONLY time this word should be used) acquisition as well as a market-entry one, with Tanishq's supply chain being leveraged in the jewellery space, while 1mg giving Tatas a foray into pharmaceutical retail. 4. Reliance Industries Limited and Haptik, Addverb, Fynd (Shopsense Retail Technologies Ltd.), Karkinos Healthcare, JioSaavn and more, Reliance has emerged the most supportive of corporates, acquiring startups to help expand their reach, services and bolster the ecosystem they are building. Kudos to Aakrit Vaish and the omnipresent Manoj Modi. Global companies have long had their eye on India, with the likes of Meta acquiring Little Eye Labs all the way back in 2014, with Google following suit in 2017 (acquiring Halli Labs) and 2018 (acquiring Where is my Train), Rephrase.ai being snapped up by Adobe and more #venturecapital #startups #acquisition #funding #sale

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Key Insights from the India Venture Capital Report 2025 by Bain & Company and Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) 1. VC Funding Rebound: India’s VC funding surged to $13.7 billion in 2024, a 1.4x increase from 2023, making India the second-largest VC destination in APAC while global funding remained stagnant. 2. Surge in Deal Activity: 1,270 deals in 2024 (up ~45% from 2023), with 95% of deals under $50M. Larger deals ($50M+) nearly doubled, indicating a strong rebound in late-stage funding. 3. Tech-First Sector Dominance: Consumer tech, SaaS, and fintech secured 60%+ of total funding. Consumer tech saw a 2.3x jump to $5.4 billion, led by megadeals in B2C commerce, gaming, travel tech, and edtech. 4. Rise of Quick Commerce: Rapid adoption, profitable models, and evolving business propositions made quick commerce a breakout theme in 2024. 5. Generative AI & SaaS Growth: Funding in software/SaaS rose 1.2x to $1.7 billion, with Generative AI funding up 1.5x, signaling increasing investment in AI applications and platforms. 6. Traditional Sectors See Growth: BFSI and consumer/retail attracted increased investments due to their large addressable markets and favorable macroeconomic conditions. 7. Diverse Investor Base: A resurgence of PE funds, family offices, and corporate VC firms, with deal volumes up 1.8x YoY, showcasing renewed investor confidence. 8. Decline in Fundraising: VC fundraising dipped 35% to $2.7 billion, the lowest since 2020, as investors continued deploying existing dry powder. However, maiden funds gained prominence, focusing on sustainability, agriculture, gaming, and defense. 9. Exits on the Rise: Exit activity reached $6.8 billion, with public market exits surging from 55% to 76% of total exit value. A 7x jump in IPO exit value reflected improved liquidity and regulatory changes. 10. Regulatory Boost & Future Outlook: Policy reforms—removal of angel tax, LTCG tax reduction, and foreign VC registration simplifications—are fueling long-term VC growth. 2025 is expected to see more growth-stage deals and a rise in deep tech, energy transition, and semiconductor investments. ~~~~~ ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost it so your network can learn from it, too. And follow me, Fazlur Shah for more content like this. #startups #entrepreneurship #venturecapital #investing

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RevX Capital has provided Rs 6 crore in debt funding to Care.fi, a fintech firm with a focus on healthcare. Care.fi, which was founded by Sidak Singh and Vikrant Agrawal, offers healthcare providers tech-enabled financial solutions. Care.fi intends to leverage its experience in backend operations to facilitate quicker claim settlements and enhance hospital cash flow management. #carefi #healthcare

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Anthropic just raised $13B Series F. For perspective: that’s more than double what all Indian startups combined have raised in 2025 so far. AI capital flows in US on a completely different scale compared to the rest of the world.

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