Nitin Gupta

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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Dream11's exit from their ₹358 crore BCCI sponsorship deal - with BCCI waiving penalties due to government regulations - reminded me of a costly lesson I learned during the early IPL mobile rights days. Back then, we had acquired IPL Mobile Digital rights and partnered with Nokia as our exclusive mobile partner. Everything was going well until legislation banned VAS services overnight. When we rushed to review contracts, I discovered a painful reality - Nokia had ironclad protection clauses for regulatory changes, but I had no such mirror provisions with my licensor. Nokia walked away clean. I was left holding the bag. The asymmetry in contract terms taught me that in regulated industries, you're only as protected as your weakest contractual link. Key takeaways for founders: 🔹 Mirror Your Risk Clauses - If you're giving downstream partners regulatory exit clauses, ensure you have identical protection upstream 🔹 Legislative Force Majeure - In sectors like gaming, telecom, or fintech, standard force majeure isn't enough. You need specific regulatory change provisions 🔹 Don't Bank on Goodwill - Dream11 got lucky with BCCI's understanding. Most contracts won't be this forgiving 🔹 Risk Cascade Analysis - Map how regulatory risks flow through your entire contract chain. One weak link can sink the ship The Dream11-BCCI situation shows institutional maturity in handling unforeseen regulatory challenges. But as founders, we can't rely on such understanding. Build your contracts assuming the worst-case scenario - because sometimes it happens. #Startups #Contracts #RiskManagement #IPL #Entrepreneurship #LessonsLearned Kalaari Capital Dream11

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Shivakumar Ganesan, Co-founder & CEO of Exotel, joins The Neon Show. A 14-year journey from bootstrap to scale, Exotel’s story is one of India’s most remarkable SaaS journeys. We discuss: 1. How Exotel grew for 8 years post-seed round without external funding 2. What happened when COVID slashed revenues from $10M to $5M. 3. The bold strategic moves: 3 funding rounds & 2 acquisitions that followed. 4. The tough transition of customer base from SMBs to enterprises. 5. Building a ₹2500 crore+ business without leaving India. 6. Why Shivku chose to stay focused on India despite advice to go global first. 7. How automation could cut contact center jobs by 80%. 8. The challenge of building voice AI across 30+ Indian languages. And much more on timing, reading the market, and creating moats in overlooked opportunities. The episode drops today on The Neon Show.

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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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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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🚀 Exciting times ahead for Venture Capital in India! 🇮🇳 The latest CRISIL Limited-Oister Global report on India's #PE and #VC industry reveals a thriving ecosystem poised for explosive growth. By providing data-driven insights, they're helping separate signal from noise in this dynamic industry. Here's why LPs should take notice: India's #startup revolution is in full swing, with over 151,000 recognized startups as of October 2024. This vibrant ecosystem is driving innovation across sectors. Despite global headwinds, India's GDP is projected to grow at a robust 6.6% in fiscal 2025, making it the fastest-growing major economy in the world. Alternative Investment Funds aka #AIFs have become integral to Indian private markets, with commitments surpassing Rs 12 trillion in September 2024. Equity AIF benchmarks have consistently generated alpha vs public markets, with growth and late-stage funds outperforming the BSE 200 TRI by 5.97% as of March 2024. Looking ahead to 2030, investing in Indian VC now offers: ~Early access to future market leaders ~Exposure to India's digital transformation ~Potential for outsized returns as the ecosystem matures ~Great entry valuations given the corrections in our space Shoutout to all my fellow VCs for the incredible resilience we've shown as we've built our identities while navigating what I believe is one of the toughest investing environments. We face constant regulatory changes (thanks to #SEBI and #RBI) and unique preferences from our limited partners and entrepreneurs, who aren't always accommodating. Yet, we "Thrive as a Pack!"    It almost makes me want to sing an old school song—"Knocked Down" by Chumbawamba and Prettyboi Floydd. #VentureCapital #IndianStartups #AlternativeInvestments

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Everyone talks infra in fintech, infra in healthcare... But who’s building infra for brands? Dixon Technologies India Limited is. 85% rev from just assembling phones — no brand, just backend. Exporting 10–12M phones in FY26. 62M by FY27. From OEM to ODM — ₹1,500Cr laptops, 48% fridge OEM share. ₹9K Cr capex → ₹16K Cr FCF. Only 4% EBITDA, but fat 44% RoCE. Brands burn margins on CAC, Dixon quietly builds them back :) https://lnkd.in/gryMU9_f

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𝗦𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗯𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 $𝟯𝟬 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗖 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱! • Snabbit is planning to raise $30 million at a valuation of $172 million in the Series C round led by Bertelsmann India Investments along with Lightspeed Venture Partners, Elevation Capital and Nexus Venture Partners . • Recently, Snabbit raised $19 million at an $80 million valuation in the Series B round and achieved 92 crores in revenue as of October 2025 which 48000x revenue growth. • Snabbit connects households with trained professionals for services like cleaning, dishwashing and laundry in 10 minutes and is competing directly with Pronto, Urban Company. • These companies operate on a quick commerce model just like Zepto, Blinkit, Instamart and the raised funds will be utilized for training professionals and working capital. 𝗧𝗼 𝗕𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲𝗱... Entrackr Inc42 Media The Economic Times The Times Of India Indian Startup News Aayush Agarwal Flipkart Amazon #Snabbit #Pronto #QuickCommerce #Zepto #Blinkit #Flipkart

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