Thursday 7 May 2015

Land of the rising sun shining benevolently on India

Global investors, including early-stage investors, are actively looking to grab a pie of India's growth story because its thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem is seen as one of the most lucrative investment destinations across the world. While US investors have been active in the Indian start-up scene for long, it is now the turn of Japanese investors to commit significant investment and management focus to grab the India opportunity.

According to a recent venture capital (VC) funding report released by CB Insights, India has outpaced China in the number of deals struck by VC funds in the first quarter of 2015. Though, China was still ahead of India in terms of deal value at $2.99 billion, India's funding stood at $1.35 billion. For India, this marks a rise of 225 per cent over the same quarter of the previous year. In this entire funding scene, Japan saw around 28 start-up deals by VCs during the first quarter of 2015.

Making Inroads for Japanese Investors

Gurgaon-based GHV Accelerator is leading the way in enabling Japanese investors to access opportunities in India. GHV Founder & Chief Mentor Vikram Upadhyaya, who has a deep and decade-long connection in Japan, launched the sector agnostic accelerator venture in October 2014. He works regularly with Japanese investors scouting for opportunities here and strives to bridge the gap between the Japanese investors and the Indian start-up ecosystem, making it mutually beneficial for both sides.


Soon GHV announced its partnership with World Innovation Lab (WiL), one of Japan's largest VC funds, to help Indian start-ups not just with growth capital, but also the required resources and connections to go global, particularly in the technology and innovation hotbed like Silicon Valley.
Emphasising on the importance of the partnership with WiL, Upadhyaya says, "WiL is our great partner and a great supporter. Being Japanese, they supported my concept and admired my passion before anyone thought about this concept in India. Well-funded by LPs (Limited Partners) from Japan like Sony, Hitachi, Nissan, JVC & NTT Docomo among others, WiL aims to prepare Indian start-ups for Series A round of funding at a much faster pace and help them grow beyond India – whether it’s Silicon Valley or Japan.”

After China, Japanese investors perceive India to be the new big-bang in the internet and mobile space, and expect more vertical players to emerge in areas like eCommerce, internet and classifieds among others. Expressing his views on the rationale behind partnering GHV, Gen Isayama, Co-founder & CEO, WiL, shares, "India is a large and exciting market that we had to be in, but we waited for the right partner. With GHV Accelerator, there was a match of mission. Our objective is to scale up start-ups, take them global and significantly reduce the time taken from concept to global markets.”


WiL is one such example of intent turning into action. The Tokyo and Palo Alto-based VC fund looks to invest in start-ups with global appeal and disruptive potential, typically investing $5 million to $30 million in early-stage ventures, as well as, growth-stage start-ups through multiple rounds of investments. In addition to the capital, WiL also provides operational expertise and strategic partnerships to accelerate their portfolio companies' global expansion.

To multiply its value proposition, GHV has further collaborated with angel investor and mentors like Google India’s MD Rajan Anandan, Prajakt Raut; and firms like LetsVenture, Nasscom 10,000 Startups, etc. On GHV’s partnership with WiL, Rajat Tandon, Senior Director, NASSCOM 10,000 Startups, says, “Till recently, going global for tech start-ups meant addressing the US markets only. A lot has changed now. Start-ups are slowly recognising the opportunity to be truly global. Partnerships like GHV & WiL will not just help Indian tech start-ups get insights and assistance in tapping the Japanese and the US markets, but open up access to a new pool of investors as well.”



Indo-Japan Investment Corridor

Leading investors or funds echo that Indo-Japan investment corridor is one of the most important corridors for country’s growing economy, but the same remains underserved as far as the investments and interactions in the start-up and venture space is concerned.
Bringing to light the need to address this gap, Rehan Yar Khan, Managing Partner, Orios Venture Partners, says, "The Indo-Japan investment corridor is potentially the most important corridor, as it can be seen historically in automobiles, electronics, and transport & infrastructure space among others. But the same has been extremely under-represented in the new world of consumer internet and software.” Orios’ portfolio companies include names like – Druva, Yumist, PrettySecrets, Ola, Sapience and many others.



Speaking on the same lines, Shailesh Vikram Singh, Executive Director, Seedfund, says, “Though SoftBank, and a few others have been active recently and have forged some venture partnerships in India, the Indo-Japan corridor is still pretty empty. I think it is high time these two great Eastern cultures take a closer look at the current opportunity and build deeper relationships than what has been achieved so far. GHV is laying the foundation of a much-needed bridge here, and we can see the Indo-Japan relationship to move to the next level." The early-stage venture capital fund has invested in companies like Chumbak, CarWale, EduSports, Browntape, Nearify and many others.


Eyeing the Indian Start-up Goldmine

With the current trend of start-up growth expected to continue, India is showcasing great potential to become the second largest start-up system in the world after the US. And Japanese investors, who are labeled as one of the most tech savvy nations in the world, are showing avid interest in India.
When asked about the active participation of Japanese investors in the Indian start-up scenario, Upadhyaya explains that the Japanese have a very small consumer market. Hence, they have always looked at emerging markets like China. And with the high growth of start-ups, Japanese investors find India to be the next logical geographical destination. Indian start-ups must build asset-light models and address pain points pan India, which can be replicated globally.
He adds further, “Over the past few years, I have been in talks with several large investors and companies from Japan, and advising their boards on their India strategy. As the Indian market opportunity emerged clearer, I noticed their intent change to action. While the likes of SoftBank have already made announcements, other Japanese giants are now rapidly making their moves in India.”

The Way Ahead

The interest of Japanese investors in the Indian VC space is on the rise due to factors like growing number of smartphone users, increasing Internet penetration, luring millennial generation, and changing lifestyle of urban middle class, etc. Several Japanese-led firms like Softbank, Tokyo-based Beenos Partners, Singapore-based Rebright Partners and other seed stage investors such as IMJ Investment Partners and M&S Partners are eager to be part of India's growth story.
SoftBank is one of the significant investors in the Indian eCommerce space, with bets in ventures like Housing.com, Ola and Snapdeal among others. Recently, Tokyo and Singapore-based venture capital firm Rebright Partners announced its plans to enter Indian market. Typically seeking investment in early stage ventures, the firm launched a new $20 million fund for Indian start-ups.
Similarly, Japan's Netprice.com Inc, a consumer-internet incubation-cum-investment firm, is also planning to step up its activity in India by investing in a clutch of start-ups in the web and mobile space. There have also been reports that Tokyo-based global start-up incubator-cum-early-stage investor Samurai Incubate is also looking to foray into India, in partnership with domestic incubators.


For More Details - http://www.ghvaccelerator.com/

Source : EntrepreneurIndia. 

Wednesday 6 May 2015

GreenHouse Ventures Accelerator names startup for its accelerator programme

Gurgaon-based GHV Accelerator on Tuesday said it has selected the first startup for its accelerator programme. Launched last month, Gurgaon-based LazyLad is a mobile application that connects customers with nearby and local retailers, who can upload their inventory on the platform, which in turn is organised by the startup. The company works on an asset light model and lets sellers handle own logistics. "Frugality is what impressed me the most in this model," said Vikram Upadhyaya, chief mentor at GHV. "India is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. Unlike the western world, India needs such frugal innovations all across sectors, then only we could think of the Googles/Facebooks emanating out of India."

The company has been launched by three IIT Guwahati graduates—Saurabh Singla, Paresh Goel, and Ajay Sethi. In just a month of operations, it has got 1,700 downloads, 25 orders a day and 80% repeat orders.
It has 70 service providers on its network across six categories including groceries, fruits and vegetables, stationary and flowers. It plans to expand this to 16 categories. "GHV will help us with go-tomarket strategies, product development and industry connects," said Singla, co-founder, LazyLad. Unlike others in India, GHV does not work on a batch system. Instead, the sector agnostic accelerator will house 10 startups at a time through a year-long programme.
Each startup will get seed funding up to $100,000 (about Rs62 lakh) in exchange for equity up to 20%.

For More Details - http://www.ghvaccelerator.com/

Source : EconomicTimes. 

Tuesday 5 May 2015

How to build a scalable business: GHV Accelerator Founder

What is scalability?

Scalability is the capacity of a company or system or a process within an organisation to manage the increase in demand. That is, a business is said to be scalable when it can be expanded enough to accommodate the growing business needs. Scalability helps a business grow as per its full potential. Scalable conditions provide a room for economic growth within a company.
_Investors invest only in businesses that are scalable. Scalability is important criteria for investors in deciding whether to invest in a particular business or not. Better the scalability, higher the economic value of the business and therefore higher the investor interest.
_Outsource non-core tasks: Transfer some specific tasks that can easily be contracted out to another larger company that is focused on that task. Think of the production of some specific components. Can some other company produce it? If yes, would it make your business more scalable? That paves the way for your organization to focus on the core of your business, as also leveraging the cost and operational efficiencies of someone else that is focused on doing what you outsource.


A scalable business model helps you capture the full potential of your concept. It allows you a better chance to be a leading brand in the market. Scalability also allows you to quickly adjust plans to capture additional, unplanned demand. Often when opportunities come up, organisations are not ready for scale and they miss on a chance to move into a different orbit of scale and growth.
For example, consider that you own a drug manufacturing company. In case of an epidemic, there will be more demand for drugs so the company should be able to meet the increased requirements.
Why scalability is critical for businesses?
_Scalable businesses are more attractive to strategic partners. Scalable businesses have a greater chance of attracting strategic investors or partners and a strategic buyer is likely to be interested if the future potential of a venture is higher.
_Scalable businesses attract better talent. People want to join organisations that have the potential for growth. Scalable business models allow businesses to grow, thus making them more attractive for professionals to consider joining.
What can you do to make your business scalable?
_Process orientation: Introduce process as your venture scales up. Make the processes simple and easy to understand so that training and on-boarding time for new employees is lesser.
_Reassess your portfolio of products and services: Evaluate the efforts, management time and investments required to produce a product or a service line against the contribution that particular product or service is making to the overall business. Is it worth it? If not, then assess if that business really needs to stay or can be hived off, or if required, discontinued.
_Automate routine processes: Delegate everything that you can in your business using the “self-service” approach. That means, delegate work to non-human systems that require no human intervention. For example, consider using the online ordering system, improved Web services, automatic updates to the customers etc.
Every start-up business model need not be scalable. But if your concept has a large base of potential customers who can be serviced profitably – you should think of creating the right processes, building the right infrastructure, making the right investments and hiring the right talent to ensure that your business is able to capitalise on the full potential that the concept has.
The author is the Chief Mentor and Accelerator Evangelist at Gurgaon-based GHV Accelerator. He is also the Founding Board Member of the Indian Angel Network Incubator.

For More Details - http://www.ghvaccelerator.com/
Source : e27.co