Devang speaks extensively about the early stage ecosystem in this Series of Masterclass videos. He talks about his investing experience, how funding decisions are made, and on a lot of related topics.
To find out more, visit the Speakin Network channel on Youtube.
The five-week program will be focusing on key aspects in the growth of startups
Bengaluru-based venture capital fund Chiratae Ventures on Wednesday announced the names of the startups selected in the seventh edition of its Innovators Program. The program witnessed participation from over 500 homegrown startups for their five-week foundational initiative which seeks to empower seed and early-stage founders.
The selected startups represent a wide range of industries, including consumer tech, software, healthtech, deeptech, and fintech. The first 19 startups selected through the program are AyuRythm, Inspektlabs, Quollab, Euphotic Labs Pvt Ltd (Nosh), Chainflux, VogueMe Technologies Pvt Ltd (Toch.ai), Code Test Pvt Ltd (CodeTest), PhySarum, Vyorius Drones LLP (Vyorius), Zealth, Heyy.life, Ai Health Highway India Pvt Ltd (AiSteth), Rightbot Private Limited, Retail Pulse, Mowito, Whrrl, Escrowpay, Insurance Samadhan, and Ark Neo Finance.
“Our Innovators Program is rooted in our commitment towards strengthening our homegrown startup ecosystem. We are happy to have received a large number of applications this year. It is truly inspiring to witness the grit and determination of founders who are working towards scaling innovative solutions that aim to shift paradigms and create real value,” remarked Chiratae Ventures founder and chairman Sudhir Sethi, while commenting on the announcement.
The five-week program is focused on key aspects in the growth of startups including market analysis, team building and culture, technology, product, market entry and expansion, and fundraising. The program also hosts tech experts and industry evangelists to create a high-level learning and knowledge-sharing experience for all participants. Through the program, the selected startups also gain access to both local and global markets via the company’s corporate collaboration partners.
Find out more at entrepreneur.com.
The term Ayushman, with its roots in Sanskrit, is synonymous with longevity. Applied to various contexts, longevity is a state everyone aspires for – be it in personal life or in the context of an organisation. Businesses operate on a ‘going concern’ basis, a premise that presumes functioning of the business without the threat of closure or failure for the foreseeable future. Over the last few decades, the increasing advent of disruptive forces enabled by rapid innovation, fast-reducing barriers to entry across multiple industry verticals, rise of the digital economy, easier access to capital, free markets among others have resulted in numerous survival headaches for established companies. Early stage companies face even more trying circumstances, on a regular basis, to sustain and survive in brutal competitive environments.
Specifically, in the healthcare industry, tech-enabled businesses are redefining solutions to existing and new problems. The healthcare market in India is expected to grow to nearly US$300 billion by 2020. Specific impact of technology has been witnessed in medical record systems, telemedicine software, connected medical devices and digital therapeutics that enable patients manage chronic conditions at the comfort of their home. There has been a strong focus on Big Data & Analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) and AI in India. According to a NASSCOM report, 37 per cent Indian health-tech startups have built, or are building, IoT-enabled products and over 50 per cent have or are building AI-enabled products. Buoyed by this tremendous business opportunity in a market that is starting to take flight, the health-tech industry has become the cynosure of venture capital in India. With heightened investor interest and increasing transaction values in this decade, there is a strong confidence with the technologies, business models and the market opportunity. The public markets also echo this trend – with successful IPOs of Thyrocare, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Dr Lal PathLabs and Health Care Global (HCG).
Startups that lie between Pre-Series A and Series A rounds of funding often require tremendous knowledge and assistance in multiple areas, in addition to pure money. The founders may be brilliant and innovative; however, they may find themselves with limited experience in growing their business and achieving scale.
Startups will need to create processes that involve both people and business operations that can springboard their scaling efforts. Refining customer acquisition strategies, constantly enhancing engagement models, monitoring feedback and continuous improvement are crucial as startups begin to accelerate. Startups need to carefully assess the market and competition, articulate brand and positioning strategy, undertake changes in their product design and make it ready for scale, develop IP strategy, understanding unit economics, inculcate financial prudence and compliance among other essential aspects core to their business. Often getting access to market opportunities can appear daunting for early stage companies – and a savvy investor can make those connections with potential customers. Further, the startup leadership team can benefit with executive coaching from seasoned professionals who can lend advice on scaling up and sustaining larger organisations. Perfecting their investor pitches and developing readiness for future funding rounds is another key area where skills need to get developed or refined.
The guidance provided by state-of-the-art speed scaling ecosystems and corporate partners often is the difference between dazzling success and abject failure in the early stage ecosystem. Mentoring provides the right levers that, when utilised correctly, can guide people and processes in the direction of rapid growth. The right guidance can mean the difference between capturing market share with consummate ease versus eternal struggle to get POCs and to convert POCs to customers. It can mean the difference between a precise, data-driven pricing policy that perfectly captures customer segments versus leaving money on the table and/or ceding markets to competitors purely on price points.
Startups striving for longevity constantly need to fuel their innovation and growth story with smart capital – capital that catalyses growth both with true value addition. They need to prioritise on securing smart capital that will enable rapid growth through speed scaling. With a good strategy in place, these startups can utilise investments from such value-added investors to rapidly accelerate and become truly Ayushman.
To find out more, visit expresshealthcare.in.
Amidst this global pandemic, the fundamental priority of individuals and societies should be to stay safe and healthy. Not only has this led to a spike in demand for cleaning products such as sanitisers and disinfectants, which protect against contracting COVID-19 from external sources, but also a rise in demand for immunity boosting supplements and medicine, which serve to strengthen the immune system from within. An industry that has benefitted from this surge in demand is that of alternative medicine, contributed particularly by the growth of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic Medicine. In this report, we seek to cast light on the trends in the alternative medicine industry, particularly focussing on TCM and Ayurvedic Medicine. We will examine alternative medicine companies making waves in these times, and explore what the future could possibly look like for this sector
Find out more at yourstory.com.
It was earlier this year, in the early days of the pandemic, that the three-women team behind Raybaby, an IoT (Internet of Things) based baby monitor, realized that their device could be used to track the respiratory rate of covid-19 patients and provide vital data to doctors about treatment and prognosis.
Raybaby, which was launched at the prestigious American tech conference CES in 2017 (and was a finalist in the 2019 CES in the Baby Tech category), was developed as a high-tech baby monitor by three Bengaluru-based engineers: Aardra Kannan Ambili, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) scientist, Ranjana Nair, a computer science engineer specializing in gesture-based technology, and Sanchi Poovaya, a mechanical engineer. The Raybaby is based on advanced radar and motion sensor technology and is different from regular baby monitors (which are usually simple camera devices) in that it is able to capture the baby’s breathing rate and analyse the breathing pattern.
The device is currently being used by doctors at HCG hospital in Bengaluru in the COVID-19 ward. The Raybaby team has developed an app for use by medical professionals that gives them a dashboard to monitor patients under their care using data from the device. “If the breathing rate of a patient goes over a particular threshold, the app sends a notification to the doctor’s phone, alerting them that they need to check on the patient. It significantly reduces the burden on medical teams,” explains Ambili. Since covid-19 is a disease that aggressively attacks the respiratory system, tracking the respiration rate is an important way to monitor the well-being of patients.
Find out more at livemint.com.
Early stage investment firm Anthill Ventures and Bengaluru-based cancer care provider HealthCare Global (HCG), have shortlisted six startups for their healthtech focused accelerator program, Lumos Health.
The selected startups include AI-enabled radiology diagnosis solution Alixir, pulse diagnosis application AyuRythm, equipment trading platform BiMedis, human cell sampling tool C-Test Medicals, wound and tissue analysis system Kronikare, and non-wearable sleep and breathing baby monitor Raybaby.
The 12 month accelerator program was launched in the late 2018, and has since then, recieved over 120 applications from across 10 countries. Lumos Health will help the selected startups to raise investments, assist them in getting regulatory approvals and provide mentoring to increase the startup’s customer base and help in generating more revenue.
Lumos will also take advirsory equity in the selected companies, depending on the startup’s current funding stage and valuation.
Prasad Vanga, founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures said, “We will help these startups to scale into globally markets as some of them will work on real use-cases, and deploy their products in real client engagements through our tailored market access program.”
The program claims to provide market access in India, Africa, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. The focus sub-sectors of the program include oncology, fertility, genomics, bionics, and research & diagnostics, among other emerging sectors.
Anjali Ajaikumar, program director of Lumos Health and vice president of HCG said, “Under the Lumos Program, startups will enhance their product, have impactful interactions with our 30+ partner companies in both the local and global network and see how their company is making a difference in the quality of health and patient care.”
Find out more at inc42.com.
