ah! Ventures profitably exits Entropy Innovations

ah! Ventures today announced that it has profitably exited Entropy Innovations, an engineering innovations company. This exit comes within a year of the former investing an undisclosed amount into the startup.

The team, along with with Mark Mobius, Executive Chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets and AdvantEdge Incubator, had invested in Entropy Innovations in June 2015. The company has bought back the stakes from all its investors. Other details of the exit were undisclosed.

This is the second exit for ah! Ventures in two years. The last exit was from edutech startup Handitouch, from which it exited two years into the investment. ah! Ventures is a full spectrum investment network and platform comprising of over 850 investors, several of whom are renowned angels and early-stage VCs. The team claims to have syndicated close to Rs 100 crore in over 30 investments across various industries and domains.

Founded in 2013, Entropy’s team comprises of IIT and IIM alumni, who have designed and manufactured an automatic motorcycle wash machine – ‘Express Bike Wash’. Apart from B2C consumers, the wash has also been used by industry giants like Royal Enfield, Honda and Hero.

Entropy is now planning to capture the unorganised market, and is introducing a ‘care segment’ that aims to offer its customers fast, easy to access, affordable service. Abhijeet Kumar, Co-founder of ah! Ventures, says that Entropy got the team excited from the very first day. He adds that with every profitable exit, the angel network community pushes towards building a strong hold in the ecosystem.

At a time when funds are drying up and the value of investments are dropping, an exit is a good sign for the entire startup ecosystem. Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO of ah! Ventures, says that the recent months have seen the markets act in different ways. From macro-economic factors to issues closer to home, investors have become a warier bunch.

Harshad adds that exits are not only hard to come by, but that here, the investors also have got a good return and the founders have been able to consolidate their shareholding. Niraj Taksande, Co-founder of Entropy, says,

ah! Ventures provided a very vital launchpad during our early stages. We have sold over 50 machines across South East Asia, India, South America, Africa and India.

He adds that with healthy cash flows, they have consolidated their hold on the company and are open for synergistic partnerships in the growth stages.

“The clarity with which the team understood the niche market instilled in us trust in the startup, and now, this exit clearly makes us appreciate that decision. We wish the Entropy team tremendous success in the future,” says Harshad. The company's innovation team has also seen a rapid growth in its headcount, from being an 8-member team last year to a 40-member team today.  

This year has seen some great exits, with Citrus Pay, Quickheal Technologies, Jabong, Infibeam and Calm.io among them.

There are several factors that ensure a good exit. One of the biggest things is that the acquirer needs to have deep pockets and the company that is getting acquired needs to add some value to the acquirer.

While we still have a long way to go, several experts believe that in the next four years, the startup ecosystem could possibly witness close to 20 different consumer internet and B2B companies exiting and becoming strong candidates for market listing. Shailesh Vickram Singh, Executive Director, Seedfund, says,

"Consumer internet companies, including Flipkart, Paytm, Voonik, Ola and Snapdeal, among several others, are likely to provide exit opportunities to their investors in the next four years."