The role of India’s corporate VC firms

Good morning!

India has one of the world’s fastest-growing startup ecosystems. This rise is in step with the expansion of the country’s capital pool fuelled by corporate venture capital firms.

Though the community of corporate venture capital firms in India is small, the role they play is an important one. At YourStory’s Investor Summit 2021, Square Yards CEO Tanuj Shori said that startups can learn a lot from corporate VC firms as they have decades of experience in running businesses.

Swapna Gupta, Director, Qualcomm Ventures, pointed out that the investments coming out of corporate VC firms are largely driven by new technologies. 

Anup Jain, Managing Partner at Orios Venture Partners, said that because corporate VC firms are in a nascent stage, there is a dearth of information among startups. 

“They need to create that awareness and make their presence felt,” he added.

Check out YourStory’s complete coverage of Investor Summit 2021 here.

The Interview

Building a successful team takes time and effort. While skills can be worked on, team members need to care about their roles in the team. According to Viral Mehta, VP of Engineering at Pocket Aces, team members should care about the product, push to excel themselves, and care about their own craft.

Editor’s Pick: Prime Venture Podcast

April Dunford, Founder of Toronto-based Ambient Strategy, has launched 16 successful products and has previously worked with many companies as the CEO, COO, and VP of Marketing. In her book Obviously Awesome – How to Stand out in Noisy Crowded Markets, she explains the essence of building a product is to find a feature that stands out and then gradually build on that.

Startup Spotlight

Software platform that animates images using deep-tech

With most of us working from home, video calls and conferences have become a part of our daily lives. Innovating with video chat and live streaming, Issay Yoshida founded EmbodyME in 2016. Its software application 'xpression' enables users to animate anyone in an image or video in real-time, according to their facial expressions, voice, and body movements. Read more.

News & Updates

• IT services major Wipro said it will acquire cybersecurity, DevOps, and quality engineering services firm Ampion for $117 million. Earlier, it had announced the acquisition of London-headquartered Capco, a global management and technology consultancy.

• Amazon Technologies Inc has acquired Perpule, a Bengaluru-headquartered retail tech startup, for Rs 107.60 crore. As part of this transaction, Amazon has acquired Perpule's point-of-sale IP asset called Ultra POS.

• Gaming and sports media platform Nazara Technologies debuted on NSE and BSE, with the company's shares listing at 81 percent premium over the issue price. With this listing, investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's stakeholding went up to Rs 656 crore at the listing.

• Edtech unicorn BYJU'S has raised Rs 3,328.23 crore ($460 million approximately) as part of its ongoing Series F funding round led by MC Global Edtech Investment Holdings at a valuation north of $13 billion.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“There is a lot of cross learning with closer synergies between corporate VC firms and startups. What we need today is smart capital rather than just capital.”

— Swapna Gupta, Director, Qualcomm Ventures

Now get the Daily Capsule in your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter today!