What not to miss on final day at TechSparks '23

Hello,

TechSparks 2023 packed a punch on Day 2, with stakeholders from the Indian startup ecosystem weighing in on everything from making money to AI, to electric mobility, and more.

Rajiv Khaitan, Senior Partner at Khaitan & Co, delivered a keynote address on India’s new Data Protection Bill and how it would impact startups. Also, Vinayak Naik, Senior Vice-President of Broadridge India (a fintech), talked about infusing finance with conversational AI.

YourStory further committed to telling stories of startups through the BharatSparks initiative that are doing disruptive innovation beyond India's metro cities and using technology to put India on the world map.

Check out the entire coverage of TechSparks 2023 here.

In other news, hospitality chain OYO has added approximately 2,800 new corporate clients in the first half of 2023—recording a 12% YoY growth. It also recorded a 20% revenue growth from business travel as compared to the January-June-2022 period.

Meanwhile, agritech startup Ergos, which enables farmers to convert their grains into tradeable digital assets, has raised $10 million through a mix of equity and debt led by Abler Nordic. It intends to use the capital to deepen its presence among the farming community and scale its operations.

Talking of money, early-stage investment firm Antler India is approaching the final close of its maiden Rs 600 crore fund for pre-seed investments. It has already committed to 45 India investments in SaaS, fintech, and consumer tech sectors along with ONDC, AI, climate, Web3, SaaS, and spacetech.  

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• What not to miss on the final day of TechSparks '23 
• Umang Bedi on what works for VerSe Innovation
• Inside SIDBI's plans to infuse capital in startups

Here’s your trivia for today: Which English word has the most 'definitions'?

TechSparks

What not to miss on final day TechSparks '23 

The third and final day of TechSparks 2023, India's most influential startup-tech summit, will witness the who's who of India’s startup ecosystem along with esteemed dignitaries from the Government of Karnataka as well as Union IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Conversations:

• Karnataka IT minister Priyank Kharge will talk about the various ways in which the local government is fostering collaboration and enabling growth in the startup and tech ecosystem of the state.
• Nithin Kamath, Founder and CEO of broking major Zerodha, will impart key lessons on building a disruptive unicorn devoid of the trappings of VC funding.
• Vimal Kumar, the driving force behind Juspay that created Namma Yatri, will share the challenges the company faced in its early days to how hitching a ride on the Beckn protocol, an open protocol for decentralised digital commerce, is propelling growth.

TechSparks

Umang Bedi on what works for VerSe Innovation

Umang Bedi, Co-founder of VerSe Innovation, the parent company of news aggregator app DailyHunt and short-video platform Josh, revealed that no one believed the results of a poll it had conducted years ago even though there were 7 million respondents. Cut to today, VerSe Innovation, armed with $1.4 billion in funding, is not only one of the leading content companies in India, but has now forayed into the Gulf too.

"What appeals to investors is the total addressable market (TAM), the differentiation factor, and how the founder is looking to solve A problem," Bedi said at TechSparks 2023.

Scale growth:

• Dailyhunt has been EBITDA-positive at 14% for the last 18 months, and is witnessing strong double-digit growth post that, Bedi shared.
• Josh aims to break even in the next 18 months, he added. The company will also look at an IPO in another four quarters from now.
• In 2018, VerSe Innovation had started preloading its adtech platform on certain mobile handsets. The company lays emphasis on the SMB part of that business, which allows it to drive hyperlocal content and scale growth.

TechSparks

Inside SIDBI's plans to infuse capital in startups

The Small Industries and Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is looking at longer lifecycle funds for Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) supported under The Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) scheme. 

Sivasubramanian Ramann, Chairman and MD at SIDBI, told YourStory that the interest of investors in government supported-AIFs runs high as these pooled in almost 6X the amount the bank had committed.

“We have got 3.5X of what was invested. [In] another six years, we could end up getting back Rs 20,000 crore of the Rs 10,000 crore committed, which we will put back into the startups,” Ramann said. 

Investing back:

• SIDBI's initial investment through its Rs 10,000-crore fund of funds, launched in 2016, will be deployed back into the startup sector to create "perpetual capital". It is a Limited Partner (LP) in 105 AIFs through its fund of funds.
• The regulatory body has also proposed setting up a Rs 5,000-crore FFS. The FFS will invest in early-stage companies, especially in the area of deeptech.
• Ramann also said that SIDBI will bring in large credit guarantee schemes for EV companies. It has even introduced a new credit risk ranking system for MSMEs.

News & updates

• Personal vs work: Meta announced that Facebook users can now create multiple profiles. The company will let you add an @username for up to four additional personal profiles attached to your main account. 
• EV dream: Tesla is reportedly drawing up plans to make and sell battery storage systems in India. The company is said to have submitted a proposal seeking incentives to build a factory. It has also sought a number of incentives to set up its battery storage factory.
• High uncertainty: Japan’s central bank maintained its ultra-loose policy, and left interest rates unchanged on Friday, after being mindful of the “extremely high uncertainties” on the growth outlook domestically and globally. The monetary position marks Japan as a major outlier among central banks which have raised interest rates in recent months. 

Which English word has the most 'definitions'?

Answer: Run. The word "run" is anticipated to have approximately 645 different meanings in the next Oxford English Dictionary, set for a 2037 release.

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