B Capital closes its first healthcare-focused fund worth $500M corpus

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March 2, 2023

Venture capital firm B Capital has raised its first healthcare fund, committing to invest $500 million in healthcare-focused startups in the United States, Asia, and Europe.

The new fund, Healthcare Fund I, will focus on specific sub-sectors like biotech and medtech and take B Capital’s total assets under management (AUM) to $6.3 billion, according to a statement from the venture capital firm. About 20 healthcare-related startups from these regions have received funds from B Capital.

The multi-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Manhattan, New York, has backed over 140 companies worldwide in the consumer, B2B, and fintech sectors. The VC firm has backed over 20 startups in India, including BYJU’S, Meesho, and Pharmeasy, through the early to growth stages.

B Capital announced the closing of Growth Fund III and affiliated funds in January 2023, totaling roughly $2.1 billion in capital commitments.

B Capital, established in 2014 by Raj Ganguly and Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook, has nine locations in the United States and Asia, an integrated team, and a strategic partnership with BCG that enables it to expand into new markets and support entrepreneurs across all growth stages.

“We are witnessing unprecedented innovation across the healthcare landscape,” said Robert Mittendorff, Managing Director, General Partner, and Head of Healthcare at B Capital. Mittendorff will lead the new fund and the firm’s overall healthcare initiatives.

“Technological advancements in biology, AI, and automation are transforming the industry, with business models seeing the convergence of traditional players in novel ways. This moment presents a unique opportunity for B Capital to leverage our dedicated healthcare capital and active investment strategy to find and support companies advancing the healthcare sector,” he added.

Edtech firms PhysicsWallah, Utkarsh Classes form joint venture

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February 27, 2023

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Edtech unicorn Physics Wallah (PW) and e-learning platform Utkarsh Classes have formed a joint venture (JV) to offer students academic training and course offerings in various categories.

According to a statement, the duo plan to leverage each other’s core competencies to provide value-added education for all examinations and jointly enter new exam categories.

“The founding teams (of PW and Utkarsh Classes) have a solid vision of providing result-oriented quality education to every student in the country at an affordable fee,” Alakh Pandey, PhysicsWallah Founder, and CEO, said. “Our collaboration will help us better serve students across India and make their learning experience more enriching.”

This JV announcement comes when edtech companies have shifted their attention to hybrid due to a drop in demand following the gradual reopening of schools and institutions.

Utkarsh Classes, providing offline instruction for over 20 years, will help PW improve its offline operations and develop a robust hybrid learning model.

As part of this collaboration, PW will continue to operate offline centers in 32 cities across India while Utkarsh Classes expands its government test preparation segment.

PhysicsWallah ventured into the offline space with PW Vidyapeeth last year. The edtech unicorn announced that it would increase its reach by opening more Vidyapeeths and scaling up in the categories of all-India competitive exams.

Interview Solution Provider InCruiter forays into the United States

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February 27, 2023

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InCruiter, an interview solution provider, has forayed into the United States. According to an internal study, the company found that this region had a larger demand for its products, particularly Interview-as-a-Service (IaaS), which is 10X more expensive than India. InCruiter intends to take advantage of this growth opportunity as part of this growth to scale its business.

InCruiter has raised Rs 1 crore in revenue-based funding to expand the revenue of its products globally. The company also hopes to expand in Canada, Dubai, Singapore, the Philippines, and Singapore.

It is also hiring a team of experts in the United States and focusing on improving the current product for the market.

Since its launch in 2018, InCruiter has conducted around 50,000 interviews, engaged more than 2,200 interviewers, and will have completed 1.51 million interview mins in 2022.

Speaking on the US expansion, Anil Agarwal, CEO & Co-Founder, InCruiter (IaaS Firm), said, “This expansion is no less than a milestone for us. After working tirelessly to make our dream a reality, it took us less than five years to go global with our product. Following our successful functioning in India, we realized this product has huge potential not only in our nation but also across the globe. Thus, we decided to take it forward.”

He added, “With this expansion, we expect to generate 10X revenue for the organization with a strong focus on our hero product, IaaS. We also plan to take our products to other geographies in the near future. We expect to capture 25% of the global market in the next two years.”

Grayscale Ventures secures first close of its $20M SaaS-focused pre-seed fund

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February 27, 2023

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Singapore-headquartered Grayscale Ventures has secured the first close of its debut fund, raising nearly half of its $20 million target.

Founded by Siddharth Verma and Nikhil Kapur, the 10-year term fund intends to invest in 15-20 startups in the pre-seed stage. It has invested in several startups, including Localwell, a mobile SaaS startup for Indian pharmaceutical retailers, and Olvy, a cloud-based feedback SaaS platform provider.

Before the product-market-fit stage, Grayscale Ventures typically invests in startups that have some version of a product ready. Occasionally, according to Verma, it might even consider companies that remain at the pre-product stage.

There are limited partners in it worldwide, including Japan, the United States, India, and other Southeast Asian countries. Most limited partners (LPs) are operators and founders from companies like Zendesk, Hasura, Slack, GlobalWay, Nexus Venture Partners, and STRIVE.

“In early 2022, we started having conversations with potential LPs. What LPs found interesting was these spaces that are so deep… potentially the next wave of very large companies would come out of these themes,” said Verma.

The duo first met at the venture capital firm STRIVE in Tokyo while helping it deploy its Fund II and Fund III in India and Southeast Asia. Jointly, they invested in 25–28 start-ups in the business-to-business segment.

This was when they decided to set up a fund focusing on the Indian SaaS space. “Over time, we got the confidence that the investments we did at STRIVE are doing well. We invested $18 million-$20 million in the last six years. And now we’re sitting on 7X MOIC (multiple on invested capital) in India and Southeast Asia… that gave us the confidence to start our own fund,” says Verma.

“Our bet is more on the founders and their product-building capabilities, their understanding of the market (they operate in), and their product-led approach. These are a few ingredients we are on the lookout for while speaking with founders,” he added.

Airtel, Paytm payments banks in early talks for merger

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February 25, 2023

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Sunil Mittal, the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, is in early talks to merge Airtel Payments Bank into Paytm Payments Bank in a stock deal.

Mittal is looking to acquire a stake in Paytm as part of the agreement, including by buying shares of the fintech company from other stockholders, Bloomberg reported Friday evening, citing unnamed sources.

According to the report, Airtel and Paytm may not reach a deal as the talks are in the early stages.

Shares of One97 Communications Ltd, Paytm’s parent company, ended Friday up 2.55% on BSE at Rs 622.00 apiece, while the benchmark Sensex index shed nearly 142 points to close at 59,463.93.

Airtel Payments Bank had 129 million customers and had turned profitable in the financial year 2021-22.

DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations collaborates with Studio Trika to create breath-taking experiences in the sky

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February 24, 2023

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DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations, an end-to-end data solution provider, announced it partnered with Studio Trika.

By integrating the cutting-edge technology of drones and the creativity of art, the collaboration between DroneAcharya and Studio Trika can potentially establish a new entertainment genre. The partnership aims to offer distinctive experiences to its customers by utilising Studio Trika’s artistic capabilities and DroneAcharya’s drone technology expertise.

In 2009, Chandrakanth Rajapure and Vineet Sabharwal founded Studio Trika, a collaborative environment that fuses art and technology to produce immersive experiences like drone light shows. They illuminate iconic Indian cultural monuments using cutting-edge technology and ongoing innovation, reaching millions of viewers in real-time and introducing leading brands to new media concepts.

Lemon Tree Hotels signs a new hotel in Bhopal

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February 24, 2023

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Lemon Tree Hotels has announced its latest signing – Lemon Tree Hotel, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Carnation Hotels Private Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary and the management arm of Lemon Tree Hotels Limited will manage the property’s operations after it becomes operational in December 2023.

This property will have 47 elegantly designed rooms, a restaurant, a banquet, a gym, and other public areas. While the railway station is only 6 km away, the Bhopal Airport is around 17 km away. All of India’s major cities are reachable by the property via public and private transport.

Bhopal is known as the “city of lakes” since it has several water bodies. The lakes serve as both recreational and drinking water sources. A fort from the 1700s and various palaces may be found around the lakes. The largest mosque in India, the 19th-century Taj-ul-Masjid, is one of the many mosques in Bhopal. Every year, the mosque hosts a three-day religious pilgrimage that attracts Muslims from all around India. The Fatehgarh Fort, Lakshmi Narayan Temple, Bharat Bhawan, a multipurpose arts centre, the Museum of Man, an outdoor exhibit of replicas of various Indian tribal dwellings, and Van Vihar National Park, a zoological park, are some of the other tourist attractions in and around Bhopal.

Speaking on occasion, Mahesh Aiyer, CEO of Carnation Hotels Private Limited, commented, “We are happy to announce our expansion in Madhya Pradesh with our valued partner, Hotel Rajtilak Pvt. Ltd. We already have 2 operational hotels in the state, in Indore and Bandhavgarh and another 3 upcoming in Kanha, Jabalpur and, now, Bhopal. We have found that Madhya Pradesh has immense tourism and business potential and are looking at adding more hotels and resorts in the state to our existing portfolio. Though we are just in February, this is already the fifth hotel signed by the company this CY. We signed 19 hotels in the previous CY, and we are looking to top that number in CY23 through our asset-light expansion strategy,” he further added.

SAP Labs India lays off over 300 employees

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February 24, 2023

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According to The Economic Times, SAP Labs, the research and development business unit of German technology firm SAP, has laid off around 300 employees in India.

These layoffs mainly affected the offices in Bengaluru and Gurugram. According to the report, this occurred due to the closing of a global delivery centre that housed roles of custom development for SAP implementation projects.

Those affected received severance packages that included salaries based on the years they had served for the company.

SAP Labs India has offices in Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai, besides Bengaluru and Gurugram.

In January, Kulmeet Bawa, Managing Director and President of India subcontinent for SAP, told The Economic Times that India’s contribution to SAP’s cloud revenues in the Asia Pacific and Japan region had doubled in the last two years and that it remained the top market in the region for the German technology company.

IHCL expands its presence in the Mumbai metropolitan region, signs another Vivanta in Thane

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February 23, 2023

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Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) has signed a Vivanta branded hotel in Thane in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. By 2025, the brownfield project is expected to be completed.

Suma Venkatesh, executive vice-president of Real Estate & Development, IHCL, said, “Thane is a leading business and industrial hub for the state of Maharashtra being a part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. This signing is in line with IHCL’s focus on expanding its presence in key emerging markets of India. We are happy to partner with B.K. Holidays and Resorts Private Limited.”

The 122-key hotel is well-located in Shilphata, a comfortable drive from the Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) and the upcoming Navi Mumbai airport. It is part of a 14-acre mixed-use development that includes various recreational options. The hotel will have Mynt, a renowned all-day diner, a bar, a swimming pool, and a fitness centre. Additionally, it will include cutting-edge banqueting space, including a 400 sq m hall and conference rooms.

Babaji Balaram Patil, promoter, B.K. Holidays and Resorts Private Limited said, “Thane is now an important city, and the stylish Vivanta brand is the perfect fit for it.”

With the addition of this hotel, IHCL will have 31 hotels across Taj, Vivanta, SeleQtions, and Ginger brands in Maharashtra, including ten under development.

Foodics teams up with virtual drive-through startup n.go

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February 23, 2023

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Cloud-based foodtech and payments startup Foodics has signed a strategic agreement with Riyadh-based virtual drive-through startup n.go.

Customers can order from food and beverage brands and pay through the n.go app. When a certain customer’s car enters the pickup zone, the merchant is notified, and the customer can then pick up their orders without stepping out of their car.

With this partnership, Foodics’ customers can use the n.go app, which will offer new sales channels for curbside pickup and virtual drive-throughs, helping restaurants and cafes increase their revenues.

N.go will facilitate restaurants and cafes to learn about customer preferences to provide better services and increase customer loyalty through insights and analytics.

“Through this integration, Foodics’ clients will be able to serve existing customers, as well as acquire new ones who prefer in-restaurant or curbside pickups,” said Ahmad Al Zaini, Co-founder and CEO of Foodics.

The n.go platform, founded in 2021, enables restaurants to reduce operational work and eliminate manual work and its associated errors.

“This collaboration will extend n.go to extend its footprint and reach new customers and restaurants,” said Mazen Ghalib Al-Abdullah, Founder and CEO of n.go.

Foodics was founded in 2014 and has since handled more than six billion orders and raised $170 million in a Series C round last year. N.go operates in 28 cities around Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It is raising funds and has completed a $1.8 million (SAR 7 million) investment round to expand in the UAE and beyond.

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