Rashmi Guptey
1st February 2022
Harish Talreja
25th January 2022
Sid Talwar
31st December 2021
Ankit Moorjani
30th June 2021
20th January 2024
Sandeep Murthy
17th March 2022
1st January 2020
20th November 2017
7th June 2022
15th May 2022
17th February 2022
28th November 2023
Prashant Mehta
2nd February 2022
22nd September 2021
30th August 2021
15th March 2022
21st January 2022
14th January 2022
5th November 2024
Monish Pathare
28th October 2024
4th October 2024
5th August 2024
20th October 2021
25th April 2021
Akshat Jain
12th February 2021
31st May 2020
Tanya Rohatgi
19th August 2024
20th June 2024
Siddhant Ahuja
25th April 2022
14th February 2022
2nd June 2018
5th June 2024
15th February 2024
9th February 2024
26th May 2022
1st February 2024
20th November 2020
Shivani Daiya
20th February 2020
17th August 2014
17th October 2024
18th July 2019
17th September 2021
15th September 2021
Maansi Vohra
28th January 2021
Atharva Purandare
10th January 2021
Tanvi Ghate
23rd January 2024
Ahan Rajgor
12th May 2022
8th March 2022
22nd February 2022
22nd August 2024
29th July 2024
5th June 2022
5th May 2022
16th April 2021
15th November 2014
25th October 2021
8th March 2020
7th August 2018
27th December 2016
17th February 2021
29th September 2020
24th September 2020
26th July 2020
20th January 2020
15th October 2018
26th June 2018
13th June 2017
21st May 2024
13th February 2024
15th July 2024
10th April 2024
20th February 2024
Read Sandeep's note on the quarter that was...
Welcome to the promised land- we have finally entered 2021. The first quarter of the year was promising – India entered the new year with rapidly declining COVID cases and a vaccine rollout for the elderly. There was a sense of normalcy returning. However, as March rolled around, things regressed as the COVID outbreak took a turn for the worse. India’s complacency and lack of preparedness has left the country struggling for essential resources. When we started the LB Cares initiative last year, we looked at it from both a short term and long term impact perspective to find holistic ways of charitable contributions via fundraising campaigns to reach rural women, farmers, delivery partners, migrant workers through various portfolios. This year, there seems to be a different need of the hour and we have reactivated our efforts to meet COVID related needs for people who are directly affected by it - oxygen cylinders, medicine for covid patients, mental health services to ones who need it and feminine hygiene kits to frontline female workers.
Despite the worrying macro conditions, this quarter was full of small, joyful wins for us at Lightbox. We were finally able to open our office for a few weeks in February and see each other in-person, albeit momentarily.
February also marked the official announcement of our investment in Innerhour, the latest addition to our portfolio family. You can read more about our investment thesis here.
VC deal activity in India picked up significantly, both in terms of companies raising funds and capital deployed. Overall, PE and VC funding in India increased around 85% from $6.54BN in Q1 2020 to $11.85BN in Q1 2021 led by investments in Zomato, Byju’s, and Dream11. 2021 has already seen the birth of 10 unicorns in India. 6 of these came in one single week- between April 5 and April 9, they raised $1.55BN to enter the unicorn club, in what has been a record-setting week of funding.
This quarter also saw one of the largest exits by a gaming company: a domestic IPO by Nazara Technologies. The $77MM IPO was oversubscribed a whooping 175 times, giving the company a market cap of $700MM. This highlights the rapidly changing perceptions of startups in India, as similar startups would have previously had to look to foreign markets to go public. After Nazara all eyes are now on Zomato, India’s largest online food aggregator. It recently filed for a $1.1BN IPO, soon to go public on the Indian markets.
Over the past year we have had the opportunity to dig deep into many spaces. We post our analyses regularly on our Twitter handle and in our newsletter (subscribe here). Here’s what we researched this quarter-
Take a walk through any neighborhood in India and there is one sight you simply cannot miss – Kirana stores. These are your quaint little unassuming stores, peppered all across the nation in various shapes and sizes. Kiranas have sustained local neighborhoods for decades, and make up 90% of the overall Food and Grocery Industry. The lockdown disproportionately affected the local Kiranas (13MM+) and SMEs (50MM+)- they had to operate within a truncated window during the early hours of the morning, deal with supply chain disruptions, and get comfortable with customers wanting to order remotely. These Kiranas have functioned in a certain way for generations. Kiranas hold massive potential ($500BN+) waiting to be unlocked and are a uniquely Indian opportunity with no western parallel. Kiranas are primed not to be disrupted but to become tech-enabled. A plethora of startups have realized this opportunity and are working with Kiranas to solve for various day-to-day responsibilities of the Kirana owner, giving rise to a newly coined industry: KiranaTech.
We have been bullish and very confident of the Kirana story playing out in India. Our portfolio companies, Dunzo and WayCool, are contributors to the first wave of KiranaTech startups. Startups solving for making a store’s operations smoother (Enablers) will always have a market in India. As the second wave of startups brings with it a new wave of digitization, we’re keeping our eyes and ears close to the ground, while trying to find answers to differentiation, retention, and monetization. You can find our detailed thesis on this topic here.
Kiranas have built trust and loyalty with their customers. They allow for credit based solely on a relationship that has been established over years of transacting with each other. Convenience and the ability to transact seamlessly are important to maintain this loyalty. Incumbent D2C brands are starting to recognize that. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) products have been largely built on these values – reducing friction for both consumers and merchants to make and receive payments.
BNPL is in its nascent stages with small average transaction values and low frequency, however, this industry has seen some massive acceleration due to COVID and rising e-commerce penetration. India is a country with a huge trust deficit, where cash on delivery remains the most common form of payment. No interest BNPL has the potential to be the preferred ‘pay later’ payment method for e-commerce transactions that are less than Rs.10,000. The faster, frictionless and credit-based payment method gives consumers a sense of trust. Read our detailed thesis on BNPL here.
We are pleased to announce our investment in InnerHour. Holistic, end to end care is central to addressing the mental health challenges. In practice, this translates to building solutions that meet customers on every step of their journey. We call this set of solutions the care continuum.
This is where InnerHour steps in. By developing an omni-channel mental health platform driven by a strong technology backend, the company provides a comprehensive suite of services and products that address the entire set of mental health needs. The critical lever in this business is that they provide care at every touchpoint in a coordinated manner with a technology and data-driven backbone that drives process innovation to deliver better outcomes faster.
After 14 months of remote learning, schools look very different. With the right amount of training for teachers, parents, and students, there is a huge opportunity for innovation, collaboration and transformation in the ed-tech industry. Here is how Flinto took a hybrid approach to provide education to preschool children. Melorra launched 4 customer experience centres in Bangalore and Delhi making the purchase of their everyday jewelry even more seamless. Customers walk in not just to buy jewelry, but also to get informed about global fashion trends. There is a ‘Bliss Bar’ wherein women along with their friends can have fun trying Melorra’s latest jewelry or just go through the recent trends. Read more here.
Aren’t we all a patchwork quilt of past experiences? Bombay Shirt Company partnered with the Corona Quilt Project to create public installations of 12,000 squares of decorated fabric quilted into large artworks. Each of these squares was either contributed by thousands of individuals from across India or made from excess fabric upcycled by Bombay Shirt Company. The result was a series of building sized artworks that helped create a tangible expression of our lived experience through this pandemic and our hope for the future. Watch more here.
In the past few months we have been hosting a bi-weekly chat on Clubhouse, the series titled ‘India ConsumerTech Huddle’ hosts candid conversations with the ecosystem stakeholders - join us for our next one! You can check out our learnings from the last one on AgriTech here.
This quarter we had the pleasure of hosting an event with Hadas Drutman, who heads global omnichannel efforts for Glossier, for all our portfolio companies. We learnt about mission and brand evangelists, scaling retail, and exceptional customer experience. Check out our learnings here. We published our thoughts on the latest asset class (and buzzword) in town- Cryptocurrency. With India producing 6 unicorns in 5 days, we noticed a glaring similarity between Crypto and Unicorns- the need for stability. Read our detailed thoughts on their intersection here.
There’s a lot in store for the coming quarter. Taking the D2C theme forward, we’re also exploring the burgeoning Personal Care space in India. On top of that we’re also looking into the WealthTech space and deep-diving into the fascinating world of NFTs. As COVID takes over the country again, we’re hoping and praying for everyone’s health and well-being. We’re back to working remotely, readjusting to the Zoom life and hope you’re staying safe and healthy.
We’re Calling it Operating Venture (till we think of something better)
Across boardrooms and TT tables, discussions still focus on valuations, fundraising and unicorns. Stop it. It’s time to focus on building real businesses and stop worrying about valuation.
Everybody pivots. If you ask anyone who’s run a business in the past, they’ll tell you they pivot a lot. They pivot based on everything from customer feedback, to external advice, to market conditions. And its a good thing….
Lightbox co-founders Sandeep Murthy and Sid Talwar talk about finding the right partner to ride the entrepreneurial journey with.
This quarter was rather eventful. We grew a lot more comfortable living and working in the midst of a pandemic. COVID provided us with a new lens to look at some sectors. We deep-dove into some of the major trends in the Indian startup ecosystem and consequently met some promising, relevant startups.
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