The steepest Fed rate hike cycle in decades should have killed bitcoin and other risk assets, but a new relationship between the two are forming, Hayes argued in a Tuesday keynote at the ongoing Korea Blockchain Week.
At the end of August, bitcoin confirmed an overbought downturn in its monthly stochastic, a signal that has previously marked market peaks.
The Financial Stability Board and the International Monetary Fund are set to deliver a paper calling for global coordination on crypto policy at this weekend’s G20 summit.
Alternative investment firm (AIF) Anicut Capital has secured an investment of INR 50 Cr from the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for the Anicut Equity Fund. The investment comes through the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS), launched under the Startup India Initiative by the Government of India.
Anicut Equity Fund launched its Grand Anicut Fund III in June 2022 with a target corpus of INR 500 Cr, with an additional INR 250 Cr green shoe option. The investment firm claims to have closed two-third of the fund and has also received a commitment of INR 75 Cr from Self Reliant India Fund (SRI).
Founded in 2016 by Ashvin Chadha and IAS Balamurugan, Anicut Capital offers debt and equity investments. It is currently managing three debt funds, one angel fund and one early growth equity fund with a cumulative AUM of INR 1600 Cr.
Anicut Capital’s portfolio includes startups like Wow! Momo, Bira, Sugar Cosmetics, Earth Rhythm, Wingreens, Blue Tokai, ShareChat, Mcaffeine, Milkymist, XYXX, Curatio Healthcare, Agnikul, and Grip Invest.
Through its third fund it has already invested in 6 startups in consumer and technology sectors. It plans to back 12-14 growth stage (Series A & B) startups across Anicut and non-Anicut portfolio in the next 18-24 months from the Fund III.
Last year, Anicut Capital secured regulatory body SEBI’s approval for INR 1,500 Cr third debt fund named Grand Anicut Fund 4 as well.
This comes at a time when VC, angel and PE investors have announced 52 funds worth nearly $4 Bn this year to support Indian startups at various stages despite the funding gloom embracing 2023 too.
According to Inc42, 38% (or 20 funds) of the total funds announced this year focus solely on early-stage startups. Aeravti Ventures, 3one4 Capital, and Arkam Ventures are among the venture capital (VC) firms that have launched funds specifically targeting early-stage startups this year.
The post Anicut Secures INR 50 Cr From SIDBI’s Fund Of Funds appeared first on Inc42 Media.
Early stage venture capital fund Unicorn India Ventures (UIV) has announced the first close of its INR 1,000 Cr Fund III at INR 225 Cr. The VC firm is looking to close the fund by March 2024.
Unicorn India Ventures plans to back 25 startups focused on global SaaS and digital platforms through this fund. Fund III is looking at newer sectors of climate tech, agritech, spacetech and the semiconductor ecosystem.
Fund III would look at investing a first cheque of around $1 Mn – $2 Mn and would then look to invest in the follow-on round. As a part of its investment thesis, UIV invests only 20% of its investible corpus to create the portfolio and the rest to back the winners of the portfolio.
Started in 2016 by Bhaskar Majumdar and Anil Joshi, Unicorn India Ventures launched Fund II, an INR 300 Cr fund in 2020, with its first fund coming in 2019. With two funds under management, Unicorn India Ventures has an active portfolio of over 35 startups. According to the firm, the internal rate of return (IRR) was more than 60% year over year for its first fund.
Bhaskar Majumdar, managing partner of Unicorn India Ventures, said, “Being the first institutional investors, before making any investment we spend considerable time with the founders to understand their vision, team’s capabilities, growth plans and leadership style. Our focus is to invest in companies that are enablers of India’s digitisation across sectors. We avoid high cash burn businesses like D2C, Consumer Internet and content businesses.”
Unicorn India Ventures has also announced senior hiring for Fund III. Former Aavishkaar Group partner Bikram Mahajan is joining as a partner, while former Edelweiss AVP Kamlesh Ahuja is joining as VP (fund operations).
Anil Joshi, managing partner of Unicorn India Ventures, added, “Our key differentiator is that we are present across India and believe that India’s startup landscape has changed immensely over the past couple of years. With this third fund, our commitment to nurture Indian startups will be unwavering and we will keep scouting for highly innovative companies whose disruptive solutions can address real-life problems of users by leveraging technology.”
Joshi added that more than 60% of the VC firm’s portfolio startups come from emerging regional hubs like Kochi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune and Hyderabad. “Unicorn is perhaps the only fund that has worked tirelessly with the state governments in Kerala, Orissa, and Madhya Pradesh to roll out a startup policy to find high-potential startups from Tier II and III cities,” Joshi added.
Through its first and second fund, Unicorn India Ventures has backed startups such as neobanking unicorn SmartCoin, Open Bank, Sequretek, Pharmarack, Genrobotics, Clootrack, Probus and Gamerji.
The VC firm’s first close of its third fund comes as investors active in India have been stockpiling dry powder to invest in Indian startups. According to data compiled by Inc42, funds worth nearly $4 Bn have been launched or announced in India since the start of 2023.
The post Unicorn India Ventures Announces First Close Of Fund III At INR 225 Cr appeared first on Inc42 Media.
Fintech unicorn BharatPe is in talks with existing investors to raise $100 Mn in a new round of funding.
The fintech giant is also looking to rope in a new investor in the funding round, ET reported, citing sources. BharatPe had last raised a major funding round in 2021 when it raised $370 Mn at a valuation of $2.9 Bn.
However, the publication reported that the fintech giant might have to settle for a $2 Bn valuation at the latest round, given current market conditions.
BharatPe is planning to raise the round amid an ongoing leadership exodus. CBO Nishant Jain, VP of organised trade (mid-sized retailers), Prashant Gagneja, VP of user growth, Ashish Aggarwal, VP of products Anurag Rathor and head of product design Rahul Chauhan have all moved on.
“There have been talks for new capital at BharatPe, but the contours are not finalised yet and valuation will be tricky because of its troubles as well as the broader correction in valuation,” a person aware of the goings-on at BharatPe told ET, adding it is still a couple of months away.
Ever since cofounder and ex-MD Ashneer Grover’s unceremonious exit in 2022, BharatPe has seen a complete reshuffle at the top. Cofounder Bhavik Koladiya also left the fintech last year, leaving only Shashvat Nakrani as the only cofounder to be still at BharatPe.
In January this year, CEO Suhail Sameer also stepped down, which led the fintech to appoint Nalin Negi as CFO and elevate him to interim CEO after Sameer’s departure. Further, former Razorpay senior executive Pankaj Goel joined as CTO and former ICICI Bank executive Kohinoor Biswas joined as head of consumer lending.
Before that, BharatPe got Aparna Kuppuswamy as chief risk officer and Sandeep Indurkar as CBO for banking and other alliances.
The fintech giant set a target of hitting EBITDA profitability by March 2023, leading up to an IPO in the next two years. These plans have been the backbone for BharatPe to raise fresh money and scale up its business operations. However, the fintech posted a net loss of INR 5,610 Cr for FY22, with a revenue of INR 321 Cr.
The new funding round might also be significant given BharatPe’s commitment towards Unity Small Finance Bank, where it is a significant shareholder. The company also completed the acquisition of Trillion Loans earlier this year, another non-banking financial company (NBFC) to shore up its lending operations.
In a recent press statement, the fintech said it has around 200K devices deployed across more than 400 locations in India. It intends to double its network of terminals over the next year with the launch of its new Android-based PoS terminal.
The post Fintech Giant BharatPe In Talks To Raise $100 Mn From Existing Investors appeared first on Inc42 Media.
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Startups – Tech in Asia
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