Forbes India - Tech Conversations

As India readies its deep tech startup policy, this is episode two in a short series of conversations with some entrepreneurs and VC investors building this ecosystem. Today, Vishesh Rajaram, founding managing partner at Speciale Invest, discusses why more investors have figured out that deep science and tech-based ventures can be built in India. While the sector is in its infancy, Vishesh points to examples, including from his portfolio, of such startups that have made significant strides towards commercialisation.

As India readies its own deep tech startups policy, we bring you a short series of conversations with some of the entrepreneurs and VC investors who are building this ecosystem in the country. Today, Satya Chakravarthy, head of the national centre for combustion research and development at IIT Madras and co-founder of The ePlane Company, talks about some of the recent milestones at his venture. Chakravarthy also offers some advice on navigating the challenges of building a deep tech company and bursts a couple of myths involved

In this episode, Saurabh Chandra, CEO and Naveen Arulselvan, CTO at Ati Motors in Bengaluru, a company building autonomous mobile robots for industrial applications, discuss two new products they recently launched. Ati’s flagship, the Sherpa, is running around in factories of marquee customers such as TVS Motors, Bosch, Hyundai and Ceat. With $10.85 million in a new round of funding led by True Ventures and with participation from existing investors, Chandra and Arulselvan plan on expanding further into markets, including the US and Japan.

Arun Vinayak, co-founder and CEO at Exponent Energy, talks about the challenges of fast charging—one of the critical factors preventing India’s EV market from growing much faster. Arun describes an “offboard” method for keeping the battery within the right temperature range. Most damage can happen while the battery is being charged by moving the complexity involved to the charging station. As a result, the company promises its batteries can go from zero to 100 percent charge in 15 minutes and still run well for 3,000 cycles.

Manav Garg, founding partner at Together, talks about the VC firm’s plans for its second fund. At $150 million, the new fund’s target is almost twice the size of the first one, which Together raised in 2021. The firm, founded by Garg, who is also the founder and CEO of Eka Software Solutions, Girish Mathrubootham, founder and CEO of Freshworks, and Shubham Gupta, a career venture investor, has achieved the “first close” of the second fund, which Together expects to invest in promising generative AI ventures, in addition to existing focus areas.

Sravanth Aluru, co-founder and CEO of Avataar.ai, talks about how the world of commerce is changing to embrace 3D and augmented reality. Avataar, a nine-year-old company, was co-founded by Gaurav Baid, who is the chief product officer, and Aluru. They have raised some $55 million from investors, including Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management, and built a team of 180 engineers in San Francisco and Bengaluru. Avataar is helping its customers tell the story of their products the same way we see the real world with our eyes.

Notes:

(00:38) Introduction to Tech Conversations and Sravanth Aluru, co-founder and CEO of Avataar.ai

(02:40) A brief background on Avataar.ai

(03:49) How the industry has leapfrogged in 3D tech over the last 18 months or so

(06:01) Comments on Avataar and generative-AI-based “spatial storytelling.”

(08:32) Examples of what Avataar’s customers can do with its solutions today that weren’t possible 12-18 months ago.

(11:33) An inflexion point

(13:18) Thoughts on how Avataar is evolving as a tech company

(19:21) Partnerships

(22:53) In the marketplace example, where Avataar sells into

(26:21) How Avataar is doing as a business

(29:19) Millions of impressions on product display pages

(31:54) Development centres in Silicon Valley and Bengaluru

(34:19) Team and Dan Firth from Ikea

(34:37) Funding

(35:43) India as a market; Current focus is the US and plans in Europe and Asia

(37:09) Plans for the next 12-18 months

More about Sravanth Aluru

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sravanth/

More about Avataar

https://www.avataar.ai/about

For all episodes of Tech Conversations

https://www.forbesindia.com/podcast/forbes-india-daily-tech-conversation/1997/1

In this episode, Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, a staffing specialist in Bengaluru, talks about the current state of recruitment in the IT services industry in India. Kamal talks about the next wave of global capability centres rising in India and why software job seekers should consider these opportunities. He also talks about some 14,000 vacancies in the Indian startup ecosystem that still need to be filled while a funding winter is on, and finally, on whether generative AI is a meaningful opportunity from a staffing company’s perspective.

In this episode, Deepak Vinchhi, co-founder and COO of JuliaHub, an enterprise software company focused on the open-source Julia programming language, talks about the plans at the company after a recent series A1 round of funding from AE Industrial Partners HorizonX, a VC investment platform in collaboration with The Boeing Company. JuliaHub is a commercial venture started by the inventors of Julia, an opensource language. The investment will help JuliaHub become a leader in offering solutions for the Aerospace market around Julia, Vinchhi says.

Notes: 

(00:56) Introduction to Tech Conversations

(02:55) Introduction to Deepak Vinchhi, Co-founder and COO, JuliaHub

(04:03) Julia and the two-language problem.

(06:43) Julia’s opensource history, and more about JuliaHub

(10:19) Julia version 1.9, and funding at JuliaHub

(13:21) Team JuliaHub

(14:47) Major markets for JuliaHub

(15:56) Some customers

(17:28) Impact of JuliaHub’s solutions

(22:35) More about JuliaHub’s products and platform

(27:08) JuliaHub’s business model

(29:32) AWS supported for now – may offer support for other environments in the future

(31:57) System Integration partners

(33:00) Plans over the next 12-18 months

(33:47) No code

(37:50) What got Deepak interested in JuliaHub 

Resources: 

JuliaHub’s website:https://juliahub.com/ 

JuliaHub’s recent funding announcement:https://juliahub.com/company/media/2023/06/13-million-strategic-investment/ 

More about Deepak Vinchhi:https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepakvinchhi 

For more episodes of Tech Conversations:https://www.forbesindia.com/podcast/forbes-india-daily-tech-conversation/1997/1

In this episode, Aneesh Reddy, co-founder and vice chairman at Capillary Technologies in Bengaluru, looks back at his first attempt at cracking the US market and some of the learnings from that experience—10 years ago. He also talks about how Capillary is well on its way to becoming a global leader in the loyalty management solutions space. He expects the company to grow as much as 80 percent this year and hit $100 million in revenue in two years. Aneesh also talks about how acquisitions are helping Capillary’s global expansion and why it’s a great time to buy now.

Notes:

(00:49) Intro to Tech Conversations

(02:09) Intro to Aneesh Reddy, co-founder and vice chairman, Capillary Technologies

(03:13) On the timing of Capillary’s push into the US – the third year in the US for Capillary; A small acquisition in 2021, and more recent developments

(04:16) Recognition as Leader on the Forrester Wave

(07:16) On everything that’s coming together now to launch Capillary into the US and Europe

(10:20) More on the acquisitions and the strategy around them

(16:34) Series D funding, cash flow strategy

(17:59) Growth rates, more on free cash flow

(22:14) More on tech and product plans

(26:55) On bringing in a professional CEO

(30:47) On revisiting IPO plans

(32:33) Priorities over the next 12-18 months

(33:50) Profitability

(35:06) Talent

(38:19) An anecdote on how things have changed for Capillary and Indian SaaS companies

Capillary Technologies’ website:

https://www.capillarytech.com/

You can also read our story on Capillary’s expansion into the US here:

https://www.forbesindia.com/article/take-one-big-story-of-the-day/what-aneesh-reddy-is-getting-right-about-capillary-technologies-push-in-the-us/86489/1

Praval Singh, vice president of marketing and customer experience at Zoho, talks about how the company has achieved strong traction with larger enterprise customers. Over the last three years, Zoho grew its mid-market and enterprise segment at 65 percent CAGR. The segment accounts for 50 percent of its annual recurring revenue in India and a third of its entire business, which has more than 90 million users from over 600,000 businesses. Singh, who started as an entrepreneur and a customer of Zoho himself, talks about how Zoho plans to build on its achievements.