Mint Startup Diaries

In the latest dispatch of Mint Startup Diaries, we speak with Dev Khare, Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners to decode the impact of Covid-19 on startups. According to Khare, it's almost been akin to ' a tale of two cities' where some startups have thrived, even accelerated, while others now face secular declines. But overall, the net effect has been to accelerate the disruptive role of technology across industries.

Education may be forever changed after the coronavirus. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom. Education has changed dramatically, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. In terms of positive, experts posit that it will see more tutoring, adaptive methods of learning but there are also negatives such as pandemic is exaggerating the socio-economic divide. There has been an equal amount of excitement from investors too. Just last week, homegrown interactive online tutoring platform Vedantu raised $100 million, as part of its Series D round, also doubling its valuation to $600 million.  Backed by Tiger Global, Accel, GGV Capital, and others, Vedantu’s core strength is conducting live tutoring. In this latest dispatch of Mint startup diaries, we speak with not only the co-founder Vamsi Krishna from Vedantu but also one with one of their early backers- Hans Tung, Managing Partner at GGV Capital. Tung ranks high in the 2020 Midas List; his unicorn stable includes Slack, Peloton, shopping app Wish, online marketplace StockX, fintech company Affirm, scooter company Lime, and a host of others from Airbnb to OfferUp. Tune in to the interview to know more.

Education may be forever changed after the coronavirus. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom. Education has changed dramatically, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. In terms of positive, experts posit that it will see more tutoring, adaptive methods of learning but there are also negatives such as pandemic is exaggerating the socio-economic divide. There has been an equal amount of excitement from investors too. Just last week, homegrown interactive online tutoring platform Vedantu raised $100 million, as part of its Series D round, also doubling its valuation to $600 million.  Backed by Tiger Global, Accel, GGV Capital, and others, Vedantu’s core strength is conducting live tutoring. In this latest dispatch of Mint startup diaries, we speak with not only the co-founder Vamsi Krishna from Vedantu but also one with one of their early backers- Hans Tung, Managing Partner at GGV Capital. Tung ranks high in the 2020 Midas List; his unicorn stable includes Slack, Peloton, shopping app Wish, online marketplace StockX, fintech company Affirm, scooter company Lime, and a host of others from Airbnb to OfferUp. Tune in to the interview to know more.

In this latest dispatch of Mint startup diaries, we speak with not only the co-founder Vamsi Krishna from Vedantu but also one with one of their early backers- Hans Tung, Managing Partner at GGV Capital. Tune in to the interview to know more about investing in online education.

In the largest sweep against the Chinese technology companies, India recently banned 59 Chinese apps, including the popular short video platform TikTok.

The unprecedented ban is clearly one of the biggest stories in the startup ecosystem- one which will have a significant impact. Overall, the move is being seen as a positive one with Indian startups being net beneficiaries as it opens up huge opportunities. On the other hand, there is also increasing commentary on whether this marks the beginning of an Indian firewall and that competition should be built on fairgrounds. We decode such dynamics and deep-dive more with Dr Saurabh Shrivastava, Chairman Emeritus TiE Delhi- NCR and Blaise Fernandes, Director, Gateway House. Listen to the interview to know more.

In the largest sweep against the Chinese technology companies, India recently banned 59 Chinese apps, including the popular short video platform TikTok.

The unprecedented ban is clearly one of the biggest stories in the startup ecosystem- one which will have a significant impact. Overall, the move is being seen as a positive one with Indian startups being net beneficiaries as it opens up huge opportunities. On the other hand, there is also increasing commentary on whether this marks the beginning of an Indian firewall and that competition should be built on fairgrounds. We decode such dynamics and deep-dive more with Dr. Saurabh Shrivastava, Chairman Emeritus TiE Delhi- NCR and Blaise Fernandes, Director, Gateway House. Listen to the interview to know more.

In the latest dispatch of Mint startup diaries, Vivekananda Hallekere, co-founder of scooter-rental startup Bounce opens up on starting up, doing a SWOT analysis compared to the same market in China, expansion plans and more. In January, this year, it announced that it has raised $105 million in a Series D funding round led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group and Accel.

In the latest dispatch of Mint Startup Diaries, we visit the offices of digital lending upstart Capital Float to understand more about their
expansion plans and the roadmap ahead. In this podcast, listen to the founders open up about the "financialization of everything". 

Homegrown online real estate rental startup NoBroker attempts to improve the way how millions of Indians lease or buy an apartment — by not paying any brokerage. The company has raised more than $150 million in funding to date. @shrijaagrawal from Mint interviews the founders.

In the latest episode of Startup Diaries, co-founders of Flexiloans make a pitch for their online lending platform and also get to seek advice from an experienced venture capitalist. In a banter between the co-founders of the startup and Vikram Gupta, Managing partner of VC firm IVy Cap Ventures, nuggets of wisdom on building out a fintech company get revealed. In October 2016, the startup raised about $15 Mn (INR100 Cr) from Sanjay Nayar, CEO of KKR India; Vikram Sud, former Head of Operations and Technology at Citibank; Anil Jaggia, Chief Investment Officer at HDFC Bank; and Narayan Seshadri, former MD at KPMG’s advisory business.