Quarterly Update Q1 2024-25
Dear Reader
After two years of funding winter, the slow down in revenue in our portfolio is slowly easing. We have seen sales velocity increase in our portfolio, which bodes well for the ecosystem. However, series A and beyond and M&A continues to be very challenging. There is hope that this may ease starting early next year.
The GenAI excitement continues in the market with very large investments by the magnificent seven! Amongst various technologies we have seen in the last decade, this has maximum promise. However, for the enterprise use case, there are few things that still require answers — hallucinations, bias, agentic systems, training and inferencing costs, and access to data, to name a few. At Ideaspring, we are focused on infrastructure layer and vertical startups, addressing some of the above issues. Supporting foundation models is too expensive.
Being one of the early funds in India focused on deeptech, we remain very optimistic about this space in India.
Founder Series
Sriram Rajamani, Corporate VP and MD, Microsoft Research India, at Ideaspring Capital's office, in conversation with startups
We had the pleasure of hosting Sriram Rajamani, Corporate Vice President and Managing Director, Microsoft Research India, as part of our Founder Series. He spoke passionately about his 24+ years of Research experience in Microsoft, which began in the US and eventually led to him moving to India and being one of the early members of the Research Lab in India before he became the Lab Director in 2017. His vast experience ranges from working on productivity tools and programming languages to now being at the forefront of the AI revolution. Our startups that were present in the room and online had a lot to takeaway.We look forward to fostering interactions amongst the various stakeholders of the ecosystem by hosting many more such events in the coming months.
Funding Update
We are excited to announce our latest investment in FlyNava Technologies with a commitment of $ 2.5 Mn. FlyNava offers pricing and data solutions for the airline industry. Their pricing product, Jupiter, is a SaaS-based offering that automates the pricing function.
Continuous pricing allows airlines to maximize their revenue and profitability by tailoring ticket prices to market demand. According to a report, airlines using dynamic pricing can increase their revenue by 3% to 8% on average. For an industry with slim profit margins, it translates to substantial financial gains. FlyNava’s solutions will enable the airline industry to maximize revenue and improve customer experience.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects overall traveler numbers to reach 4.0 billion in 2024, exceeding pre-COVID-19 levels. Digitization has played a crucial role in this turnaround. As competition increases and revenue streams get tighter, AI-driven, real-time, continuous pricing is the need of the hour and FlyNava is poised to offer this advantage to the industry,
The FlyNava team is led by Mahesh Shastry
Portfolio Updates
Accelequant
Three patents developed and documented.
Founder and CEO Dr. Krishna Palem delivered a plenary talk in the Indian Institute of Sciences industry conclave in June 2024
Ahammune Biosciences Pvt. Ltd.
Ahammune’s Australian patent got granted
Phase 2 clinical trials CRO partner and protocol closed
Allegra Airways, a product built by Sanofi using Ambee’s data and intelligence, was awarded a silver Lion at Cannes, the premier international festival for creativity and advertisements.
Finalized a large deal with one of North America’s largest weather companies, to supply them with pollen and air quality data.
Launched a new version of the mobile app globally for monitoring pollen, air quality and weather conditions.
B2Brain for trade shows and events now enables vertical tech companies with excellent prep via insights on all the key exhibitors and attendees at any industry trade show.
New intel card design that enables users to understand the insight instantly, and plan their next best action.
With the growing importance of account research and insights for Deal management and Prospecting, B2Brain now identifies and showcases up to 50 unique signals to interpret account insights
Engage, Convertcart's marketing automation product, has achieved a 25% increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR).
Successfully onboarded a renowned premium eyewear brand in the U.S. for their CRO 360 offering.
Amar Shirsat has joined GrowthPal as Cofounder and CTO. With over 30 years of experience in enterprise software and startup experience, Amar has held numerous product and technology leadership positions at companies such as Tenable and Symantec.
GrowthPal released its M&A Copilot v1.0, which is currently available to a select group of customers. This is a completely automated product and does not require human involvement.
Additionally, four transactions are currently in the late stages of closure.
Officially registered as a vendor for one of India's leading solar park operators and is currently in discussions with other major players in the industry. The company has also successfully completed multiple projects in the construction and infrastructure development sectors.
Okulo Aerospace's "System and Method for Energy Management in Electric Mobility" has officially been granted a patent. This technology represents a significant leap forward in the efficiency and sustainability of electric mobility solutions.
ManageArtworks by Karomi Technology Private Limited
The Enterprise Version of the new MAOne offering, is in the final phase ready to launch in the next quarter.
3 new customers signed up for the enterprise offering and 1 customer onboarded for the new SaaS offering.
KCAT ENZYMATIC PRIVATE LIMITED
Kcat Enzymatic Secures Its Second (2nd) Commercial Deal for enzyme technology. This deal finalised in Q4 (23-24) with a leading pharmaceutical company, marking a momentous achievement.
Kcat Enzymatic has filed three new enzyme technology patents, with plans to scale up for commercial production within the next five months.
One of India's largest PSU banks selected Lavelle Network's ScaleAOn SD-WAN for expansion order across 3000 branches.
Another large PSU bank selected Lavelle Network for their SD-WAN project of 2000+ branches.
Airtel-Lavelle partnership crosses 15,000+ branches across India
Engaging in discussions with a top pharmaceutical company to introduce Curapod through their established doctor prescription channel.
Secured a letter of intent from a major US-based pharmaceutical distributor to redistribute Curapod in the US market.
Secured INR 3 Cr funding from Dayananda Pai of Century Group.
CEO Barada was selected to take part in the FICCI and US Chamber of Commerce delegation to Washington DC for Select Summit US.
Launched Smart Cart which is an AI powered cart solution that uplifts cart completion rate & over all store revenue
Continue to expand industry coverage: Mihup successfully signed an large Ecommerce player.
This quarter witnessed multiple leads of major enterprise accounts nurture into the POC stage, positioning us for significant future growth.
Completed pilots with 5 enterprise accounts.
Released a new version with enhanced customer experience and a few more AWS services.
Nakakita Seisakusho, a 95 year-old reputed company in the maritime market makes a strategic investment in Smartship Hub (SSH). Nakakita and SSH are now setting up joint GTM for Japan territory to introduce SSH platform into all Nakakita’s offering for the ships in Japan.
3 of Japan's largest shipping companies have signed up to start their remote vessel management with SSH.
Signed a new Fortune 500 customer for a project on EMC simulation
On-boarded as consultant for Sales and Business Development, India
Expanding its footprint in Genpact with newer accounts.
Won a deal with a $95Bn Global Retail Giant in North America, with significant growth potential.
Naganand Doraswamy
Naganand Doraswamy is the Managing Partner and Founder at Ideaspring Capital, and serves on the board of its portfolio companies.
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