Steve Cohen, Now A Venture Capitalist, Invests In Trading Start-up.

A venture capital fund seeded by Steve Cohen and his employees at Point72 Asset Management is putting up to $250 million into a new fund managed by the start-up Quantopian.

The start-up is a trading platform that uses crowdsourcing to create new algorithms for investing capital.

The deal, which involves a $2 million investment in the start-up, as well as a promise to trade up to a $250 million of Cohen's Point 72's company assets using its algorithms, is the first major public deal struck by Point72 Ventures.

Point72 Ventures is the private-company investing arm launched by Cohen and members of his team in May.

The company — which is separate from Cohen's personal venture capital company, Cohen Private Ventures — focuses on finding new technologies that cater to the financial-services industry.

"There's a tremendous amount of information in the world right now, and if you're a portfolio manager sitting there every day, trying to process all that, that is a huge challenge," said Matthew Granade, Point 72's head of market intelligence and one of the architects of the Quantopian investment.

"So we're really interested in people that are helping you crunch down the information, synthesize it better, help make you more efficient in absorbing it."

Granade, who is also a board member at Quantopian, told CNBC on Tuesday that Point72 traders would begin using the start-up's trading algorithms in the coming months, as soon as both firms could get the technological "piping set up."

Quantopian already has a roster of prominent early investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Partners, and Spark Capital. Founded about five years ago, it has attracted more than 85,000 members, a developer base that includes nuclear-lab researchers, data-company workers, and even some precocious teenagers.

The designers of algorithms who use its platform, referred to by Quantopian as "authors," receive royalties from the use of their models if they're successful at generating returns. But the fact that a money manager the likes of Cohen is putting money into the platform is regarded by Quantopian officials as a key new vote of support.

"Even just the beginning of the conversation was incredibly validating to us," Quantopian John Fawcett said in an interview Tuesday, "that we were on to something and focusing on a problem in the industry."

The problem, as he described it? "Finding talent."

Disclaimer: - Following article come from CNBC

Soon You Won't Have To Be Rich To Back A Startup.

New crowdfunding rules taking effect Monday will let anyone—not just the wealthy— invest in startups. But don't bet on the "99 percent" finding the next Uber overnight. 

The change overrides a longstanding Securities and Exchange Commission requirement that investors backing private companies be "accredited," meaning they make at least $200,000 a year and have a net worth of $1 million or more (excluding their home).

Now startups raising money through online crowdfunding portals will be able to sell shares to people regardless of their wealth or income so long as the founders have submitted annual financial reports to the SEC. In exchange, companies can raise up to $1 million. 

The rules, implemented as part of Title III of the JOBS Act, were four years in the making and the result of industry lobbying to make the process more democratic. The big question is how much the change will transform crowdfunding, which has typically rewarded backers with T-shirts, events tickets and early iterations of gadgets.

While some startups are keen to sell shares to small investors, others are hanging back because they find the rules too onerous and the fundraising limit too low. Meanwhile, Kickstarter, the biggest and best-known crowdfunding site, has no plans to join the party.

It's early days but non-tech entrepreneurs who have trouble attracting venture capital are considered the most likely to take advantage of the option. People like Tom Lix, who's keen to raise $1 million on the Wefunder portal so he can expand his Cleveland liquor startup.

"I would love for my customers to be my shareholders," says Lix, whose Cleveland Whiskey LLC says it can age whiskey in 24 hours.  "I couldn't ask for better fans."

The Successful Person Makes A Habit Of Doing.

Richard Swart, a founding board member of the Crowdfunding Professional Association, says the new fundraising rules could especially appeal to companies outside venture-capital rich California and New York. He says entrepreneurs in theater, food production and energy have expressed the most interest so far, along with minority-led businesses.

"We're hoping crowdfunding can start to equalize the distribution of funding," says Swart, who also serves as chief strategy officer at NextGen Crowdfunding LLC,  a year-old startup that provides information about funding portals, individual companies and crowdfunding regulations.
Still, he and others acknowledge that new funding option could have limited appeal. Jim Fulton, an attorney at Cooley LLP who specializes in corporate and securities law for emerging companies, says many companies, especially in tech, consider the $1 million limit too low and the costs to register and submit annual results too high. He says fewer than a dozen clients have asked about the option. Another potential turnoff: a requirement that companies communicate with investors as individuals rather than as a group.

"If you're not going to raise $5 million," Fulton says, "I don't know why you'd subject yourself to this burden."

The costs vary depending on a company's complexity and how much it wants to raise. Cleveland Whiskey expects to pay between $40,000 and $50,000 to raise $1 million while Anikona Farm, which operates a coffee plantation in Hawaii, expects to pay between $1,000 and $20,000 to raise roughly $100,000, according to owners at each company.

As of Thursday, five crowdfunding portals had been approved: Wefunder Portal LLC, SI Portal LLC. dba Seedinvest.com, CFS LLC. dba CrowdFundingSTAR.com, NextSeed US LLC. and StartEngine Capital LLC. Three dozen more are awaiting approval.

A spokesman for Kickstarter said the company has no intention of adding equity investing to its platform. But rival crowdfunding portal Indiegogo does.

"It was the original goal of the founders when we launched in 2008 and it still is," says Indiegogo Chief Executive David Mandelbrot, adding the company is working out details with attorneys now and expects to launch something later this year. "Limiting venture financing to accredited investors and treating people differently according to their wealth feels very undemocratic. It's sad it's taken this long to change that, but at least these are steps in the right direction."

Disclaimer: Following article come from Bloomberg

Startup with $10 million in funding shuts down: “From first bite to the bittersweet finale”

An on-demand private chef startup that had secured more than $10 million in funding has shut down and issued a dire warning for other tech companies operating in the food space.

Silicon Valley-based Kitchit offered a platform where chefs could visit users’ homes and cook for them, and has served 100,000 meals since its launch in 2011.

The startup raised over $US8 million in total, including a funding round it closed in December 2014.

But due to an increasingly cut-throat market and a lack of investor interest, Kitchit has shut down, another in a long line of similar startups calling it quits.

Startup Problems? Contact Us!

In a lengthy and insightful blog post, founders Brendan Marshall and Ian Ferguson detail the startup’s journey from “first bite” to the “bittersweet finale” and the reasons behind its demise.

It begins with the team’s plans to create “the world’s largest – and its first decentralised – restaurant” and their early success with these plans, with 30-40% gross profit margins.

“An accomplishment that was unrivalled by many food companies at scale, to say nothing of food-tech startups,” the founders say.

“We believed that these were the early indicators of the venture-scale business we’d been searching for.”

But it all started to come apart, with the founders saying the company’s funding runway ended just as the industry faced some troubling times.

“We’ve navigated five years and made the most of every dollar raised,” they say.

“Nevertheless, investment runways are finite, and unfortunately ours reached its end at a moment of substantial upheaval in the food-tech world.

“While Kitchit’s business fundamentals have always been strong, our scale has been too limited to outshine the tumult around us.”

It comes as several other startups playing in the food space have been forced to shutter operations, including SpoonRocket in March due to a lack of funds, Competitor Dinner Lab earlier this month and Kitchit rival KitchenSurfing.

The founders’ blog post concluded with an ominous warning for other startups operating in the space.

“So we close our doors with a mix of sadness for our customers, chefs and employees on one hand, and on the other a recognition that our market is simply not ready to sustain a venture-scale business,” the founders say.

Disclaimer: - Following article come from SC

Food Startup Flips Business Model To Cut Down Costs, Maintain Growth.

This is a case sort of belt-tightening across different startups sectors that cut across e-commerce to food-tech companies. Faasos - one of the most highly-funded food startups, which so far retailed only self-branded food from its own kitchens - around 175 odd ones across top 15 cities - is the latest one to flip strategies to keep costs down while maintaining the pace of growth. 

The company flipped its business model last year to enlarge food variety on its menu by tying up home chefs - around 100 on its rolls now.

 

The model had limitations, though. Food from home-chefs can get high-on-demand but home chefs do not have the ability to address the consistent point in order volumes. "We will be using the strength of home-chefs for bulk party orders that we started on with about a month ago," said Revant

Bhate, Head of Marketing at Faasos.

Start Your Business In Kuwait

Faasos which handles around 12,000 orders a day is now hooking on to restaurants and independent caterers to sell their best selling products to customers, in a bid to further expand its menu without bearing the cost of setting up kitchens.

"At the end of the day, it does not matter to the customer where the food is coming from," said Bhate. At present, the Faasos menu has broadly 7 to 8 segments -north Indian, biryani, signature rice, curries, wraps, pizzas, desserts, chai and snacks and all-day breakfast.

Restaurant tie-ups are aimed at getting into other cuisines such as Chinese, salads, pastas, continental and south Indian dishes. The move will help Faasos which recently completed tie-ups with 500 restaurants across metros and tier 1 cities to double up order volumes without investing big on new customer acquisition. "The idea is to move up from 3 orders a month per customer to 6 orders from the same set of customers," said Bhate who hopes to close fiscal year March 2016 with revenues somewhere close to Rs.100 crores which was the set target for the company.

The company founded in 2011 by two friends Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee counts leading venture capital firm Sequoia Capital as its early investor and had last year raised two rounds of funding -$20 million led by Lightbox Ventures and $30 million led by Russian firm ruNet which valued the firm at around $130 million.
Disclaimer: - Following article come from ET

Small investors could be excluded from start-up tax offsets.

Small investors risk being locked out of the digital revolution, thanks to a government proposal to limit access to a 20 per cent tax offset for early-stage, start-up investments, to so-called sophisticated investors.

Restricting the tax incentive to investors with net assets of at least $2.5 million and annual incomes of more than $250,000 would help prevent inexperienced investors from being lured into risky investments.

"Investment in innovation companies is inherently risky. Many investments will lose money, while others have the potential to make large gains,"
The proposal has split the startup community, with some entrepreneurs arguing smart retail investors should have the chance to invest in young companies.

"Not all mum and dad (small) investors meet the sophisticated investor requirement, yet many are very intelligent and capable of understanding the risks," said Clare Hallam, acting general manager of Pollenizer, a company that helps build business incubator programs.

​"For Australia to become a truly innovative nation, we need to commence this education and not exclude mum and dad investors," she said.
Cautious response

Others erred on the side of caution, believing the incentive should be restricted to sophisticated investors.

​Brosa co-founder Ivan Lim said limiting the offset to sophisticated investors would be a "double-edged sword".

"It's good because it ensures that capital is being invested in high-quality companies that have been assessed by sophisticated investors as having a strong chance of success," he said.

"Having said that, there is also an advantage for early-stage startups that need to raise money from friends and family to keep working on their business before they're ready to approach a venture capitalist – in circumstances like this the tax incentive could be helpful."

The 20 per cent tax offset was first flagged as part of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's lauded Innovation Statement in December last year.

But the offset will not be available to all start-ups, with the consultation paper proposing limiting it to "innovation companies" which were incorporated in Australia in the last three years, have assessable income of $200,000 or less in the prior income year, have expenditure of $1 million or less, and is not listed.

Keep Calm and Get Your Startup On

Treasury said in the consultation paper the option of using a "sophisticated investor" test would limit it to people that are "more likely to be able to evaluate offers of securities and other financial products without needing the protection of a disclosure document".
Ineffective tools

Trimantium Capital managing director Phillip Kingston said income and expenditure tests were not effective screening tools to uncover innovative companies.

"Similarly, building a business that will have a material impact on the future of the country will take a long time, so a three-year time limit is too restrictive. Five years would provide a better runway," he said.

"A set of principles that determine the definition of an innovation company make sense. Anything too prescriptive certainly won't incentivise innovation and may have the opposite effect."

Mr Kingston also took aim at the government's proposition of excluding companies in certain industries.

"Some of the exclusions floated in the government's consultation paper are alarming and should be removed.

"Innovation in fintech, B2B and agritech provide some of the greatest opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors to build the future of Australia."

These thoughts were echoed by Unlocked chief executive Matt Berriman who said the consultation paper's suggestions were too restrictive.

"It means investors would only get an incentive for investing in businesses that are really just at concept stage, continuing to over-index incubator and seed investment and widen the already existing problem of series A, B and growth round funding in Australia," he said.

"We're not going to grow another company like Atlassian if you cap the incentives at the levels being indicated."

Disclaimer: Following article come from FinancialReview

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

Technology and Innovation are powerful tools for revolution, in both positive and negative ways. As we commence to face up to the multiple economic, environmental and social challenges of our time. The innovation of online shopping has made it easier to buy goods quickly and often much cheaper. Technology has become a positive effect on the economy because consumers tend to make more informative decisions on products with the use of technology. When people make confident buying decisions, the economy typically does better. 

New kinds of technology increase the productivity and thus lower the cost of production. Consumer spending has increased because of technology, which leads to a healthier economy.

How can the Innovative Ideas bring a positive social change?

Coming up with an innovative idea will require some procedures of creating ideas from brainstorming to mind mapping that can help educate up to useful ideas. During this process one must make sure to keep focused on a goal.

If you have no goal, how will you know when you have reached the finish line and are ready for refinement?

·      Start out with an innovative ideas and see what you can come up with

·      Don’t get stuck on trying to come up with different alternatives of the same idea as you will want to develop ideas further later

While there is no exact trail in creativity techniques from start to finish, creating an idea you are happy with and feel has innovative potential is the key. Believing in your ideas innovative ability which will give the confidence you will need later on during pitch time.

It is easy to come up with new innovative idea but if that is the case, then why didn’t we do it? The trick is to come up with them beforehand. That’s the challenge. Once you discover that exceptional innovative idea, try to avoid crucial mistakes that will stop your idea from ever seeing the light. To truly be innovative, you should take challenging opinions and combine them, which spreads the innovative potential of your idea. Innovative ideas can sometimes be volatile but many hypothetical hurdles will arise and just having an innovative idea is not always enough.

In order to take an innovative idea from the start to market, you need to have the determination to push through failure. As motivating as some ideas may be, that is not always enough for users. Receiving the message out that your new innovative idea is essential would gain more consumer attention, especially in more difficult economic times. Always having a short and clear value proposal with an inevitable feeling of necessity can help gain capital, experience and users.

Do not wait until everything is “perfect” as they may never be and this will only further delay your ideas release. Don’t be intimidated by the observed skill of innovative designs, because you are typically seeing the ultimate repetition that has changed compared to its original idea.

 ACT SMART -  DO NOT REST POINTLESS!

8 Startups Disrupting Multiple Industries From The World's Largest Startup Accelerator.

Startup Insider is a series of articles with the goal of helping aspiring founders and entrepreneurs understand the ins and outs of starting a startup. You can sign up to stay up-to date with this series here.

Startup Insider got to visit Mass-Challenge, which is said to be the world's largest startup accelerator. Each year, Mass-Challenge takes in 128 startups and provides them with resources that allow them to take their startup to the next level. During our visit, we sat down with 8 different startups from this year's batch. These startups were tackling problems in various industries from healthcare and education to art and media to agriculture and food.

MIT PhD Students turned 3D Entrepreneurs 

Matthew Hirsch, Tom Baran and Daniel Leithinger were all Ph.D. students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before they ended up meeting at a bar and discussing their research projects. Then they asked the big question, 'what if we combined all our research projects?'

This is where their startup Lumii was born. Lumii has created the first commercial light field glasses-free 3D display engine. They hope to take 3D displays mainstream by replacing optics with software intelligence.

From Startup Weekend Latin America to Mass-Challenge

The next founders I got to interview were Saul Gonzalez and Luz Ynfante who came all the way from Latin America to join Mass-Challenge with their startup Quiro, which uses video game technology and design to deliver realistic and interactive medical training worldwide.

Saul and his first co-founder Robert Valerio had met through the Startup Weekend program, which they ended up winning. Luz then joined the team as well to provide more support in the medical part of the company. This gave them enough momentum to join Wayra, which is one of the top accelerators in Latin America. After finishing that program, they decided to chase the American dream and apply to Mass-challenge.

Saul emphasized the importance of the mentors they have gained access to by joining Mass-challenge. He shared, "Success is one thing in Latin America and success here is completely different. Mass-Challenge has opened so many doors for us here."

Using Stories of Hope to Help Empower Artists 

Liz Powers had been working with homeless and disabled artists in Boston, running art groups in local women shelters. After noticing how art works in these types of programs were you usually thrown away, she decided that she wanted to help tell the story of these people---this led to the birth of ArtLifting.

Starting out with just four artists, ArtLifting quickly got a lot of traction and press with the artworks of these four artists being sold for thousands of dollars. ArtLifting continues to help artists in these shelter and disability programs showcase their work through their website and exhibitions. Artists receive 55% of each sale.

Powers shared, "The reason why we're able to get so much press is because of our artists' stories. It's just such powerful stories of hope." She gave the example of one of the artists named Frank who was formerly a homeless veteran but was able to overcome these challenges and find himself in art through Artlifting.

Nobody Is Expert At Everything, Ask Questions.

Bringing Data Analytics to the Farming Industry in the US

When you think about the farming industry, you don't really think about disruption and technology, but the rise of big data and Danilo Leao's background in agriculture and business was enough to lead to the start of Bov Control, a data collection and analysis tool that improves performance on meat, milk and genetics production.

Bov Control hopes to utilize data analytics to increase food production and help farmers improve their operations. Bov Control uses technologies like cloud computing and RFIDs to track different factors and data points which are then translated into information that allows these farmers to make better decisions.

While Bov Control initially started out in Brazil, Hannah Raudsepp joined the team this year to help bring Bov Control to the US, which is the second largest commercial herd in the world.

Increasing Access to Oral Healthcare

Hitesh Tolani was goin0g through dental school in Harvard when a lot of his undergrad friends would ask him if they could read their X-rays. He even had friends from Botswana who started asking him for his help. As he started digging deeper into why he had so many friends asking for his help, he realized that first, the increased access to the Internet allowed his friends to send these X-rays to him. But more importantly, telehealth wasn't really being used yet in the dentistry industry.

Hitesh wanted to lead the revolution especially because of the fact that oral healthcare is a growing problem that people don't really care about. He shared, "Oral health care is actually tied to a lot of systemic problems and it's a 250B problem. It's like a silent epidemic."

This revelation led Hitesh to decide to start Virtudent with the help of the Harvard Innovation Lab. Virtudent helps increase access to oral health care through telehealth technologies and pop-up dental clinics

Creating a Support System and Network for Teachers

David Meyers had been in the education sector for the longest time as a teacher, principal, professor and thought leader when he decided to make a slight shift and become a founder and CEO of a startup. The only catch? It's still in the education space.

After seeing the challenges a lot of young teachers face, David decided to create TeachersConnect, which is an online support network that gives new teachers a platform for them to ask urgent questions and get answers from a network of fellow teachers and mentors.

He shared, "A lot of teachers would describe their first year teaching as absolutely overwhelming. A lot of times they also feel isolated and lonely so we want to help them have a support network." TeachersConnect also works with teacher preparation programs, providing these programs with a platform that allows them to continue helping teachers and monitoring their progress.

A B2B Marketplace for Food Waste

MIT has become a startup hub especially for graduate and post-graduate students working on interesting research problems. This was the same case for Ricky Ashenfelter who was finishing his MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management where he was concentrating on the cleantech and food industry.

Ricky would team up with fellow MIT MBA graduate student Emily Malina in starting Spoiler Alert, an app that helps businesses manage surplus food and organic waste.

Ricky shared how being at MIT with a full course load actually helped him build out Spoiler Alert. He shared, "I was able to tailor my coursework to something I was passionate about. I knew quite a bit about the food industry but I've learned so much more about how food is distributed and so when I had the opportunity to make a difference and dig deeper, I decided to take the leap and see what would happen."

Financial Education for the 21st Century 

Rebecca Liebman was a senior at Northeastern University when she decided that she wanted to help other people overcome their fear of finance the way she did with the help of her brother who had worked in finance before he decided to join Rebecca in starting LearnLux, a startup that makes online learning tools to teach personal finance skills.

Rebecca's brother and co-founder Michael Liebman was a bank teller at the age of 15 and is still currently attending Bentley University where he majors in Finance. Rebecca and Michael would always have these conversations about finance and they would eventually start a blog talking about finance, entrepreneurship and other things young people don't usually learn in school--this would be the genesis for the idea behind LearnLux.

Rebecca shared, "The challenge is we're creating the product that we wish we had and unlike anything ever created. We're creating educational pedagogy that people want to use because there are so many deterrents so we have to give you a reason to."

Disclaimer:- Following article come from Huffingtonpost

Leading A Startup With The Strategy & With The Employees.

There is no single reason why employees join a specific startup. Motivations can range from the technology vision and track record of the founders to job titles and commute times. And the promise of an equity payday is always a factor.

But regardless of the initial draw, the reason why these employees stay comes down to one thing: how well they understand, contribute to, and feel a part of advancing the vision/mission of the company. That adds up to some interesting initial challenges for startup CEOs.

Be The Decider

There is no single style of leadership that translates into success for CEOs of early-stage companies. Founders can range from transparent to ultra-secretive in personality. Some create perk-rich environments while some go with spartan surroundings. Management wise, they can be consensus-driven or top-down.

But one of the major predictors of long-term success is how decisions are made and communicated to the company. Not only are these initial decisions critical from a business and technology perspective, they establish a cultural tone at the same time.

Ask any startup employee and he or she will say that they not only want to be involved in these early decisions. More than that, due to their investments in the company—time, reduced salary, quality of life—they feel they deserve to be involved in these decisions.

That poses a conundrum for startup CEOs: Some of the people most valuable to a company in its earliest stages are also the last people you want helping you make business-critical decisions.

What Matter Is That Your Employees Feel Included

Don't Hate, Participate... If You Can Afford To

Simply put, decision making isn’t for everyone on the startup team. There are a number of factors that a CEO has to be mindful of before he or she makes that critical first major decision.

Early employees are often narrowly brilliant in their particular technical domain but are extremely limited in business acumen.

Many startups today have gone virtual, with key employees allowed to work remotely as a recruiting incentive. But even when a startup is mindful of this distance and tries to bring these employees in through video conferencing (and this is a distinct minority of startups we advise), these remote employees are rarely as involved or as knowledgeable as their on-site compatriots.

Startups are always on, always moving. It’s a pace and environment not given to deliberation or self-analysis. Making decisions is like changing a tire on a moving car—maybe it would be better to pull off the road and do it right, but who has the time?

Aim For Inclusion, But Keep Control

Given the above considerations, how does a CEO fulfill her obligations to shareholders while establishing a decision making process that creates a sense of involvement and ownership within the employee base?

This is where things get a little cynical, where we advise our CEOs on how to open the decision process to the entire company while we still maintaining ultimate control in the hands of the management team.

Here’s our four-step formula to participative decision making:

Get as much diverse input as possible. It’s been proven that the more diverse your group—in background, ethnicity, and gender—the better the output. If you’re smart, you’ve already got a diverse team; now is the time to reap the benefits.

Instill ownership across the entire team to motivate employee engagement. Ownership is a trait that startup leaders need to foster and reward, but only if it’s genuine. Even if a CEO is seriously top-down in her/his decision-making, we encourage her/his to find areas of genuine ownership, however narrow, for each employee.

Make critical decisions with a small group of business veterans who’ve been around the block.
Summarize for the entire team what you’ve learned in open forums with all employees. Be sure to communicate back to the company in another open forum—creating the sense that employees been active participants in the process all along.  

Ultimately, if employees feel like their ideas are solicited and considered, and if decisions and their results are announced on a regular basis, employees will feel engaged in their startup rather than excluded from the decision process.

And once they get past the fake-it phase, we encourage our CEOs to hire professional managers who can build strong teams and move participatory decision making from altruistic goal to active reality.

Disclaimer :- Following article come from readwrite

From Smartphones to Smartcars, Here's Ratan Tata's 2015 Startup Shopping List

Local services marketplace UrbanClap announced on Thursday that Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata had invested in the firm. This is just one of the many high profile investments by Tata, who is quickly becoming a familiar face in Indian startups, bringing a certain Midas touch with him.

Based on the inputs provided by startup data tracker Tracxn, of the 23 entities that Tata has invested in overall, four are unicorn startups (that is, valued at over $1 billion). He has made one investment at the seed level, while the rest are late stage investments - most have seen a notable increase in valuations, according to a Livemint feature published earlier this year.

His past investments include wind energy start-up Altaeros Energies, e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal, online jewellery seller Bluestone, online furniture seller Urban Ladder, and healthcare startup Swasth India. In just 2014, he's invested in 14 companies, and many more besides. Here's a look at at Ratan Tata's investments in 2015:

1) CarDekho
Feb 2015
Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed sum in automotive portal CarDekho shortly after it raised $50 million in VC funding. CarDekho.com acquired price comparison website BuyingIQ.com in April, and Times Internet's Zigwheels.com in September this year. HDFC Bank also picked up a minority stake in the company in May.

2) Paytm
March 2015
Ratan Tata's investment in Paytm came a month after Alibaba Group acquired a 25 percent stake in One97 Communications, Paytm's parent firm. Paytm claimed a userbase of 100 million in August, and 75 million monthly transactions in its latest funding round. (Disclosure: Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma's One97 is an investor in Gadgets 360.)

3) Xiaomi
April 2015

Ratan Tata's investment came in after it was valued at over $45 billion in its last round of funding. Xiaomi's Redmi 2 Prime smartphone carries a 'Made in India' label on the back of the box, and is Foxconn facility in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh. The company has sold over 3 million smartphones in India.

4) Kaaryah
June 2015
Kaaryah, an online store for women's formal wear received a seed level funding round from Ratan Tata in June 2015. The startup recently a pre-series A round of funding from Mohandas Pai and The Saha Fund this month.

5) Lybrate
July 2015
Ratan Tata invested in healthcare startup Lybrate in its Series A round with Tiger Global and Nexus Venture Partners. Lybrate provides an online and mobile-based platform that lets patients book an appointment online, ask health related queries from doctors and read health tips given by trusted doctors.

6) Ampere
July 2015
Coimbatore-based Ampere, a manufacturer of electric vehicles, saw an undisclosed sum of funding from Ratan Tata. Founder Hemalatha Annamalai aims make Ampere a Rs. 100-crore company in the next three to four years.

7) Ola Cabs
July 2015
Ratan Tata invested in taxi aggregator Ola two months after it raised $400 million (roughly Rs. 2,645 crores) in its its Series E from DST Global. In November, Ola raised $500 million from Baillie Gifford, Tiger Global, SoftBank Group, making it the most funded startup this year.

8) Infinite Analytics
August 2015
Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount of funding in predictive marketing and analytics firm Infinite Analytics to help scale up its operations. Founded by MIT graduates, the startup is also backed by Tim Berners-Lee.

9) HolaChef
September 2015

Ratan Tata made a personal investment in Mumbai-based food startup Holachef, after it raised a seed round from Kalaari Capital. Holachef is available in Mumbai and Pune, and has apps for Android and iPhone devices.

10) Abra
October 2015
Ratan Tata also invested an undisclosed sum in the the Silicon Valley-based startup, his first investment involving digital or virtual currency. Abra is a digital cash, peer to peer money transfer network that lets consumers deposit and withdraw cash from the Abra app anywhere in the world.


11) LetsVenture
October 2015
LetsVenture, an online deal-making platform saw an investment from Ratan Rata following its Series A investment round from Accel Partners. LetsVenture claims to have funded over 50 startups, with over $17 million (roughly Rs. 114 crores) in investments seen on its platform.

12) Sabse
November 2015
Sabse Technologies Inc is a Wi-Fi first telecom carrier founded by Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia. Ratan Tata's investment size wasn't disclosed. The company offers Wi-Fi only calling plans on its network at $5 a month, and Wi-Fi + Cellular plans for $10 in US and Canada. Phones on the Sabse network only access the mobile network when Wi-Fi connectivity is not available.

13) Crayon Data
November 2015
Crayon Data's flagship product, Maya helps enterprises deliver personalised choices to their consumers using big data. The startup is developing a global consumer taste fabric, which currently maps choices across 15 categories, using complex machine-learning techniques and proprietary cognitive thinking algorithms. The Chennai and Singapore-based big data startup raised an undisclosed sum of funding.

14) UrbanClap
December 2015
Ratan Tata's investment in UrbanClap comes after it closed its Series B round in November. Currently operating in five cities, the startup plans to extend its offering to 25 cities and 100 categories over the next year.

Disclaimer :- Following article come from Gadgets360 

Looking For Startup Success? Find What Works In One Industry, Then Apply It To Another

Over the past several years we've seen the steady growth and popularity of business incubators such as Lightbank and Sandbox Industries and startup accelerators such as Y Combinator and Tech Stars. AngelList currently lists 467 startup accelerators and Forbes recently noted that the U.S. has over 300 business incubators alone.

Why the increase in these business model concepts? The answer is simple. They offer lasting solutions that are often faced by a budding entrepreneur in starting and launching a successful business. They build confidence and provide tools for the entrepreneur to solve real problems faced in the early days of operation and allow real-time access to industry experts that mentor the entrepreneur through many start-up challenges. And as the business grows, the relationships and growth learned in the incubator, increases the chances for critical funding.

Business incubators are often associated with tech start-ups. However, incubators are emerging in many industries such as manufacturing, fashion, culinary, and some all-purpose incubators regardless of industry.

It's Not About Ideas, It's About Making Ideas Happen.

Let's look at the beauty industry as an example. Regardless of the number of years a salon professional has been in the business of making others beautiful, going out on their own can be terrifying, not to mention the risk and exposure from signing long-term retail lease. All of their hard-earned money and precious time will be channeled into this new venture with very little room for error being granted from the landlord, the bank, and their new customers.

A business incubator in this industry provides a solution that will truly disrupt the traditional salon industry, as we know it. With the right space, mentoring and shared learning, a salon studio incubator includes everything needed for a salon professional to launch and operate their own salon. Beauty industry entrepreneurs bring their clientele and professional tools, and within days, they are up and running in no time, ready to focus on growing their business.

By sub-dividing large retail space into smaller, more affordable studios, the incubator business model shares resources across an entire group of professionals and allows them to spread their business wings safely so they can focus on serving their clients and not fret about the details of creating and managing a brick and mortar space. Typical startup costs are minimal and tools such as an arsenal of ready-to-use marketing materials (business cards, menus, postcards, rewards cards, gift cards, etc.), and ongoing business training is provided as the entrepreneur's confidence is nurtured. Training and mentoring is focused on areas such as marketing and retention, break-even analysis; market pricing, tax preparation, selling retail and social media marketing strategies.

Business incubators are an innovative model that is continuing to prove value to the entrepreneurial community and the country's economic engine. Incubators are not a fad, but rather a lasting change in securing sound business sustainability.

Disclaimer :- Following article come from Huffingtonpost

Tech Startup Crowdfunding Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be. (High-growth firms face powerful disincentives to use JOBS Act provisions)

Allowing everyday Americans to invest in today’s high-growth startups—picture grandma and grandpa putting a portion of their retirement savings into the next pre-IPO Facebook —has long been the dream of advocates of so-called equity crowdfunding. This dream was supposed to be enabled by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, which became law in April 2012. Three years later, after substantially more wrangling than anyone anticipated, Title III of that act is finally codified as rules written by the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to those rules, as of May 16, the floodgates of equity crowdfunding will be officially open.

Imagine if all the people who backed the Oculus Rift VR headset—which raised $2.5 million on crowdfunding site Kickstarter in 2012 and was sold to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014—had gotten a piece of the company, instead of just early access to its headsets. ​​

But if you talk to people building startups around equity crowdfunding, you’ll discover an open secret: As a mechanism for funding startups like Oculus, it is basically a nonstarter.

This is apparently deliberate. The SEC, responsible for creating the rules designed to fulfill Congress’s mandate in Title III of the JOBS Act, included rules—known collectively as the 12g rule—that are a powerful disincentive for high-growth startups to use what the SEC calls “regulated crowdfunding.”

Don't Count The  Things You Do, Do The Things That Count


These rules stipulate that any company that takes on more than 500 individual investors or grows to a size greater than $25 million in assets must start filing regular disclosures just like a publicly traded company. It is all the pain of an IPO without the benefits of the IPO

“When you say the SEC was putting in things to make sure equity crowdfunding isn’t used for high-growth startups, it’s these rules that are the killer,” says Kevin Laws, chief operating officer of AngelList, a portal that currently allows only accredited investors—generally those with a net worth of more than $1 million—to link up and invest in early-stage startups.

These​ new​ rules also limit the amount that any individual can invest. If you have less than $100,000 in annual income or net worth, each year you can only put $2,000 or 5% of your net worth or income, whichever is less, into crowdfunded startups.

“Given the disclosures that are required, I doubt a lot of tech companies are going to want to use regulation crowdfunding,” says Erin Glenn, head of Quire, one of the startups that hopes to enable businesses to raise money through regulation crowdfunding. Instead, says Ms. Glenn, she sees small and local businesses—think of coffee shops and hair salons—using equity crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, which is also enabled by Title III, to gather funds that in times past might have come from a community bank.

Some are still determined to bend the SEC rules into a shape that will allow them to be used for tech startups. One such portal is Wefunder. “There’s the intent of Congress versus what the SEC wrote,” says Nicholas Tommarello, founder of Wefunder. Mr. Tommarello is confident he has found a workaround that means all kinds of startups, including tech startups, will be launching on Wefunder soon after the May 16 date on which the SEC rules go into effect.

“One way to get around this is a broker dealer can hold all the securities ‘in street name,’ which counts as one shareholder of record for purposes of the exchange act,” says Mr. Tommarello.

The Only Way To Win Is To Learn Faster Than Anyone Else

If Mr. Tommarello is right, or if subsequent legislation from Congress clarifies or expands crowdfunding, it is possible at some point we’ll still arrive at the original vision of equity crowdfunding, which is giving everyday people access to high-risk, high-reward assets. “Our entire brand is, this is a lottery ticket,” says Mr. Tommarello. “My attitude is, you can go to Vegas or you can put it in a startup.”

The problem with that attitude, says Charles Moldow, a partner at venture-capital firm Foundation Capital, is that “the idea that a nonaccredited or even accredited investor is going to somehow be successful at early-stage venture capital strikes me as challenging.”

The worry, voiced by many, is that the pool of startups using equity crowdfunding will consist mostly of lower-quality companies that couldn’t get funding by other means.

It’s also true that, while it might not be appropriate for most high-growth tech startups, equity crowdfunding will almost certainly be huge for some startups as a type of marketing, and a way to demonstrate market interest to traditional investors. It is similar to how ​companies on​“traditional” crowdfunding sites such as​Kickstarter and Indiegogo​demonstrate interest in their products today.

The next Oculus might not launch on an equity-crowdfunding platform, but it might offer some shares in the company as a way to stoke interest. Given the number of restrictions put on equity crowdfunding, though, it certainly seems as if good old-fashioned crowdfunding—with virtually no screening of companies or their finances—is the most likely place for early-stage companies to find that kind of support.

The current regulations, as written, seem almost draconian in their cautiousness. If you’re worried equity crowdfunding could yield the 21st-century version of penny-stock pump-and-dump schemes, that’s a good thing. But if you think that attitude is patronizing, there is always the chance that the SEC’s rules might someday be judged by Congress to be contrary to the original intent of the JOBS Act. ​ ​

Whatever rules finally get us “Kickstarter but for shares in a company”—and whether that is even a good idea—is years away from being sorted out.

Disclaimer :- Following article come from WSJ

E-Commerce Startup Jet Raises $350 Million, at $1.35 Billion Valuation.

Jet.com Inc. said it had raised $350 million of fresh equity in a new funding round that values the e-commerce startup at $1.35 billion.

Mutual-fund giant Fidelity Investments led the round, joined by previous investors.

Jet said it expects to raise another $150 million “shortly,” bringing this round to $500 million.

In addition, Jet it expects to obtain $125 million in debt financing, including a $50 million increase in a credit line from Silicon Valley Bank and $75 million from venture debt investors. It also plans a smaller amount of “strategic financing.”

Jet founder and Chief Executive Marc Lore declined to name any other new investors in the round, nor the source of the venture debt or details of the strategic financing.

Jet is challenging Amazon.com Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other e-commerce players with an array of household items, electronics, pet supplies and more. It initially planned to sell $50 annual memberships for access to discounted prices, in hopes of attracting more customers to the site, but abandoned that plan in October.

Before the latest financing, Jet had raised about $195 million of equity and debt, said Mr. Lore.

The funding provides a badly needed infusion as the company had been running low on cash.

The Wall Street Journal reported in early November that a recent financial plan showed the company projected it would have $63 million of cash on its balance sheet by the end of October and was forecasting a cash drain of $76 million in November and December. Mr. Lore said Jet now expects to burn less money before the end of the year and to consume about $417 million during 2016.

The membership fee was supposed to help fund Jet’s big marketing budget — which Mr. Lore said on Tuesday should be about $270 million for 2016 — with whatever was left providing the company its profit margin. Instead the company will now charge more for products, hoping to break into the black by 2020 when it reaches much larger scale.

The new business model is more “retail and brand friendly,” said Mr. Lore. Jet doesn’t want to alienate suppliers who don’t want their items to appear on a discount site that might undercut other distributors. At the same time, it needs to advertise low prices to attract customers away from rivals like Amazon.com Inc.

Mr. Lore said customers will be attracted by “smart cart” savings that Jet offers when they add multiple items to their order, for example. He said Jet hopes to save on shipping by getting more items into each box sent to customers. He said the average customer order includes 5.5 items and they are shipping 3.1 per box.

Thus far Jet is struggling to break through with consumers despite a large marketing budget that includes TV commercials and outdoor ads in big cities. For instance, Jet’s mobile app is currently ranked #63 in the Shopping category of Apple’s App Store in the U.S. according to research firm App Annie.

Disclaimer : Following article come from WSJ.D

Some Sources of Start-up Capital

When thinking about funding for your start-up, it is important to understand different types of potential investors. Not every wallet is right for you.

Figuring out who to raise money from and why will save you time and yield better results. Here are some potential investors to consider for your start-up.

1. Friends and family

Often, the first check comes from a family member or a friend. In theory it is a lot easier to close them because they already know you. In practice sometimes this is awkward, and may lead to awkward situations in the future. For example, if a friend gives you $10,000 and the company goes belly up, you may lose this friend. 

Think carefully before taking money from family and friends. It can be awesome or could be bad.

Every situation is different. Another thing is that friends and family members may not clearly understand the risk and how start-ups work. Take the time to educate them, and if they get it and still want in then you are all clear.

2. Angel investors

Angel investors put in between $10,000 to $100,000 (lower is more common), and can participate in priced or debt rounds. Angels can be valuation sensitive. It is important to distinguish between active or professional and occasional angel investors. 

Ask them how many deals they do per year, and look them up on Angel List. If someone only does a few deals a year, only talk to them if they approached you, someone gave you a warm intro or they have relevant experience and background in your space. Otherwise, infrequent investors should not be on your target list. Occasional angels will take longer to close, and will be more flaky.

Active or professional angels do at least six deals per year. Expect to close them within the first three meetings. It is totally fine, and a good idea, to ask them if they are interested at the end of the first meeting.

Before you meet an angel understand what they are interested in. Don’t go after people randomly. It will be a waste of time. Confirm with whoever introduces you that the introduction makes sense. Target well.

3. Angel groups

An angel group, as the name implies, is a pool of investors sharing deal flow. Angel groups can do priced rounds, and if a significant percentage of the angels in a group are interested, they can lead your deal. 

Angel groups meet regularly, and have regular pitch processes. Some do more due diligence than others, but typically several members of the group would be assigned to do the diligence if your initial pitch goes well.  

Your check will typically range from $50,000 to $500,000. These groups are not syndicates, and unlike AngelList syndicates, they don’t have carry fees. Angel groups are also valuation sensitive, and will typically price the rounds lower compared to venture capitalists.

Start-up With Some Advice Is Always Better

4. Angel List syndicates

Angel List syndicates are the most effective way these days to raise money on Angel List. Syndicates are formed by influential angels, and investments range from a few hundred thousand dollar to more than a million. The key thing is to identify investors who have significant syndicates on Angel List and get in front of them.

If you can get such angels excited, he or she will run the syndicate. For example, the angel might put in $50,000, and then another $250,000 will come via a syndicate. The amount raised via syndicates varies, and is not guaranteed.

5. Micro VCs

These investors are either individuals writing $100,000 or more checks or a firm with $10 million to $50 million under management. They are basically angel investors with larger amounts to invest. They will commit to invest or will say no after two or three meetings. They may lead, and be comfortable with either debt or equity.

Micro VC funds will likely take longer, and would not be too far off from a typical VC. Micro VCs in New York City typically invest $250,000 to $500,000 and can price and lead your round.

These investors care about ownership, but to a lesser extent than a typical VC. They are not looking for 20 percent of your company, but more likely 8 to 10 percent and then invest more in the next round (depending on the size of their funds).

Like with angels, you need to decide if a specific micro VC is right for you. Spend time studying their portfolios. Not only do you need to understand each fund, you need to understand each partner. Partners have different experiences and focus areas and different preferences for companies as well. Target specific partners at a specific fund.

6. VCs

Traditional VC firms have funds ranging from $100 million to $500 million. For seed deals, they would do as low as $250,000 to as high as $2 million. Typically, between $500,000 and $1 million is these investors' sweet spot.They really care about percent of ownership, and would likely only do the seed if they think they can do series A as well. That is, they would want to buy up the ownership to be at 15 to 20 percent after a series A round.

Note that some funds may not have the capital because they are in between funds, but they would spend the time with you anyway. It is probably not the best use of your time though.

Figure out who will be the partner on the deal. With larger firms it is not always obvious. Look at how many companies they are involved with and ask them how many companies they typically manage. In a $150 million to $300 million fund, a partner is investing in eight to 12 companies at any given time. Research how many investments the partner has to understand your chances. 

Ask them what their process is like and how to best follow up. Each firm may have a unique process and you need to understand it up front so you can know what to expect. Set up clear next steps and follow ups. Be direct, and ask if they are interested in continuing the conversation. Try to avoid the vague state of maybe.

7. Mega VCs

Mega VCs are firms that have more than $1 billion under management. These include Andreessen, Khosla, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia and Bessemer. Research if the fund has a seed program. If they do, figure out who runs it and what the process is.

It is likely that there is a partner in charge of seeds and the process is compressed compared to raising more capital.

Recognize that VC funds need to deploy large amount of capital per deal to be able to return their massive funds. Rather than spending time trying to get their attention for your seed round, it may make more sense to start building relationships with them for a series A and B round.

Disclaimer : Following article come from Entrepreneur