Startup Street: B2B Startups May Be The Next Big Thing, Says Pai
Team acquisitions, incubator investments, industry trends and more - this week on Startup Street.
This week on Startup Street, Aarin Capital Partner Mohandas Pai outlines the upcoming trends in the Indian startup ecosystem, Reliance Industries Ltd. invests $25 million in an incubator that focuses on technology startups and investment management firm Invesco inks a deal with IIIT Hyderabad. Also, find out what Snap Inc. is doing to stop its competitors from copying its software!
B2B Startups The Next Big Thing?
Business-to-business startups are coming up in a “big way” despite difficulties said Mohandas Pai, partner at seed and early-stage funding firm Aarin Capital and former chief financial officer at Infosys. Pai was speaking at a panel discussion organised by Airbus BizLab.
90 percent of all startups in the Indian ecosystem are business-to-consumer startups, as they are started by people barely out of college who see the challenges faced by the consumers, he said.
The balance 10 percent, about 2,600 companies all across the country, would be B2B and of them I would expect 1000 companies to be high quality companies.Mohandas Pai, Investor and Former Chief Financial Officer at Infosys
Acknowledging the difficulties in selling to businesses, that take a long time to adapt to new technologies, Pai said B2B startups are now seeing an upturn in the funding cycle, as the demand for backend service support within the startup ecosystem is growing.
Mohandas Pai is a co-founder of Aarin Capital, a funding firm which focuses on educational learning and medical technology. The company has invested in the early stages of several startups based in U.S. and India, including Byju’s, CourseMaster and Vyome Biosciences.
Reliance Industries Invests In $25 Million In A Technology Incubator
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries made a $25 million investment in Isreali government backed Jerusalem Innovation Incubator which funds startups in the field of artificial intelligence, internet of things and fintech.
The money will be made available to technology startups in tranches, over a period of eight years, according to the company’s statement.
The Board of Directors has approved to set up and invest in a technology incubator by the name of JII, licensed by Israel Innovation Authority (IIA), Ministry of Economy, Israel, under competitive bidding process.Reliance Industries’ Statement
RIL will hold now 20 percent stake in the Israeli government supported incubator. Other investors include OurCrowd, an Israeli crowdfunding platform, Motorola Solutions and Yissum, a technology company of Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
This will also give RIL an early access to innovation, technologies and products from Israel, which one of the world's largest start-up and technology innovation ecosystem.
Invesco Inks Pact With IIIT Hyderabad
American investment management company Invesco signed a co-innovation memorandum of understanding with International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIIT- H) to drive progress in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The partnership will help students, educators, innovators and startups working in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Predictive Analytics, IIIT-H said in a statement.
"We are pleased to continue investing in the Hyderabad community, and this partnership is a logical next step for us as we continue to grow our predictive analytics and machine learning programs at Invesco," said Donie Lochan, Chief Technology Officer of Invesco.
Snap Hires Swiss Startup’s Team To Protect Its Software Codes
Snap Inc has acquired the team behind a Swiss software protection startup Strong.Codes in a bid to make it harder for competitors to copy its codes.
The technology company hired Laurent Balmelli, co-founder of Strong.Codes, in early 2017 according to a Bloomberg report. The rest of his team has since moved to Snap, resulting in the closure of Strong.Codes.
Facebook has mirrored some of Snapchat's key features such as stories, disappearing photos and filters over the last year. Other social media applications under the Zuckerberg company such as Instagram and WhatsApp also have similar features.