SeedToScale | Curated by Accel

Credit cards are one of the most ubiquitous financial products in the world. We all use them everyday, they are part of our lives.But as the world changes and our spending and consumer behaviour changes along with it,  so have our needs with regard to financial products. We now have different financial behaviors and the exciting field of fintech is ready to serve us according to our own preferences.Credit cards are the first logical step in this revolution.Over the last couple of years, several startups in India are trying to disrupt and change the credit card ecosystem in India, and literally all of them are tremendously exciting.One of the foremost among them is Uni, and Nitin Gupta, the CEO is one of the domain’s most knowledgeable.  Which is why I’m delighted to present to you this conversation between Rachit Parekh, Vice President at Accel, and Nitin. It’s a far reaching dialogue on the evolution of Indian fintech, what the future holds, global trends, and challenges the field is facing.The conversation is also insightful in that it makes clear the opportunities that exist in a nascent fintech space like India’s, in which credit cards may be the first step in a boom of new and innovative products the country has never seen. But, and here’s what I think is the more important part of the conversation, Rachit and Nitin also spend time on the regulatory challenges faced by Indian fintech. This is important not just for the fintech and credit card ecosystem, but for anyone who needs to navigate the Indian system.I learnt a lot from the conversation, and I know you will too. And yes, watch this particular space in fintech. There’s going to be a lot of action here in the decade ahead0:00 - 8:00: Intro8:08 - 9:37: Why go after credit card business?11:35 - 13:36: Global trends in the financial services business26:39 - 29:11: Challenges in the Indian financial services industry31:29 - 32:10: Making customer data available  34:39 - 36:44: How to manage regulators?Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

From lipsticks to hair care to bath and body -- there’s little to nothing that the average shopper cannot find that covers all beauty and personal care needs. And what’s more, the shopper can browse through multiple brands within the same unified platform.It is to talk about this vision that I am joined today by Prashanth Prakash, senior partner at Accel and the man behind the glam himself -- Darpan Sanghvi, CEO and co-founder of MyGlamm, India’s fastest growing direct-to-consumer beauty brand. MyGlamm is one of our more recent investments in the beauty and personal care (BPC) segments that has seen tremendous success with its house of brands model and direct-to-consumer (D2C) business approach. It was enervating to hear Darpan’s unique take on the growing BPC market from an entrepreneurial perspective, along with Prashanth's keen and experienced insights into the burgeoning business. In this episode we discussed everything from MyGlamm’s journey, building a scalable beauty company using technology, the challenges and opportunities of the Indian market, tackling the COVID-19 crisis, leveraging social media, creating a data engine, and more -- all while keeping an eye on the offline sales game as well. 0:00 to  - 6:25: Introductions and beginnings! Darpan isn’t your average CEO, and MyGlamm wasn’t born without some serious on-ground work that began with a keen interest in brands, and a never-say-never attitude. 6:30 to 10:51: Prashanth’s thoughts on the brand space with specific insight into BPC, and what is unique about the sector. 10:53 to 20:45: How Darpan navigated this space from an entrepreneur point of view. How did Darpan decide what product to launch with?20:50 to 24:00: Prashanth gives us the investor perspective. 24:03 to 27:51: What are the challenges and advantages that startups face in this segment, when they come up against the goliath brands that have been around for longer. 27:52 to 30:40: Darpan tells us how he learnt from the foundations of the business, and in the BPC space the challenges that exist, are actually opportunities in disguise. 30:35 to 31:45: Prashanth on how brands and businesses have to look to survive. How they must leverage the offline muscle that they built, to stay relevant in digital times. 31:5o to 34:47: Does Darpan believe in the offline sales concept as well? How does it apply to his D2C brand and platform? 34:50 to 39:20: The impact that COVID-19 has had on this industry and the surprises that came along with it! 39:22 to 46:55 : Internet penetration in India has been far more successful and higher than the BPC penetration. What does this mean for aspiring companies in this space? 47:00 to 55:34 - What does the future hold for BPC brands as well as the broader D2C segment. Our experts have predictions, aspirations, and hope for the future.  Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

In the latest episode of Grit Stories, I spoke with Baskar Subramanian, founder and CEO of Amagi. Baskar has been an internet entrepreneur and startup founder since before either of those terms were really a thing. Having started and sold his first startup in his mid 20s, Baskar, along with a group of friends, started looking for new problems to solve.  The group set their sights on disrupting television advertising with technology, the startup that became Amagi.The startup ecosystem, Indian or international, sometimes focuses too much on the loud and the noisy. But there’s another kind of startup, quiet, tough and resilient, focused on their business and their goals. It’s clear which kind Amagi is, and this was a great insight into the people behind it.Amagi has been in the future since 2008, and we wish them the best with their rocketship.2:44-3:45: Baskars Story; Coming from a small time; being dyslexic but still finding a connect with the computers3:45:20-5:14:09: First business stint in grade 11! Building financial products from small businesses!07:45:23-09:19: Making the decision of leaving Texas Instruments although being a top coder there and thoughts on starting up16:34-19:06: Amagi Story: Empowering the smaller players to advertise on TV!20:30-22:36: Challenges faced operationally; Extensive traveling in tier-2 cities; facing the cable mafia and getting them onboard!25:23-28:34: Facing the problem of scale and changing the targeting through research on larger brands32:48-39:03: Friction with the TV channels; Broadcasters v/s Amagi35:51-38:59: Changing the model and almost starting afresh; tough times as a founder!41:16-44:22: Grit of continuing even during tough times; Unconditional support from the employeesCheck out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

Aprameya is no stranger to the entrepreneurial journey. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Koo, a microblogging platform catering to the Indian vernacular. Koo was born as an offshoot of Vokal, a vernacular question and answer platform. Within one year, it amassed over a million users and became a force of its own.Before this, he was at the helm of TaxiForSure, leading it to a successful acquisition by Ola Cabs back in 2015. I was part of this journey, and Aprameya’s clarity and grit has been something I’ve been aware of throughout.This was among my favourite conversations, and not just because of having known Aprameya for so long. It helped me better understand the fast-shifting world of content, and the directions in which it is headed.Koo is about to make some noise, and we are excited for it. Listen and find out more.00:00 - 3:10 - Introduction6:35-8:38- Parents not agreeing for his startup stint; Shift in his own inclination towards startups and getting conviction9:04-10:24- Grit to start TFS; anyhow getting people from point A to point B10:57-12:32- Angel Investors being very scarce and lack of information12:34-14:25- Market explosion and TFS being not really ready for it18:09-20:05- Grit to build for local language and not English: Vokal story- empowering non-English speaking crowd20:27-22:41- Challenges as a founder of shifting from a transactional business into a non-transactional business27:28-29:05- Pursuing the right person to rope him in as a co-founder32:08-34:04- Atmanirbhar Bharat victory, being just a 3 month old product!34:59-35:57- Moving fast to capture the Nigerian market44:11-45:03- Advice to new founders: Start early & Always trust in your first thought!Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.com Share your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India 00:00 - 03:16 Introduction 03:17 - 5:26 Tough beginnings and what shaped Niraj 05:33 - 7:25 Grit to get to IIT-D 12:34 - 13:42 Support of the ecosystem being very low back in the day 14:53 - 17:23 Lost his father but bounced back in 3-4 months and started his second company 31:42 - 33:51 Going with the full stack model even though the new investors pulled the term sheet 35:22 - 37:37 Restarting with the new business model: What happened after the investors pulled back? 39:43 - 41:28 How the team stepped up during tough times? 52:46 - 53:57 Being open to feedback and it's importance

The story of Vedantu is a heady mix of grit, determination and conviction. The Bangalore based startup, which raised almost 200 million in 9 rounds, has had a journey and a story that will definitely inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. The startup witnessed 4.5x to 5x growth in the last financial year on each of its core metrics. And the growth trajectory has been rocketing upwards with 12x to 15x growth in the past 2 years. But how did it get here? In this candid conversation with Anand Daniel, Vamsi Krishna, co-founder and CEO, talks about the unseen struggles of an entrepreneur and what it took to make Vedantu what it is today. Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.com Share your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

If there is one thing that the pandemic is bound to teach humanity, it is the will to go with the flow and not plan too ahead in life. That said, counterintuitively, it seems important to be prepared and planned when similar outbreaks arise in the future. A healthcare startup from Canada, BlueDot, in its report, shared that the outbreak was fast spreading in China even before the World Health Organisation (WHO) had reported it. The startup’s outbreak risk software helps mitigate the exposure to infectious diseases using Artificial Intelligence. It goes to show that healthcare organisations, governments and public health officials would have to rely on these AI-based systems in the future to prevent similar outbreaks from reoccurring. On this podcast, Murali Aravumdan, Founder and CEO of nference and Radhika Ananth, Vice President at Accel cover some of the important applications of AI in healthcare, and the sub-segments that are still untouched by AI but have huge potential for disruption. We also cover the apprehension of the medical communities to adopt to new technologies and the steps to overcome them. The focus areas within healthcare for Accel are AI in diagnostics, drug discovery, precision medicine and digital therapeutics, with some recent investments made in these categories.

Taking cues from a top-down structural approach, the Agritech industry has many layers to it. On top of them however, like every other major industry, Financial services is also a critical part of Agritech. However, it is largely unorganised and has plenty of room for disruption. Most farmers in the country do not have access to credit-based lending facilities and startups like Samunnati are attempting to fill that gap. Mark Kahn, the Founding Partner of Agritech-focused impact venture fund Omnivore, chats with Prashanth Prakash and Anand Daniel of Accel, discussing the trends in Agritech in India. They talk about the major market segments Agritech is segregated into, the factors that are fueling the growth of the industry, and how COVID has contributed to the sector’s growth.

The future of digital health pertains to a myriad of technologies put together. Whether it is Artificial Intelligence (AI), advanced health sensors genomics, digital therapeutics, or all of them put together, digital healthcare is very much technology-based only on paper as of now. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have learned in a hard way that we need to be better prepared when similar outbreaks happen in the future, and the only way to predict, prevent and manage care would be through massive digitization of the healthcare industry. On this podcast, Dr. Bertalan Meskó, Director of The Medical Futurist Institute and Radhika Ananth, Vice President at Accel cover some of the high impact trends in digital health, some north star metrics for healthcare startups, and finally how prevention and care will be delivered to the patient of the future.

Podcasts have been one of the ways we try to bring out untold stories of startup founders. Continuing with this tradition, we at Accel are excited to introduce our new podcast mini-series: Untold Seed Stories. This new show aims to unravel the first 500 days of our founders’ startup journey — ranging from how they first conceived the idea and met their co-founders, to details of how they secured their first funding and challenges along the way. For the fourth podcast of our Untold Seed Stories, we chat with Girish Matrhubootham, Co-founder and CEO of Freshworks. Founded in October 2010 in Chennai, Girish and his CTO Shan Krishnaswamy grew the company to a Series-H stage, after its latest fundraise of $150 million.