A look back into 2024: Impact and Learnings

2024 has been full of progress, creating impact, building capacity, and ensuring an environment that propels learning and bolsters growth. Our year spanned cultivating varied partnerships, investing in promising businesses, running programs and mentor workshops, and creating a platform for people to discover, network, and collaborate.?

Here’s the impact we created:?

11 Startup Investments | 100+ Startups Mentored | 5+ Demo Days | 12+ Acceleration Programs and Community Events?

Let’s look at some of the key things from our 2024:?

1. Community and Events:?

Our meetups went beyond Mumbai and were successful in Pune, too. We’ve hosted over 500 founders, 100 institutional VCs, 20 incubators, and 50 angel investors. The key themes of our meetups and events were assisting founders to expand beyond India, understanding what it takes to grow beyond the seed stage, and various industry-led topics like drones and alternative energy mobility solutions to name a few.?

We hosted a one-of-a-kind speed pitching event where over 30 founders got to pitch their startups to the most relevant investors on a 1-1 basis. We’ve always believed in the idea of personalized conversations that drive true connections and scope for collaboration.?

2. Arthayan Ventures and Investments:?

Our investments arm was started to invest in companies with proven product-market fit and established niches in their sectors. We believe capital infusion at the early stage is crucial and will accelerate their growth and strengthen their competitive position.

So far, we’ve made investments in Manufacturing, Fashion and Apparel, Hospitality, Healthcare, eSports, and other industries too.

3. Acceleration Programs and Partnerships:?

This year, we’ve been fortunate enough to work with government agencies like the MeitY Startup Hub , Maharashtra State Innovation Society , Enterprise Singapore , the GINSEP (German Indian Startup Exchange Program) , the German Accelerator , the Port of Hamburg , and more. We’ve also worked with acceleration programs for incubators like FiiRE? Goa , AIC - Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum , Chitkara University , AIC-Nalanda Institute of Technology Foundation , and more.?

With these programs, we’ve aimed to support startups by helping them build the right capacity and also meet the right partners. What we realized is that while founders are aware of their business's end-to-end capabilities, they may lack the right industry and strategic connects. Our programs not only offer mentoring but relevant industry connects, networking, and more to help founders grow in the right direction.

4. Capacity Building and Discussions:?

We truly believe that implementation is the key to the successful execution of ideas and discussions. However, it is not always black and white. And for the ecosystem to grow, we believe in transparent communications with all stakeholders involved.?

This year, we were invited to participate in several discussions with state and national agencies to share insights on impact investments, policy-making, supporting startups, and building a true ecosystem. Similarly, we also hosted a roundtable discussion on how incubators should focus on building capacities to support their startups.

5. Our Learnings:?

A few of the team’s top learnings for this year have been:?

- For brands to build true global products, they need to empathize with the user and not sympathize.?

- While diversification sells as investment advice to investors, the only thing that works for founders is the relentless focus on one particular business or a challenge.?

- Founders need to improve their understanding of the business and upskill along with it. As a business grows, its needs grow. Typically, what has worked before might not yield the same result in the future.?

- Scaling is important to grow your business from 0 to 1, 1 to 100, and beyond. However,? compromising on governance while doing so will impact every stakeholder involved.?

As we wind this year down, we are truly grateful for our partners and connects for this wonderful year.?

Wishing everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year!