Newsletter Issue # 49 | March 2023

Monthly Spotlight

Deep Dive Into Our Choice Story Of The Month

Yellow Metal raises $3M?funding led by global venture capital firm MSA Novo

WaterBridge Ventures ?portfolio company? Yellow Metal ?has raised $3M led by global fintech-focused venture capital firm? Novo Capital . The funding round also saw participation from Japan-based? Spiral Ventures Pte. Ltd. ?and existing investors?WaterBridge?Ventures?and? Java Capital . The fund raise will enable Yellow Metal to expand its technology team and operations across 25 new markets within as well as outside Karnataka. Yellow Metal also plans to strengthen its proprietary loan management system and explore new forms of asset-backed lending going forward.?

Yellow Metal’s current offering of doorstep gold loan services has experienced mass adoption and is enabling households to get access to credit at scale at lower prices. This capital infusion will further propel them in their mission towards becoming rural India’s most trusted financial services provider.?

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Portfolio Milestones

Milestone Updates From Our Portfolio

Pocketpills recognized among Canada’s Top 15 Most Innovative Healthcare Technology Companies

Pocketpills ?has been recognized by?Canadian Venture Magazine??as being one of the Top 15 most innovative healthcare technology companies in Canada. The venture has emerged as Canada’s leading online pharmacy and leverages cutting-edge AI and automation to provide consumers with a seamless and superior offering.?

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Downtown Club has been selected to be a part of Google Appscale Academy 2023

Founded by? Abhishek Doshi ?and? Jaydip Biniwale ,? Downtown Club ?has been selected to be a part of Google’s Appscale Academy. As part of the program, Downtown Club will receive hands-on training, mentoring and support for Google’s top experts in scaling up their app on the Google Play store. Through its e-commerce application, Downtown is creating a first of its kind discovery driven marketplace for?D2C brands.?

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Chalo Co-Founder receives “SISTec Tejomay Award 2023” for her entrepreneurial endeavors

Chalo ?Co-founder? Priya Singh ?was felicitated at the techno-cultural fest of?Sagar Institute of Science, Technology & Research?with an award for her contributions to the field of entrepreneurship. The event celebrated?women achievers from various walks of life.??

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WBV Portfolio In The News

Doubtnut featured by Zee Business as one of 20 women-led startups set to become a unicorn?

Co-founded by? Tanushree Nagori ,? Doubtnut ?was featured by? ZEE Business ?as one of 20 women led startups on track to achieve unicorn status. Other startups in the list included companies such as WinZO, Locus, Pratilipi and Portea.?

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Loopworm featured by the Hindu Business Line on “Why India must tap the potential of insect-based pet food production”

Founded by? Ankit Alok Bagaria ?and? Abhi Gawri ,? Loopworm ?is a category creator in the insect-protein space. The article speaks about use cases of insect-proteins in industries such as pet food production and how insects can be processed into valuable biomolecules and ingredients.?

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With aim to turn profitable next year, Anshoo Sharma of Magicpin featured in Economic Times

The Economic Times featured? Anshoo Sharma of? magicpin ?in which he spoke about Magicpin's growth trajectory as well as future plans. Having grown 2.5 times in the last 15 months, Anshoo spoke about the surge of offline shopping post-pandemic and his near-term goal of achieving profitability.?

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WBV Insights

Thought Leadership From Our Team

Anjali Sosale featured among “Most Influential Women in VC” by BusinessWorld

Anjali Sosale , Partner at?WaterBridge?Ventures was featured in VCWorld’s Most Influential Women list, presented on the occasion of International Women’s Day. The list honors female VC leaders and celebrates their contribution and impact to the startup ecosystem.?

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WaterBridge?Ventures D2C Roundtable

WaterBridge?Ventures hosted a roundtable featuring founders of young and upcoming D2C enablement ventures. The roundtable featured CXOs from national brands and?media publishers who are the ideal customer base for these B2B tech tools.?The discussion revolved around pricing challenges, India v/s Global opportunity and the future of the D2C tech stack.?

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Why We Invested in CBREX?

As the world of work continues to evolve and transform,?Korn Ferry?predicts a global talent deficit of 85?million workers by 2030.? Raghav Prasad ?explains? CBREX ’s?unique approach to solving this problem with their B2B hiring platform that empowers recruiters anywhere in the world to place talent?at scale and why the future is about borderless sourcing.?

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