Quarterly Update Q2 2023-24

Dear Reader,

This past year has been hard for startups. In fact, the startup funding fell to its lowest level in the past quarter. Follow-on rounds have become harder, and the sales cycles have become longer. This is forcing companies to rework their strategies to be more efficient in all respects- cash, productivity, and operations.We continue to support our founders in their journey through these difficult times. However, early-stage B2B investments continue to attract greater attention which bodes well for Ideaspring, as that is our key focus. SpaceTech, DroneTech, EV/Batteries, Industrial IoT 5.0, and GenAI are some of the technologies in focus. The ability of Indian entrepreneurs to build companies in these technologies is very encouraging. We expect the next couple of quarters to be challenging and hope that things will improve beyond that. We continue to stay positive and on the lookout for founders building startups with great technology focus.

Ecosystem Initiatives?by Ideaspring Capital

With a pursuit to better our understanding of the ecosystem as well as improving our knowledge by imbibing best practices, we continued our practice of hosting guests who were experts in their field of operation and had a wealth of experience to share.?

To begin with, we had the good pleasure of hosting Khadim Batti, Co-Founder, and CEO, Whatfix in our office in August, as part of our Founder Series talks. Whatfix’s success story is a good example of how a SaaS brand built in India can capture the imagination of global markets, a philosophy we have always believed in. Khadim shared insights on topics such as identifying the right TAM, the role of inbound/outbound sales, and organizational culture, thereby leading to the foundations of a good organization.

We also had Mr. Rahul Matthan, Partner in Trilegal and one of the country's foremost experts on data protection to discuss the latest, Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023. Rahul spent a considerable time explaining the nuances of the Act to our portfolio founders and also cleared their queries. With digital data protection rightly gaining prominence across the board, this session helped us to be better prepared for the future.?

Finally, in September, we were privileged to host Rajeev Rajan, CTO of Atlassian, at our office, along with some of our portfolio companies. He spoke of how startups should look at partnering with companies like Atlassian/Microsoft/Meta given his decade's worth of experience in having worked at these corporations. He also touched upon how a big company like Atlassian looks at investing in Generative AI and which aspect of the value chain makes sense for them versus what would make sense for a seed-stage startup from India.?

We look forward to fostering interactions amongst the various stakeholders of the ecosystem by hosting many more such events in the coming months.

Portfolio Updates

Ahammune

• USA patent granted
• Ahammune was invited to pitch at the Startup 20 event as part of G20 summit conclave.

Ambee

• Ambee began piloting its new product, Airways, developed alongside Sanofi, in New York. Airways app integrates Ambee’s proprietary data with routing algorithms to ensure users can choose the cleanest, safest route out of multiple choices, decreasing incidences of pollution, pollen and associated health risks. The app launch occurred during NY Climate Week, with coverage including ABC News.?
• Jaideep Singh, CEO, presented to a packed house at Techstars Foundercon 2023 in San Francisco. With an increasing focus on climate tech, Ambee was amongst a handful of curated startups that showcased how tech is being leveraged in the war on climate change.

Bluj Aero

• Completed detailed design of the full-scale prototype and manufacturing of critical components
• Team has grown to 22 employees and onboarded experts as consultants on few key areas

B2Brain

• B2Brain for offline events - with the combination of Account Intent and contextual Insights, B2Brain now enables teams to generate meaningful pipeline from offline events
• Account-based Cadences - the ABC of outreach. Teams can now create specific messages for various outreach cadences - Cold outreach emails, LinkedIn outreach, Formal introductions, Churned customer re-engagement, Closed-lost reactivation. Using insights + talking points on B2Brain.
• B2Brain was present at SaaStr, SaaSBoomi Caravan and Dreamforce.

ConvertCart

• Released iCRO, our automated Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) solution.
• SMS was introduced as a new channel in Engage, our marketing automation suite.

Growthpal

• Started buyside roundtables in Bangalore in Pune and now doing in Mumbai this month. We are also starting startup masterclasses to prepare for building strategic relationships that may also position for good acquisitions later.
• Product has now evolved to track 3 Million companies globally and we have started exploring the use of AI and GenAI from profile generation to predicting intent and making recommendations.

Okulo Aerospace

• Okulo Aerospace has completed the design for manufacturing of its enterprise drone. The company is now gearing up to submit the drone for type-certification upon completion of the manufacturing process.
• To further enhance its commitment to delivering end-to-end solutions, Okulo Aerospace has engaged in a meticulous assessment process and successfully sealed a partnership with a software provider. This strategic collaboration empowers Okulo Aerospace to streamline the post-processing of drone-captured data.

Karomi

• 5 Customers signed up?across Pharma, Food & CPG, Services sectors, both in India as well as the U.S.
• New SaaS Platform in the final development phase to be launched in Q3.

Kcat Enzymatic

• Successfully concluded 2nd commercial negotiations for an enzyme technology with a leading pharmaceutical company. We are looking forward to finalizing the contract soon.
• Kcat Enzymatic made its mark at the global Enzyme Engineering Conference XXVII in September 2023, ?a global gathering of leading scientists and industries in Enzyme & Protein Design. Honored to be the sole company chosen from India by the Enzyme Engineering Consortium, Kcat's four technology posters garnered significant interest from the scientific community and customers.

Lavelle Networks

• Airtel invested in Lavelle Networks, again.
• Successful implementation of our latest upgrades for multiple banking clients.

LiteMed

• Launched Curapod in the market on Aug 1st, 2023.
• 500 sold through Doctors and Referrals in 10 weeks.
• 60+ Doctors are now prescribing Curapod to their patients for chronic pain conditions like Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Sciatica, Backpain. Curapod is also being prescribed for Post Operative Pain Manageme

Mason

• Successfully launched Flash - AI Sales Engine.
• The Dabur group onboarded on mason platform

Mihup

• Mihup not only reinforced its presence in the BFSI sector but also dedicated efforts towards expanding its pipeline into diverse industries such as real estate, healthcare, logistics, and more.
• Mihup actively served as Brand Development partners in multiple high-profile Cex events conducted nationwide. During these events, the company effectively showcased its value proposition, with key executive leaders from the realms of Digital Transformation and Call Centers participating as panelists. The significant attendance and participation in these events contributed substantively to the overall progress of our brand development initiatives. ?

Nimesa

• Nimesa is now supporting Disaster Recovery for ECS services for Aws customers?
• Nimesa is now protecting more than 2500 cloud servers across the customers?

Peritus.ai

• Launched a security Copilot, powered by Generative AI with key features such as adaptive defense, real-time insights and AI-driven recommendations

Saigeware

• Welcomed new team members: Dr Jacob Johnson MD – Co-Founder CMO,?Wendy Zhu PA – Senior director of clinical services & Nick Freeman – VP of business development
• Strategic partnership with SFOMG – A leading multi-specialty clinic based in the SF bay area
• Technology pilot with the first four patients

Smart Ship

• Onboarded 25 ships on the VPM platform.
• Partnered with Veracity by DNV. Together, we're forging a Sustainable future across the Maritime Value Chain. This collaboration brings real-time verified carbon emissions data through 'Emissions Connect,' simplifying compliance with evolving regulations.
• Smart Ship? Hub platform is capable of handling "dual fuel engine" data and monitoring.
• CEO, Joy Basu, has been appointed as a distinguished member of the 'Singapore Shipping Association’s Digitalisation Committee for 2023-2025.

Simyog

• Simyog presented pioneering work on IC-models titled "Simulation-Based Approach for Boost Converter using Black-Box Modelling for System Level EMC Analysis" in the prestigious 2023 IEEE Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility & Signal/Power Integrity (EMC+SIPI) held in Grand Rapids, MI, USA.
• CISPR32 Radiated Emission for a UPS system was simulated successfully in partnership with a large MNC.
• Bulk Current Injection (BCI) test for an Inductive position sensor, including IC-immunity models was simulated successfully in partnership with a top semiconductor company.

Worxogo

• Worxogo saw excellent progress in our scaling efforts with Natwest and Optum. Furthermore, our collaboration with Genpact is expanding geographically, enabling us to introduce the Nudge Coach to customers worldwide.
• On the product front, Worxogo launched a new Survey feature that enables teams to run detailed surveys, fostering higher engagement and critical feedback. Additionally, the product now supports multi-channel alerts, strategically designed to interact more effectively with our global users.