1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2014: Saigun Technologies, New Delhi, India

EmpXtrack, the flagship product of Saigun Technologies, is a comprehensive human resource management product that is multi-geography compliant and integrates the entire gamut of activities in a human resources department. Its main value proposition is its unique engineering design that allows multiple compliance engines to co-exist and provide a complete HR automation platform to any company across the world – all on the cloud. >>>

1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2014: Easyskillz, New Delhi

Easyskillz.com provides online training for professional skills like Android app development, HTML5, web development, Excel, SAP, project management, Six Sigma, and digital marketing. Training is delivered through pre-recorded videos of industry experts and on successful completion of the course, students receive certification from Indian Government skill certification agencies.

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Venture Capital in Slow Growth Markets: India, EdTech, Cleantech

There are a number of relatively slow growth markets in which we do a lot of business: India and EdTech are two examples. These are also two markets that I am passionate about, and have covered prodigiously for a long time. In a way, these markets, and many others that have similar characteristics, share very similar trajectories vis-a-vis entrepreneurship, venture capital, and exits. Another market in which 1M/1M doesn’t have much presence, but I have invested in, is Cleantech. The story is somewhat similar there as well. Let’s take a look at these slow-growth markets, and how they will emerge over the upcoming years.

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Harvard Business Review: How To Fund Indian Start-Ups

Harvard Business Review has published Sramana Mitra’s piece How To Fund Indian Start-Ups. You can read the entire article here.

1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2013: Techieworks, Gurgaon, India

Techieworks provides remote technical support services to the senior demographic in the U.S. and Canada for issues related to PCs, peripherals, and other devices. Seniors are increasingly flocking to the Internet driven by the need to stay in touch with family and friends through email, video chatting on Skype, and photo sharing on social networking sites like Facebook. A recent Nielsen report says that more than 19 million American senior adults are using the Internet. However, handling technical problems in their computers is often a frustrating experience for senior adults. There are several IT support services in the market, but very few that focus on this demographic. >>>

New Book – Seed India: How To Navigate The Seed Capital Gap In India

While tremendous interest in entrepreneurship in India continues to surge, there is a troubling and corresponding shortage of seed capital to help get these entrepreneurs’ ventures off the ground.

Sramana Mitra, one of the most highly regarded writers on the Indian startup scene, analyzes the current state of the startup eco-system in India in the latest addition to her acclaimed Entrepreneur Journeys book series, Seed India: How To Navigate The Seed Capital Gap In India (December 2013; Amazon Kindle). Mitra proposes ways of navigating the rest of the decade, such that a robust pipeline of entrepreneurs can survive the current malaise, and thrive, while the eco-system develops and matures in parallel.
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How to Navigate India’s Seed Capital Gap

India has a minuscule seed capital ecosystem. Entrepreneurs thus have to be really creative to survive.

My new piece How To Navigate The Seed Capital Gap in India offers a synthesis of how entrepreneurs are getting around. Two companion pieces offer perspective on why the ecosystem is developing so slowly: Seed Investors in India: Why So Few? and Venture Capital in India: Age of Reckoning. >>>

Indian Venture Capital: Age of Reckoning

Ashish Gupta left Silicon Valley to partake in the bonanza that venture capital in India was supposed to create. He founded Helion Capital, a $605 million fund that has been in business for a while.

The style of venture capital that Ashish and his compatriots at Sequoia, Accel, and others wanted to practice was the classic Silicon Valley model of putting $5 – 20M to work per technology company that is ready to grow at a furious pace.

The trouble is such companies are few and far between in the India of 2013.
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