It has been so far a pretty good year for early stage & angel investment platform LetsVenture. This may sound bit surreal to hear considering how Covid-19 crises has thrown the entire global economy into a tailspin. But apparently LetsVenture has not only managed to hold on to itself amid the tornado, it has emerged stronger than ever before.
With impressive 44 investment deals and adding whopping 742 investors in H1 2020 or first half of the current year, LetsVenture’s good showing in such a crises ridden year doesn’t appear to be merely coincidental. It is reflection of its robust growth, strong foundation and unwavering entrepreneurial spirit.
While LetsVenture’s investment spree did slow down during April and May when coronavirus peaked up, it made a resilient comeback in June with 9 deals. Among them was the investment in Mitron TV, making LetsVenture amongst the early investors to repose faith in what could be India’s formidable answer to TikTok.
LetsVenture’s recent investment portfolio (2020)
Vastra – SaaS-based platform for textile firms
Vernacular.Ai – an AI based SaaS startup
Expertrons – AI video bot platform
Plop – Interactive fiction app
Airmeet – Meetup management startup
LetsVenture’s recent exits from startups
KhataBook – digital ledger that helps retail stores to record their transactions.
Innov8 – Co-working space startup.
Drivezy – self-driving car rental startup
Adpushup – ad revenue optimization platform
Porter – an app that allows hiring mini-truck
Pure Style Labs: Platform that brings India’s top designers under one roof.
Sattivko: Food startup
Techpulto reached out to LetsVenture’s co-founder and CEO Shanti Mohan to know how LetsVenture stayed defiant in such a turbulent year. Shanti cited ‘correction in startup valuation’ as one of the main reasons for the good performance.
“Angel and early stage investors are in for the long haul and what they look for is ‘value creation’ by startups. Very high valuations very early on are a no-win for everyone as investors struggle to get returns and founders end up building businesses to justify ephemeral numbers.”
“I would say that the private markets had been pushed in this direction, not just in India but globally, since 2018 and this run has been brought to a screeching halt by COVID-19. With valuations becoming realistic, investors who were on the sidelines have stepped into the ring,”Shanti Mohan said.
Speaking about the trend for reminder of the year, Shanti said “We will see early stage investing (upto Series A) continue to be active for the rest of the year before we hit a ceiling. Later stage rounds have taken a bit of a pause as VCs adjust to the new reality.”
She further added “We are likely to see more Series A/B bridge rounds but funding at the Series C/D stage might hit a pause as business models and growth come under scrutiny (both on the B2C and B2B side).”
She also claimed that Edtech, healthcare, gaming, productivity, enterprise tech (B2B, cross border SaaS) will be amongst the most preferred investment sectors for the remainder of 2020.