Where lies ESV’s Ecological Niche?

I hope you are enjoying a prosperous Navratri celebration this year. After being subdued for two years due to the pandemic, it appears the festivities have returned to their former glory.

The startup ecosystem appears to await its celebratory times, given the total reported funding for the week stood at ~$140 Mn, a decline of $48 Mn from last week.The funding stood at $245 Mn in the previous week.

Coming back to the question posed in the title. Ecological niche is defined as ‘the functional role and position (micro-habitat) of species in its ecosystem’. In this edition, I would like to talk about two of our company’s strengths , our ‘functional role’ or ‘micro-habitat’ within the broader Startup ecosystem.

Couple of days back, in one of his insightful posts, well regarded Linkedin columnist Rajan Singh, founder of Habitstrong, shared his insights for young professionals, on the pros and cons of joining the best-known management consulting firms, such as Mckinsey.

To summarize his argument, management consulting firms quickly develop you to be a structured thinker. Clear thinking is inseparable from clear communication, which when coupled with managing client’s team dynamics, results in a final client presentation, which is hard to disagree with.Majority of the consulting mandates end at this juncture of final presentation.

Here lies our first strength. I am pleased to share that this is the point where the challenging work at ESV begins. Our short term strategic consulting assignments or even fund raise mandates evolve into long term implementation support mandates to the founder/startup.

Needless to say, it is a difficult task and often an invisible one. What may be a bullet point on the final strategy-deck requires a whole arsenal of weapons, in the form of skills or being resourceful, to bear fruition. The problem is compounded given that startups are cash starved and do not have a war-chest like big corporations.

One may wonder how a seemingly simple task of structuring organization-wide Google drive folders, results in substantial productivity gains? Similarly, streamlining internal communication of a geographically-dispersed team with ad hoc & irregular communication channels is a huge task in itself. Next you may be optimizing the product development plan with the tech team while making digital marketing strategy more outcome driven. In short, one has to adorn all functional hats as per the exigencies, which happen daily in startup operations.

Mr Rajan in his post further commented that if you wish to become an entrepreneur or an investor (witness innovation or learn investing), you are better off doing it yourself, rather than joining a consulting firm.

Therein lies the second strength of our company. Ecosystem Ventures brings the best of both worlds. Consulting on one hand and entrepreneurship & investment banking on the other.

ESV continues to nurture innovative product ideas which are scalable. Also brings on board the nuances of investing with our funding arm.

Let me end by requesting you to share this newsletter with ambitious and intellectually curious professionals in your network who may be looking to find their ‘career niche’ – whether consulting, investing or entrepreneurship.

Startup Funding Summary

Molbio Diagnostics, a Goa-based healthtech startup, has raised $85 Mn in a funding from Temasek and Motilal Oswal Alternates – Read More

Signzy, a Bangalore-based fintech startup, has raised $26 Mn in a funding from Gaja Capital, Vertex Ventures and Arkam Ventures – Read More

Indel Money, a Kerala-based NBFC, has raised $6 Mn in a funding from Market-Linked debentures – Read More

Saveo, a Bangalore-based B2B marketplace for pharmacies, has raised $5 Mn in a funding from Matrix Partners, Gunosy Capital, 4point0 Health Ventures, LC Nueva AIF, Jetty Ventures, Ocgrow Ventures and RTP Global – Read More

Preimage, a Bangalore-based 3D reconstruction platform, has raised $2 Mn in Seed funding from pi Ventures, Better Capital, Java Capital and HNIs – Read More

M&A Snippets

Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical company Torrent Pharmaceuticals has acquired Chennai-based skincare products manufacturer Curatio Healthcare for $245 Mn – Read More

Ahmedabad-based IT startup Aarav Solutions has acquired Pune-based AI-powered startup Froot Research for $4 Mn – Read More

Bangalore-based healthtech and insurtech company Medi Assist will acquire Mumbai-based insurtech company Medvantage Insurance TPA for an undisclosed amount – Read More

Bangalore-based fintech company Razorpay has acquired Bangalore-based fintech startup PoshVine for an undisclosed amount – Read More

Noida-based IT giant, HCL Group has acquired Chennai-based edtech platform GUVI for an undisclosed amount – Read More