Being resolute on resolutions!
It is quite refreshing and motivating to write to you on the morning of Sunday, 1 Jan 2023. It is likely that I am adding to a long list of good wishes, and promotion messages which have filled our social feeds and inboxes. Hence, I wish to keep this short.
Let me share one of the key learnings from past months which relates to the flavor of the day – New year resolutions!
We tend to make new-year resolutions personally. But more often than not the resolutions are indirectly dependent on external factors. E.g. in personal life, taking time out for yourself is contingent on the roles and responsibilities with respect to the immediate family.
Thus for resolutions to succeed, an enabling environment beyond personal determination might be required. In management lingo, we can think of resolutions as ‘change management’.
Change management is a painstakingly slow and often frustrating exercise. As you are aware we have three aspects to our business – deploying our prop capital in early stage startups, being investment bankers to do fund-raise for growth stage startups, and being founders’ trusted confidante through our strategic consulting initiatives.
Long term consulting invariably happens to positively influence the first two aspects related to fund-raise. But the key challenge in long term consulting with a startup is nothing but change management. Striving balance between the well-entrenched org culture and motivations of a talented team on one hand and the key financial/ operational metrics, if conquered soon, which may propel a startup in the next league, is not an easy task.
Making startup team members incrementally cognizant and mature about their daily/weekly /monthly ‘small resolutions’, in the form of processes and systems, and simultaneously keeping the big picture in our resolutions, is the way forward.
We call this a ‘growth oversight framework’ and I am pleased to share that from Jan 2023 we are implementing this framework for change management in our long-term consulting projects. If you are interested in driving change management in your organization, I would be more than happy to share the change management template with you.
My best wishes to you and your family for a prosperous year ahead. May 2023 be the year for resolute resolutions.
Ecosystem Ventures This Week
Key Highlights – Events
We are glad to share that, this week we celebrated “Zayeka 2k22”, an annual Food Fest organized by iLead Group (Parent Company of Ecosystem Ventures). It brings all of us to celebrate the togetherness of being part of one big family. It is a good fun activity through which everyone gets to interact with each other interdepartmentally and participate in various activities.
Startup Funding Summary
Money View, Bengaluru-based fintech startup, has raised $75 Mn in Series E funding from Apis Partners, Tiger Global, Winter Capital and Evolvence – Read More
Eduvanz, Mumbai-based fintech startup, has raised $13 Mn in a funding from Rethink Education, Sequoia Capital, Juvo Ventures and Unitus Ventures – Read More
Ecozen, Pune-based agritech startup, has raised $10 Mn in Series C funding from Nuveen Global Fund – Read More
Rebel Foods, Mumbai-based foodtech startup, has raised $7 Mn in Debt funding from existing investors – Read More
GearHead Motors, Hyderabad-based e-bike startup, has raised ~$1 Mn in Pre-Seed funding from Hemin Shah and Sudhakar Moparthy – Read More
M&A Snippets
Boston-based private equity firm Advent International will acquire Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Suven Pharmaceuticals for $763 Mn – Read More