Startup Street | Eternal Misses Q1 Estimates | Startup Funding Shifts | CNBC TV18 | LIVE

[00:00:03]Hello and welcome to Startup Street. I'm Arundati Ramn and with me as always are Shrii Mishra and Riddu Singh. These are the top headlines from the startup [music] world.

[00:00:13]Zumato's parent eternal misses estimates in the first quarter. Profits nearly h half sequentially but operational performance remains strong with food deliveries growing at 20% and quickcommerce orders surging 86%.

[00:00:28]India's startup funding market is becoming more concentrated. Funding rose 12% to $7.2 billion in the first half of 2026 even as deal count dropped 43% with investors backing fewer companies. Only 314 new tech startups were founded in the first half while operatorled ventures attracted 11% of total funding.

[00:00:49]Mete startup Bioscan Research has raised $1 million in a seed funding round led by Unicorn India Ventures. The company will use the capital to expand its market presence, secure regulatory approvals and enhance its AI powered brain injury diagnostic [music] device Cerebrro soft packaged adobe tech firm InMobi has appointed JP Morgan Jeff Kotak Mahindra Capital and Access Capital [music] to manage its nearly $1 billion IPO.

[00:01:15]Bloomberg reported the company is targeting a valuation of5 to6 billion dollars and is currently redomic doiciling [music] from Singapore to India ahead of its planned listing.

[00:01:27]A lawsuit filed by 26 [music] Meta employees is raising fresh questions about AI's role in workplace decisions.

[00:01:34]The employees allege Meta used AI powered [music] tools to help select workers for layoffs. But legal experts say proving AI was responsible could be difficult due to limited access [music] to internal systems and private arbitration. Meta denies the claims.

[00:01:51]Those were the headlines that we're tracking for you this evening. But on what's brewing today, after months of legal and boardroom disputes, BRA 91 founder Ankur Jane has stepped down from the company's board and his executive role as part of a settlement with lenders and investors. Rajna Dhan Rajani is here with what's happened and the road ahead for the company. Ratcha Uncle Jen is stepping away from BRA 91, the beer company he founded and ran for more than a decade. In a letter to stakeholders, Jen said he and his family are exiting the board and all executive positions with immediate effect as part of a settlement reached with the company's lenders. The family's roughly 17.8% stake in parent B9 beverages goes as well. a full surrender of both ownership and control. Now under the settlement, both the sides will withdraw all claims and litigation against each other and the personal guarantees Jen had extended against corporate borrowings stand released. He calls it a clean and full close, one that required aligning close to 30 stakeholders with competing interests. The backdrop is a crisis that has been building for over 2 years now. Debt at B9 beverages had swelled to around a,000 cr rupees and production had come to a grinding halt.

[00:03:03]More than 250 employees petitioned the board last October seeking Jen's removal citing salaries unpaid for over 6 months and Provident fund deductions that were never deposited. The workforce shrank from roughly 700 to 260. A glass supplier even sent a legal notice over unpaid dues last month. Investors including Kirin, Pak 15 and Sophina had been pressing for a leadership change as a condition for fresh capital. That capital now has a path. Lenders and investors are expected to recapitalize the company and restart operations over the next 3 to six months. That's all we've picked up from Bira's founder. He himself came out in a LinkedIn post and said all of this and so we got the letter to the stakeholders.

[00:03:49]>> Well, thank you Rajna for those details.

[00:03:50]appreciate you joining us on what's brewing today. Planning an international holiday often means juggling multiple websites, comparing prices, chasing travel agents, and hoping everything goes as planned. But what if AI could become your personal travel planner from discovery to booking and even while you're on the trip? Betting on that opportunity is 30 Sundays, an AI native travel platform that has just raised 61 cr rupes in a series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Joining me now is Chadri, the co-founder and CEO of 30 Sundays. welcome to Startup Street. The online travel market is already crowded with players like Mategy Trip, Booking.com, Agoda, and even AI assistants that are helping travelers plan trips. So, how is your business model different? And I understand you call yourself an AI native travel platform rather than an online travel agency. But tell me what's your tech edge and if you could also take me through the fund deployment plans.

[00:04:46]>> Sure, Shi. First of all, thanks a lot for having me here today. Uh, so when we talk about the travel market, uh, it is, you know, it consists of two kinds of customers. One is the do it for me traveler and, you know, the other is the do it yourself, you know, kind uh, do it myself or you do it yourself kind of traveler. So the uh, the overcrowding is more for the do-ityourself segment where most of the OTAs are playing. this segment is okay booking their hotels from different platforms you know their flights uh on different platforms and that is where MMO and lot of the a lot of these players are playing uh we serve uh the do it for me traveler this this customer still goes to the travel agent he wants everything one place he wants you know the planning uh the bookings and the customer support at one place uh for him uh no one has really built a great product you know where he can plan hisary at one place have all the bookings at one place and uh you know get the customer support also at one place >> your fund deployment plans. Yes, >> absolutely. So largely we are going to deploy funds in three areas. One is you know building uh a better brand and on the marketing side. The second is just expansion. So right now we cater to couples. So we want to expand to more segments and more geographies. And finally, you know, we uh we also investing in our product and tech teams to build even better technology for our customers.

[00:06:10]>> Okay. You know, picking up from what you just said, Chesh, one interesting strategy is your focus on couples before expanding to families. Why start with such a narrow customer segment and does building a vertical AI product for a specific traveler uh profile improve customer acquisition economics?

[00:06:27]>> Uh absolutely. So, this actually came through a very interesting insight. Uh we saw that you know younger couples are very active on Instagram. They see these newer experiences, unique experience in hotels out there and then they want to go there but the traditional travel agents still provide the fixed tours and activities that they have been you know providing for years and are not able to cater to this segment. So we decided to just you know you know take one segment it's you know what Amazon did with books and really good you know product for this segment and very good experience.

[00:06:58]So you know we uh now contract lot of romantic hotels experiences for this segment and uh the the acquisition economics are definitely better because literally there is no competition in this segment. Now we've built the best you know experience for this segment.

[00:07:12]>> All right and you know in just 2 years you've reached an annualized gross booking value run rate of around 200 cr rupes while operating profitably and focusing on just four destinations. what has driven that growth and can you share current revenue, repeat customer and profitability metrics?

[00:07:29]>> Uh sure. So let me disclose the numbers I can disclose today. So we doing about 200 CR kind of GBB. Uh we have a 10% kind of take rate. So this takes our re annualized revenue to close to 20 CR. Uh today 20 around 30% of our customers come from our organic efforts. Uh and uh 15% through repeat 10 referrals. um we are CM in terms of economics we are CM3 positive which means that you know our take rate that that 10% take rate is able to cover our marketing sales and you know any operations customer support cost so at an operational level we are profitable >> okay >> in terms of you know what has driven this growth I think you know the the the strategy to focus on one segment has really helped us it has helped us you know build a very good offering and product for this segment And you know then we have been able to penetrate this segment really fast.

[00:08:24]>> Okay. All right. You know travel is one category where trust matters enormously.

[00:08:28]Uh Shich customers are spending lacks on international holidays and often prefer speaking to a human. So how do you strike the right balance between AI automation and human intervention? And what will truly differentiate winners in travel? Will it be access to inventory, better AI, stronger brands or simply superior customer experience?

[00:08:47]Um yeah so uh you've asked two questions there but the answer to both of them is superior customer experience.

[00:08:52]>> Okay.

[00:08:53]>> At 30 Sundays when we look you know when we think about uh where should we use you know humans where should we use AI automation we largely you know decide basis what will lead to a superior experience. Okay.

[00:09:05]>> So you know for example if the customer is anxious about making a payment uh or you know he's confused between two choices that is the right time to you know make him speak with an expert.

[00:09:15]However, you know, if the customer uh you know wants to finalize an itonary which has mult you know which has to be sort of selected from hundreds of hotels and experiences and match his preferences you know AI does a much better job because it is able to sift through a lot of hotels experiences faster and you know then recommend the best iter that's you know how we decide and in terms of you know what you know what will really differentiate Again it is you know the companies which build the best experience uh you know will will really do themselves.

[00:09:51]>> All right.

[00:09:52]>> Yeah.

[00:09:53]>> Sure. And that's what you're planning to do. So you know uh India's outbound leisure travel market chage is estimated at around $25 billion and continues to grow rapidly beyond destinations like Bali, Vietnam, Maldives and Thailand.

[00:10:05]You've already launched New Zealand and Mauritius uh with more markets on the road map. So how quickly do you plan to expand and what's your long-term ambition?

[00:10:14]>> So uh in you know June we did about 17C crly business which is a GBV. We plan to double that by March. Uh in terms of destinations so we would you know take that to about 35. In terms of destinations you would see that mostly we have winter destinations. So you know we would add a few summer destinations to the mix by December and launch them early next year. So we would have about 10 destinations uh by March next year.

[00:10:41]>> All right. Before I let you go, I have to ask why 30 Sundays? How does it reflect your philosophy of travel?

[00:10:48]>> Sure. So we are a couples focused company. Um and we advise couples to do 30 days of vacation in a year so that you know they can tolerate each other and um every day on a vacation feels like a Sunday. That's why 30 Sundays.

[00:11:02]>> All right, on that note, it's time for me to wrap up our conversation. Many thanks for joining us on Startup Street and wish you the very best for your growth plans.

[00:11:10]>> Thank you. Thanks a lot for having me.

[00:11:12]>> And moving on, the global fashion industry is under pressure to deliver faster, cut costs and build more resilient supply chains, but much of the apparel manufacturing ecosystem still runs on fragmented manual processes. One Indian startup believes artificial intelligence can change that. Growo has raised 90 crore rupees in a seriesB funding round to expand its AIdriven platform that connects global brands with manufacturers while helping digitize the entire design to delivery process. Joining us now are the co-founder of grower Subin Mitra and Vatal Bavishi partner at corn cornerstone ventures. Gentlemen thank you so much for taking time out and being here with us on Startup Street.

[00:11:51]You know Subin let me start with you right you've raised this 90 cr rupes in the first close of your 200 crore rupee series B round. what sort of convinced investors like cornerstone to sort of back grow you at this stage and where will this capital sort of create the biggest impact over the next 12 to 18 months take us through how you plan to spend these funds >> first of all thank you for having us and I'm sure Vatel can add a bit to that but uh um I think largely in two three areas right I think over the last couple of years uh the team has worked very hard to have a lot of the largest brands in the ecosystem as partners to us especially across the UK the European Union and the US, right? Um, in a nutshell, fast fashion is getting faster and what that means is the supply chain needs to be even more tech enabled, even more agile and a lot more competitive, right? Um, so that is going to be the first and foremost mandate for us that how can we support our existing customers better. How can we go deeper with them and how can we enable more and more ofmemes we work with in India to take their business global, right? An aspect of that is also going to be on the tech stack. Right? So technology has started playing an even more important role for the fashion industry. Um we have built two tools. One on the factory side which we use to digitize supply operations and second where we leverage AI to curate designs for brands in real time. Um so going deeper in that and making those tools more robust so that we can make this otherwise opaque supply chain a little faster. These will be the two large focus areas.

[00:13:18]>> Absolutely. And you know you've guided for a revenue run rate of 500 cr rupes in FY26 and you're targeting over 3,000 cr rupes within the next 3 years right what gives you that confidence to sort of scale sixfold and what are the biggest execution risks that you face >> um si 26 is an actual now um I think what gives us that comfort is adding to my point that a lot of these customers are already procuring north of thousand crores from India right they are actively looking for a solution which is not only fast, nimble and agile, but also brings in ele element of tech. Um, we've gone after the more tail end of supply which is difficult to work with, which is difficult to control and we've built that supply chain capability and having that supply chain with this cohort of customers gives us the confidence that we can get to that kind of a protection in the next 2 three years.

[00:14:09]>> Absolutely. Um, Vata, let me bring you into the conversation. You've led grow series be at a time when venture funding remains pretty selective, right? what sort of gave you the conviction to back the company and what differentiated it from other B2B commerce and manufacturing tech startups?

[00:14:24]>> Well, thanks uh thanks for having me first of all. Uh this was a classic recipe in terms of investable business that it has a massive scale opportunity.

[00:14:36]uh there is a significant fragmentation in the supply side of this value chain and it's a business that can really be uh streamlined using technology and a tech enabled platform and we see Pratik and Sububin and the team really having that execution uh provice to be able to scale a business like this. So that gave us the confidence that yes there is a massive opportunity that can really be solved using technology and the team that brings the right kind of execution capability to bring all of this together and that's how we ended up investing in grow the the key differentiator we see in this company viz a lot of other competitors is the way they have executed on their entire plan uh you know going after the right kind of customers. Uh not compromising on margins at any point in time. Uh trying to solve a problem with technology first and then kind of putting more people behind it and uh at at any point in time you know keeping uh keeping their business first. Uh so those are things that really have helped them scale to this level in a in a very short span of time and we've seen them even with scale they haven't really you know lo lost sight of the business. Sure, absolutely.

[00:16:02]And Subin, you know, you now work with over 470 manufacturers across 10 countries and 45 global brands, right?

[00:16:10]As you sort of scale further to achieve all your targets, how do you sort of ensure quality compliance and on-time delivery across such a large supplier network?

[00:16:20]>> All three of these are critical factors in our business. Um, which is why I think for all three of these we've had to go in-house and build in-house capabilities, right? Capabilities both from a team point of view. All of these are in-house teams for us. Processes and even internal tech tools which help us monitor quality um monitor on-time shipment rates in real time and give that visibility to our customers as well because we understand this is sacrosan.

[00:16:44]Um when a customer when a very large global customer is trusting us it is critical not just for us but also Indian manufacturing as a whole that we don't falter um and that's an area we have spent a lot of bandwidth on over the last 5 years.

[00:16:56]>> Absolutely. And you know Vatal Grooyo is positioning itself as an AI powered operating system for fashion manufacturing rather than just a sourcing marketplace right how important was that technology mode in your investment decision and where do you sort of see AI creating the biggest value in industrial supply chains >> uh so we don't see AI as a full moat as such but we more look at it more as an enabler in this business and someone who can really leverage AI to improve efficiency to bring in more designs, trends, uh you know, tie all of that in together. There is a bit of AI that we are also using uh at at the factories to streamline their operations to bring in more visibility, quality control, etc. So, tying all of this together to create a seamless workflow is something that actually brings in more not a single pinpoint solution. And that is where Goyo has really been able to build this kind of uh technology. Uh it needed a lot of data to be also to be able to you know bring AI up to a level where it can meaningfully add value. So we've seen some of these things working. There's a lot of things that are still work in progress but there is a plan. There is we have confidence that this is something that the team will definitely execute on and this is really what will enable uh unlocking a lot of inefficiencies in the entire value chain and create value for all the stakeholders in the ecosystem.

[00:18:29]Absolutely and subin if you could quickly tell us in 30 seconds like fashion supply chains are notoriously fragmented right beyond being a sourcing marketplate what is growers mode why would a global brand or manufacturer find it difficult to sort of switch away from your platform >> so for a global manufacturer today the mandate is not just to procure in 30 days or to procure 500 piece in SKU the mandate is to also ensure that that supply chain is sustainable that they have visibility on that supply chain and it is as foolproof as possible, right?

[00:19:01]Um for the for the brand, we become not just an AI first tech solution but a multi-country, multi-category, one-stop shop where we manage everything from design to delivery and they just tell us that we need this product, we need it at this price, we need it delivered in London at this date, right? Then and the entire back end is managed by grower and they get it 100% visibility on that supply chain. that experience is very difficult to replicate for any customer um whether if they work with any other offline player and that I think is what really makes them stick with us and grow their business with us.

[00:19:32]>> Absolutely. All right, Vatal and Subin, thank you so much for taking time out and being here with us on Startup Street today.

[00:19:39]>> Thank you so much.

[00:19:40]>> Thank you.

[00:19:41]>> Well, with that, it's time for us to head into a short break, but coming up, Teamase is on track to meet India deployment target of $10 billion, says Rabi Lamb, the company's India head. A special conversation on the other side.

[00:19:53]Stay tuned.

[00:20:05][music] >> [music] >> Good evening. Let's do it right with Novama presents the wealth brief where today's market moves are decoded to guide your wealth journey. Indian markets end sharply lower as the Nifty slips below the 24,000 mark amid broad-based selling. The Sensex falls 715 points to 76,755.

[00:22:44]>> [music] >> Well, artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming the defining investment theme for global Capital and Tease is among the investors that's putting the biggest numbers behind that conviction. The Singapore investment giant now wants to more than double its AI exposure to as much as 15% of its portfolio in the next 5 years, betting across the entire AI value chain. But what does that mean for India? Where does TESIC see the next opportunities here? And how importantly is it navigating an increasingly uncertain global environment? To answer all of that and more, joining us now is Ravi Lamba, the head of strategic initiatives and the head of India at TESC. Well, you know, your review also talks about this turning point for the global order. You know, there's tariffs, there's protectionism, there's geopolitical fragmentation. All of that is reshaping capital flows. Again, today you had, you know, comments from Donald Trump on pharma and whatnot. Uh, you know, how is that changing the way you think about investing today versus what you'd, you know, do in terms of allocating capital two years ago? How are you ringing fencing your portfolio?

[00:23:58]>> So I as a as an investment house we do not allocate by sector or geography. We are agnostic. We are very bottom updriven for opportunities and and you know frankly all these these factors that you say we will factor that into our investment uh underwriting thesis.

[00:24:12]So a tariff for example is another cost element that we will add just like we'll add other costs. Could be raw material could be anything. So we're not and we're not and we look at these as inputs to our investment process. uh we are very long-term in in our investment orientation and we look at it over the long term and frankly if you get the cost structure right uh whatever it contains you underwrite the value accordingly and that's how we look at it there's nothing specific that we draw from the current thing we simply make sure that we are able to to the best of our ability to capture what it takes to understand the value of a company before we before we invest and we're driven by intrinsic value when we think about investing and exiting so that's the test that drives us >> all right So essentially no change in strategy on account of this uncertaintity we're seeing globally. So let's get to India then. I mean India has been one of your strongest performing markets in the last decade and still the share of your global portfolio you know uh here has eased from 7% to 8%. Simply a you know currency and portfolio mathematics or valuations here are making it harder for you to find attractive opportunities.

[00:25:16]What's happening here?

[00:25:17]>> Sure. Let me give you some perspective on that. I think firstly we had said a few years ago that we would try to deploy between uh uh you know 9 to10 billion in India over the next 3 years and and we're on track. I'm happy to report that you know in the last 3 years we've deployed close to 9 billion and uh and it's not like we're slowing down. We are happy to keep looking for opportunities and deploy more capital.

[00:25:37]What happened last year was actually quite specific. Uh we were approximately 50 billion US in exposure to India in 2020 uh 425. In 2526 we had two two events. One was the exit of our investment in Schneider India where which was you know north of $6 billion and then there was of course some sellown by Singapore Telecom uh of their stake in Airtel. I think they sold close to 2.7 billion of which we account for about 50%. So if you add those two up there was one those are the two main reasons why the sort of close to 50 billion has come down to about 42 and the 7% is simply just an outcome. We don't manage the portfolio by country or by by country or sector. We're driven bottom up and that that just so happens to be the percentage from our perspective. We're we keep looking forward to deploy you know what we said we would and if opportunity presents itself we can even deploy more than what we said in India because we like the theatic India's been a great performing market for us despite you know all the all the headwinds we've seen on the currency and and we're very happy with our portfolio performance in India.

[00:26:37]Well, I was just zooming into India then uh you know because India has been one of your strongest performing markets in the last decade but still its share has eased a bit from 8% to 7% now is that simply because of what's happening on the currency front or are valuations here making it harder for you to find attractive opportunities >> I mean given what we own today we we would like to double down on what we own firstly so you know we we own uh stakes in fin in financial services in healthcare uh in in consumer in industrial. So I think those are all great sectors and we will keep finding more investments in that and and we'll keep finding and we'll keep peeling the onion. So what I mean by that is you know we first started investing in banks and financial services. Then we then we moved that to investing in insurance and there we moved into asset management. We did some fintech. So in that in that in that sort of journey we will keep putting more capital in in these sectors that we understand well and we believe play very well to India's thematic uh and India's growth. uh healthcare services is something we like a lot you know we have several investments in India we have investments in manipal in Madanta in Dr. Agger walls in cloud9 for example you know we have investments in some farmer businesses we have investments in some consumer businesses we we took a stake in HIram because we uh last year because we see a significant growth in in that in that sector and we'll find more opportunities in that sector as well because we think investing behind great brands that can serve you know our 430 million and growing middle class where you know where the ability to spend is increasing is a is a very good place for us to be.

[00:28:10]plays very well to automatic.

[00:28:12]>> Thanks very much Ravi for taking the time out to speak with us. Always a pleasure having you here.

[00:28:18]>> Thank you. Thanks. Good talking to you.