Ayanti Bera

3 days ago | financialexpress.com | Ayanti Bera

Vertex Ventures ramps up India investments, targeting AI, fintech, and consumer brands. With a $541M fund, it focuses on Series A deals, backing startups like SpotDraft, Spyne, and Nuuk. The VC is bullish on SME lending, wealthtech, and sustainable AI startups amid rising exit opportunities.

1 week ago | financialexpress.com | Ayanti Bera

While urban consumers are hooked to 10-minute delivery apps like Blinkit and Zepto, Bengaluru-based KiranaPro is tapping into smaller cities and towns with its voice-led, multilingual platform that allows users to order from their neighbourhood provision stores. Launched just three months ago, KiranaPro is operational in 35 cities with the majority of them in southern India, particularly Kerala. It has so far onboarded 30,000 kirana stores and plans to add 1 million of them this year.

1 week ago | financialexpress.com | Ayanti Bera

Expert Dojo, a Southern California-based early-stage venture capital (VC) firm, has launched a $100 million global fund, earmarking $15 million for early-stage startups in India. The fund will operate through a Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) structure registered in India, allowing the VC firm to act as a local investor and sidestep compliance challenges typically faced by foreign investors.

2 weeks ago | financialexpress.com | Ayanti Bera

Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail (acquired by Microsoft in 1997) and one of the early pioneers of the Internet startup boom, believes Indian entrepreneurs need to stop copying global models and start thinking independently. In a conversation with Ayanti Bera, Bhatia talks about the future of AI, why basic research matters, and how his new AI-powered entrepreneurship programme aims to nurture original thinkers.

2 weeks ago | financialexpress.com | Ayanti Bera

Quick commerce platforms like Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart are increasingly turning to advertising revenues to chart a path to profitability, as brands flock to these platforms to tap into a new category of urban, impulse-driven shoppers. With millions of consumers using these platforms for everything from last-minute grocery top-ups to household essentials and even fashion, ad revenues are becoming a key lever for profit, say analysts.