After a great year in 2021 for start-ups, 2022 has seen a slight downturn in the market, in-line with a negative global economic sentiment. As a result, there have been reasonable valuation corrections and a decline in big ticket investment stories. Despite this downturn, for early stage, seed and series A companies, there have been good opportunities for raising funds. We at Hyderabad Angels have taken this opportunity to evaluate start-ups with more favorable terms and have identified a few of them which met our investment criteria.
Chairman's Note: Markets
With regards to our current Portfolio, we continue to closely monitor our companies and are making sure we do everything to support and tide through these times. We continue to refine our investment thesis and are making sure that all our start-ups have a runway for at least 12 to 24 months.
2022 has been especially good for HA as we have seen more than 3+ exits during this year. Hyderabad in specific has showcased some really good opportunities in Space-tech, HR tech, Deep Tech , Cybersecurity , Enterprise SAAS etc. In addition to the aforementioned sectors, we at HA also see an opportunity for growth in sectors like Health Tech, Real Estate Tech, Fintech, Legal Tech, Clean Tech etc., due to increased digitization in India. Another area of interest for the start-up ecosystem has been businesses focused on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities as mobile penetration and the India consumption story grows.
We at HA foresee the first half of 2023 to continue to be slow for investments but also see this as an opportunity for a few select and quality deals. It is a special and proud moment for all of us as HA completed a decade of existence in 2022, with more than 62+ start-up investments and 13+ Full / Partial Exits resulting in a good return for investors. As we enter the new year, we will work towards continuing to add value to both our portfolio companies and investors and continue to strengthen the start-up ecosystem.
Once again, a Happy New Year 2023!
Vice Chairmans Note: Ecosystem Partnerships
Wishing all our members, partners, portfolio companies and startups a Happy New Year and a promising growth-filled year ahead. We are happy to announce HA completed a decade of contribution to the startup ecosystem in terms of Fostering Entrepreneurship. It always looks to stakeholder management as a key to its success with its investment thesis i.e “Think like a VC and invest through a network to bring value beyond capital”. We want our members to be active in terms of participation in the growth story of startups.
After 2 long years of Covid i.e 2020 and 2021 which resulted in online participation made most of the stakeholders meeting in person at bay. But when things are settling down in 2022, we took this opportunity to bring more active participation on the ground in order to give back to the ecosystem and important stakeholders in Hyderabad. We have been a major player in supporting the Hyderabad ecosystem’s growth in terms of funding and contributing in various forms to the ecosystem.
Various activities in which HA is playing a key important role with the help of ecosystem partners are mentorship by HA members, re-initiated weekly VC office hours with T-Hub, Wehub , IMAGE , Participating in various panel discussions, and more.
HA has also been part of the Investment Committee (IC) in a few of the Startup India Seed Funds raised by various incubators and accelerators in Hyderabad. It also contributed and participated in the TiE Global Summit that happened in Hyderabad 2022, one of the biggest events of the year by evaluating more than 400+ startups. Another great year for HA and members showing resilience and bringing more key stakeholders to improve funding opportunities. We are able to increase our membership base almost by 40% during this period which helps to meet our objective of fostering entrepreneurship in Hyderabad and India.
We also have an opportunity our founding member Mr. BV Mohan Reddy garu to discuss on his recent book launch ‘Engineered in India’ and we thank him for his continued support for the growth of the ecosystem and during that day we are able to facilitate other founding members Srini Raju and Suresh Babu who have created their niche.
Once again Happy New Year and continue our journey for another decade with all support of the ecosystem players and contribution for Startup growth in India.
Our Investments:
Exit
Portfolio Updates & Raising Next Round Funding
My3dSelfie
a 3D Modelling tech company, secured an investment of over Rs. 10.5Cr from The Chennai Angels, Dholakia Ventures, IIT-IIM Angels, Hyderabad Angels, and others.
Bell+
Our portfolio company, Bellplus Media, which carved a niche for itself in digital advertising services and now aims for 20,000 screens across 20 cities by end of 2023.
Blusmart:
Our portfolio company BLU SMART INDIA plans to raise $250 million (USD) to expand its presence to six cities by 2024.
Read More: https://lnkd.in/g6QteXH6
We are proud to announce that our portfolio company BluSmart has been awarded Mobility Startup of the Year 2022 at Entrepreneur Awards.
Synersoft:
Synersoft Technologies Private Limited has developed technology that can save 80% of the yearly cloud subscription costs for MSMEs.
Read More: https://lnkd.in/g6QteXH6
Innovapptive:
We congratulate our portfolio company Innovapptive Inc. for securing $15 Million (USD) credit facility from Espresso Capital.
Read More: https://lnkd.in/g6QteXH6
Events and Collaborations:
TiE Global Summit 2022
Hyderabad Angels participated on one of the biggest startup event TiE Global Summit 2022 conducted on December 12th and 13th 2022. We had setup a dedicated booth during the event where there was an opportunity to interact with fellow investors, partners, and startup entrepreneurs. We witnessed an overwhelming response from startups and entrepreneurs, pitching their business ideas.
T-Hub Office Hours:
Hyderabad Angels (HA) re-initiated our center at T-Hub and as a part of partnership, HA meets 2-3 startup every week on Wednesday. During this meeting, HA advises and mentors startups to help take their business plan to next level. Till date we have met, advised, and mentored 15+ startups since November 2022 to December 2022.
BVR Book Launch
A proud moment for Hyderabad Angels to host the book launch of Shri. BVR Mohan Reddy Garu. We received an overwhelming response from our members who attended the event, along with the HA founding members, Shri. Srini Raju Garu and Shri. Suresh Babu Garu.
