General Catalyst's Venture Highway Acquisition: A Strategic Play for India 🇮🇳

Heard from a little bird that General Catalyst's deal of acquiring VH has fallen through? Can someone confirm? Also what do you think of VH in general? I feel expensive bets with low single digit stakes. Personally, the folks especially Associates are way way too cocky and only believe in Faff

- Accel gearing up for eighth India fund, aiming for $600-700M by end of 2024 - First major VC fundraise after 2022's funding winter, signaling potential market thaw - Firm's stable team and strong track record expected to attract significant LP interest - Accel known for early bets on Flipkart and Freshworks, seeks to maintain early-stage edge - Company culture praised for alignment and handling of failures, but some sector gaps noted Source: [The Arc](https://thearcweb.com/article/accel-india-fund-flipkart-freshworks-venture-capital-1lhpqpT5OmDbBxTs)

Budget 2024 scrapped the angel tax for all investors, creating the ultimate playground for innovation and entrepreneurship in India.

Seeing the S&P500 witness a spectacular "short" rally before popping, and then it becoming decidedly clear that even if the rate hikes were unlikely it was still going to be a long time before rates come down. Becoming much more clearer that the impact on various asset classes and securities is going to be muted for the time to be. Unless interest rates come down, I can't possibly imagine that the VC funding will pick up again, their LPs can't put in more money unless interest rates come down. Cheap capital fuels the VC ecosystem, if capital isn't cheap then allocation in VC Funds goes down to adjust to a newly adjusted risk appetite of investors.

Been spending way too much time on Grapevine lately - absolutely loving it @Micheal_Scott! Posted the Prosus report takeaways yday - lots of you DMed asking questions. Then I saw NewsAnchor break down the entire Prosus Annual Report - great stuff. I was an Associate at one of the largest VC funds in India, so I enjoy going through new reports and summarising them - found my notes from Bain's India Venture Capital Report 2024. Thought of sharing the unedited summary that I shared with the Partners at the fund, have a bunch of these - can share more if of value to any of you here (ofc removing the confidential parts) Notes: 1/ India's maintaining its gravitational pull despite the global funding crunch. Sure, overall funding nosedived 63% to $9.6B, but we're still the #2 destination in Asia-Pacific. Might not necessarily be a crash, it's a necessary course correction. 2/ Early-stage investing is showing remarkable resilience. Seed deals now comprise 70% of all deals, up from 60%, with average check sizes holding steady at $1.4M. Smart money is quietly positioning itself for the next wave of innovation. 3/ The tech-only playbook is being rewritten. While consumer tech, fintech, and SaaS still command 60% of funding, traditional sectors like BFSI are gaining ground, with average deal sizes jumping from $8M to $15M. We're witnessing the birth of tech-enabled, not just tech-centric, growth stories. 4/ The unicorn factory has hit pause, with only 2 new billion-dollar valuations vs. 23 in 2022. Mega-rounds ($100M+) plummeted from 48 to 15. This isn't a drought; it's a return to fundamentals. The era of grow-now-profit-later is firmly behind us. 5/ Generative AI isn't just hype; it's reshaping the landscape. Funding exploded from $15M to $250M, with 80% flowing to existing companies integrating AI. India's quickly becoming a laboratory for practical AI applications, not just speculative moonshots. 6/ Electric mobility is rewiring itself. While overall funding dipped slightly to $600M+, charging infrastructure investment surged 50%. The real opportunity isn't just in vehicles; it's in building out the entire EV ecosystem. 7/ Exits are defying gravity, leaping 1.7x to $6.6B. Public market sales led the charge at 55%, even as IPOs cooled. LPs are getting liquidity, and the secondary market is proving surprisingly robust. There's still appetite for quality assets. 8/ PE is no longer just watching from the sidelines. These players doubled their share to 25% of investments, going toe-to-toe with traditional VCs. The lines between growth equity and venture capital are blurring, and it's changing the game for late-stage rounds. 9/ We're watching natural selection in real-time. Yes, 35,000+ startups shuttered and 20,000+ layoffs hit the headlines. But companies like Groww and Indifi turned profitable. This isn't a bubble bursting; it's an ecosystem strengthening its foundations. 10/ Domestic VCs are coming of age. While overall fund-raising halved to $4B, homegrown VCs led 90%+ of raises. They're not just following; they're specializing, with thematic funds like Omnivore's $150M agritech vehicle. The ecosystem is bootstrapping its own future. 11/ Regulation isn't just tightening; it's evolving. Angel Tax expanded and lending norms got stricter, but we're also seeing innovative policies like UPI for foreign travelers. India's crafting a uniquely balanced approach to fostering innovation while maintaining stability. Topics we can discuss during our standup: 1/ Can India produce global tech giants if it's primarily adopting rather than pioneering in areas like AI? How do we enable this? 2/ How will the shift towards profitability impact India's ability to foster truly disruptive innovations? Implications for us, how should we be evaluating deals differently? 3/ With domestic VCs leading the charge, how will this change India's startup narrative on the global stage? 4/ Is this maturation setting the stage for more resilient, globally competitive Indian startups, or are we risking our innovation edge? How do we look at thesis driven investing v/s fomo investing? Link to Bain's report - https://www.bain.com/insights/india-venture-capital-report-2024/ P.S. Do note that this is 6+ months old - data points mostly look diff now but sharing it anyways. Will post more as and when I get time :)

Go ahead, ask if we pushed founders to commit fraud.

https://anonymfile.com/NEEXl/tiger-global-draft-of-new-yorker-story-doing-the-rounds-in-nyc.pdf TLDR: Tiger Global may pass soon.