Dear Investor,
While it is common knowledge that we VCs spend a large proportion of our time with startup founders, we also spend hours meeting a number of interns and career-seekers who are keen to join us fresh out of university. And invariably, I discuss what we do and what motivates them to consider venture capital as a domain. The other day, this led to a conversation where we were trying to estimate the number of people who work in the VC industry – a VC being a firm that evaluates, invests in and exits startups to return committed wealth to its investors. This is distinct from an angel investor whose primary occupation lies elsewhere.
We realised then that there cannot be more than 8 – 10,000 individuals in the Indian VC industry. That too may be a stretch if LinkedIn is anything to go by: a search for Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals working in relevant companies in India throws up just 3,200 people.
The actual number, however, is less important than the impact these individuals have on the economy as a whole. Inc42’s ‘The State Of Indian Startup Ecosystem Report 2023’ indicates that we will have over 180,000 startups by 2030, and that US$ 141 bn was invested between 2014-H1 2023 resulting in a combined valuation exceeding US$ 500 bn. Evidently, VCs have a significant effect on job creation and propelling socio-economic progress at a unit level. The report also states that we will have over 22,000 active investors by 2030: to paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill’s 1940 speech in another context, “Never… was so much owed by so many to so few.”
This led us to introspect even deeper, and we went back further back in time: the etymology of the word ‘invest’ comes from the mid-16th century French and Italian usage when it was used in the senses of ‘clothe’, ‘clothe with the insignia of a rank’, and ‘endow with authority’ i.e. when we invest in someone or something, we accord it a higher stature and acknowledge its credibility. Three of us started YourNest in 2011 with no experience. It also meant we had no baggage. So, we approached it with a sense of adventure and set out to be the first VC firm that would invest ‘Nurture Capital’. Today, as we look back, we know how much we have not just learned but also inspired others to emulate. Our team remains committed to both entrepreneurs and investors, and perhaps it is this that attracts some of India’s most curious minds to zero in on the VC industry: as career-innovators themselves, their induction into a relatively small industry with very high impact augurs well for the spirit of enterprise and innovation across India.
On a separate note, as part of our continued learning and improving as an organisation, we undertook two studies by external partners: in October-November ’23, Myriad Communications conducted a high-level, qualitative study to assess the strength of our enterprise relationship with our founders so that the YourNest team can work better to meet their requirements and enable their growth. In March this year, Unqbe worked extensively with our leadership team on aspects of organization building on four dimensions of leadership, culture, organization design and capabilities.
In this annual report of FY24, you will read about what our challengineer-founders have accomplished and where we are headed with promising new startups. The unprecedented success of the Velocity Fast-track Funding Program we kicked off in May along with another accelerator, SanchiConnect, yielded 1,282 applications in less than a fortnight. These are currently being shortlisted, and we will share more updates in the coming weeks. Our pipeline remains robust, our commitment reinforced.
Thank you once again for enabling us to change the lives of so many daring young entrepreneurs, their teams and their families.
Yours sincerely,
Sunil K. Goyal
Managing Director & Fund Manager
June 30, 2024