Dear Investors,
In keeping with our philosophy of investing in cutting edge ideas with sound teams, we are happy to announce our 4th investment in Chennai based Uniphore Software Systems. The startup was incubated at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) and operates in the speech recognition and voice biometrics area. Uniphore has already built sizable recognition and is serving 3 million customers and 30 clients in the fields of agriculture, banking and insurance. The company is the first to offer voice solutions in 14 Indian languages and is building an impressive client list that includes global MNCs like Amex & Airbus.
It was with a sense of elation that we received the news of ZipDial being ranked 8th amongst the “World’s Most Innovative Companies 2014”. This Indian company’s innovation of “engaging customers on a missed-call” competed with established players like Google, Dropbox, Airbnb, Nike, Apple, Amazon and so on. It was a big fillip to our belief in the ability to identify bright ideas as I had led the angel investment in ZipDial.
Innovation, and not revenue, defines the value of a company has been brought into the spotlight with facebook’s declared valuation of USD 19 billion for WhatsApp. It is a resounding affirmation of YourNest’s investing philosophy and once again highlights the opportunities that tech and mobile spaces offer for value creation.
While worldwide the economies and polities, and even the weather have been disrupting daily life and creating setbacks due to tumultuous changes, the angel investors and innovators are a tribe that thrive on it. The best times are yet to be, and as the poet said:
“Grow old along with me
The Best is yet to be.”
Sunil K. Goyal
February 26, 2014