When we first invested in Uniphore, the conversational AI startup in 2014, it was based in Chennai. Today, its founders operate from USA and Singapore with a global team. Over the years, we worked closely with its founders to co-create a scalable business model. The company, co-founded by Umesh Sachdev and Ravi Saraogi, adapted to market dynamics and pivoted from a ‘Licensed-based’ model to a SaaS proposition. As Uniphore’s enterprise-driven business scaled, it expanded into overseas markets with Ravi relocating to Singapore in 2017 and won validation by serving global corporations. Umesh set up a presence in the US in 2018 to ramp-up business and attract top global talent. It quickly broke into the market with the acquisition of a customer from amongst the Top 10 of Fortune 100 list. The company also saw John Chambers of CISCO (and now JC2 Ventures) coming on board as a lead investor in its Series-B round in 2017.

YourNest’s initial investment in Uniphore in April 2014 was with a commitment of INR 9.9 mn. The product validation encouraged us to double the stake and we increased it further with an investment of INR 62 mn as the company moved to the SaaS model.

At the end of June 2020, the journey of investing with a great team came to its logical conclusion as we exited Uniphore at an IRR of 42.8%, making a 6.6x return. We wish the Uniphore team every success and look forward to seeing them build a global leading SaaS company. In these turbulent times, a profitable cash exit is heartening, and we were delighted to share the proceeds with our investors returning 62% of the fund corpus invested. This also validated our thesis of investing in pre-series A startups with a global vision and a strong team.

In 2010, a company named MyCity4Kids identified a gap in the market around childrenrelated services.

YourNest invested in 2012, after the company successfully rolled out services in a single city and was ready for multi-city replication. The platform was growing well, but it was missing a viral impact for such services. The founding team was open-minded and willing to deliberate; they then decided to launch a blogging platform that leverages the audience of the existing listing platform.

The blogging platform has, since then, enabled millions of mothers to share insights of their own journey to motherhood. Consumer brands began paying a premium for high quality, focused content (e.g. a blog on hygiene can be sponsored by Dettol or a baby food supplements blog by Nestlé) and this enabled them to reach their target audience in one go. To enhance their target audience, the Company rebranded Mycity4kids to Momspresso as the content was being created by mothers around children, but was actually being consumed only by mothers.
In December, 2021, Momspresso was acquired by Honasa Consumer, the parent company of digitally-native brands such as Mamaearth and The Derma Co.

In this Exit, YourNest recorded an IRR of 20.6%, making 4.3x on the overall investment. The return is 6.1x on the initial investment of INR 50 mn that YourNest made in 2012 and 2013.

In 2016, YourNest invested in Singapore-based startup, CoveIoT – an end-to-end smart IoT wearables platform which enables third-party brands to launch their own range of smart products.

Their key differentiators, at that time, were their unique end-to-end IPs in three domains: (a) Scalable Hardware Platform, (b) Application and Cloud Services Framework and (c) Analytics to enhance relevance.

Their first product was a smart watch for urban women that focused on safety, and was co-developed in partnership with Titan Company. CoveIoT continued to strengthen their technology platform which created differentiated value rather than spreading thin limited resources on branding and distribution.

This guidance by YourNest helped CoveIoT in expanding from smart watches to jewellery, accessories and apparel. It increased their tech focus and the company even unveiled its own smart wearable operating system at CES 2018, with innovative features in safety, fitness tracking and health.

By 2021, the company had over 30 patents, more than 5 mn global users with 20+ brand partnerships providing health and wellness solutions.

In Jan ‘22, CoveIoT was acquired by BoAt India’s Singapore vertical. While it is a matter of pride that an Indian brand has acquired CoveIoT’s technology to take it global, in this Exit, YourNest recorded an IRR of 26%, making 2.8x on the overall investment and 4.5x on the initial investment.

In 2016, YourNest invested in SmartQ, a digital cafeteria software startup. SmartQ had identified an opportunity to eliminate queues/waiting period from the face of this world and build an m-commerce model around it by capitalising on digital-friendly users. It started with a mobile app enabling users to order food from service outlets in food courts within 20 seconds. SmartQ’s technology tools helped it win corporate clients and adoption of this technical knowhow by one of the largest global players who provide food to the corporate sector – the UK-based Compass Group. To strengthen its business model, SmartQ had acquired Nextup in late 2018, to integrate an end-to-end cafeteria marketplace.

In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, it further automated the cafeteria experience by offering a decongestion solution and cashless food ordering with its Café Pass application. A focused play made SmartQ relevant for strategic acquisition within four years of our partnership.

YourNest’s initial commitment in SmartQ was with a commitment of INR 30 mn in 2016 for 14.9% shareholding. We had followed up by increasing our stake to 18% with some of our LPs also participating in the round.

In Aug ’20, SmartQ was acquired by UK-based Compass Group. YourNest recorded an IRR of 16.1%, making 1.8x on the overall investment and 1.9x on the initial investment.

In late December 2020, YourNest invested in Gurugram-based startup, Xpedize – A FinTech company that provides a proprietary Software with a Service (SwaS) to bring a buyer and its suppliers on a common platform to discover a cash discounting rate either through supplier-initiated requests, buyer-initiated offers, or a unique auction event.

From the moment the investment was completed, the YourNest team began working with the founders on several key areas.

Our partners helped in the hiring of key people. They interviewed the A line team to see if they will be a fit for the growth story of the company. Our team helped Xpedize in recruitment of the sales team from premier institutes. Further, our engagement with the team helped align their marketing and sales strategies.

We made several introductions to other investors, including HDFC Capital which eventually came on board as a co-investor in Xpedize during our round of investment. When their platform was ready for launch, the YourNest team introduced the company to multiple potential clients which helped them bring significant traction on their platform.

Our guidance regarding raising the next round of funding and going to external investors early was of key importance, as this led to Xpedize receiving an acquisition offer from Online taxation and fintech software provider Clear (formerly ClearTax).

Xpedize was the 10^th investment of YourNest India VC Fund II. We invested INR 3.84 crore in late December 2020 in a pre-series A round. The round also saw participation from HDFC Capital.

In February 2022, Xpedize was acquired by Clear at valuation of INR 66 crore (US$ 8.8 mn). We received the sale proceeds of INR 8.95 crore on 16th March 2022. YourNest recorded an IRR of 105%, making 2.3x on the overall investment.

We had invested in Arya.ai, an artificial intelligence venture, in 2015. While AI is in the news today, it was an outlier at that time. But our team identified Arya.ai as a compelling opportunity as it was a pioneer in its space. And now we have exited the company with AurionPro, a listed entity providing technology solutions in the banking domain, acquiring a majority controlling stake.

The company, founded by two IIT Mumbai graduates – Vinay Kumar Sankarapu and Deekshith Marla – spent the early years building neural networks mimicking the brain and learning continuously to adapt to the changing user perspective. It was the first Artificial Intelligence company that passed the ‘Goertzel Test’, where AI excels humans in a college test. It also outperformed humans in the toughest medicine exam by taking less than 0.002% of time taken by humans.

Though the company faced its own set of unique challenges – from educating various stakeholders about AI, to identifying the GTM and arriving at the right PMF, the company finally found its niche in the BFSI domain. With the help of its APIs/modules, Arya is servicing banks and insurance companies in automation, claim settlement, insurance underwriting and fraud prevention. Besides these, the company is also exploring the observability and accountability aspect of AI with Arya XAI. While the monetisation model was still being discovered at the time of the investment, the company reached a scale of US$ 4mn ARR with over 50% PAT margin at the end of FY24, with significant traction and growth coming in the last two years.

Arya.ai raised a total of INR 150 mn during its lifetime with a commitment of INR 40 mn from YourNest. In April 2024, Arya was acquired by Aurionpro Solutions at a valuation of INR 150 crore (US$ 18 mn). YourNest recorded an IRR of 16.5%, making 3.1x on the overall investment.