India brims with abundant intellectual capital and innovation promise. Yet for fledgling ventures, the journey from garage prototyping to securing Series A funding seems insurmountable given limited guidance.
Vlive India seeks to transform such promising entrepreneurs’ outlook through Startup Pro – an investment platform led by 200+ collective years of entrepreneurial experience specifically backing early-stage Indian startups through extensive advisory support on scaling business models sustainably.
With half the leadership team boasting startup founder backgrounds themselves and the rest comprising our CXOs, Startup Pro accelerates commercialization with an empathy no typical VC possesses. Its unique working capital injections range between INR 1.5 crore – 12 crore based on tailored revenue acceleration plans crafted through deep collaboration.
Beyond disrupting India’s electronics manufacturing status quo, We now champion the nation’s thriving startup ecosystem playing the long game focused on unlocking founders’ full potential more than short-term exits.
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Startup Pro: Guiding Through the Founder’s Perspective
The seeds for Startup Pro took root in Vlive India Chairman Manish Sharma’s mind in 2016. A first-generation entrepreneur himself, Sharma endured capital and mentorship scarcity challenges during early days of bootstrap-funding our journey through LED TV assembly and trading in Jaipur.
Despite outpacing rivals, the fledgling us grappled with rapid manufacturing scaling complexities. The lack of dependable guidance from investors who appreciated hardware intricacies often impeded growth journeys. This Concept emerged from Sharma’s craving for an evangelist backing homegrown innovation through true partnership transcending transactional investment.
After leading Vlive to surmount electronics segments conventionally relying on imports, Sharma felt India’s business landscape maturation opened new possibilities for diversification if promising startups received nurturing support.
Thus the concept was conceived to institutionalize holistic backing for emerging ventures through tailored capital injections, hand-holding hyper-growth execution, and targeted global market expansion assistance leveraging Vlive’s distribution networks and advisors who resonated with the founder’s journey intimately.
Vlive India: By Founders, For Founders
Startup Pro’s core team and advisors contribute their 100% efforts, time, and expertise in accelerating startups, including multiple entrepreneurial ventures nurtured to IPOs.
Leadership boasts pedigrees representing India’s premier academic institutions like IITs/IIMs and multinationals including Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Wipro before seeking independent paths. Having navigated through their startup journeys, they comprehend scaling business models, wrestling fundraising, and managing hypergrowth uniquely.
For Startup Pro’s Founder Manish Sharma – founding CEO of Vlive India – traditional capital plays safer with vanilla ventures in familiar domains. But India’s startup success lies in bold ambitions. Manish feels StartupPro provides rocket fuel for early winners to fully actualize disruption visions most would deem unrealistic, guiding beyond monetary infusion.
“If we simply judged ideas only on current metrics ignoring possibilities, we would have never funded novel experiments attempting electric vehicles, distributing Linux or voice assistants enabling everything through the cloud when technologies appeared in distant futures.”
Targeting High-Trajectory Concepts
Startup Pro focuses investments into early revenue B2B startups in IT & AI spaces like SaaS, Fintech, Direct-to-Consumer e-commerce, and B2B logistics & supply chain platforms that have IT support and tech systems built in them.
Preferred checks range between INR 1.5 crore – 12 crore depending on business models and funding stages with higher amounts reserved for follow-on rounds. The team favors founders chasing ambitious addressable markets globally while locating development operations within India for cost efficiencies.
They assess opportunities using metrics beyond convention by evaluating progress achieved relative to capital utilization rate for selecting high-flywheel potential teams displaying capabilities to creatively manage runways through bootstrapping.
Under This Umbrella already boosted over 150 startups across India including 12 turning unicorns. Portfolio startups have raised over $1 billion downstream capital to date with 13 graduating to Series B onwards and 2 launching IPOs.
Accelerating the Venture Flywheel
However, we distinguish ourselves beyond capital deployment through hands-on acceleration support enabling entrepreneurs to traverse challenging inflection points for excelling globally.
Dedicated strategy consultants guide business model fine-tuning using traction data for enhancing conversion rates. Contracts with leading cloud marketplaces provide free credits easing infrastructure budgets while implementation partners onboard platforms rapidly into production.
Referrals to proven channel partners, distributors, and marketing agencies help amplify early communications for user acquisition assistance. For overseas expansion, Our trade consultants help portfolio ventures secure anchor contracts and regulatory compliance overseas using our supply relationships. Such comprehensive assistance allows founders to focus uniquely on IP differentiation and team growth during fragile stages.
Our internal R&D facilities and product testing labs offer portfolio startups prototype access for solution advancement assisting real-world testing. Startup teams gain opportunities to interact directly with Vlive’s 1000+ employees for idea feedback through town halls, expanding imagination for applications across domains.
Such immersive support explains our incredible hit rate across its portfolio where 75% of ventures succeed in expanding into follow-on funding rounds higher than Series B through India’s top VCs compared to 35% average rates nationally.
Driving Open Innovation Culture
We also pioneer unique corporate innovation programs facilitating promising startups signing pilot contracts with us for demonstrating solutions viability before securing next-stage investments.
These experiments conducted within our business units assist in building reference credentials for follow-up fundraising outreach to institutional VCs. Conversely, our business heads gain early visibility across emerging technologies they can leverage for internal tooling upgrades.
Over 38 POCs are currently underway across business functions from VR-based shop floor training through inventory forecasting algorithms to automated warehousing robotics with 6 shifting into fully paid deployments based on return-on-investment validation.
Manish Sharma believes such cross-pollination of ideas between corporates and founders will grow the innovation economy faster while diversifying startup funding sources beyond financial investors. Win-win partnerships get formed rather than one-sided bargains.
Fueling Startups to Power India’s Tomorrow
From revolutionizing electronics manufacturing to pioneering the startup investment space focused on multiplying fledging ventures’ prospects, we keep expanding India’s possibilities.
Manish Sharma concludes “Business success should create inclusive prosperity for society by expanding possibilities for other aspiring change-makers too. Through Startup Pro, we aim to power the upcoming generation of founders now scripting India’s future across industries.”
Just like Vlive India’s factories support various electronics brands’ ambitions while furthering domestic manufacturing, Startup Pro aims to seed an entire startup garden where ideas flourish transforming more lives progressively.
Vlive India Private Limited (Vlive)
At Vlive, we’re more than just an electronics company. We’re innovators, dreamers, and visionaries committed to enhancing your world through cutting-edge technology. With a history of excellence and a future filled with possibilities, we’re your trusted partner for a smarter, more connected tomorrow.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
What business stages does Startup Pro focus on investment?
Startup Pro backs early revenue startups – seed through pre-Series A stage ventures – chasing ambitious addressable markets globally, predominantly in B2B SaaS, Fintech, Direct-to-Consumer eCommerce, and enterprise modernization services.
What percentage stake does Startup Pro aim for?
A 10-15% minority equity stake is targeted for initial round investments by Startup Pro allowing founders to retain controlling interests for directing vision.
How many Vlive India advisors support Startup Pro?
Over 50 Vlive business heads across strategy, sales, marketing, operations, manufacturing, and R&D provide mentoring assistance to Startup Pro portfolio founders periodically.