The Venture Intelligence Blog

From elephants and snake charmers to software coders/coolies to app-toting delivery boys/dabba-walahs, the image of what's "happening" in India keeps morphing. And IIT-ians get added to the mix somewhere. " India is becoming the land of the errand app. " declared a recent Bloomberg News article that got featured in various international publications. Extracts: “People today want to do as much as possible with their phones,” said TinyOwl co-founder (Harsh Vardhan) Mandad, who graduated from Mumbai’s Indian Institute of Technology in 2012. “It is a friction just to go out – there’s the heavy traffic, pollution and waiting involved for a cab.” The startups are carving out niches by serving certain neighborhoods or parts of cities, realizing the “hyper-local” strategy long envisioned in more developed countries including the U.S. Larger e-commerce companies such as Flipkart and Snapdeal dominate online sales of more traditional goods, including books, apparel...

Extracts from a post on the Lightspeed Ventures India blog (emphasis mine): Traditionally, young Indian women and men have struggled to meet new and like-minded people owing to various socio-cultural constructs. Consequently, most social interactions are limited to friends and family. Online dating, while promising, could not solve this problem. Fake profiles, in-appropriate behavior, cumbersome matching process, low internet penetration were some of the key challenges that prevented online platforms to flourish. ...Vee leverages the power of mobile along with a product approach that is entirely focused on women . Through features such as anonymous browsing, male loyalty enforcement (limited simultaneous connections), abuse reporting – Vee places the power in the hands of women with an aim to become a trustworthy platform for them. In addition, mobile based hyper-local elements enable instant and relevant matching. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analys...