Latest news with #EightRoadsVentures
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
01-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Flipkart-backed Shadowfax Technologies files for Rs 2,500 crore IPO
Shadowfax Technologies Ltd, a logistics firm backed by Flipkart, has filed a confidential draft red herring prospectus with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for an initial public offering (IPO), according to people familiar with the matter. The offering is expected to raise between Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 2,500 crore through a combination of fresh issuance and an offer for sale by existing shareholders. The IPO could value the company at around Rs 8,500 crore, the people said. This represents a significant premium to its February 2025 funding round valuation of approximately Rs 6,000 crore, reflecting investor confidence in the logistics sector's growth prospects. In its last fundraise in February 2025, the company raised primary and secondary capital at an approximate valuation of Rs 6,000 crore. The company plans to utilise the proceeds from the fresh issue towards enhancing capacity, driving growth, and further investments in its network business, according to sources. The e-commerce segment is the major revenue contributor, accounting for around 75 per cent of the business, positioning Shadowfax to benefit from India's booming online retail sector. The remainder comes from quick commerce and hyperlocal deliveries. Shadowfax is backed by marquee investors such as Flipkart, TPG, Eight Roads Ventures and Mirae Asset Ventures. The IPO filing comes as Shadowfax is tapping the Indian logistics market, valued at Rs 9 trillion in FY23, which is projected to grow significantly, reaching Rs 13.4 trillion by FY28, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8–9 per cent, according to a recent report by Motilal Oswal. This growth is being fuelled by structural shifts, technological advancements, and government initiatives aimed at reducing logistics costs and improving infrastructure. With a robust distribution network covering over 2,200 cities and more than 14,300 PIN codes, Shadowfax has established itself as one of the leading firms in the logistics industry, analysts say. But it faces competition from several logistics and delivery companies in India, including Delhivery, XpressBees, Ecom Express, Blue Dart, and Shiprocket. These companies operate in similar spaces, offering express delivery, e-commerce logistics, and hyperlocal delivery services, with some like Delhivery already public and others exploring similar IPO paths. Founded in 2015 by Abhishek Bansal, Vaibhav Khandelwal, Praharsh Chandra, and Gaurav Jaithliya, the Bengaluru-based Shadowfax Technologies counts more than 1.25 lakh monthly active delivery partners. It has raised $247 million in funding to date, according to data provider Tracxn. Eight Roads Ventures holds the largest external stake at about 25 per cent, followed by Flipkart at 15.6 per cent, according to Tracxn. Other backers include NGP and Mirae Asset, while the founding team retains a combined 20 per cent stake. The company reported a 33.2 per cent rise in revenue to Rs 1,885 crore in fiscal 2024 and narrowed its losses sharply to Rs 11.8 crore, down nearly 92 per cent from the previous year.
Entrepreneur
30-06-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
TR Capital Acquires Stakes in MoEngage, Shadowfax, and Whatfix for Over USD 50 Mn
The transaction was completed with global investment firm Eight Roads Ventures, which is backed by Fidelity. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. TR Capital, a leading secondary private equity firm focused on Asia, has announced the acquisition of stakes in three high-growth companies: MoEngage, Shadowfax, and Whatfix, for over USD 50 million. The transaction was completed with global investment firm Eight Roads Ventures, which is backed by Fidelity. The three companies represent strong market positions in their respective industries: MoEngage is a customer engagement platform trusted by more than 1,200 global brands, including 7-Eleven and Citibank. It helps businesses create hyper-personalised experiences across digital platforms. is a customer engagement platform trusted by more than 1,200 global brands, including 7-Eleven and Citibank. It helps businesses create hyper-personalised experiences across digital platforms. Shadowfax is a technology-driven last-mile logistics firm and one of the few profitable players in India's logistics space. It operates in 2,500+ cities, delivers over two million shipments daily, and serves a network of 3.5 million users. is a technology-driven last-mile logistics firm and one of the few profitable players in India's logistics space. It operates in 2,500+ cities, delivers over two million shipments daily, and serves a network of 3.5 million users. Whatfix is a digital adoption platform that provides in-app training, guidance, and analytics. With over 700 clients in 40 countries, including Fortune 500 companies, Whatfix has become a key enabler in enterprise digital transformation. TR Capital is known for providing liquidity to private equity asset owners across Asia. Since its founding in 2008, it has managed close to USD 1.5 billion in capital commitments. The firm is an active investor in technology, healthcare, and next-generation consumer sectors across the Asia-Pacific region, with India as a long-term focus market. Frederic Azemard, Managing Partner at TR Capital, said,
Forbes
17-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
RIP Old VC Playbook: How Investors Are Rethinking AI Startups Diligence
Investment and diligence concept The AI revolution is moving so much faster than previous technological shifts. While the mobile internet took nearly a decade to reach 90 percent household adoption, ChatGPT achieved the same user penetration in just two years. This accelerated cycle is creating companies that reach incredible scale in record time, but it's also rewriting the venture capital playbook. The traditional rules of SaaS investing are being challenged, and the moats we once relied on are becoming less defensible. Based on recent discussions my Eight Roads Ventures colleague, Michael Treskow, and I have had with our team, here are ten ways how investors are rethinking their AI startups diligence today. The first wave of AI applications was dominated by 'co-pilots' — tools that assist humans. The next, more powerful wave is characterized by 'agents' — autonomous systems that complete tasks from beginning to end. These agents are transforming traditional 'systems of record' into 'systems of action.' As an investor, the key question goes beyond the earlier paradigm of 'does this make a workflow more efficient?' Now, investors must ask, 'can this automate the workflow entirely?' How (and to what degree) humans are involved will depend on the AI-use-case fit, enterprise risk appetite, and the existing workflow. As an example, Roo Code has multiple modes, from code mode to architect mode, based on customers' specific needs. Early breakouts are already emerging in specialized fields like cybersecurity (penetration testing agents), DevOps (debugging agents), and financial services (memo generation agents), showing the power of vertical agents. The three defensive moats that defined the SaaS era are eroding: Implementation Friction: In the past, the high cost and complexity of implementing enterprise software, especially in regulated industries, created stickiness. Today, AI agents can write code and automate implementation, drastically lowering switching costs. Workflow stickiness: SaaS used to be the system of record, deeply embedded in the enterprise workflow. But now that agents are performing the workflow entirely, it could reduce the friction of migrating. Data Gravity: The effort of migrating data from one system to another created a powerful lock-in. Now, AI models can automatically ingest and structure data from various sources (including emails, calendars, and documents) making it far easier to populate a new system, and thereby reducing the stickiness of the incumbent. With the underlying models increasingly turning into an API-accessible commodity, differentiation is shifting up the stack to the application layer. The most defensible companies are building new moats around enterprise knowledge, trust, and observability. When considering workflow integration, investors must figure out how deeply the product is embedded within a customer's core business processes, or how well the agents internalize the enterprise knowledge if there is forward-deployed engineering. Just like a service provider, the more an agent has absorbed the enterprise's organizational and operational intricacies and preferences, the harder it is to replace. The second moat, centered on becoming a trusted, default partner, is related to an older sales and marketing principle: In a confusing market, enterprises are looking for a trusted guide to shape their AI strategy. The first vendor to gain a customer's trust and become their 'default' AI partner gains an immense advantage, with the ability to expand across the organization. The low barrier to entry means that for any given problem, a dozen well-funded players can emerge almost overnight. This has made product-market fit (PMF) a potentially transient advantage. A company might find a temporary fit and grow to a few million in ARR, only to be outflanked by a competitor with a new feature or a slight improvement in the model. As an investor, you must constantly ask: is this PMF durable? Two ideas — that incumbents will be slow to act and that customers building in-house solutions will fail — that once formed foundational pillars of venture investing have now been turned on their head. Incumbents now have access to the same powerful APIs as startups. And while cultural inertia at enterprises remains a challenge, the technical barrier to entry has been lowered, and the proprietary data they have accumulated over the years will give them a head start. Similarly, with modern orchestration tools like Thread, Onyx, or n8n, it's becoming more feasible for customers to build their own bespoke AI agents in-house. A startup's competition is no longer just other startups, but also its own customers and the very incumbents it aims to disrupt. A critical shift in the AI era is the expansion of the total addressable market (TAM) beyond traditional software budgets. AI companies can now tap into two distinct enterprise spending pools. 'Co-pilot' models, which assist human users, are typically sold on a per-seat basis and compete for existing software budgets. Autonomous 'agent' models complete workflows end-to-end, are sold on a per-outcome basis, and hold more transformative potential. AI agents are positioned to capture a share of the much larger services budget, effectively replacing costs previously allocated to human labor or outsourced services. However, while the opportunity to capture the services budget is immense, it is not a blank check. As some founders have noted, many are generating eight-figure savings while charging customers six-figure prices. As agent-based solutions become more common, the price for automated labor will inevitably face downward pressure and normalize, meaning the initial advantage of charging rates comparable to human labor may not be sustainable long-term. AI-native companies are operating with unprecedented efficiency. While a company like Cursor can have great PLG motion and reach $100M ARR with around 30 employees, most enterprise AI companies build a GTM team to reach scale. In a confusing market with intense competition where perceived product differentiation is limited, GTM makes all the difference. On the tech side, CTOs with an ML background will be more essential in the foundational model and middleware layer than in the application layer. Having a Head of AI to stay on top of the latest feature releases and skate to the right opportunity will create a nice complement as the CTO scales the technical organization and infrastructure. LTV/CAC is still relevant, but velocity matters more. The 'Triple, Triple, Double, Double, Double' (T2D3) growth model for top-tier SaaS is being replaced by an even more aggressive trajectory. Some have suggested the new top-quartile metric is 'Quintuple, Quadruple, Triple.' For example, a company would grow from $1M to $5M, $5M to $20M, and $20M to $60M over three years. While this velocity is exciting, it can also be misleading. Rapid adoption in a hot market doesn't guarantee a large TAM or durable revenue. While there is no public benchmark for churn metrics for AI companies yet, we know some of enterprise AI companies' net revenue retention (NRR) at month 12 is well above 100 percent to compensate for the logo churns — see Glean at 120 percent, Writer at 160 percent, and Jasper for enterprise at 163 percent. AI companies often have high compute and model inference costs. While we see margins improve over time, investors must be vigilant about how costs are reported. As others have noted, companies may claim impressive gross margins even though a closer look at their P&L reveals millions in API calls and compute costs categorized under R&D. When re-categorized correctly, their margin was actually negative. Investors must always dig into the P&L to understand the true cost of goods sold. In a normal market, a high net promoter score (NPS) is a strong signal of future retention, but not necessarily in the current AI landscape. Customers may unanimously love a product today, but the market is evolving so quickly that a better alternative may appear in six months. Many enterprises are intentionally building flexibility into their tech stacks to easily swap vendors, so founders and investors alike should beware of 'vibe revenue.' Therefore, look beyond NPS to metrics like product usage, which is a leading indicator of retention. Beware of 'stealth churn,' where customers who are still paying see less frequent usage, or use a product for a lower percentage of their entire workflow.
Fashion Network
08-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Blissclub raises Rs 33 crore in new funding round
Direct to customer active wear brand Blissclub has raised Rs 33 crore in a new fund round. Led by existing investor Elevation Capital, the round follows a $15 million fundraise in 2022, led by both Elevation Capital and Eight Roads Ventures. Blissclub plans to utilise its new funding for capital expenditure, to meet working capital requirements, and for general corporate purposes, ET Retail reported. The business' board of directors passed a resolution to issue a total of 16,076 compulsory convertible preference shares at Rs 20,427 apiece to raise Rs 33 crore. Following the share allotment, Elevation Capital now has a 24.5% stake in the business, followed by Eight Roads Ventures' stake of 15.79%. The brand also continues to expand its product selection and recently debuted its new 'BareButter' collection of women's apparel, designed for travel and the airport, Blissclub announced on Facebook. The label also expanded its colour offering for its signature 'Flare' pants. Blissclub was established in 2020 in Bengaluru and began as an e-commerce business. After stepping into the world of brick-and-mortar retail, the label today counts around 125 employees and is ranked second amongst 95 active competitors, according to business ratings agency Tracxn.
Business Mayor
07-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
D2C activewear brand BlissClub raises Rs 33 crore in round led by Elevation Capital
BlissClub, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) activewear brand focussed on women, has raised Rs 33 crore in a round led by existing investor Elevation Capital. The round also saw participation from Eight Roads Ventures. The company's board passed a resolution to issue 16,076 compulsory convertible preference shares at a premium of Rs 20,427 each to raise Rs 33 crore, as per filings sourced from the business intelligence platform Tofler. The funds will be used for meeting working capital requirements, capital expenditure and other general corporate purposes, it said. Post allotment, Elevation Capital holds a 24.5% stake, while Eight Roads Ventures holds a 15.79% stake. Founded in 2020, the Bengaluru-based startup which started off selling its activewear products online later diversified into opening offline stories as it competes with fast fashion brands. It also sells through its own website as well as on ecommerce platforms. It generated a revenue of Rs 92 crore for the financial year ending on March 31, 2024, as per Tracxn data. BlissClub is yet to file its financial statements for FY25 with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). It last raised $15 million in 2022 in a funding round led by Eight Roads Ventures and Elevation Capital. In December last year, ET reported that Lifestyle activewear brand Terractive has raised Rs 8 crore in a funding round led by Fireside Ventures and DeVC (anchored by Z47). READ SOURCE
