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Mint
23-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Startups cash in on exclusivity to build members-only, private clubs
Bengaluru: As India's professionals seek more curated spaces to build valuable networks, exclusive private clubs are emerging as coveted hubs of connection and influence—and startups are taking notice. From curated member lists to secret addresses and by-invitation-only access, a new generation of private social clubs is redefining what exclusivity means, opening up a lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurs eager to build the country's startup-focused Soho Houses and Core Clubs. Offline, a Delhi-based venture that calls itself a private community for the top 10% of tech founders and C-suite executives, has 100 paying members as of June in less than two years of inception, its founder and chief executive officer, Utsav Somani, told Mint. A membership in Offline costs nearly ₹6 lakh a year. 'Offline's got a powerful address book ofa founders in the country who are ready to help each other. Every community needs something to bond the members. We have a three-house professional group therapy format where 7-8 founders come together and unpack what's working or not working in their personal and professional lives," Somani said. Also read | Startups take a shine to lab-grown diamonds. Now they need to win over sceptics Offline secured $2 million from a host of angel investors, including Groww's Lalit Keshre, Razorpay's Harshil Mathur and micro-funds like DeVC, Better Capital, and Riverwalk Holdings. Meet5 Club, a four-month-old Bengaluru-based exclusive club for ambitious professionals, has grown to nearly 500 members, including founders, investors and CXOs, to date and has another 2,000 on the waitlist, its founder Rakesh Andey said. 'Every Wednesday, we host private, AI [artificial intelligence]-curated dinners that pair members with five highly relevant peers—aligned to their goals, stage, and personality—to spark deep conversations, real momentum and a sense of belonging," Andey added. Meet5 Club has, so far, raised undisclosed funding from angel investors. Drawing inspiration from global counterparts like Hampton—a private network for high-growth founders based in New York—and Startup Grind New York City in the virtual space and SoHo House and Core Club in the physical world, these young companies want to offer deeper professional connections while retaining the invite-only format. The market for private clubs is significant. Physical private members-only clubs were estimated at ₹576 crore in FY24 and expected to touch ₹941 crore by 2027, per research by Axon Developers. While no equivalent estimates for virtual clubs are available, the growth of wealthy individuals is a key indicator of potential. India is expected to have 16 lakh high net-worth individuals (those possessing investable assets of at least $1 million) by 2027, as per a 2023 report by Knight Frank. The country holds the third position in Asia and sixth globally in terms of the number of ultra high-net-worth individuals (those having investable assets exceeding $30 million), with technology and startup industries serving as top contributors to the fortune, according to Anarock. Focus on trust Private clubs for the wealthy have existed in India, including Gymkhanas, Rotary Clubs, and new-age ones like BLVD, SoHo House, and The Quorum, among others. However, the purpose has always been to connect like-minded individuals over creating networks. 'For us, networking is the outcome, not the purpose. The idea is to create a place of belonging for individuals of similar interests and aspirations through a high-quality hospitality environment," said Vivek Narain, founder and CEO of The Quorum, a contemporary private club with physical presence in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Professionals tend to seek exclusivity to develop trust and a sense of belonging with others in the community. 'Trust underpins everything. Founders want to be part of a community they can relate to because every founder will undergo different challenges in different stages of the journey. The intent is to provide a solution for a niche and win that over," said Jai Sumer Singh, co-founder and partner at early-stage venture fund Riverwalk Holdings. Riverwalk is among the early investors of Offline. While mixers and other social events continue to take shape in different parts of the country, many are simply transactional. Firms like Offline and Meet5 intend to fix it. Also read | For online brands, opportunities in offline, quick commerce, and Thrasio models 'In today's hyper-connected world, ambitious professionals still struggle to find the right conversations, collaborators, and clarity. Most networks, whether coworkers, alumni, or friends, rarely evolve alongside a professional's changing goals or stage of growth," said Meet5 Club's Andey. Edge Community, a closed-door network for professionals in countries including India, Dubai, London and New York, will cap its members list to 10,000, according to its founder Yashraj Akashi. 'Think of a closed-door and invite-only LinkedIn. A handful of them are donor members who host specially curated meet-ups and sessions, while others will be members onboarded on an invite-only basis." Edge is very selective about expanding its membership, allowing only 4-5 to join the community every month. Edge's network includes several veteran executives of large listed companies as well as IPO-bound and venture capital-funded startup founders. Moreover, not having a physical space to gather helps Edge save up on crucial capex spends, which are used to build other critical infrastructure, like bringing on board highly influential experts, according to Akashi. Offline's Somani—who was previously the India head of AngelList—saw the need to create a safe space for startup founders that typically face very different challenges compared to larger companies. 'Our members include 11 unicorn founders, 6 people running IPO companies, and the average valuation within the community is nearly $1.9 billion. Their worry isn't the membership cost, but their time." Meet5 Club enables members to share their goals privately. 'These are never visible or broadcast, which allows deeper intent without exposure," according to Andey. Building scale Unlike many startups that aspire for scale, startups in this space are focused on building niche experiences with restricted audiences to maintain exclusivity. 'The mission is not to drive volume, but create value," said Riverwalk's Singh, adding that when a business solves for trust in a niche like this, many adjectives open up. 'A thriving business is one that serves a need and does it repeatedly." Offline's Somani does not want to expand the members list beyond 350. 'Our aim is never to be a community with thousands of members. Beyond 350, the network effect just breaks and then just becomes a membership-gathering experiment." The firm will also eventually offer additional services like a concierge, as well as a legal and financial desk. Meet5 Club is not actively raising institutional capital yet, but it is open to conversations. 'We are open to conversations with long-term partners who believe in building the next-generation social infrastructure for professionals," said Andey. Also read | Travel startups and indulgent Indians: A match made over luxury escapades However, building private communities doesn't come without its troubles. Most recently, private club focused on connecting ambitious women—shut down, citing unsustainable unit economics. 'Trust us when we say that we explored every path to keep this dream going, including fundraising/potential expansion to other cities, but the current unit economics and usage just didn't justify scaling," the firm said in a LinkedIn post in May. However, deepening talent density and the growing need for connections among professionals will always result in ever-expanding potential of such ventures, according to Riverwalk's Singh.
Economic Times
25-05-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Music labels seek new track as streaming hits paywall
Indian music labels are experiencing slower revenue growth. This is due to changes in the audio streaming market. Several platforms like Resso and Hungama have closed. Others such as Gaana are now subscription-based. Saregama's revenue remained flat. Zee Entertainment also saw growth slow down. The industry expects stabilization and renewed growth soon. These shifts impact the music business significantly. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads India's music labels are facing a slowdown in revenue growth as the country's audio streaming ecosystem is undergoing a structural shift, according to industry the shutdown of several streaming platforms and others moving behind paywalls, the ad-supported model has come under pressure, creating short-term disruptions across the industry, they said."There has been a lot of short-term pain over the past few quarters, with multiple services shutting down-first Resso, then Hungama and Wynk Music, and now Gaana moving behind a paywall," Vikram Mehra, managing director of Saregama , said on an earnings has led to a halt in revenue from free services, he said, adding, "But in the long run, it's a very healthy sign for the industry's growth."Saregama reported flat revenue in its music licensing and artist management segment for the March quarter at ₹171 crore, unchanged from a year earlier. The company attributed the stagnation in part to the shutdown of Wynk Music in December Somani, head of strategy, M&A and business development at Zee Entertainment , highlighted the impact on Zee's music business. "We have seen growth tapering to single digits, mainly because some of the homegrown streaming platforms have shut down or slowed down. But if you strip them out and look at a like-to-like basis on other platforms, the growth is pretty satisfactory. We expect things to stabilise this year and growth to pick up again," he Zee Entertainment doesn't disclose music revenue separately, the company earns more than ₹400 crore annually from the segment, according to industry the past 18 months, three audio streaming services-Wynk Music, Hungama and ByteDance-owned Resso-have shut down. Others, such as Spotify, Gaana and JioSaavn, have pivoted to subscription-based models from largely ad-supported ones.
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
City hosp launches ‘Colofit' to check colorectal cancer
Lucknow: Concerned over the rising incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) in India, city-based Apollomedics Hospital launched a comprehensive screening initiative called 'Colofit'. "The aim is to ensure early detection and prevention of this cancer, making treatment more accessible, reducing costs and overcoming the challenge of late diagnosis. Currently, due to delayed identification, treatment becomes more difficult and adds pressure to healthcare systems," said Dr Mayank Somani, MD and note, CRC cases in India appear in over seven men and five women per one lakh population, but the sheer size of India's population translates into a substantial number of cases. Also, the five-year survival rate for this cancer in India is less than 40%—among the lowest Somani said that under the Colofit programme, they would extend the Fecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) for screening. "This easy, non-invasive and highly effective diagnostic tool can detect hidden blood in the stool, a possible early sign of disease. The advantage of FIT is that it works with just one sample, offers higher accuracy, and does not require any dietary restrictions, ensuring patient comfort and convenience," he stress that colorectal cancer is no longer confined to the elderly—it is increasingly affecting younger individuals too. Yet, most patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage—around 50% are detected late, and over 20% already show spread to other organs. This makes early screening and raising awareness absolutely symptoms of colorectal cancer should not be ignored. These include persistent changes in bowel habits (such as chronic diarrhoea or constipation), blood in stool, unexplained weight loss, and ongoing abdominal pain or discomfort. Risk factors include a low-fibre diet, physical inactivity, obesity, a family history of the disease, and certain genetic predispositions.
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Government gets bids offering 18,000 GPUs in Round-2 of IndiaAI Mission tender
ETtech Live Events The Centre has received bids proposing to offer 18,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) in the second round of the IndiaAI GPU tender , and expects 15,000 GPUs to finally be offered following technical qualifications and commercial bid-opening, IndiaAI CEO Abhishek Singh first round of the GPU tender has already concluded. In that round, New Delhi is offering 15,000 GPUs on subsidised rates to the country's startups, academics and research Gupta, cofounder and chief executive, Yotta Data Services, told ET that while the company had already offered 8,192 Nvidia H100 GPUs and 1,024 Nvidia L40S GPUs in first round of empanelment, it has now proposed Nvidia Blackwell B200s in this second round of empanelment. IndiaAI Mission has shortlisted seven companies—including partners of Amazon Web Service (AWS), Oracle and Google Cloud—for technical evaluation under the second round of the GPU tender, ET had reported on May Mission has invited the firms—Netmagic IT Services (now known as NTT Global Data Centers & Cloud Infrastructure India, or NTT GDC India), Cyfuture India, Sify Digital Services, Vensysco Technologies, Locuz Enterprise Solutions, Yotta Data Services, and Ishan Infotech—for technical presentation of their proposals on May are already more than 230 applications to India AI for building India-specific large language models (LLMs) / small language models (SLMs) and more than 30,000 GPU requests are in the pipeline."The bid submission is now open for third continuous empanelment," Singh said, indicating that the third round of the GPU tender is now open for accepting companies are planning to bid higher versions of GPUs in the third Somani, founding chief executive of Cloud company ESDS Software Solution told ET, "We are in the process of acquiring the Nvidia Blackwell series of GPUs -- B200 and B300. Once those are deployed in our data centres, we will be submitting the bid for the third round of the IndiaAI Mission's GPU tender which is now open.""We won't be participating with the older generation GPUs," Somani who is also president, Cloud Computing Innovation Council of India, Cloudstrats Technologies who had participated in the pre-bid meeting were interested in bidding for the second round of the tender and had requested IndiaAI for an tender inviting authority did not grant the extension. Cloudstrats is however going to participate in future empanelments, it company told ET, 'With established partnerships with hyperscalers like AWS and Microsoft Azure, we are well-positioned and experienced to deliver scalable AI infrastructure covering high-performance compute, secure storage, and cloud-native services."India had formally launched its Rs 10,000-crore India AI Mission in January, under which against the target of 10,000 GPUs outlined in the IndiaAI compute pillar, empanelled bidders have offered 14,517 GPUs at L1 part of the Mission, the government is also incentivising the development of local language models built by academia and industry with investment capital and other support. The move is aimed at building up India's AI prowess.
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Govt gets bids offering 18,000 GPUs in Round-2 of IndiaAI Mission tender
In the second round of IndiaAI's GPU tender, bids offering 18,000 GPUs were received, with 15,000 expected to qualify. Seven firms are shortlisted, including AWS and Google Cloud partners. The government aims to boost India's AI capabilities and local language model development under its Rs 10,000-crore mission. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The Centre has received bids proposing to offer 18,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) in the second round of the IndiaAI GPU tender , and expects 15,000 GPUs to finally be offered following technical qualifications and commercial bid-opening, IndiaAI CEO Abhishek Singh first round of the GPU tender has already concluded. In that round, New Delhi is offering 15,000 GPUs on subsidised rates to the country's startups, academics and research Gupta, cofounder and chief executive, Yotta Data Services, told ET that while the company had already offered 8,192 Nvidia H100 GPUs and 1,024 Nvidia L40S GPUs in first round of empanelment, it has now proposed Nvidia Blackwell B200s in this second round of empanelment. IndiaAI Mission has shortlisted seven companies—including partners of Amazon Web Service (AWS), Oracle and Google Cloud—for technical evaluation under the second round of the GPU tender, ET had reported on May Mission has invited the firms—Netmagic IT Services (now known as NTT Global Data Centers & Cloud Infrastructure India, or NTT GDC India), Cyfuture India, Sify Digital Services, Vensysco Technologies, Locuz Enterprise Solutions, Yotta Data Services, and Ishan Infotech—for technical presentation of their proposals on May are already more than 230 applications to India AI for building India-specific large language models (LLMs) / small language models (SLMs) and more than 30,000 GPU requests are in the pipeline."The bid submission is now open for third continuous empanelment," Singh said, indicating that the third round of the GPU tender is now open for accepting companies are planning to bid higher versions of GPUs in the third Somani, founding chief executive of Cloud company ESDS Software Solution told ET, "We are in the process of acquiring the Nvidia Blackwell series of GPUs -- B200 and B300. Once those are deployed in our data centres, we will be submitting the bid for the third round of the IndiaAI Mission's GPU tender which is now open.""We won't be participating with the older generation GPUs," Somani who is also president, Cloud Computing Innovation Council of India, Cloudstrats Technologies who had participated in the pre-bid meeting were interested in bidding for the second round of the tender and had requested IndiaAI for an tender inviting authority did not grant the extension. Cloudstrats is however going to participate in future empanelments, it company told ET, 'With established partnerships with hyperscalers like AWS and Microsoft Azure, we are well-positioned and experienced to deliver scalable AI infrastructure covering high-performance compute, secure storage, and cloud-native services."India had formally launched its Rs 10,000-crore India AI Mission in January, under which against the target of 10,000 GPUs outlined in the IndiaAI compute pillar, empanelled bidders have offered 14,517 GPUs at L1 part of the Mission, the government is also incentivising the development of local language models built by academia and industry with investment capital and other support. The move is aimed at building up India's AI prowess.
