SeedToScale | Curated by Accel

AI is stepping into uncharted territory, assisting decision-makers with high-stakes, low-frequency calls that shape the future of enterprises. These decisions require more than historical data; they demand fresh insights, domain expertise, and a deep understanding of context. That’s where Bridgetown Research comes in. Bridgetown’s AI agents autonomously conduct deep research—interviewing experts,...

Meesho is redefining the role of AI in e-commerce, driving innovations that scale to meet the demands of millions. From handling over 60,000 voice bot calls daily to managing 'trillions' of features, AI is embedded in every facet of Meesho’s operations. In this episode of Decoding AI, Anagh Prasad, Investor at Accel, sits down with Debdoot Mukherjee, Chief Data Scientist and Head of AI at Meesho,...

Google DeepMind stands at the cutting edge of AI innovation, solving some of the most intricate scientific and engineering challenges. From protein structure prediction through AlphaFold to enhancing energy efficiency in data centers and advancing robotics for real-world applications, DeepMind is shaping the future of technology. But how can AI startups in India leverage DeepMind's insights? In th...

India is making strides in artificial intelligence, blending academic rigor with real-world applications. In Episode 4 of Decoding AI, Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel, is joined by Professor Balaraman Ravindran of IIT Madras, a pioneering figure in Indian AI research and application. As the founding head of several prestigious AI-focused centers, including Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI,...

Simplismart is an AI infrastructure company building the critical platform-agnostic middleware to deploy, train/customize, and serve open-source AI models in production. With a very small team and under $1M in funding, these two Bengaluru-based founders built the world's fastest inference engine. In Episode 3 of our Decoding AI series, Amritanshu Jain, Co-founder and CEO of Simplismart, joins Anag...

GenAI is growing rapidly, evolving from a mere tool into an intelligent partner that empowers businesses to scale with greater speed and efficiency. In Episode 2 of our Decoding AI series, Vishwesh Pai, Senior Director of Product Management for AI Platform at ServiceNow, and Anagh Prasad, Investor at Accel dive into how large companies are navigating the opportunities in enterprise software, espec...

With GenAI on the rise, software is evolving from a tool that needs constant supervision to an intelligent partner that handles tasks autonomously, similar to human assistants. This shift promises a future where enterprises are more efficient, with AI seamlessly integrating into daily operations. In Episode 1 of SeedToScale's Decoding AI series, Accel's Anagh Prasad explores the future of enterpri...

2023 is particularly momentous to Accel as we complete 40 years as a global fund and 15 years in India. As we celebrate this milestone, we hope to share insights from the firm’s shared history with you, in this riveting two-part podcast series. We begin with a look at the past, and how startups and investors evolved over the years; moving on to investing today, and why many call 2023 the year of r...

2023 is particularly momentous to Accel as we complete 40 years as a global fund and 15 years in India. As we celebrate this milestone, we hope to share insights from the firm’s shared history with you, in this riveting two-part podcast series. We begin with a look at the past, and how startups and investors evolved over the years; moving on to investing today, and why many call 2023 the year of r...

Know what is harder than pivoting when the going gets tough? Pivoting when the going is good. On the surface, most metrics were scaling efficiently for Urban Company (previously UrbanClap) at the end of 2015. The tech company mainly generated leads for at-home service providers. But founders Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan, Raghav Chandra recognized that improving the experience of suppliers and custo...

At their core, marketplaces are in the business of efficiency. Deeply optimized supply was the need of the hour in the world of construction, where access to materials was fragmented and unreliable. Souvik Sengupta of Infra. Market and Prashanth Prakash of Accel talk about transforming the manner in which real estate companies buy for their projects. *** Over the past decade and a half, new-age ma...

What does it take to build a timeless marketplace? Time. Long-lasting marketplaces have little to do with restless hustling, and a lot to do with clear research and balancing gut calls with data calls. You can trust that bit of wisdom because it comes from Mukesh Bansal who knows the ups and downs of entrepreneurship in India more intimately than most. As founder of Myntra, head of commerce and ad...

When Niraj Singh started up Spinny, the used-car market in India was already crowded with cash-rich competitors. More and more Indian buyers were leaning towards buying pre-owned cars because of the better value they offered but the landscape was still full of potholes and barriers. There were few trusted intermediaries, and no convenient way for buyers to go through the sea of options or for sell...

Conversation Highlights In addition to asking if the sector is unorganized, ask whether it is inefficient. Know exactly what kind of a profit pool is available there. There are businesses where a tight testbed is not possible. So find your fulcrum. It takes trial and error but look for the side where your tech intervention as a marketplace will drive the most value. Fairness is an easy sell. Both...

Cutting out the intermediary helps many industries. Not so in manufacturing. It needed a middle layer. Suppliers routinely failed to deliver on time, and customers failed to pay on time. To improve trust and speed, Amrit Acharya and Srinath Ramakkrushnan introduced Zetwerk as a B2B marketplace for manufacturing in 2018. Zetwerk began as a hub for steel fabrication. Within six months, its business...

Give someone a fish, you feed them for a day. Give someone reliable access to seafood in a supply-deprived industry, you go on to create a successful B2B marketplace for fish. Take it from Utham Gowda, the founder of Captain Fresh, an investment banker-turned-fisherman, so to speak. Three years after its birth in 2019, the company has raised $126.5 million in funding at a $500 million valuation. I...

It’s essential to keep things as simple as possible initially, with a total focus on understanding the consumer problem statement. Because when it comes to subscriptions, users drop off a lot — they are commitment-phobic.  In the next stage, startups must know how to decentralise well. A founder cannot go on micromanaging a hundred things. Many startups fail because while they thought they solved...

About TaxiForSure TaxiForSure, founded in 2011, was the outcome of a drunken conversation in a Bangalore pub between friends Raghunandan G and Aprameya Radhakrishna, who had both been to National Institute of Technology Karnataka and the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad. Raghunandan was 33 and Radhakrishna a year older.       Three-and-a-half years after it started up in a 100-square-feet...

Like in most markets, India is a large but under-penetrated insurance market. While the COVID-19 pandemic led to a sharp uptick in life insurance premiums, bringing it at par with the global average of 3.2% of GDP, non-life premiums - health and motor insurance - continue to lag at sub 1% of GDP, compared to 2% for developing Asian countries and 5% for developed economies. In a low-income economy,...

India, frequently referred to as the two-wheeler factory of the world, serves a tremendous market both in India and abroad. About 15M two-wheelers were sold in India in 2021 and 3.7M two-wheelers manufactured in India by the top 4 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) were exported. By 2030, the number of two-wheelers sold in India annually is expected to reach 35M representing an about $30B mar...

Banking opportunity in India is tremendous, with overall banking assets expected to reach $3T by 2025, with deeply under-penetrated private credit markets which account for ~50% of GDP (vs. 150%+ for developed economies). Despite this large opportunity, customer experience and engagement in traditional consumer banking in India is broken and has been so for over a decade. With the increasing digit...

B2B marketplaces are different. There are tremendous opportunities, but also different challenges. This arises from the business model itself. Having to cater to both the supply and demand side is one thing, the other is adjusting to the nuances of the products and commodities being bought and sold. This is different for every domain and therefore there is nothing that can be replicated. Everythin...

The D2C ecosystem has truly found its feet in India. There are now a lot of great brands making niche, high-quality products for targeted audiences. The e-commerce wave has given them a channel of distribution that they own. But as the market matures, there are other needs for young D2C startups. They need marketing, sales, and brand talent, things which they can’t easily get access to in order to...

How is the world of Open Source faring in a landscape that is being overturned by Web3 and its ascendant new technologies? It’s an important question  and not just in the realm of entrepreneurship and products. Open Source was the first promise of some kind of a technological revolution, where everyone could build and use things they want to with help and support from a real, tangible community. W...

If you know about Crypto, you can’t have missed FalconX, I’ll still give you a brief: FalconX is a blockchain, cryptocurrency, and fintech-focused cryptocurrency brokerage and digital asset trading platform. Accel has been proud partners since the startup’s inception, and we’ve been cheering on their success loudly! Crypto is definitely here. With the slew of recent advertising and coverage around...