At this point, there’s hardly anyone on this entire planet that doesn’t know about or fear the deadly killer that coronavirus is. We constantly see how much loss and suffering it is causing worldwide on news channels all day. At this point, everyone is questioning whether or not to take a breath as we all are at risk of infection.
But we will not go into details about the virus, as we are sure you are already up to date on everything that is to know about the virus. Instead what we are going to focus on is some other problem that we had to face because of this virus and how about essential goods and services like food, electricity, and water to survive but things and needs that we have been accustomed to before the pandemic hit our world.
We need immediate medical innovations that will help us effectively treat patients with limited resources. We also need proper technology to stay connected so that we are not lagging in the school academic year. We need apps to help us stay connected so that we can work from home in the same harmony. We also need a lot of other such things we are so used to and absolutely can’t survive without.
But how do we find those things? All major sectors and industries are put on a hold and almost every project is on halt for an indefinite time. Employees from every job, company, industry are stuck at home. So where do we find all these resources that have now become an essential part of our lives?
Well, the answer to that question is now provided by the startups in our country. During this period we saw a booming number of startups come forward with a solution or an alternative to most of our top needs at this time. Let us look at some examples to understand to see what they are doing.
Like Azooka Life Sciences, that is trying to kill two birds with one stone. It is aiming to manufacture RT-PCR test kits to test patients and also providing a safe and reliable medium to transport the samples collected by hospitals and diagnostic centers. Or educational startup apps like Vedantu and Unacademy that have helped students to keep learning during this time.
So now that we know all the amazing work startups are doing in India, we also need to talk about one aspect that is crucial for the success of any startup, it’s funding. Any startup wouldn’t be able to take off without good financial support. As you may already know there are different sources of funding that a startup can secure its funds from.
One of the important and reliable sources is Venture Capital. Venture capitals are investment firms that offer funding and other resources like support to the startup that they may need to market and advertise their products or services. They also guide you to not make any mistakes with their ever-present teams of experts to guide you.
So that’s why today we are going to talk about a major venture capital firm that has supported a lot of upcoming startups during this pandemic through its different enterprises. And that venture capital firm is Vertex Ventures.
Vertex Ventures is a multinational investment and venture capital company that is currently operating in India, Singapore, China, Israel, the United States of America, and some other Southeast Asian countries. It has a list of enterprises under its belt and is helping a lot of upcoming businesses establish themselves.
We are going to talk about three different category enterprises under Vertex ventures that are financing and helping a lot of new and creative startups during these times.
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1. Active.Ai
This Singapore based fintech startup has its subsidiaries in India and the US, and is currently working on using artificial intelligence to deliver conversational banking services. It helps banks and other financial institutions in adopting and creating virtual intelligent agents that will interact with customers. Founder of Active.Ai, Ravishanker quoted, “We believe customers will be engaging in unstructured micro-conversations with their banks. Active.Ai will be helping banks and other financial institutions to intuitively and intelligently engage with the customer on mobile, chat, or voice-enabled IOT devices using AI.”
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2. Ace Turtle
Ace Turtle is yet another company under the portfolio of Vertex Ventures and is a technology-based platform that helps retail brands and online stores with its platform that integrates and optimizes through its Omni- Channel fulfillment. It helps reduce the cost and complexity of brands through the use of artificial intelligence. Currently, this technology platform is being employed by some world-renowned brands such as Ray-Ban, Puma, US Polo, Flying Machine, etc. During the current times, platforms like these have made shopping for customers and brands hassle-free as well as contact-free and thereby a risk-free experience.
3. StoreHub
StoreHub is another company under the Vertex venture’s umbrella that is engaged in a cloud-based POS system that is currently helping so many restaurants and food delivery services in digitalizing their business. The mission of StoreHub states “We envision a world where relationships are once again central to commerce. Where technology is not a negator but a facilitator of communities. Where transactions turn into relationships.” We can without a doubt say that they are just doing that with their Beep delivery service, helping deliver food to almost 13,000 customers who order food online.
So, these are some venture capital and their startups that are doing some serious work behind the scenes and bring forward new and creative ideas to light during this time of global crisis and calamity. Not only are they giving wings to a lot of innovative startups ideas and concepts while helping them pivot in these difficult times, but also, making a smart investment decision.
Whether you are a startup that is looking for acquiring funds or someone that likes to keep up with top industry news these are some venture capital and their startups to watch out for the future.
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