Antennae Ventures bringing sustainable entrepreneurship opportunities ideas to life: Building a Tribe Religious to Innovation & Entrepreneurship
CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Mr. Vinit Jain, Founder & Director and Sapna Dudani – Co-Founder & Director, Antennae Ventures
- What was the inspiration behind the inception of the brand? When was AV incorporated? Where is it based?
Antennae Ventures, is ‘Building a Tribe Religious to Innovation & Entrepreneurship’, envisioned by Vinit Jain (Founder & Director) and co-founded by Sapna Dudani [chartered accountant with background of working with global consulting firms], Mr. Rajendra Bhinge [Ex-Chairman of Tata Strategic Management Group, Chairman Croma, Chairman Nelco], Mr. Kumar Subramanian [Founding Team Member of the HDFC Bank, Positions at Bank of America, Standard Chartered-Dubai, Founder of KPO Adventity].
The company was incorporated in Jan, 2022 with a mission to make Indian entrepreneurship space as a preferred career choice by our youth which in turn will make India a place of innovation and technological advancements accessible to the masses at affordable prices in basic needs of food, health and environment we live in.
The entity recognizes itself as an Ecosystem enabler for tech and deep tech startups. We are at the center of the ecosystem universe wherein we have an access to the consortium of investors, advisors, government, corporates and partnerships at global level to provide a 360-degree perspective and assistance to the startup at every stage of the life cycle of the its survival, growth and success. We are an Idea to IPO engine for the startups.
- What is the USP of the brand?
We are not a company that merely wants to aid the growth of the startups but our larger goal is to ensure the economical and sustainable development of the country. With acceleration, we don’t only mean to hand hold to startups with support services and fund raise but also to make them self-sustainable by providing them the global reach to their products and services, we are a one stop shop from creation to sustainability to growth. With a larger perspective in mind, Antennae Ventures has outlined three major missions that will pave way for a tech enabled and empowered India. These missions include- (1) Indian Rural Transformation Mission (IRTM); (2) Global Health Transformation Mission (GHTM) and; (3) World Sustainable Development Mission.
- What Number of employees in the team currently and the hiring plans for the coming years/ months?
We have a very dynamic workspace which comprises of the core team including scouting team who work hard to get the best startups in our portfolio, investor relation team to align the fund raise activity, mentors and advisors for specific sectors, industry experts, serial entrepreneurs, etc. Looking to expand our team in the coming financial year with our plans to multiply the number of cohorts and also building the incubation centers single handedly and in joint ventures.
- How does Antennae Ventures help early-stage startups?
We empower the entrepreneurs to innovate and apply their plans strategically and convert the idea into a product or service and their dream into a reality to make the world a better place. The empowerment will be a resultant of the ecosystem consisting of Consortiums built by AV. The teams at Antennae Ventures are integrating & systemizing the universal stakeholders together, so that efficient mechanisms can be developed for new businesses to flourish.
- Who is the target audience? In which sector does Antennae Ventures provide its services?
The key services that Antennae Ventures offers as a part of acceleration to the entrepreneurs includes Sector Specific Mentorship, Advisory Board Building, MVP Building, Strategy design, Business Modelling, legal, compliance and accounting, Pitch deck preparations, corporate structuring & registrations, assistance in arranging Government grants, Fund raising, etc.
Apart from this they also provide services for Alliances and Revenue Building, Global market reach through corporate, government and cross-border partnerships, aligning the startups with various Incubation centers, T.B.I.(s), C.I.C.(s).
The minimum duration of acceleration for the startups is 6 months which may vary on case to case basis. In short, Antennae Ventures will be the backbone for paving a strategic and innovation driven roadmap for businesses and entrepreneurs.
In order to build an ecosystem of growth and innovation, the key sectors and stages that Antennae Ventures will focus on include majorly Health-Tech, Agri-Tech & sustainability as our focus.
In Health tech mainly covering APIs, Med-Tech, Pharma-Tech, Bio-Tech, Genomics & Therapeutics.
In Agri-Tech exploring Food-Tech & Animal-Tech, Supply Chain-Tech, Fin-Tech, quality management, etc.
In Sustainability, we will concentrate on water, Chemicals & Clean Energy.
We also interested in looking at AI, SAAS, IOT, Robotics & Cybersecurity; Fin-Tech & Insur-Tech and Edu-Tech in the near future.
Women Led startups is another focus area in all the above mentioned sectors as it is not only a part of sustainable development mission in terms of equality but also the fact that we need more and more organizations to support the woman entrepreneurs.
- How is the overall demand of the brand, tell us about the kind of impact you have observed in the first quarter of the financial year?
We are not a product-based platform but we offer services and support. Our demand is dependent on the pace of innovation and innovation is something that is not anytime coming at a standstill. We work with over 25 startups in varied sectors and in the short span of time the number of startups that we have connected with portray the massive acceptance that the startup community has for our services.
- How many Startups/ Entrepreneurs / Innovators have you helped/ nurtured so far, share numbers, and any impactful case studies?
We have worked with 25 startups so far in different sectors. We have helped various tech startups in different sectors. To name a few, we have
CreditAI is a fintech platform for farmer’s credit and we are instrumental in creating government alliances for this company to make this product accessible to farmers and get them the easy credit.
LarkAI is a healthtech startup into affordable screening devices for monitoring chest and lung functions catering to tier2 and tier 3 cities. We have been with this company from the very beginning and have been involved from the idea stage till now when the company is almost closing its seed round of $1m.
Exampil is our edtech portfolio company into online medical and engineering entrance preparation exams at reasonable rates specifically convenient and accessible to tier2 and tier3 students. Collaboration with universities, fund raise and getting them the government grants has been our role so far.
Punctualiti is a Prop-Tech startup and we have been instrumental in building the whole tech platform for this company as well getting collaborations for sales.
GadiGoda is into mobility as well aggregation for tier tier 3 cities in respect to taxi services, food, stay etc. Creating a complete business model, product as well as tech platform for GadiGoda. Also, assisting with collaborations with vendors and nbfcs for EV motor collaborations.
As it is rightly said that an idea itself cannot sustain if it is not executed properly well in time. Execution of idea in itself is an art that includes various aspects and putting the right person to a right job at the right time is what makes the difference. Having said that and being the accelerators for these startups and extended co-founders, we have hand helped these startups in not only revamping their pitch decks, financial projections, business strategies, market positioning, Pricing, and building their team Structure but also helped them with creating technology platform, fund raising and Indian and cross border partnerships for their products with private and Government bodies.
