The Exchanges

Q And, uh, currently, uh, last year you said you did, uh, 90 plus investments. So, so how many companies you would have seen last year in Titan as a whole?

A So basically our approach is this, that, uh, many companies apply at us, uh, at Titan, um, through email or reaching out to team, uh, through LinkedIn post, uh, from LinkedIn, uh, messages, and, uh, also applying on our website, but also our team keep reviewing companies on, uh, different portals. So if we combine all of them, then it's definitely, uh, around 3504 thousand, definitely, because we have a good pool of interns also, and it's their responsibility to keep going through them. And we have figured out some theses after a good number of investments and almost a decade of seed investing. So even our intern, uh, is aware what is, what, what fits into Titan theses, and they create a funnel, which every VC funds do. Okay. Even like CDJ or CD stage, everyone has same mechanism. And, uh, um, but definitely it's, it's around 3500 if you count all of them, but, uh, uh, but the companies which come, uh, which, which, uh, which are presented to, uh, uh, to me, uh, by team, uh, would be around, uh, maybe, uh, Maybe 500 in a year. Out of 500, uh, we ended up investing in 1985.

AI assessment note: “around 3500 if you count all of them”

Q And what does the investment process look like? Like once you have viewed it, then you, Kunal and Rohit discuss about the company, have a call together with the founder.

A Yeah. So, uh, uh, I, I try my best to, uh, like, uh, to disturb Kunal and Rohit minimum because they are completely focused on Snapdeal and now there is IPO process also going on. So the process is as such, uh, as I told you, uh, uh, just now that we, uh, I review maybe 450 or 500 companies in a year. Um, so if we see fifty-fifty-five, uh, weekly, it comes down to around 10 companies. So I meet 10 companies a week. So, uh, uh, and then if you have done 90 to 91 investments, uh, so it's around eight investments a month. So two, two investments a week. So, uh, math is very simple. If I meet 10 companies a week, we end up investing two. Maybe I would be discussing, uh, with Kunal and Rohit, maybe three or four companies. Out of 10, I am meeting a week. And out of those four, we end up investing in one to two or three, depending on whether the week is very good or it's done. There have been some months where we have not invested at all, or we invested in just one or two companies. The average is, uh, 7.5 or eight. Uh, but there have been months like in second wave in month of April, we just, I think invested one or two companies. So, but on an average, this is the maths. Uh, but, uh, that is very clear. My, my one very key responsibility is to, uh, uh, navigate the flow accordingly and manage, uh, uh, the investment process as such, so that, uh, I take minimum time of Kunalurid, wh…

AI assessment note: “Maybe I would be discussing, uh, with Kunal and Rohit, maybe three or four companies.”

Q And, uh, what are the maximum valuation that you go up to while investing?

A Yeah, that, that question, uh, no more, uh, uh, you know, exist, uh, after the year we saw, 2021 and 20. So, this is constant debate in our team, um, that, uh, I, I am the person who is like, uh, very much into, uh, uh, we have classified our deal flow into two categories, THD and HVD. And sometimes team also get frustrated. All the terms. So THD is Titan seed deals where it's like, where the valuation is less than 20 crore. And HVD is anything, which is more than 20 crore, but cannot be more than a hundred crore. The idea was this, that we will not do deals where the valuation is more than a hundred crore. We will not see them. And, and by mid of 2021, Our THD deals, where the valuation was less than 20 crore, Titan seed deals, and HVD is high valuation deals. Ok, uh, THD went to zero, and it was all HVD every month. Ok, high valuation deals. So, and then, uh, I had to remove that barrier, that demarcation line, that we are doing THD and HVD. Like hardly you get companies where the valuation is now, which used to be till two years back, like we, our average valuation at which we were writing checks used to be 13, 14 crore rupees. Okay. Not more than two million dollar average valuation till 2019 calendar year. Okay. And 22,020, it went to somewhere around 40 CR. And now I didn't match, uh, recently. In fact, uh, Uh, when I was studying all our portfolio performance, uh, for la…

AI assessment note: “cannot be more than a hundred crore. The idea was this, that we will not”

Q And, uh, you know, uh, beyond, uh, you know, once you have invested, what, what kind of support is there from Titan side to the portfolio companies?

A That is very interesting, uh, uh, part of our Titan business. Uh, we are very, we are very clear, uh, as, uh, a joint consensus between, uh, Kunal Rohit and myself that we need to be, uh, our team needs to be available, uh, for our portfolio companies whenever they need help. We are not someone who goes there and, uh, you know, um, like a force founder to do, to do this, to do this, to do that, or like a force them to, uh, let's do board meetings. I will, uh, and Titan will impose their own thesis on you. So we don't do that. I, I, uh, though, in fact, Titan has thesis to taught or to, uh, in fact, not join, uh, any board as director also.

AI assessment note: “our team needs to be available, uh, for our portfolio companies whenever they need help”

Q In order of two 50 companies that you have invested in, how many shutdowns you have seen till now?

A So generally we consider shutdown, uh, every year, uh, we review it, uh, we review it twice. Okay. For companies, uh, where we have invested, um, like more than, uh, uh, uh, like three years back. Okay. And, uh, you will have a situation where like founders are already telling you, okay boss, it's not working out. And, um, this is our fourth year. We have done multiple pivots and we are starting it now. So that is one. And then there are cases where you will figure out that, uh, business is not growing. Okay. And it's stagnant, uh, but founder is running that. So in that case, we stay there. Okay. We always stay there. I have seen a company where it was not growing, but, uh, uh, it turned from a negative, uh, hyper five years back, four years back to profitability two years back. And since then they are profitable. Uh, and, but it was not growing at all. Okay. And that company recently got acquired and we made money on that. So, so that's why, uh, we stay there and, uh, uh, And, and third case will be there. We have seen cases where like co-founders have split and, um, like, uh, they were not, uh, gelling up well and then company got shut down. So in that case also we exit. So if considering first case and second case or third case, there would be around, uh, uh, definitely 22 to 23 companies, uh, Yeah, which would have sat down, or we would have just got the principal back, co…

AI assessment note: “there would be around, uh, definitely 22 to 23 companies, uh, Yeah, which would have sat down”

Q can tell someone metrics about, you know, these companies, you mentioned there are six unicorns, right? In one of your posts, you also mentioned that, you know, uh, that you can see 10 plus software products SaaS enterprise tech from Titan portfolio. Uh, which will be hundred mill ARR companies in the next five to 10 years. Can you tell us about these companies and how you invested with them?

A Yeah. So, uh, unicorns are already listed on our website. So, uh, you can see, uh, Ola, Urban Club, LaserPay, uh, then Recent Return, Mamar, and Off Business also in Last FY. And we are also, as family office, we're also invested in the Snapdeal. So we count that also. So it's six. And, um, And in terms of, uh, that LinkedIn post, which I, which I have, uh, which I, which I used to do every week earlier, last five, six months. There was no time. I was so busy in, uh, again, in portfolio and new investments. I need to restart. Uh, one of the posts I had, uh, Told, uh, that around, uh, it's in fact more than 10 companies, but this is something because now, uh, we have so many, uh, companies in portfolio and, uh, we have good number of unicorns and, uh, we have huge number of suny cons where the valuation is between 300 to, uh, a billion dollar, like, uh, two companies I got to know after I, um, Um, like in last two weeks that they are raising their funds at, uh, unicorn values. Yet to be disclosed, it will take one or two months. So, uh, uh,

AI assessment note: “unicorns are already listed on our website. So, uh, you can see, uh, Ola”