Anthill Ventures aims to address the ever-increasing potential of India’s burgeoning startup landscape with its singular goal to scale visionary entrepreneurs under multiple speed-scaling programs that deliver a well-rounded plethora of services, recommendations, mentorship and networking. CEO and founder Prasad Vanga discusses the unique focus, passion and USPs, his early stage investor company brings to the fore.
“The main principle and positioning statement for us is scale with speed,” shares Prasad. “This means that as a speed scaler, one needs to have several blocks of operational support that can be provided to the startups one is working with. Our team in India is a bunch of hungry young guns who use strategic positioning to manage different aspects of the company: from financial supervision to operational excellence and market positioning as well as sales distribution with a level of detail that is unmatched.
It is worth noting the company’s track record in the last 7 years: 81 portfolios and 9 exits with a rapid 10.6x growth spread across urban lifestyle, urban tech and consumer brands such as Rooter, Roadzen, Zypp Electric, Salud, Videoverse to name a few.
Anthill’s diverse portfolio has also featured celebrity investors – from the likes of Ranveer Singh, Amitabh Bachchan and many others who stand as proud faces and stakeholders in several portfolio companies. “Positioning is clearly the additional support we provide to startups that work with us versus the competition,” says Prasad.
Under his leadership, the company’s plan of action is aggressive. We have been shopping in different states and countries to meet with focused teams of family offices, investors and other interested parties to develop focussed programs. “We are now expanding rapidly: we went from Singapore to Israel and then to the United States of America,” shares Prasad. “Now we’re going to various Nordic countries because there are several family offices who are looking at India as a potential market to enter and this is simply because our country has been labelled as one of the fastest growing countries in the world. The climate investment for India has never been so high!”
Anthill has and continues to brace 7 speed scaling programs – the most recent addition being a tie-up cohort with the government of New South Wales to immerse Australian startups into the nascent Indian ecosystem through rigorous training, knowledge sharing from industry experts, post which it will connect the start-ups to sector stakeholders, VCs and market access enablers.
The company is also launching its 8th edition of the GIA – Global Innovation Alliance program – in collaboration with Enterprise Singapore. After having successfully scaled 42 companies in the last 7 cohorts, Anthill turns its focus to urban lifestyle and urban-tech focused Singaporean companies.
Perhaps the biggest coup this year has been the launch of Gruhas Gusto, a leading food innovation program that has seen the likes of some incredible entrepreneurs participate, including The Fresh Press, Recipeat, Rio Innobev, Hemptyful and Grabenord. Aimed at catalysing the growth of early-stage food companies, with strategic support from Gruhas, Jubilant Bhartia Family Office and DLF Family Office, the program is set to redefine the landscape of food technology through cutting-edge innovation while curating exceptional dining experiences and enhancing well-being.
The launch comes shortly after the successful conclusion of Gruhas Aspire’s 2nd cohort, a program that propels early-stage Prop Tech startups ahead. In the past, Anthill has also launched a women-entrepreneur’s program, charmingly titled Athena after the goddess of wisdom and skills, Indus-X, a clean-energy program and continues to impel healthcare and Health Tech through Lumos, a specific partnership with HCG.
Crediting the Indian government for its extensive support to the startup industry – they’ve delivered such an excellent brand image – Prasad feels this has accelerated the access to international capital that wants to enter the Indian market. “30% of our projects that are global in nature have expanded to other markets. And 81% from our portfolio is doing very well,” he shares. “It is an interesting dynamic that motivates us to go the distance and become a part of necessary conversations that aren’t just startup related but talk about society at large – this year for instance we participated at Synapse, the first of its kind, science tech society conference. And this is all just in the first half of the year, there’s a lot more to come. Our appetite is insatiable.”
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