Matrix Partners India (aka Z47)

For AI, ChatGPT may have been the iPhone moment, but the AppStore moment will be the real gamechanger. AI-native apps and experiences are coming to change the way we transact on the internet. Don’t believe the skeptics - remember that the telephone to the PC to the Internet to the mobile phone, all had “experts” predicting their imminent and frequent demise! We believe AI will also disrupt Ecommerce the way we know it with completely new shopping experiences - building for the AI-enabled e-commerce experience is the future.    Thanks to Chirag Taneja and Rajat Agarwal for this great chat on Indian e-commerce trends. Matrix Partners India (aka Z47) GoKwik  #FoundersFirst #QuickCommerce #AI

🌟 Humbled to co-lead Seeds Fincap Private Limited's Series A funding round, aiming to build financial inclusion for Indian MSMEs. Founded by Subhash Chandra Acharya and Avishek Sarkar, Seeds Fincap addresses a ₹8 Trillion credit deficit for MSMEs with tailored loans from ₹1–5 lakhs. In just three years, Seeds Fincap has:  📈 Grown to 90 branches across 8 states, with a strong presence in UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Haryana 💰 Disbursed over ₹600 crore, serving 50,000+ customers 📘 Expanded loan book to over ₹330 crore 🤝 Partnered with 35+ lenders including the likes of AU SFB, Tata Capital, IDFC Bank, Yes Bank, and Vivriti Capital On the investment, Vikram Vaidyanathan said, “MSME credit represents a massive opportunity in India as we scale towards becoming a $10 trillion economy, and is essential to that goal. Our thesis is to invest in high-quality businesses serving this segment with tailored “right-tech”, contextual credit products, especially in underserved geographies like North and Central India.” At Matrix Partners India aka Z47, we're proud to support Seeds Fincap's impactful journey and look forward to partnering with Subhash and Avishek as they build a leading lending institution. Anish Patil | Taha Tinwala #FoundersFirst #MSME #FintechMatrix

Murf Speech Gen 2, our most advanced, customizable and realistic speech model is here: https://lnkd.in/euNbgY5f Watch our curated showreel on all the exciting features. Then head to the experiential page to explore everything that Speech Gen 2 can do. Don’t miss the rap by Murf at 03:14! 🎙️ With Speech Gen 2, we want to change how creators evaluate voiceovers; from just sounding real to bridging the gap between their vision and its execution. That’s why it comes packed with advanced customization features that ensure every voiceover delivered is not just 'almost there' but 'exactly as intended’. 🔥Here’s a sneak peek of all that’s new and exciting in Speech Gen 2: ✔️ Variability lets you create endless voiceover variations of any line, so that you can pick the one that matches your vision ✔️ With ‘Say It My Way’ - you can get Murf to mimic your unique way of delivering a line ✔️ Word-level Emphasis helps you emphasize specific words in a sentence, to convey the exact meaning you want ✔️ With Voice Styles, you can express any line in various tones from conversational to angry to many more All while generating precise and realistic voiceovers, indistinguishable from human speech. Curious to know more? 👀 You can explore all about #MurfSpeechGen2 here: https://lnkd.in/euNbgY5f

Avnish Bajaj and Rajat Agarwal of Matrix Partners India (aka Z47), have been the earliest pillars of support for GoKwik. When we met for the first time, they instantly believed in the vision I had, what we had set out to solve for, and foresee the growth of eCommerce through it! Abt 40 months have passed and even today, whenever we meet, it’s a rich conversation about past learning, current trends and future possibilities! Caught up recently with them for another matrix moment podcast. One of the takeaways: eCommerce is here to stay, evolving in every avenue it sees. And building tech is shifting to buying tech - trust in enablers growing. Will share more nuggets from our discussion in the next few days. Thanks Rajat, Avnish and Matrix for having me, a fan of energy you folks bring together! Podcast link - https://lnkd.in/gpG9fDKU

🏋️♂️ India is getting fitter. We are playing, moving, and working out harder than ever before. This secular trend, coupled with a young population, is unlocking a large Total Addressable Market (TAM) at a ferocious pace. The rapid scaling of Decathlon (~INR 4000 Cr) and Puma (~INR 3000 Cr), in our view, is just the beginning.   There’s a lot more happening under the hood:   🚺 Women's participation in sports, fitness, and movement has exploded – and they are not satisfied being an “also” target group.   🏸 “Amateur-friendly” sports (Badminton, Swimming, Yoga, etc.) are finding widespread acceptance across demographics (young and old, urban and rural).   🏭 Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) - led supply tailwinds are enabling an entire manufacturing ecosystem to cater to “India-first” product design.   🏃 Quality supply and infrastructure are catching up. 5000+ organized turfs are growing at 25%, and 2000+ timed running events are growing at around 30% every year.   ⌚️ Technology is making “fitness work for me” – from counting steps to measuring calories.   💪 We believe the next wave of entrepreneurs will build companies that propel us to be a stronger, and more resilient India.   We will unpack this, and more, at the Move-a-thon Mixer, an exclusive gathering of founders and industry leaders passionate about the fitness revolution.   📍Venue: Bangalore 📅 Day & Date: Thursday, 1st August 2024 🕕 Time: 6:30 PM onwards for a Panel discussion, over drinks and dinner   🔗 Link in the comments to RSVP.     Rajat Agarwal | Chandrasekhar Venugopal (CV) | Kishan Kashyap | Rohan Parikh | Divyam Gupta #FoundersFirst #MatrixConsumer #Sports #Fitness

Decoding the Indian E-commerce Puzzle with Chirag Taneja, Co-Founder & CEO of GoKwik, Avnish Bajaj (Founder, Matrix Partners aka Z47), and our own Rajat Agarwal (MD, Matrix Partners aka Z47). Tune into this episode of Matrix Moments to dive into the past, present and future of E-Commerce in India. 📲 Beyond 6% digital penetration: What lies ahead?  🛵 Quick commerce: Necessity or novelty? 🦾 AI in retail and the parallels with the mobile app revolution? 🕺🏾 Influencers as co-creators: The end of paid promotions? For those navigating the E-commerce landscape, this episode offers fresh perspectives on emerging trends. Tune in to challenge your assumptions and refine your strategies. #FoundersFirst #RetailEvolution #EcommerceTrends #DigitalIndia

Our second panel, 'Devtools and Datastack: What’s the Next Frontier?', at the sixth edition of #Techtonix, featured Aakash Kumar moderating a discussion with Akash Saxena, CPTO of Viacom18, and Utkarsh (UT) from Xmplify.tech. Key takeaways: ⛔ Challenges and Costs in Business Development: ▶ Aakash Kumar: Highlighted the rising costs of making and selling in business and the difficulty in quantifying developer productivity versus new feature development. ▶ Akash Saxena: Noted a reduction in the need for accountability in development cycles and the importance of understanding and controlling changes within the development process.   🛠️ Observability and Data Engineering: ▶ Aakash Kumar: Discussed the significance of observability frameworks in AI and data engineering, focusing on infrastructure and the potential big wins. ▶ Utkarsh: Emphasized the importance of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and the customer feedback loop in understanding service runtime metrics.    ✅ Site Reliability Engineering (SRE): ▶ Aakash Kumar: Mentioned the long-standing role of SRE and the need to approach problem-solving from a customer-backwards perspective. ▶ Akash Saxena: Stressed the importance of following the money to understand business and accountability, implementing the best processes, and maintaining a strong record of platform activities.    🔒 Data Engineering and Reliability: ▶ Aakash Kumar: Raised questions about data reliability, operations, and the current problems in the field, asking for potential changes and easy solutions. ▶ Utkarsh: Pointed out the lack of data strategies in many organizations and the need for proper data definitions and quality tests.  ▶ Akash Saxena: Acknowledged that many software teams deal with poor data quality and stressed the importance of establishing measures that matter to the organization.    💡 Practical Insights and Recommendations: ▶ Akash Saxena: Discussed the inevitable challenges of data management and the need for maturity in schema registry and data lifecycle management. ▶ Utkarsh: Highlighted the necessity of understanding company-specific data requirements and building appropriate tools and processes around those needs. If you are working or building in technology, drop Debleena Das a line to join our community. Manisha Raisinghani | Karan Kirpalani | Rajat Agarwal | Pranay Desai | Prajwal Kumar | Ashwin Kannan Pandian | Madhav Chadha #FoundersFirst #AIatMatrix #MumbaiTech

Looking forward to #GlobalFintechFest this year! Vikram Vaidyanathan | Anand Khetan | Anish Patil | Taha Tinwala | Nipun Singhal

🌟 Last evening, we hosted the inaugural INSEAD Insider Series, bringing together over 50 alumni from Bangalore. Along with Anish Patil, we had the privilege of welcoming Ritesh Banglani, Partner and Co-Founder of Stellaris Venture Partners, and Rajat Garg, Founder of Meeraq, to discuss "Thriving in the Bharat Techade: Unlocking the Path to Success."   The panel shared personal insights into what the Techade journey could signify for each individual, exploring the impact of India's progress on financial futures and opportunities for wealth creation.    The evening underscored the strength and engagement of the INSEAD community, marked by remarkable camaraderie and a shared commitment to exploring new horizons.   INSEAD alums continue to drive positive change, and we are humbled to strengthen our association with the community. Anand Ramachandran | Rajesh Gopal | Shubhangi Das | Reneta Kripalani | INSEAD | INSEAD Alumni Bangalore | INSEAD Alumni Association #FoundersFirst #INSEADInsiderSeries

At the sixth edition of #Techtonix, we deliberated on "Navigating the Services-as-AI Software Wave" with Manisha Raisinghani, Founder & CEO of SiftHub, and Karan Kirpalani, CPO of Neysa Networks, in conversation with Ashwin Kannan Pandian. Key takeaways from the panel: ⚓ Embedding AI in Products: Ashwin: Discussed the importance of integrating AI into products to drive business efficiency and deployment in production. Karan: Emphasized that successful AI integration depends on specific use cases. AI should solve niche problems rather than be a one-size-fits-all solution. Manisha: Highlighted the challenges of finding and using information within companies and how AI can streamline this. 🔍 Identifying AI Use Cases: Karan: Shared that diverse use cases exist, such as in banking and insurance, where AI models like LLMs are being used to solve immediate problems. Manisha: Advised that understanding how people currently solve problems and making incremental improvements can justify AI adoption. 💡 Developing Valuable AI Products: Manisha: Emphasized the importance of solving a specific problem comprehensively for one team to drive adoption. Companies are willing to pay for improvements that significantly enhance productivity and management visibility. Karan: Supported democratizing AI usage within organizations. 🧪 Testing and Experimenting with AI Models: Manisha: Shared that iteration is key. Initial products may change significantly based on user feedback and testing results. Karan: Provided examples of how clients are training LLMs on specific datasets, like legal documents, to create valuable AI tools. ⚙️ AI Deployment: On-Premise vs. Cloud: Manisha: Emphasized the importance of building flexible, decoupled architectures that can adapt to rapid advancements in AI technology. Karan: Discussed the high costs of hardware and the options between using cloud or on-premise solutions. Early-stage companies need to consider these costs when starting with AI tools. 🔄 Choosing AI Models: Open AI vs. Fine-Tuning: Manisha: Highlighted the trade-offs between using Open AI models and fine-tuning proprietary models. Karan: Mentioned that fine-tuning models like Lama 3 could offer cost-effective solutions depending on the requirements. For more, stay tuned. Akash Saxena | Utkarsh (UT) | Rajat Agarwal | Debleena Das | Pranay Desai | Prajwal Kumar #FoundersFirst #AIatMatrix #MumbaiTech