Shubham Choudhary

slice's valuation crashed ~68% to $450M, and Rajan Bajaj is the only fintech founder the RBI approved to run a bank himself. No other Indian fintech founder has pulled that off. RBI approved Bajaj as MD & CEO in February. By September, Slice's valuation got marked down ~68%, to $450 million. Here's the part headlines skip: North East Small Finance Bank was already troubled before merging with Slice. A microfinance book concentrated in Assam, wrecked by the 2022 floods. Bad loans near 25%. Bajaj didn't inherit clean books and just added his brand on top. He tore out NESFB's old systems and rebuilt the bank's core. 📍 Underwriting, fraud checks, and the customer-facing app now run on one microservices system 📍 Product changes ship on Slice's own timeline, not a vendor's release calendar 📍 Bad loans down to under 5%. Deposits nearly doubled. A ₹217 crore loss turned into a profit I work with SaaS and AI-native founders, and I keep seeing the same blind spot: the tech underneath a product gets treated as plumbing. Slice flipped that: they treated the tech as the product itself. That's what lets them ship faster than a bank running on legacy rails usually can. But the story isn't finished. Slice's cost-to-income ratio is still near 83%, well above the roughly 60-65% range achieved by more efficient small finance bank peers. Rebuilding the engine was the part that shows up in headlines. Making it cheap to run at scale, that's still being written. Does a ~68% valuation crash change how you'd feel about banking with Slice?

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Most brands are considering to launch an app But few know if it’s 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴. In our latest "Dilse Omni talks" podcast, I asked Abhijeet Singh ( cofounder Appbrew : Why do companies hesitate to build apps? “They aren’t skeptical - but dont know how to measure success.” And that’s where most go wrong. At top D2C brands with App benchmarks 👇 • Apps drive 50%+ of total D2C sales • Deliver 2-3x better conversion rates • Give 30-40% higher AOV • Achieve 2x higher retention • And boost LTV by 2-3x Yet many brands still don’t track these numbers. Because having an app is easy. But having a successful app needs measurement. Check out the full episode link in comments 👇 & learn how to make your app your biggest growth driver.

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Circle, a full-stack platform for buying and selling pre-owned products, has secured ₹3.4 crore in a pre-seed funding round led by early-stage VC firm Titan Capital, with participation from Raveen Sastry (Co-founder of myntra). The funds will help Circle improve its AI tools for pricing, product grading, and catalog matching. The startup will expand its electronics and home categories, grow its Bengaluru operations, and enter new cities by 2026. 🔗 Read full article link in comment Ankit Misra | Chirag Kataruka #circle #D2C #buyandsell #funding #startupnews #growth

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Forget the Silicon Valley Playbook. The 'Blinkit Effect' is the real secret behind India’s next $50B+ operational explosion. While some look at Blinkit as just a delivery app, VCs look at it as an Operational SEAL Team. From the high-pressure dark stores of 2021 to the disruptive founders of 2025, if you want to see where India’s execution-heavy decacorns are coming from, you look at the Blinkit Effect Here are my 5 VC-level insights into why the "Gurgaon Mafia" is currently rewriting the Indian execution playbook: 👇🏻 1) Prithvi Singh - Gameskraft Most gaming founders focus on "fun." Prithvi used his Blinkit-honed high-concurrency roots to build a platform that handles millions of real-time transactions without a glitch. He leveraged the "Zero-Latency" mindset to solve backend engineering hurdles that slower competitors simply couldn't code their way out of ⚡ 2) Varun Khurana - Otipy Varun realised early on that Agritech isn't a "farming" business; it’s a density problem. By treating every tomato like a time-sensitive delivery packet, he solved the "perishability" trap in farm-to-fork. Otipy’s hyper-local supply chain is a direct product of the 10-minute delivery DNA native to the Blinkit war room 🥦 3) Zaheer Khan - Ayu Health Proving that you can bring "Quick Commerce" rigor to healthcare. Zaheer didn't just focus on "Doctors"; he focused on a systemic pain point: fragmented hospital operations. By bringing "Blinkit-level" logistics to hospital networks, he is systematising an industry known for chaos, demonstrating the "Systemic-First" ambition of the modern Blinkit graduate 🏥 4) Manas Gupta - GobbleCube Mastering "Data-Driven Velocity." Manas took the intimidating world of e-commerce brand analytics and made it as fast as a flash sale. By focusing on real-time SKU-level precision and scalable data frameworks, he successfully navigated the "Insight Gap" for D2C brands that were drowning in slow data 📊 5) Abhishek Upadhyay - CubeAPM The invisible backbone of the 2026 enterprise. By launching an observability platform for complex digital stacks, Abhishek is ensuring that "Zero Downtime" is a reality for the global market. He proved that the Blinkit network doesn't just build apps; they build the infrastructure that keeps the world’s most complex systems running 🧊 The ➡️ Insight: The "Blinkit Effect" isn't about the bike or the bag; it’s about Urgency as a Culture. When your training ground is a 10-minute delivery window, your baseline for "fast" shifts. That psychological edge is what creates a high-velocity, $50B+ ecosystem. ➡️ The 2026 Blueprint: Don't just look for a good idea; look for an Execution Moat. The next unicorn won't just have a great product; it will have a founder who can survive the high-pressure "Blinkit" crucible and scale at 10x speed 📈

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A VC-backed startup employee tried getting access to my new product (currently in beta) & was rushing me to release early. When I checked their profile to understand why they're rushing me to release, intent became clear. Refunded them immediately for 3 reasons: 1. The reason I am running solo is to have no boss over me 2. A product shipped with external pressure is never good for the user. Things will break and it'll not leave a good UX impression. My current rule here is to ship when I feel comfortable with that version of the feature. 3. If you're going to learn or steal from my product, say so. Be honest about your intent. I am a guy who's keeping my intent on my face always and I'd like to do business with people who're honest too. But man, VC-backed founders are trying to take inspiration from a bootstrapped solofounder. I think I've arrived 😂

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#BookRecommendation #ByteDance I am a staunch believer that the India technology ecosystem can benefit immensely from key learnings ("What to do?" and also, "what NOT to do?") from mature markets like China (one of the key reasons PROMAFT exists today!). 'Attention Factory', the book does a brilliant job of deeply researching the evolution of ByteDance - a company that has been rather obscure for it scale and impact. The book immaculately captures - 1. Thinking hard about the 'Consumer need' - Social network or Content Platform - using data to prove the same. 2. Evolution to 'Product-Market-Fit' - they were not the first to market! 3. Investing behind scalable technology - a recommendation system that 2x'ed' retention rate and usage in a matter of weeks 4. Rapidly scaling post 'Product-Market-Fit' - customer acquisition, M&A, offline activation - leaving gargantuan competitors like Tencent behind Super valuable for any entrepreneur looking to build & scale globally. Can't wait to re-read this again. Matthew Brennan

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We've been hearing one common struggle from founders lately: "Cash Blindness." Sales are hitting records, but the bank balance doesn't seem to add up. We recently helped a D2C brand fix this by moving them out of spreadsheet chaos. We built a 13-week cash dashboard that syncs their India and US data automatically. It moved them from guessing their runway to actually knowing it—saving them 8 hours of work every week. Sharing the breakdown and the actual Excel template we used below. 👇 Link to the template in the first comment! #D2C #FounderLife #CashFlow #DataIntegration #VextaCFO #FractionalCFO #StartupGrowth

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Here are 8 D2C brands that dominated VC funding in 2025, and more importantly, what they got right 👇  1. Zepto Raised $450M at ~$7B valuation Zepto co-founded by Aadit Palicha & Kaivalya V. proved that dailyuse + speed + operational leverage is still fundable, even in cautious markets. Investors doubled down because quick commerce isn’t just about convenience, it’s about habit formation. Key takeaway: If customers use you daily, capital will follow.  👔 2. SNITCH founded by Siddharth DUNGARWAL Series B of $40M Unlike traditional apparel brands, Snitch operates with startup speed, data-led drops, fast inventory turns, and aggressive retail expansion. Key takeaway: Speed + brand ≠ chaos, when execution is sharp.  💍 3. GIVA co-founded by Ishendra Agarwal & Nikita Prasad ₹530 Cr Series C From silver jewellery to gold and lab-grown diamonds, GIVA transitioned from a digital-first brand to a deeply omnichannel powerhouse with 240+ stores. Key takeaway: Online builds discovery. Offline builds trust, especially in highAOV categories.  👗 4. Purple Style Labs (PSL) founded by Abhishek (Monty) Agarwal  $40M raised Luxury isn’t niche anymore. Purple Style Labs built a platform. They sit at the intersection of fashion, retail, and technology. Key takeaway: Premium brands need systems, not just aesthetics.  🧴 5. Foxtale founded by Romita Mazumdar  $30M Series B Foxtale focused on: • Ingredient transparency • Indian skin & climate • Strong repurchase behavior In a crowded beauty market, retention became the differentiator. Key takeaway: In beauty, repeat purchase beats reach.  🥛 6. Country Delight founded by Chakradhar Gade and Nitin Kaushal $25M raised Country Delight won investor confidence through: • Vertical integration • Quality control • Daily-use products Key takeaway: Boring businesses with strong fundamentals scale quietly but powerfully.  7. Heads Up For Tails founded by Rashi Narang Near ₹25M Series B With rising urban pet ownership, HUFT built: • Premium products • Omnichannel presence • Deep emotional brand connect Key takeaway: Lifestyle categories with emotion + repeat usage are investor magnets.  8. Farmley founded by Akash Sharma and Abhishek Agarwal $40M raised Farmley turned dry fruits into a branded, habitual snacking category, not just festive gifting. Key takeaway: When you own everyday consumption, scale becomes inevitable. If you’re building a D2C brand today, this list is your playbook. Do comment - Which of these brands do you admire the most and why? 👇

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