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When a large company is after a popular startup, the decision to sell is not clear-cut

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When a big company comes after a hot startup, it’s not a slam dunk decision to sell

Last month, rumors first emerged that Google was pursuing cloud security startup Wiz, and a suggestion of $23 billion was on the table, the most lucrative offer ever made to a startup. There were a lot of moving parts before the deal finally fell through, and it’s fair to ask: What are the mechanics behind putting a big deal like this in motion, and the way does a startup determine whether to sell or not?

We spoke with Jyoti Bansal, founder and CEO of Harness, a developer tools startup that has raised about $575 million and made a variety of small acquisitions along the way. While Bansal has no direct knowledge of the Google-Wiz negotiation process, he experienced the adulation of a large company when Cisco got here in after his previous startup, AppDynamics. Cisco ultimately bought the company just days before it went public in 2017 for $3.7 billion.

He says there are three aspects at play in deals like this. The first is how serious the offer is, and whether it’s concrete or simply exploratory. In the case of a private company like Wiz, it’s likely to be exploratory at first, since there’s not as much public details about its funds as there can be with a public company.

Bansal says that when he was going through the AppDynamics negotiations with Cisco, he had recently filed his S-1 with the SEC, and all of his financial cards were already on the table. “So for an acquirer, acquiring a private company that’s on the IPO track and a few days away from an IPO is fundamentally no different than acquiring a public company,” he says. “All the information they need is there, and they don’t have to worry about whether they’re missing something, or whether the information isn’t clean, verified, or audited.”

Once you’ve got determined how serious the company is, you wish to investigate whether it’s a good fit. “The second factor in any type of courtship that happens is why are you merging companies? Is it interesting? Is it exciting?” You also need to consider what is going to occur to your employees and your products: Will some employees lose their jobs? Will products be discontinued or canceled?

Finally, and maybe most significantly, the economics of the deal need to be examined to see if it is sensible and represents good value for shareholders. From Wiz’s perspective, this was a huge offer (assuming the rumored amount was accurate) that was 46 times current ARR and 23 times projected 2025 ARR. However, Wiz believed it could be higher to remain a private company.

In Bansal’s case, when Cisco courted him, he was in the middle of his company’s IPO tour. It took a few days for the company to go public, but even with the information Cisco could analyze, there have been ongoing discussions, and it wasn’t easy for Bansal to surrender his baby, even when the price was right in the end.

Both firms knew they’d a strict deadline. Once the IPO happened, it was over. The negotiations ended with three offers, and after they ended, Cisco got the company. “Ultimately, it comes down to what’s best for all the shareholders in terms of risk and reward. It’s about what’s the risk of being independent versus the reward of selling,” Bansal said.

The first offer was according to the IPO value and was easy to reject. The second was higher, but after discussing it with the board, Bansal again said no. “Then they came back with a third offer, and in the third offer it made sense, from a risk-reward perspective, for our shareholders to sell the company.” And they sold at a range of two.5 to 3 times the IPO valuation.

It’s easy to think that with billions of dollars at stake, the decision to sell can be easy, however it really wasn’t. “It wasn’t an easy decision on our part. It sounds like ($3.7 billion) is a very easy decision.” But he says you’ve to survey your investors, your fellow executives, your board members — they usually all have different interests, and also you’re trying to make the right decision for everybody involved.

Wiz thought it was higher to stay independent. In AppDynamics’ case, with the pressure of an IPO looming and a good deal on the table, the company eventually decided to accomplish that. “So for us to independently get to a valuation of two and a half, three times our IPO valuation, we would need at least three years of good execution,” he said. “And there were a lot of unknowns, a lot of risks for the company, like what’s going to happen in the next three years.”

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t regret it, regardless that he remodeled 300 of his employees millionaires with the deal and his personal wealth. When he looks back on the moment of the announcement, he realizes that it’s entirely possible he could have made that much money, or much more.

“I always wonder what AppDynamics could have become if we had gone to IPO. There are a lot of unknowns, and hindsight is 20/20, but if you look back, we sold the company in 2017, and the years after that sale, post-2017, were some of the best boom years in tech, especially for B2B SaaS,” he said. He ultimately could have made more cash, but he began Harness as a substitute and is joyful constructing a second company.

It’s necessary to note that Wiz’s offer stays mired in rumors, so it might or may not be that big. But if it were, the founders may also regret not getting Wiz the value it could have had if it had taken the big money and run.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal is leaving PhonePe’s board

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Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has stepped down three-quarters from PhonePe’s board after making an identical move on the e-commerce giant.

Bengaluru-based PhonePe said it has appointed Manish Sabharwal, executive director at recruitment and human resources firm Teamlease, as an independent director and chairman of the audit committee.

Bansal played a key role in Flipkart’s acquisition of PhonePe in 2016 and has since served on the fintech’s board. The Walmart-backed startup, which operates India’s hottest mobile payment app, spun off from Flipkart in 2022 and was valued at $12 billion in funding rounds that raised about $850 million last 12 months.

Bansal still holds about 1% of PhonePe. Neither party explained why they were leaving the board.

“I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Binny Bansal for being one of the first and staunchest supporters of PhonePe,” Sameer Nigam, co-founder and CEO of PhonePe, said in a press release. His lively involvement, strategic advice and private mentoring have profoundly enriched our discussions. We will miss Binny!”

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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The company is currently developing washing machines for humans

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Forget about cold baths. Washing machines for people may soon be a brand new solution.

According to at least one Japanese the oldest newspapersOsaka-based shower head maker Science has developed a cockpit-shaped device that fills with water when a bather sits on a seat in the center and measures an individual’s heart rate and other biological data using sensors to make sure the temperature is good. “It also projects images onto the inside of the transparent cover to make the person feel refreshed,” the power says.

The device, dubbed “Mirai Ningen Sentakuki” (the human washing machine of the longer term), may never go on sale. Indeed, for now the company’s plans are limited to the Osaka trade fair in April, where as much as eight people will have the option to experience a 15-minute “wash and dry” every day after first booking.

Apparently a version for home use is within the works.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Zepto raises another $350 million amid retail upheaval in India

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Zepto, snagging $1 billion in 90 days, projects 150% annual growth

Zepto has secured $350 million in latest financing, its third round of financing in six months, because the Indian high-speed trading startup strengthens its position against competitors ahead of a planned public offering next yr.

Indian family offices, high-net-worth individuals and asset manager Motilal Oswal invested in the round, maintaining Zepto’s $5 billion valuation. Motilal co-founder Raamdeo Agrawal, family offices Mankind Pharma, RP-Sanjiv Goenka, Cello, Haldiram’s, Sekhsaria and Kalyan, in addition to stars Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar are amongst those backing the brand new enterprise, which is India’s largest fully national primary round.

The funding push comes as Zepto rushes so as to add Indian investors to its capitalization table, with foreign ownership now exceeding two-thirds. TechCrunch first reported on the brand new round’s deliberations last month. The Mumbai-based startup has raised over $1.35 billion since June.

Fast commerce sales – delivering groceries and other items to customers’ doors in 10 minutes – will exceed $6 billion this yr in India. Morgan Stanley predicts that this market shall be value $42 billion by 2030, accounting for 18.4% of total e-commerce and a pair of.5% of retail sales. These strong growth prospects have forced established players including Flipkart, Myntra and Nykaa to cut back delivery times as they lose touch with specialized delivery apps.

While high-speed commerce has not taken off in many of the world, the model seems to work particularly well in India, where unorganized retail stores are ever-present.

High-speed trading platforms are creating “parallel trading for consumers seeking convenience” in India, Morgan Stanley wrote in a note this month.

Zepto and its rivals – Zomato-owned Blinkit, Swiggy-owned Instamart and Tata-owned BigBasket – currently operate on lower margins than traditional retail, and Morgan Stanley expects market leaders to realize contribution margins of 7-8% and adjusted EBITDA margins to greater than 5% by 2030. (Zepto currently spends about 35 million dollars monthly).

An investor presentation reviewed by TechCrunch shows that Zepto, which handles greater than 7 million total orders every day in greater than 17 cities, is heading in the right direction to realize annual sales of $2 billion. It anticipates 150% growth over the following 12 months, CEO Aadit Palicha told investors in August. The startup plans to go public in India next yr.

However, the rapid growth of high-speed trading has had a devastating impact on the mom-and-pop stores that dot hundreds of Indian cities, towns and villages.

According to the All India Federation of Consumer Products Distributors, about 200,000 local stores closed last yr, with 90,000 in major cities where high-speed trading is more prevalent.

The federation has warned that without regulatory intervention, more local shops shall be vulnerable to closure as fast trading platforms prioritize growth over sustainable practices.

Zepto said it has created job opportunities for tons of of hundreds of gig employees. “From day one, our vision has been to play a small role in nation building, create millions of jobs and offer better services to Indian consumers,” Palicha said in an announcement.

Regulatory challenges arise. Unless an e-commerce company is a majority shareholder of an Indian company or person, current regulations prevent it from operating on a listing model. Fast trading corporations don’t currently follow these rules.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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