May 29 2017

Collateral Medical Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based online distributor of medical devices, has raised $3.5 million in Series A round from India-focussed private-equity firm Carpediem Capital.

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May 29 2017

Mumbai-based healthtech startup Collateral Medical has secured $3.5 Mn its Series A round of funding from PE fund, Carpediem Capital. Intellecap’s Investment Banking Group acted as advisors for the deal.

The startup will deploy the raised funds towards scaling distribution capabilities, expansion of its service network, and further enhancing IT infrastructure.

Founded in 2010 by Nikhilesh Tiwari, the company is an online marketplace for medical products, equipments, and other raw materials. It focusses on supplying medical devices for doctors, clinics, and small and medium hospitals across Tier II and III cities in the country.

Nikhilesh Tiwari, founder and CEO, Collateral Medical said, “The fund infusion will help us improve and enhance our capabilities to serve medical community better and we are excited to have Carpediem Capital join us as trusted partners in our journey for the next level of growth.”

May 29 2017

Online medical devices distributor Collateral Medical has raised $3.5 million in a Series A investment from Carpediem Capital. The funds will be used to strengthen the company’s distribution capabilities and IT infrastructure as well as expand its service network.

Intellecap’s Investment Banking Group was advisor to the deal, Intellecap said in a statement.

Gagandeep Bakshi, Head, Investment Banking, Intellecap said, “Collateral Medical has created a capital efficient distribution model that has resulted in price transparency and efficient outreach in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. They have also managed customer stickiness and retention by providing after sales service. They are one of the few players in the market addressing the pain points of both suppliers and customers.”

Collateral Medical, one of the leading medical devices marketing and distribution companies, essentially caters to doctors, clinics, and small and medium private hospitals in tier-2 and tier-3 cities in the country.

Commenting on the investment, Nikhilesh Tiwari, Founder and CEO, Collateral Medical, said,

May 29 2017

Online medical devices distributor Collateral Medical has raised $3.5 million (around Rs 22.5 crore) in its Series A funding round from homegrown private equity firm Carpediem Advisors Pvt. Ltd.

Collateral Medical will use the funds to strengthen its distribution capabilities, expand service network and upgrade IT, the Mumbai-based firm said in a statement.

“The fund infusion will help us improve and enhance our capabilities to serve the medical community better,” said Nikhilesh Tiwari, founder and CEO, Collateral Medical.

VCCircle first reported last week that Carpediem Capital was all set to make its debut investment in the healthcare sector.

May 20 2017

At a recent digital banking conference in Africa, I was asked if fintech is sustainable. The response was simple – fintech is not singular. It is an amalgamation of multiple digital financial services trends across regions, and across payments, lending, and banking

The question is which of these are solving a real problem vs those solving a perceived problem. There are a few trends out here that I like, which are solving real issues, which will sustain, and merge with the overall financial services ecosystem:

Disintermediation of the lending value chain – Banks would traditionally source, acquire, underwrite, onboard, collect and service customers. Most would do some parts well, and a few parts not so well. This is increasingly now being solved by the entry of new ‘customer owning’ entities into the game, who will acquire, owners of data who can underwrite, and the lenders who can lend and collect. This makes partnerships key.

However, the cost of acquisition, collections and data partnerships is turning out to be quite prohibitive (upto 6-8% in some cases), especially in telco-dominated markets, for example Kenya, which is driving the fintech business models towards non-feasibility.

May 18 2017

In 2050, India will achieve reliable, economically competitive and environmentally sustainable electricity system, addressing the energy security and environmental strains.

In past few years, India has achieved an impressive growth in adding renewable energy generation. Efforts have been made to alleviate the long standing problems like power shortages, rural electrifications, poor distribution companies (Discom) financial health and non performing energy assets through various policy interventions. However the current penetration of renewable energy is low about 15% of total energy supply. The energy supply spectrum largely entails coal (about 50%) followed by oil and gas. It is envisaged that in 2050, India will have an annual energy demand of about 14,500 TWh per year (with a moderate CAGR of 6.7% till 2050). Largely the demand will be from industry sector followed by transportation and buildings. In the absence of paradigm shift towards the low carbon alternatives, the dependence on fossil fuel will increase, causing a serious threat to nation’s energy security and GHG emissions in future.

With determined efforts by the policy makers, India can overcome barriers to enable investment in clean and sustainable energy supply options. In 2050, India will achieve reliable, economically competitive and environmentally sustainable electricity system, addressing the energy security and environmental strains. A couple of trends under current energy sector reforms are converging to create game-changing disruptions like electrification of large energy intensive sectors coupled with accelerated renewable energy capacity addition, parallel efforts to strengthen electricity supply to underserved and un-served through integration of grid and distributed renewable energy, adoption of emerging storage technologies to increase the grid appetite to accommodate intermittent sources and enabling cost optimization through the best use of automation and communication analytics.

Electrification of large energy intensive sectors coupled with accelerated RE capacity addition

Clean energy is India’s top priority to meet the global commitment under INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution) to meet the target of reducing GDP emission intensity by 35%. The reduction is to be made by 2030 considering 2005 as a base data. With an aggressive chase of INDC targets on renewable energy capacity addition, India can have more than 50% of electricity generated from renewable source, leading the global renewable energy generation in 2050. India is eyeing towards massive electrification of its energy intensive sectors, the majority of which in 2050 will be seen to be supplied from renewable sources like solar and wind. Ongoing efforts towards greening the passenger & freight transportation by railways and an ambitious plan to electrify the entire road transportation by 2030, indicates that the second most energy intensive sector- Transportation is targeted. A mammoth pipeline is to be built in coming years to reach the target of 100GW by 2022.

Apr 20 2017

“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

In 2050 we can visualize a large population enjoying an amazing quality of life with access to such services and privileges as are not accessible even to the urban middle class of today. Higher income levels, universal access to quality education, healthcare, safe drinking water and sanitation services shall characterize rural India in 2050. Women’s participation levels in India’s workforce shall be rivaling that of the men with all discrimination based on region, caste, community, ethnicity, gender, age and disabilities being minimized. The optimism for future stems not only owing to the rate at which the technology is evolving and is being adopted by the masses but also owing to the changing attitudes of the new generation towards “holistic development for all”.

Demographically a large proportion of population may migrate to urban India by 2050; however about 850 million people will continue to reside in rural India.

Despite a view that India is rapidly urbanizing, it will have just half of its population in cities even in 2050. By 2050, India will still be one of the least urbanized countries in the world. It’s likely that the simplicity of life, improvement of income levels and availability of basic services may significantly improve the quality of rural life in India.

Farm and non-farm rural households are likely to improve their incomes and reduce their vulnerabilities significantly by 2050.

The per capita income for urban India in 2011-12 was INR 1, 01,313, whereas for rural India it was only INR 40,772.

However in 2050 rural India is likely to have significantly higher incomes. This will largely be driven by a quantum leap in the cropping intensity, riding on almost all the arable land coming under irrigation. For instance, the gross irrigated area is expected to increase from 76 million hectare in 2000 to 117 million hectares by 2050. Besides, the vulnerabilities arising out of climate change will have become a non-issue with universalization of crop insurance across rural India. The core value chains will have completely integrated vertically, performing at the highest level of efficiency, aided by world class infrastructure, resulting in smooth access to markets. Non-farming rural households too shall be experiencing buoyancy in their incomes aided by a burgeoning demand for services and non-farm goods. The rural population shall have access to social security owing to the entire workforce being a part of the formal sector and high level of financial inclusion among the rural population leading to access to life insurance, health insurance, insurance cover against accidents, pension services and credit for both consumption and production purposes. The expected increase in per capita income for India to over INR 26 lakhs (USD 40,000) will also reflect in rural incomes.

Apr 19 2017

Woman entrepreneur no longer elicits surprise or curiosity in India. Many women entrepreneurs are driven by a desire to do good work, realise their dreams and prove their detractors wrong, rather than just make money.

The glass ceilings are shattered and women are found indulged in every line of business. The entry of women into business in India is traced out as an extension of their kitchen activities, mainly 3P‘s, Pickle, Powder and Pappad. But with the spread of education and passage of time women started shifting from 3P‘s to modern 3E‘s i.e., Energy, Electronics and Engineering.

One of the biggest hurdle facing the social and moral fabric of women entrepreneurs in India is Lack of awareness about the financial assistance in the form of incentives, loans, schemes etc. by the institutions in the financial sector. So the sincere efforts taken towards women entrepreneurs may not reach the entrepreneurs in rural and backward areas.

Well one of the possible solution to overcome this big problem is by provision of micro credit system and enterprise credit system to the women entrepreneurs at local level. One of the key players moving up the charts on this front is CashSuvidha – An SME firm providing hassle free loans to people in a super quick time and at competitive rates of interest.

CashSuvidha helps women entrepreneur to raise un-secured business loans of up to Rs 3 Lakhs and then secured loans upto 10 lakhs. In both the Rural & Urban areas, they are providing loans of upto Rs 50,000 for small businesses or any type of income generation activities. They have also joined hands with Intellecap Advisory Service Pvt. Ltd to support access to finance for Women Entrepreneurship as a part of the Creditree project.

This will be a growth- propelling step towards developing financially stability in the unorganised sector of Women Entrepreneurship, and will encourage more and more women to step out and make the best possible use of this space with all the resources.

Mar 30 2017

India is transforming from a rural to an urban country. To prepare our cities for the future – we need to reimagine concepts of shelter, utilities, culture, health, and economy. Unless we plan today, we will build cities that codify inequity and unsustainability.

In the next three decades India will transform from a rural to an urban country

Approximately 1,800 Indians move from rural areas to a city every hour. The pace at which Indian demographics are shifting from rural to urban is unprecedented. Major cities such as Mumbai and Delhi are no longer “cities” as traditionally defined but megalopolises – a collection of urban conglomerates whose borders have merged to become the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Delhi NCR respectively.

Consider this: by 2050 60% of Indians will live in cities. Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata will be amongst the world’s largest cities and cumulatively become home to nearly 100 million people. How will these cities that are already bursting at the seams ensure basic quality of life for all these new citizens?

The answer is in reimagining the construct of cities. We need to shift away from thinking of cities purely in terms of fixed locations and physical infrastructure such as roads and buildings, and towards cities as dynamic living systems. We have an opportunity ahead of us to overhaul our existing cities and carefully plan new ones as we prepare for the future. Resilience to natural resource scarcity, extreme weather conditions and human-made disasters, as well as inclusive growth will need to be the bedrock of the future of Indian cities. At Intellecap Innovation Lab, we use five lenses of enquiry to think about these future-ready cities:

Mar 22 2017

Global water crises – from drought in the world’s most productive farmlands to the millions of people without access to safe drinking water – are the biggest threat facing the planet over the next decade. With increasing demand, due to the growing population and unsustainable lifestyle, many countries are facing severe water crises. In the absence of suitable corrective measures, many developing countries including India will have to face crisis of water scarcity.

The Indian Context

India is not water poor country, availability of rain water, surface and ground water are not an imperative problem, but inequity due to population growth, rapid urbanization and inefficient resource management, water is becoming a scarce commodity. This crisis is an emergency and calls for attention by all the stakeholders to make sustainable and intelligent use of the available

With ~25% (estimated) Increase in population the demand rises by ~360 billion m3 and the supply drops by ~1065 billion m3 and this being only for domestic consumption. By 2050, the amount of ground and surface water available for supply is estimate to have dropped by more than 40%. While there is increased emphasis on equitable access, affordability, quality water availability, recycle / reuse and several conservation initiatives, efficient utilization of existing water across dimensions of usage becomes an impetus to meet the future water demand.

Efficiency is the key

A concerted effort is required to bring in a paradigm shift in approach to achieve higher standards of efficiency in water use across sectors involving all stakeholders central and state government, municipalities, industries etc. While rebuilding and modernizing a massive water systems offer an opportunity to chart a sustainable, prosperous course for the nation. These are not the only solution to resolve water scarcity and stress. Investments in form of capital, advanced technology, process and good governance in water can futureproof a nation like India against water crisis. While there are different approaches (mainly top down) of standards, regulations guiding industrial consumption of water for increased efficiency bearing reuse and recycle of water, there are several other sectors which are still not under the purview for good water management practices. Applying good governance and particularly the principles of equity, transparency and accountability in water management across industrial, agriculture and domestic use can ease the intensity of the problem. With a mere 1% improved utilization of groundwater, 150 litres per day per capita for 500000 individuals can be created.