Fund Raise: Helping startups start up smart

YNOS Venture Engine, an IIT Madras Incubation Cell incubated startup, is a business intelligence and analytics platform provider targeting systemic challenges at the bottom of the startup pyramid. As a smart platform, powered by powerful data science techniques, it is positioned as a solution provider in terms of not only addressing the pain points faced by early-stage entrepreneurs but also investors, institutions and all stakeholders who want to get engaged with the startup community in the country.

YNOS’s vision to ensure startups “start up smart”, has attracted investors to invest in a seed funding of about Rs 2.5 crore. YNOS received seed funding from seasoned business leaders including, Arun Jain, Lakshmi Narayanan, Sarath Naru, Prashanth Prakash, Madan Padaki, M Srinivasa Rao, Shalini Chhabra, Rishikesha T Krishnan, Samit Jain, Praveen Joseph, ZAR Business Partners, Rickson Rodricks, Ajit Thyagarajan, Siddharth Ram Athreya, and Naresh Ranwah. Funding received will be used to further scale technology investments and strengthen ongoing business development activities.

Thillai Rajan A, professor at IIT Madras and co-founder YNOS Venture Engine said, “Our mission is to create a fundamental impact on early-stage ventures through our unmatched intelligence on the startup ecosystem. Most importantly, we target the big systemic challenges at the bottom of the startup pyramid. The versatility of our smart platform makes it a relevant solution not only addressing the pain points faced by early-stage entrepreneurs but also investors,
institutions and all stakeholders who want to be engaged with the startup economy in the country.”

YNOS leverages technology, advanced data science techniques and marker analytics to provide customised insights and recommendations to startup founders, venture investors, innovators, and other stakeholders of the startup ecosystem. These unique offerings have already on-boarded 83,460-plus startups, 5,600-plus Angels and 1,500-plus VCs and networks as part of their exhaustive intelligence.

Early-stage entrepreneurs are often faced with multiple roadblocks, including limited knowledge of the market, competition landscape and finding investors who match the synergy and vision of their brand. YNOS intervenes to help entrepreneurs accelerate this learning curve. It also provides tools for venture valuation, expert subject matter consultations and a comprehensive IP engine providing solutions right from identifying to licensing intellectual property.