India is arguably the world’s third biggest startup ecosystem behind the USA and China. But much of India’s boom has happened within the last two decades. Between 2013-2020 Jagruti Bista and Ajay Ramasubramaniam were in the thick of it. In 2020, they decided to share their lessons learnt. They founded Hindsight Ventures. “We run accelerator programs and we work closely with early-stage tech startups on the African continent”, Bista, the co-founder and Managing Partner tells me as she kicks off our interview.
You see, Africa has been known as the last frontier of tech for a long time. But being the last frontier means a lot of opportunities. Jagruti and Ajay are bullish on Africa and despite the risk associated with early-stage startups, they are determined to go all the way. But to understand Hindsight Ventures and its mission, we need to talk about Startup Reseau as well.
The founders of Hindsight Ventures started off as Startup Reseau, an accelerator with different programs in many parts of the world including India (where they are headquartered), Canada, the UK, Singapore, Vietnam and Australia. For these programs, they partnered with a wide range of partners from corporates and governments to universities. “There is a lot of experience that we bring in, in terms of the kinds of programs which are relevant to different stages of entrepreneurs and startups that we work with,” Ajay tells me. But in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, Jagruti and Ajay started looking at bringing similar accelerator programs to emerging markets.
They looked at different markets like Southeast Asia and the Middle East, but Africa ended up being the first market where they set up shop and hired people on the ground with Tanzania being the first market. This is how Hindsight Ventures was born. “Hindsight Ventures is roughly two years old as a brand”, Ajay explains. “Hindsight is more about learning from your experiences and how you can apply that. And that is where the name originates from.”
However, Ajay is aware that copying and pasting will not work in Africa. “We are not trying to say this worked in India so it should work in Africa. When you look at our programs, they are not your typical long accelerators, but sort of pre-accelerators and bootcamps that are about identifying companies which are there and thereabout in terms of product and team and how we can help them and add value.”
Ajay concedes that the quality of startups in Africa is fairly good, but Hindsight Ventures’ major focus is on tech B2B or enterprise startups. “If you are to look at B2B startups, they are scalable in many cases across geographies and industries. For example, if you had a great logistics-tech company in Kenya, it is fairly easy for that company to scale into a new region and expand across the continent. If you are to look at someone building AI-based personalization tools for the banking sector, if they are doing well in a market like Uganda, bringing them to Kenya is fairly easy.”
It is also easy for Hindsight Ventures to “really contribute” to B2B startups. “B2C is a very money-intensive business model to scale. Unless you are putting in money in follow-on rounds, that is the only way you can go about customer acquisition because B2C requires money upfront. Whereas in B2B or enterprise tech, if you are able to build a revenue strategy and you are able to get the startup their first set of customers, they can even bootstrap and bring in traction before they are able to attract venture money “.
But in some cases, startups have graduated from accelerator programs without any benefit due to a number of factors including a lack of understanding of what the startups actually need. Hindsight Ventures promises not to be one of those. “If you ask anyone what is lacking (in the African startup ecosystem), anyone would say limited access to finance.” But Ajay argues that there is also a dearth of access to quality mentorships, resources and a network. And this is something Hindsight Ventures is big on. “We are able to bring together people who have been there and done that, in terms of building or investing in companies. That is the big value add that we are able to bring in the market.”
Usually, most accelerators are always looking to make a return on their investment in startups. This is through taking small equity in the startups that successfully graduate. Hindsight Ventures doesn’t. “We don’t take any equity and we don’t charge any fees”, Jagruti explains this unusual model “Usually our fees are catered for by our partners and sponsors who come on board. That is how we cover the program cost. Later, when we start making investments, we will be taking equity.”
However, Ajay admits this is also part of their long-term play. “We might be running accelerator programs, but we are a for-profit business. We are building out a funnel. Our eventual goal is to invest in companies, anywhere from $10,000 – $50,000. We will have the flexibility to invest as an equity-based investment, convertible note or a share of profit kind of agreement.”. This flexibility is important because the typical venture capital model may not be favourable for all types of startups.
Hindsight Ventures runs several programs targeting founders in Africa and Uganda. Some of its programs include the Wazo Challenge Kenya which targets 18-30-year-old Kenyan founders that have an idea to solve business and social problems using hardware or software. The program targets solutions in various sectors like financial services, health care, agriculture and retail. Other programs include the East Africa Fintech Bootcamp targeting innovations that further revolutionise the fintech ecosystem as well as the Founder Development Bootcamp which targets first-time founders and equips them with the basics of business building.
Women are a minority in the startup ecosystem and it is not surprising that Hindsight Ventures has a program tailored for them. The Leadership Development Bootcamp for Women Entrepreneurs helps aspiring and high-potential women tech entrepreneurs with the know-how and resources to build successful startups. You can follow Hindsight Ventures on their socials and visit their website to stay up-to-date with all their programs.