NE BUSINESS BUREAU
NEW DELHI, NOV 1
Cricketer turned venture capitalist Yuvraj Singh is planning to ramp up his investment portfolio by picking up stakes in technology startups working in the areas of health, sports, food and agriculture in the next three to six months.
Singh, through his firm YouWeCan (YWC) Ventures, has invested in some of the startups which include Healthians, Holosuit, JetSetGo, EasyDiner, Wellversed etc.
“In the next three to six months, we will be actively exploring new investment opportunities with the goal to contribute our bit to the Startup India movement. Our focus areas will be the health tech, sports tech, food tech and agri tech sectors,” Singh said.
YouWeCan’s latest investment has been in the nutrition product startup Wellversed for an undisclosed amount at an enterprise valuation of Rs 100 crore.
“Through my foundation and brand YouWeCan, we are always motivated to make a difference in society and we always want people’s lives to get better. We definitely have future plans to invest aggressively in the coming year. Hopefully it will be the best year for everyone,” Singh said.
He said that investments were on hold due to COVID-19 pandemic and Wellversed is the first after the lockdown in which YWC Ventures has invested.
Sharing his experience on investments, Singh said that YWC Ventures started in 2013 and invested aggressively in 10-11 startups.
“Two only took off. Something you have to take that risk. Healthians in health and Holosuit in augmented reality and virtual reality have also been doing very well. I am very happy now that 2-3 startups in our portfolio have turned up into big companies now,” Singh said.
According to a Tie-Delhi report, investments in startups are on the track of recovery post lockdown.
Online life insurance, over-the-top platforms, electronic e-commerce, online gaming, digital payments, online stock brokerages, online grocery have not only recovered by the end of September to pre-COVID period but also seen growth in the range of 10-50 percent.
Education technology platforms and online health insurance have recovered up to 200 per cent, while online fitness and online telecommunication startups have seen up to 500 percent recovery, the report said.
Automotive, travel and hospitality, mobility and logistics are among the worst hit segments and there has been a significant drop in their funding.
“Health section has not been hit by COVID. When you look at Healthians, definitely the health segment has been good,” Singh said.
