MUMBAI: Media mogul and investor Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures has likely closed its purse strings for new investments in 2016.
Unilazer will, however, continue with follow-on investments in companies where it is already invested in, said the investor-turned-entrepreneur, whose last investments were earlier this year in DailyObjects and EasyPolicy.
“We are very happy with the 15 investments we have made; we are going to double up and do more of them. But right now our focus is to build our own businesses — UpGrad, Usports and the Swades Foundation,” Screwvala told ET on the sidelines of the TiE Smashup startup event in Mumbai.
UpGrad is an online education platform for working professionals that focuses on higher studies through post-graduation and specialisation courses. With UpGrad, Screwvala is aiming to surpass the success story at UTV that he founded. “I am very focussed on UpGrad as I see it as a scalable opportunity — 10X of what one could have done in media. So, while we will continue to invest and back our present investments, creating our own business in UpGrad is the laser focus.” But shying away from new investment at has only been in business for three years seems unlikely.
So, is the funding slowdown within the startup ecosystem the driver behind Unilazer’s decision to stay away from new investments? Screwvala disagreed. “The investments we closed in January 2016 were in the works from April-May 2015 and took some time to close. I think the rationalisation of hedge and maverick funds investing at high values in the Indian ecosystem and then setting blinkered targets for founders is a good thing and creates new opportunities. So, a change in the funding scenario has not bothered us at all.”
According to Screwvala, investors are to blame for the current funding situation because they have themselves created an environment of skyrocketing valuations and given ill-advised directions to companies that the profit book is not important while revenue share is. “I think this is an incredibly phenomenal phase, it is a pattern that needed to be created. I do not see a slowdown at all. It is just that the hoopla around funding (has died down). I think now, for the first time, a perception change is happening, and I think it is incredibly good for the whole ecosystem.”
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