#CaratLane's Mithun Sacheti has bagged a rare multi-thousand crore exit as the startup is set to be fully acquired by #Titan.
Listen in to his insights on the deal, his entrepreneurial journey and the way forward. #BQLive
Listen in to his insights on the deal, his entrepreneurial journey and the way forward. #BQLive
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00:00 Hello viewers, welcome to BQ Prime. This is Rishabh Bhatnagar and you're watching Startup
00:04 Street. Today on Startup Street is an entrepreneur, a founder that has achieved what very few
00:13 founders have achieved in the Indian startup landscape. We have Mithun Sacheti. He's the
00:19 founder of Carrot Lane, the online jewelry startup that has been acquired by Titan completely
00:25 now. This is one of the largest exits in the Indian startup ecosystem and I believe only
00:31 second to the Bunsells and Flipkart. Such large exits have only been possible in the
00:40 past when an IPO has happened or large global corporations have entered India and acquired
00:47 someone such as what happened with Walmart and Flipkart. But for the first time we have
00:52 Titan coming in and giving Mithun a 4,600 crore exit. So congratulations firstly Mithun.
00:59 Thank you so much.
01:01 Why don't you start us off by telling us a bit more about the deal. I'll give you three quick
01:09 questions for that. What were the conversations with Titan like when they said that they wanted
01:15 to buy you out? What was that decision like for you as an entrepreneur and also did you see this coming?
01:24 The third is the first one I'm going to answer. No, I didn't see it coming but
01:33 the second one how did it feel like it felt like a frankly the first time I heard it was a
01:40 punch to the gut when I heard that and the third one I mean the first question that you asked is
01:46 what was it like when they asked me, I did answer that and the conversation was very clear. I think
01:54 because an IPO was not something on their mind, I think they were clear about the fact that
01:59 Mithun, if you don't do this now at some point we have to do this and it only makes sense to
02:06 do it now because it starts to get more and more expensive. It's a beautiful business, it's at a
02:10 stage at which it can run independently and I've been grateful for the partnership
02:16 I've had with them and after a good conversation with my mentors, with my family, I think it made
02:25 sense to sort of let them have this business and maybe watch as a consumer or from a distance.
02:33 You mentioned an IPO, why wasn't that an option? What was the reasoning behind that?
02:40 I think in their mind and rightly so they did not want two businesses to be listed, two jewelry
02:48 businesses to be listed and a subsidiary under Titan would actually get some, it adds
02:56 no value for them frankly and when you're in a partnership you have to accept the fact that
03:01 it's not a one-way street. If it doesn't add value for the partner, why should the partner
03:06 do it as well? So I think, I understand the reasons for why it's not possible
03:13 but yeah, I mean when I heard it was like a sucker punch. I'm sure. Mithun, yours is
03:21 also a great example of the startup bootstrap startup that to leveraging a large commilomerates
03:30 resources to build in Caritlin into what is now a 17,000 crore company roughly.
03:37 What exactly were the synergies that you leveraged to get there?
03:43 Our first journey was actually bootstrapped and we raised money from
03:50 Tiger Global after that and Titan bought out Tiger Global and when they bought them out we had some
03:54 cash still with us. So Titan really had to put all of 99 crores as primary capital in the business
04:00 but what Titan gives you is far more than money. You raise money as a startup for one
04:07 of many things and the two most important things for us was working capital and brand. So the house
04:13 of Tata's are the gold standard of trust and Dhanushk is the gold standard of trust
04:19 and jewelry. So we could get brand leverage from that for sure and second when we're a subsidiary
04:26 of Titan then you solve for balance sheet as well and so our efficiency on building a business
04:32 significantly improved because of the presence of Titan in the business. I think many people
04:38 ask me would have been better off without them, so you could do an IPO. I think those are all
04:44 wishful thoughts. I'll always be grateful for the partnership we've had. Very interesting
04:51 points there Mithun. What's next for you? What do we see from Mithun Sacheti down the road?
05:00 Will we bootstrap another venture or are you going to take up the role of an angel? What do we see
05:06 from you? I'm not the smartest angel, so I certainly am not looking to be that. I like growth stage
05:14 businesses. I would love to sort of work more over there. I'm working with Singularity on that platform
05:22 where I'm working on looking at growth stage businesses. We have a fund that I've just
05:28 joined as a sponsor and then as a partner in that as well. So that's one area I certainly
05:32 I'm looking at but there's going to be more things as well that I'll end up doing in life.
05:37 It's just that it's so early right now, I don't think I've thought through everything.
05:42 But what makes you excited? Do startups still excite you or is it completely
05:49 different field that you might still look for? I think consumer businesses excite me
05:56 compounding on the changing role of changing behavior of what I want to show the Indian
06:02 consumer excites me and marrying these two and sort of looking at finding businesses where this
06:07 knowledge can benefit that excites me. PurePlay, Vanilla investing is a needle in the hour for me
06:14 because of the capital that we'll have but it's not the part that excites me. It's certainly putting
06:19 my knowledge to use in areas of consumer where we could possibly benefit
06:25 that certainly excites me. Very interesting points there Mithun. Thank you so much for your time
06:32 here at BQ Prime viewers. That was Mithun Sacheti after a bumper exit at Carrot Lane. Thank you for
06:39 watching.
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