EP12 : Exiting to PayU for a cool US$ 130M cash deal, Angel Investing and on raising US$ 26M to launch Jupiter with only an idea {Jitendra Gupta, Founder of Jupiter Money}
On this special episode of Stars & Startups I chat with my ex-boss and mentor Jiten Gupta, Founder of Jupiter Money.
Jiten was the co-founder of Citrus Payments an online payment company that sold to its rival PayU payments in 2016 for a mammoth $130M cash deal, post which Jiten went on to run PayU’s consumer play LazyPay.
A lot of you already know that Jiten has become a prominent angel investor, some call him a Super Angel, with some blockbuster investments in Ridlr (exit old to Ola), JoeHukum(exit to Freshworks), Khatabook (60M $$ in capital raised) & Bank Open (37M $$ in capital from Tiger Global ) and the big one, the craft beer maker Bira 91 the maker of India’s favourite white beer. Jiten has a lot more interesting investments, so do search for them if you’re interested. He’s invested in wide range of companies — consumer products, crypto, transport, entertainment, beauty & wellness and SaaS.
We cover a lot of ground in the limited time with Jiten, where we get into the origin of Citrus, sale to PayU, Angel investing & we scratch the surface on what’s cooking at Jiten’s latest startup Jupiter Money for which he has raised capital of US$ 26M on an idea to create a better banking experience.
Jupiter Money is hiring, so do reach out their careers page of you want to be part of Jiten’s team. Technology candidates are always welcome and currently looking for folks in digital marketing (as of Jun 2020).
Jiten is easily accessible on LinkedIn and Twitter
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Timeline:
4:05 — Intro to Jiten
6:35 — Genesis of Citrus — working at ICICI & meeting Amrish Rau
8:40 — First course of action for a, initial 2 years of launching Citrus
10:45 — Focussing on going after certain sectors while competing with well funded players
13:25 — Importance of strategic partnerships
14:45 — B2B vs B2C economics and brand
18:45 — Building LazyPay
22:20 — Exiting to PayU
24:30 — Transitioning into an Angel investor
28:35 — Support to investee companies
29:55 — Who should become an angel investor?
31:41 — How Jiten invests
33:35 — Raising a large round of capital on an idea
34:50 — Ambitions for Jupiter
36:35 — What to invest in while having a large pool of capital
38:45 — Mistakes from Citrus that is being avoided
41:50 — Tech talent in Mumbai
44:12 — The KILLER feature for Jupiter Money
45:35 — Hiring for Tech & Marketing
46:01 — Suggestions for entrepreneurs during COVID
