Beta Group Project 25; Nurturing Promising Future Unicorns With A Fund Of Rs 100 Crores
- BySheetal Sidhu | July 22, 2021
“Don’t judge me based on our first story, I will not confirm to what you think is right, I am compassionate about things I care about, fiercely love my tribe and never aggressive. Don’t push me because I will push back harder. I will not stop or turn around and walk away. The more you tell me I cannot do something, the more I will want to disprove you. Never give up your dreams because someone else tells you to,” Rajmohan Pillai, Founder, Beta Group in a full-length and interesting interview with Startup Story.
Introduction To The Founder
Walking Startup Story through his family business Rajmohan Pillai told us that he was a third generation businessman and the family business of cashews was started by his grandfather back in his day who is also one of the cashew pioneers, which was then furthered and expanded by his father who was the largest cashew exporter and was then handed down to him. In 1982, when Rajmohan was eighteen years of age he lost his father leaving him with a liability of Rs 40 crores which took him around 25 years to completely clear the dues. What Rajmohan understood from his situation was to create a bigger business and establish himself in a way so that that debt would appear a smaller amount to pay and following that he moved ahead to expand into other areas. Gradually, he built the same trust that the company enjoyed before the major setback. The company flourished on national and international levels as the founder set up offices in Poland, Malta the business of successfully distributing nuts and dry fruits kicked off smoothly thereon. The international market Rajmohan believes played a major role in leaving behind any competition and being able to scale businesses globally is the most important aspect of expanding any business. The expansion was then followed by acquisitions of various other significant companies. Finally in the year 2017 they grew into a debt free company there forth, they started looking into fresh and new opportunities outside the food industry. Understanding that mentoring was a crucial part of the business policy which they were following and involved the CEO holding equity in the company, which enabled them to be involved in the operations and the profits of the company.
What Is Beta Project 25?
Having had various interactive sessions with the young entrepreneurs, Rajmohan was intrigued by the thought process of this budding generation of businessmen, over a period of time he has mentored close to 100 companies and is now looking forward to investing into 25 startup’s with the potential to become unicorns. The program will run over the span of next 25 years and the sum of this fund being one hundred crore rupees and will be personally mentored and guided by the Founder. While choosing the startup’s they will be closely looking at different aspects including the ability of the leader and the skill to run and shape a successful venture. This will also involve a close look at the team and the ability to gain funding through proper networking and communication.
Diving deep into the fresh initiative taken by the Beta Group Rajmohan highlighted the common error made by most entrepreneurs in the market today which was the inability to identify the correct time to launch and the other being plagiarizing the ideas prevalent in the European markets and trying to implement them in the local or the national market, resulting it as an unfit choice overall and the failure of the complete project altogether. Rajmohan further told Startup story during the conversation that for India to grow in business terms will need extremely original ideas that could compete with the other markets. He envisions India would be on the right path to achieve it when Indian companies will be setting up their branches globally in different markets.
The Beta Project 25 is an initiative ready to accommodate new startup’s with unique ideas and as pointed out by Rajmohan Pillai they will be flexible in their approach while shortlisting the startup’s. He also is on the lookout for a dynamic team combined with a leader who has the ability to scale his business, which has been a missing element for him so far. Risk taking and being able to handle and manage the debt one needs is the gear for setting up a company.
Startups Mentored Under Beta Group
Answering the question about startup’s that have already scaled under him Rajmohan told Startup Story about the growth of an IT startup that is scaling greatly every year, they started with basics but are working across various sector of companies as we speak as the demand for digitalization has increased due to which things have started and improving.
There is also a sports company which focuses on keeping the corporate people healthy, they arrange for various sports tournaments including wrestling, football, chess etc. this venture commercially successful as stated by Rajmohan. However, during the COVID times this platform turned to digitalization as well despite scaling slowly, they are progressive.
Rajmohan also told the Startup Story that they have helped and facilitated various foot companies into the retail chain like distribution of dry fruits and nuts that have particularly experienced growth with an exponential growth seen by India in the conception of dry fruits and nuts.
Inspiration behind starting the Beta Project 25
Rajmohan believes that the future of business is not limited to one’s own but the development of businesses overall sharing a small equity in a successful business. Despite the potential, Rajmohan told Startup story that the number of startups emerging from India alone were very little as compared to China, Korea and many other countries. He thinks those mind-sets need to be changed and startup’s are a way as there is change and a shift in the business world. Citing an example he said the fortune 500 companies are not the same as they were.
Challenges And Setbacks
As for challenges Rajmohan told Startup story that he faced his very first challenge at the young age of 18 was losing his father and repaying the huge debt left behind. The next challenge was to be able to run the business profitably at the same time facing various competitors in the market. Consistently working despite all these problems was what ensured success for him. Rajmohan also told Startup story that it was the practical knowledge that he gained working with his father and brother which was crucial for him to become a major success story.
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