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Scott Shuey · · 7 min readScrutinizing ‘India’s 105th unicorn’ and its $1.5b valuation
Emmanuel Samarathisa and Terence Lee co-reported this story.
Conventional wisdom says to never look a gift horse in the mouth. Unfortunately, conventional wisdom says nothing about dealing with unicorns.
The unicorn in this case is 5ire, a blockchain startup that touts its new, potentially paradigm-changing tech. Its work was highlighted at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, earlier in May.
When 5ire proclaimed that it had reached a US$1.5 billion valuation, the news was widely covered by the crypto and Indian tech media.
But now, after only three months, 5ire appears to be pulling away from Sram & Mram, the very company whose commitment to invest US$100 million made the startup a unicorn.
According to a source inside the startup, 5ire is looking for another firm to be its series A investor. If that happens, the new investor would take over the round, although 5ire would be required under the terms of its agreement to pay a premium to Sram & Mram.
The specifics of the premium have not been disclosed. 5ire has not identified who the new backer would be, but a deal could be announced soon.
Sram & Mram CEO Sailesh Lachu Hiranandani (third from left) with 5ire co-founders / Photo credit: 5ire
Questions about Sram & Mram and 5ire have been circulating among the startup’s advisors since the announcement.
Tech in Asia tried to speak to Sram & Mram Group several times for this story, but we did not get a response from its chairman, Sailesh Lachu Hiranandani. We were also unable to find evidence to back up the company’s claims that it generated a “sales turnaround” of US$800 million for the financial year 2017 to 2018.
Sram & Mram says it was founded in 1995 by Hiranandani. He is also listed in the Panama Papers for being an officer in Peak Talent International, a Singaporean company that defaulted in 2001. The specifics of the default were not revealed.
As for 5ire, its former advisors told Tech in Asia that it is unusual for a startup without a product to receive such a high valuation – or a US$100 million investment. 5ire isn’t scheduled to launch its testnet until November 30.
It’s true that many pre-product crypto projects have raised even larger sums of money, though many have criticized this as a sign of a bubble that’s about to burst.
According to Arjun Prasad, an advisor to 5ire CEO Pratik Gauri, the US$1.5 billion valuation was made by firms hired by Sram & Mram.
What does Sram & Mram do?
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Blockchain startup 5ire’s US$100 million investment is something that most new firms can only dream of. But there’s a twist to this deal.
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