New Delhi: The startup ecosystem in the country, which has expanded at a rapid pace over the past few years, is poised to continue its growth trajectory in the next few years with these fledgling businesses scaling up and more unicorns getting created, according to private equity industry executives.
Sequoia Capital India Managing Director Rajan Anandan noted that the startup ecosystem has seen massive growth not only in terms of number of startups but also unicorns emerging and venture capital funding being pumped in.
“…this has really led to an extremely vibrant early stage venture ecosystem…if you just hop forward five years, we’re going to go from 30 unicorns to 100 unicorns…we’re very confident that by 2030, you’re going to see another 10X growth from here in number of startups, number of billion dollar companies that are getting built, as well as venture capital funding.
“So we’re extremely excited about the ecosystem in India,” he said while speaking at the India Global Week.
A unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion.
Shailesh Rao, Advisor at Venture Highway and a former Google executive, pointed out that Indian startups will need to think about scaling their business as India has a great opportunity to continue positioning itself as a “natural leader of emerging markets”.
“…the talent pool in the country is extremely strong. The technical fluency of the talent is very high. And so there is, you know, sort of a logical belief that as these ideas become real businesses, and as they’re well funded and they get the right advice, they start to scale. There’s tremendous opportunity for them to scale within India but also outside of India as well,” he explained.
Startups will need a more “surgical approach” to markets, thinking clearly about which markets to pursue first, he added.
Asked about areas that are likely to grow faster, the panelists said startups focussed on segments like enterprise software and health-tech are expected to see strong growth in the near-future.
PAG Asia Capital Managing Director, Head of India Private Equity, Nikhil Srivastava said there are multiple factors that continue to position India as an attractive destination for foreign investors.
“Investors are focused on political stability, the current government has pushed through important economic reforms and continues to do so. Secondly, India is the third largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity, so it’s a pretty large addressable and the third point is young demographics with a large middle class and spending power …India offers attractive risk adjusted returns as the pros outweigh the cons,” he said.
The panelists were also of the view that the ease of doing business in India should be further enhanced to boost the companies and investor interest in the country’s startup ecosystem.
(PTI)
