BUSINESS

The India Startup Story

Over the last 12 months, some of India’s most prized startups have aggressively ventured into international markets. Ola began its international journey with Australia, while Oyo chose China and Paytm, Japan. We look to evaluate what this means for these companies as well as its impact on the entire ecosystem. Is India finally thinking at a global scale with a greater appetite for risk?

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For all of its glory however, startup investing in India has a massive bottleneck - the lack of big and timely exits. While in the West, the average duration for an exit is 3.5 years, in India it is as high as 5. Is this the main reason large investors are still wary of investing in this space? Will our companies remain truly Indian with substantial foreign investment?

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The ‘PayPal Mafia’ is a well-known term among Silicon Valley and now, the data points towards to the formation of our very own Indian ‘Flipkart Mafia’. Why are most entrepreneurs, especially successful entrepreneurs, from some of India’s most successful startups? What’s the cultural difference that nurtures this talent into taking risks and being at the forefront of innovation?