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Founders from various key startups in India’s booming startup ecosystem took the stage at News18’s Rising Bharat Summit 2024, talking about the profound impact of innovation and entrepreneurship on the Indian economy and how India’s homegrown startups are now ready to take on the world and provide their services globally.
The speakers included Ritesh Agarwal, founder of Oyo Rooms; Harsh Jain, co-founder of Dream 11; Virendra Gupta, founder of Daily Hunt; and Upasana Taku, CEO of Mobikwik.
Speaking on how the startup culture stands today and how it has grown in the last decade, Harsh Jain said, “If you ask people, it’s changed completely. Ten to fifteen years ago, I remember being on calls with some of our potential employees and their parents, trying to convince parents that working with a startup is okay in India, leaving an MNC job, and committing to a startup. Today, parents are okay with their own kids starting up.”
“10-15 years ago, investors feared investing in an Indian company. Today, investors and entrepreneurs are saying only in India. These are significant outcomes to the initiatives of the Indian government like Digital India and Startup India,” added Jain, speaking on how investors and founders have grown confident of India’s startup ecosystem.
“Globally, India is a bright spot in the world economy. However, India is the brightest spot in the global startup economy. We are not only the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world but also the fastest-growing,” said Oyo Room’s Ritesh Agarwal.
“This means we are not that far from staking claim to the coveted second position and then, very quickly, going for the big one. Before India becomes one of the world’s top 3 economies, India will become one of the top two startup capitals in the world,” he added.
India has often been seen as a great opportunity in terms of user count. However, businesses that still need to take off in India claim that it is tough to monetize and make money in India.
“Startups are not about making money in just one year. It is a journey Harsh and Ritesh have been building their companies for decades. People have this misconception that you start a startup and you will have a billion-dollar company,” said Virendra Gupta, founder of Daily Hunt.
“The companies you hear of in the news that have made over a billion dollars have been going at it for 8–10 years, companies that have been grinding for about a decade or more. Also, When I started DailyHunt, I was often asked, ‘Does Bharat need the internet? Does a Hindi- or Kannada-speaking user need the internet?’ VC was very opposed to funding any business serving Bharat. There were a lot of naysayers back then, and the same naysayers are saying today that although India has many users, they are not monetizable,” he added.
Speaking on India’s monetization capabilities, Gupta continued, adding, “Look at the macro-picture of the Indian economy. Our GDP per capita is growing by leaps and bounds. We will have a $5–7 trillion economy soon. Businesses that push right now will benefit hugely when the economy goes up.”
According to Gupta, India is, in a way, the world’s startup capital. “The enthusiasm one sees in India is not seen in San Francisco or anywhere in Europe. “People in Tier-II and Tier-III cities are all talking about startups; every engineering and MBA college now has an entrepreneurial cell. At least 60–70 accelerators across the country are breeding startups. The aspiration to do better in the world is infectious in India,” he said.
Upasana Taku, CEO of Mobikwik, spoke on how the government of India and the RBI have supported fintech innovations in India and laid the foundations for a fledgling industry through various aspects of DPI or Digital Public Infrastructure. “Not just UPI, but Aadhar too has been a game changer for India,” she explained. “We’re buying properties using Aadhar, loans are being sanctioned and disbursed, and investments are being made all digitally. Moreover, we move a ton of money in just milliseconds, which is not the case even in the most developed markets,“ she added.
“Before the word ‘fintech’ was coined, we started about 14 years ago. While India has about 800 million users, the number of users who use it for transactions is about 400 million, so from that perspective, there still is a lot of scope for growth,” said Taku.
In the next 5-6 years, this number will increase to about 800 million transacting users. That, combined with where India’s economy is headed, makes India’s fintech sector an ‘evergreen’ one, claimed Taku.
All of this has been possible because of the investments in DPI by the government, which has helped in the making of an ecosystem. “Fintech innovation in India has been very strong in India for the last 5-6 years. Our tech stack is so strong that not only will they serve the Indian merchant base, but also go global and take over the dominant technology in other markets,” said Taku.
