India Innovation

A risk taking and pro business administration, growing internet access, falling bandwidth costs, increasing proliferation of smartphones, expanding startup and venture capital ecosystem, increasing foreign cash inflows, expanding digital infrastructure, increasing spending power, second largest population, massive local market, growing tech friendly press and a young population make for great conditions for innovation in India to thrive.

Bloomberg on India hitting a record number of unicorn startups this year :

“Insurance, education, logistics, and lodging are among the industries that India’s latest breakout apps have targeted with a principal focus on relatively unique local issues.”

Tanay Jaipura makes an astute observation about how American and Chinese technology companies are positioning themselves to enjoy the upside in India :

“ The American companies tend to localize their product and/or set up a local venture which offers a similar product as their American offering…..Chinese companies on the other hand, led by Alibaba and Tencent, tend to invest in local players, taking a usually sizable strategic (and sometimes majority) stake in local startups that are strong in the space they operate in.”

“Turns out those Asian markets weren’t weird, they were just early adopters, and in the US we see all of these behaviors. And now almost half of all the biggest internet companies in the world are Chinese. Turns out those Asian markets weren’t weird, they were just early adopters, and in the US we see all of these behaviors. And now almost half of all the biggest internet companies in the world are Chinese.”

While Indian economy is growing very fast, it still has a lot of challenges but I am confident that India has a bright future. American investors tend to rightfully focus a lot on China but they should also pay attention to what’s going on in India or risk missing out on a lot of generational ventures.