Hvikdkjaer became a millionaire at 29, only to lose as much money in two years as an average American earns in a lifetime, leaving him broke. Now 43, the bestselling author of How to F*ck Your Startup has rebuilt his fortune by founding several successful enterprises. Through a series of interviews with startup founders, and a qualitative and quantitative study of thousands of failed startups Hvikdkjaer has become an “expert in failure”.
Imagine the gains if you get first-hand access to his experiences and valuable insights tailored to Indian startup founders. Well, the Soonicorns Summit 2024 has made it possible for you right in the opening segment.
However, this is only the beginning. The repurposed and revamped edition of the Soonicorns Summit 2024—an Economic Times initiative that brings together category creators, unicorn and soonicorn founders, disruptors, seasoned investors, policymakers, and industry leaders who have challenged the business status quo on a single podium to democratise their playbooks and analyse emerging trends to make sense of the rapidly evolving startup contours of India—promises thrills throughout the day.
Priyank Kharge, Minister for Electronics, Information Technology, Bio-Technology, and Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Government of Karnataka has been a vital force in revolutionising the tech landscape of Karnataka. His forward-looking approach has made Bengaluru, Karnataka’s capital city, emerge as a tech-startup hub receiving over $70 billion of funding in less than 10 years.
Kharge will be the keynote speaker at the Soonicorns Summit 2024. The minister will share his vision for the state’s startup ecosystem in his keynote address, titled ‘From Resilience to Resurgence with Sustainable Business Models’.
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Register now India’s startup mission
India is living its startup dream. A burgeoning 1.4 lakh startups are recognised by the government, the Lok Sabha was informed on July 29, in reply to a question about skill development and entrepreneurship.
The ecosystem has given employment opportunities to more than 15.5 lakh people, thus far. This run, despite a ‘funding winter,’ further solidifies the nation’s global reputation as an investment arena.
The heady run notwithstanding, the numbers paint a sobering picture though. Studies show that only 20% of Indian startups survive five years, while only 8% manage to survive beyond 10 years. The employment by these entities is the first to bear the brunt.
The silver lining
The Government of India’s twin decisions to abolish ‘angel tax’ and to allocate 1000 crores for space-tech startups—a sector that has witnessed a 235% increase in funding in just three years—in the Union Budget 2024 might be the catalyst the ecosystem has been awaiting after having resiliently braved the funding winter.
An overall surge in funding has also been witnessed recently. From $0.7 billion in June 2023, Indian startups have raised $1.6 billion in the same month this year. The feat was achieved in just 62 private equity and venture capital (VC) deals.
India’s tech funding surpassed that of all except the US, the UK, and China.
ET Soonicorns Summit 2024: From Resurgence to Resilience
Recalibrate. Rebound. Reinvent—is the underlying message of the summit. With the ‘funding winter’ in the rearview now, there will be a renewed focus on sustainable growth and a strategic recovery.
The pivots will be analysed in light of a changing world—where an AI-led disruption is transposing the realities and changing global geopolitics have an increased bearing on business.
What, however, won’t change is the fact that the Soonicorns Summit will continue to be a platform for the exchange of groundbreaking, actionable ideas, and a place where new collaborations are fostered, igniting the next wave of innovation.
Unicorn leaders will lay bare their playbooks to success, and the soonicorn movers and shakers will decode their blueprints as they unveil exclusive, future-forward, insights and critical information that can potentially enable startups to accelerate their journey.
Here’s a look at some of the key speakers who will take to the stage throughout the Soonicorns Summit 2024:
The arrival of a funding spring: Hope and caution
India is the second-largest venture capital (VC) destination in Asia-Pacific, regardless of a more than 70% slump in funding in the year 2023.
The resurgence, though, has been tangible, with a substantial increase in VC deals year-on-year. Seasoned investors will cut open the fissures and lay bare the anatomy of the funding landscape in the inaugural track ‘Funding Spring Not Far Away?’.
The panel discussion, titled ‘Surge in Investor Interest: Vision and Outlook of the Indian VC Ecosystem Beyond Hype and Uncertainty,’ will feature :
- Harsha Kumar, Partner at Lightspeed India Partners Advisors, who was part of Ola Cabs’ core team that was credited with scaling the organisation from a meagre 3000 rides a day to a million rides a day.
- Amit Somani, Managing Partner, Prime Ventures, who holds eight US patents and has global exposure and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) expertise.
- Anand Datta, Partner, Nexus Venture Partners, who focuses on investing in early-stage (seed, series A) teams driven to solve large-impact challenges.
- Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel, who specialises in cybersecurity, marketplaces, developer tools, and SaaS investments.
Reverse flipping: The homecoming story
Numerous innovative ventures emerged in recent years, but from across the country in places like Singapore, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius, and others.
In more recent times, the trend of ‘reverse flipping’ has gained momentum with some of these ventures choosing to move their base to India. We call them the “homecoming heroes”.
The process involves a restructuring of the company’s ownership and control as it is brought under domestic jurisdiction.
What is in it for the Indian startup ecosystem?
Abhishek Dubey, Partner at Trilegal M&A, Venture Capital & Private Equity, an expert on transactional counsel, and Anand Lunia, India Quotient—who loves writing on startups and studying market opportunities—will shed light on this significant shift and the global perception of India’s startup environment. Join them share insights into less-talked-about territory in a panel discussion titled ‘Homecoming Heroes: Unveiling the Strategic Shift of Startups to India and its Tax Payout Conundrum’.
Correcting the gender disparity: Women in Indian startups
A report by WISER, titled ‘Women in India’s Startup Ecosystem’, has established that women-led startups have 2.5 times more women in senior roles compared to companies with men-only founders. The report states that women-led startups have risen to 18% in India during the past five years. In stark contrast, in 2023, women-led businesses received only 5% of the $10 billion raised by Indian startups, down from 9.6% of the $25 billion raised in 2022.
Experts point to an “unseen bias,” where lenders exhibit a lack of confidence in lending to women borrowers. This intersects with societal barriers such as the chronic gap in women’s property ownership in India, hindering their power to leverage assets as collateral during crucial life events. Women often encounter societal expectations that prioritise traditional roles over entrepreneurship. Despite existing government schemes addressing the gender credit gap, the crucial question arises: What additional steps can propel women’s access to credit and financing?
To peel off such systemic biases, the ET Soonicorns Summit 2024 presents a curated panel discussion titled ‘Women in the Indian Startup Ecosystem: Breaking Barriers and Bridging the Gender Funding Gap,’ featuring these stellar speakers:
- Shreyasi Singh, President, Upgrad Enterprise, with two decades of experience in broadcast and print journalism, editorial leadership for entrepreneurship, and business reportage.
- Shally Modi, Co-Founder, Head of Product & Revenue at Pratilipi, a gold medalist and co-founder of the “fastest-growing” self-publishing and reading platform for Indian languages.
- Shanti Mohan, Co-Founder and CEO of LetsVenture, who aspires to help startups with more than just funding.
Balancing consumer surge and protection in fintech
With an impressive 87% fintech adoption rate, India ranks third in digital payments, according to the Economic Survey 2022-23 presented in Parliament earlier this year. This achievement stems from India’s focus on strengthening its digital infrastructure, especially during the pandemic. The Digital India initiative, driven by Aadhaar, Jan-Dhan, and a rapidly growing smartphone market (expected to reach 1 billion users by 2026, per Deloitte), has been anchored by the United Payments Interface (UPI) and other favourable regulatory measures.
The Indian fintech landscape is now evolving from payments to credit, with consumer credit, credit cards, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), and Business-to-Business (B2B) services emerging as new frontiers. And with this growth comes concerns about consumer protection.
Our dedicated track ‘Fintechs, Unstoppable’ will navigate the tightrope between innovation and regulation. These financial industry veterans will join a panel discussion titled ‘Fintech: How to Strike the Balance Between Regulatory Lens and Growth’:
- Lizzie Chapman, Co-Founder of Swiffy Labs and former of ZestMoney, who has been living in India for the last 13 years. She has set up and spearheaded the India operations for Wonga, one of the largest Fintech companies in the world.
- Akash Sinha, Co-founder and CEO of Cashfree Payments, the first payment aggregator to receive a Cross-Border licence from the Reserve Bank of India.
- Dhirendra Mahyavanshi, Co-Founder ofTurtlemint. An IIM-Calcutta alumnus, Mahyavanshi has worked with ICICI Lombard, Quikr, and other platforms before co-founding Turtlemint.
Join us at the ET Soonicorns Summit 2024 to explore how these industry leaders balance the demands of innovation with the necessity of consumer protection in the ever-evolving fintech landscape.
Inside India’s AI universe
“People before business,” Sangeeta Bavi, Executive Director – Digital Natives at Microsoft India, has been quoted.
As someone who has closely witnessed the significant evolution of Indian startups—through Microsoft’s programmes that provide essential technology, market access, and mentorship to entrepreneurs—Bavi is poised to share expert analysis and insights to uncover the complexities of India’s deep tech and Artificial Intelligence (AI) landscape.
In a TED Talk titled ‘Empowering India’s Deep Tech & AI Landscape: Policies, Perspectives, and India-First Models for GenAI Growth’, Bavi will give a commentary on India’s conundrum with socioeconomic opportunities and concerns vis-à-vis AI.
That’s not all. ‘India’s AI Edge’ track will also present a roundtable titled ‘Countering Deepfakes, Inauthentic Content: Responding to the Ethical AI Imperative Through India’s AI Policy and Global Regulations’.
The panellists for the roundtable, with an aim to manoeuvre the social and institutional interdependencies to unlock the full potential of this technological beast, will be:
- Siddharth Bhardwaj, Co-founder and CTO at Beatoven.ai; an alumnus of IIIT-Allahabad, and an expert in music technology, audio signal processing, and Machine Learning (ML).
- Geetha Manjunath, Co-founder and CEO of Niramai has led the company in developing a breakthrough AI-based test for detection of early-stage breast cancer.
Climate action, EV momentum: Towards net-zero emission
The green-tech track promises to unravel insights into what matters most: climate, environmentally friendly practices, and sustainable mobility.
Sector experts will tap into the sunrise sector of electric vehicles (EVs), and the emerging realms of climate and clean-tech, to determine how these are positioned to drive India’s growth in the foreseeable future.
Sriram Kannan, Founder and CEO at Routematic—whose company drives a sustainable corporate commute, helping clients achieve Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) targets with EVs—will delve deep into the challenges and opportunities of green-tech space as part of the topic ‘Sustainable Futures: Insights from Changemakers in India’s Climate Tech, Clean Energy, and EV Sectors’.
The discussion becomes all the more stimulating and important in the wake of India’s ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070, as outlined at COP26, serving as a clarion call for collective action in these spheres.
Expanding India’s SaaS footprint
Shweta Bhatia, Partner, Head of Technology, Consumer & Financial Services Investments Eight Roads Ventures India, and Lalit Bhise, CEO and Founder of Bizom will unfold India’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) journey at the ‘SaaS, Surging’ track.
India’s SaaS story is being driven by an array of factors, with all eyes on a global position of strength in the years to come. A report by venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) suggests that India’s SaaS market is expected to grow from a meagre $13 billion in 2023 to $25 billion by 2025, and $ 50 billion by the year 2030.
The panel discussion ‘Expanding the Indian SaaS Footprint at Home and Abroad: Scaling Strategies to Achieve the $37B Target’ will see Bhatia and Bhise map the country’s SaaS potential, the challenges, and the opportunities.
Unpacking the fit-tech space
Jitendra Chouksey, Founder of FITTR, a health and fitness startup, calls himself a “regular guy into fitness and stuff” and an “accidental entrepreneur”.
You can however trust the author of the best-selling book Lose Fat, Get Fittr to share some ‘fit’ strategies towards startup success with resilience and sustainable growth. The Fireside with Chouksey steers our focus deep into the fit-tech paradigm, as he talks about ‘Survival of the Fittest: Jitendra Chouksey’s Secrets of Navigating Fit-tech and Building a Strong Business Core’.
Soonicorns Spotlight presentations
And that is not all. Apart from this list of elite industry leaders, we have founders on board who will showcase their journey, business models, and grit as they patiently await getting a foothold in the aspirational unicorn club. Mukul Rastogi, CEO and Co-Founder, ClassPlus will join the curated soonicorn presentations track to talk about chalking innovations to keep edtech relevant in the market. upGrad is the skilling partner for the ET Soonicorns Summit 2024.
Watch this space for an exciting lineup of speakers.
To learn more about the ET Soonicorns Summit, visit the website.