Ahead of the March 18-20 event, which will see the startup ecosystem discuss issues ranging from funding and customers to markets and governance, the event’s organising committee members — Sanjeev Bikhchandani, vice-chairman of Info Edge, Prashanth Prakash, partner of Accel, and Sanjay Nayar, chairman and founder of Sorin Investments—told ET that the timing and scale of the event is crucial for conveying that the startup ecosystem is not a blip, particularly when risk-capital investments in the country have plummeted.
In 2023, funding in Indian ventures dropped to a seven-year low of $8.8 billion as investors hit the brakes on supporting growth and late-stage startups.
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“We should ensure that the whole startup phenomenon is not seen as a blip and a short-term story. When you see where all the startups have impacted and have created value, investors get more convinced,” said Accel’s Prakash. “The enormity and the size tells people that it’s a real industry that we need to sustain and fund.”
Sorin Investments’ Nayar said, “I think the timing of this event is very fortuitous…there’s a fair degree of winter; we all know that, and not just specific to India but generally across the world. The winter can thaw very quickly into summer. We’re already seeing that…deals are getting overbid, we’re finding funds coming back again.”
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Nayar, who is also KKR India’s former CEO, added, “The bigger takeaway for the Mahakumbh for the startup community is going to be the availability and introduction to a massive ecosystem. For startups to get access to this ecosystem…it’s not just about funding, it’s also about learning from other successes and failures. Timing happens to be fortuitous.”He also spoke about the importance of increasing the share of domestic capital in Indian startup investments – something that will be a focus area for the event.
Nayar said an event of this scale will bring together various classes of investors–from high networth individuals and venture capitalists to local incubators and alternate investment funds, which are primarily locally funded.
“Our own fund, Sorin Investments, is 92% locally funded. It’ll take time…look at China, it has 1,000, maybe 2,000 local funds. India is on that journey and you have few good examples and winners,” he said. “You’ve seen Sanjeev’s Info Edge sitting on very handsome gains in Zomato…that’s how the ecosystem picks up, but ultimately, for India, it is critical that you have more local savings being crowded into this sector rather than keep depending on foreign capital. So this (event) should help.”
Bikhchandani, however, said that the ecosystem welcomed foreign capital given that the need for investments by Indian startups “is far more than what the Indian venture capital ecosystem can provide”.
The Startup Mahakumbh event will have 10 thematic tracks, including artificial intelligence and software-as-a-service (SaaS), direct-to-consumer (D2C), fintech, agritech, climate tech, esports and B2B manufacturing.
“I think Startup Mahakumbh is a shot in the arm for all startups, founders, investors, policymakers simply because everyone is coming together to discuss issues, find handshakes,” said Bikchandani. “Investors will find investments, startups will find customers, trade partners. Mahakumbh will address all issues from funding, customers, markets or governance.”
Accel’s Prakash said each vertical in India has become very broad based. “We are no longer just a consumer startup nation. We have startups in spaces like deeptech, cleantech, manufacturing…these startups have never been brought together in a very curated manner, but at the same time, having their own space. Each pavilion will have its own workshops, master classes, roundtables and panel discussions,” he said.
Nayar said, “If you can be a successful innovator of a business model in Bharat…and Bharat is a big, diverse, tough country to mark it to…if you can get it right here, you can get it right anywhere. We’ll be exporting a lot of business models over the years, whether it’s fintech, B2B, SaaS, climate tech…if you can get it right in this country, you can export it anywhere.”