Recently was having a conversation with a Private Equity friend and was trying to explain the challenge that has captured my imagination and full attention, ie exits for software product startups in India. He felt that the data about the exit structural deficit that I was trying to point out felt too bearish to be true. My counter argument was that my intent is not to sound bearish but instead be...
India has fast emerged as the world’s second largest Internet market. Since 2012, nearly $15 billion has been invested in tech startups with over 300 M&A deals. However, a large percentage of deals (80%, 2014-Q3’16) were sub-$5M deals driven by acquihires and restructuring. Looking west to Israel and the US, it is clear that for a healthy technology product ecosystem, further acceleration in...
There are many dimensions to India becoming a Product Nation. A thriving local market is critical, which are shaped by changing consumer preference and policy. Also important is increased trade in areas of comparative advantage. Digital consumer market in India that opened few years ago saw its waves and cycle of valuation however it is already witnessing its next shift from India Metro to...
Think about endgame, chess grandmasters do so to win. Studies point out that chess grandmasters visualize the chess board state few steps away to a ‘winning game’ and make moves based on memory pattern that can lead to that board state and thus help them win the game. Many startups however operate in a game where the rules are dynamic and change unexpectedly. An unanticipated flood of competition...
$8B of venture investment went into Indian startups in 2015 alone! Four firms–Ola Cabs, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm–accounted for 32% of these investments. However, on the M&A side, things have been slow. Since 2011, there have been approximately 190 transactions valued at a total of $2.3B (about $11M per deal), placing India way behind the U.S., Israel, and other startup...
iSPIRT, India’s software products think tank, SignalHill, technology focused M&A advisory boutique firm and Microsoft Ventures, accelerator program for high potential technology startups released the much-awaited 2015 India Technology Product M&A Industry Report. The report highlights key trends in the Indian technology M&A and funding landscape so far as well as predictions for...
In a recent article in ET, Mohandas Pai and I suggested that if India does not produce enough product companies, our economy will not be sustainable in the future. The data is compelling. To quote from that article, “Boeing and Airbus alone generate almost as much profit as all global airlines put together. Pfizer’s profits are more than those of the top 100 hospitals in the US. Cisco’s profits...
M&A activity in the Indian startup ecosystem has, for a long time, remained fairly nascent. Relatively small exits, averaging $10-15M, are commonplace in India. But things are changing, and with India being the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, Silicon Valley giants are beginning to pay more heed to the entrepreneurs and IP emerging from India. On January 23, 2015, the iSPIRT...
Couple of key points that emerged during recent acquisition of startups have been issues related to structuring of the company. Anil Advani of Inventus Law walked us through these issues in a roundtable organized by iSPIRT M & A connect program at the Microsoft Accelerator venue. Many key aspects such as taxation (especially in the context of Singapore), seed funding, liabilities, ease of...
iSPIRT Open Ecosystem Questions(OEQ) Series. The conversation around this exciting session was lead by Sanat Rao (iSPIRT) and the speakers were Jay Pullur (Pramati Technologies), Sanjay Shah (Invensys Skelta), Pari Natarajan (Zinnov), Karthik Reddy (Blume Ventures) & Vijay Anand (The Startup Centre). Sanat initiated the conversation with an observation that it was only the bigger exits that...
