Unlocking India’s global tech potential: Insights from Mint Forum

Indian technology startups should start developing products for global consumption and build bigger brands worldwide to take advantage of the emerging opportunities, panelists who attended the Mint Insights Forum in Bengaluru have stated.

If Gojek and Grab can be multi-market brands, it’s definitely possible for Indian startups to challenge the status quo. Already, some of the software-as-a-service (Saas) companies like Zoho and Freshworks, established by Indian founders, have made their mark abroad but it’s now upto the consumer tech brands to grow internationally, the panelists stated while attending the event on September 26.

The forum also called for privatization of infrastructure in cities like Bengaluru to support the world class talent pool available. More focus on research and development and supporting domestic capital through tax incentives were the other important points raised.

Panellists at the Mint Insight Forum that featured the theme ‘Can Brand India/Bengaluru innovate on scale to rival the best of global tech companies’, included Sudhir Sethi, founding partner at Chiratae Ventures, Pranav Pai, founding partner at 3one4 Capital, Shreyans Daga, founder of MyGate, Dale Vaz, founder of Sahi, Adarsh Narahari, founder of Primus Senior Living, Aniket Shah, founder of Swish, Neha Bagaria, founder of HerKey and Vineet Agrawal, founder, Jiraaf. Senior journalist Darlington Jose Hector moderated the discussion.

“Domestic capital is available in abundance. But we need research and development (R&D) in the country to grow substantially,” said Sudhir Sethi, whose Chiratae Ventures focuses largely on consumer tech, SaaS, fintech, health tech and deep tech. “Deep tech, automotives and mechatronics are all areas that require massive R&D investments,” he said. “I’m expecting family offices and HNIs to pour more capital into startups in the next 5-10 years and this domestic capital will be a tremendous boon for the ecosystem,” said Sethi.

The perspective on increasing R&D was one that Pranav Pai backed immediately. “A lot more public R&D should go into our universities,” he said. “India’s startup ecosystem is one of the world’s best but we need our universities to get funded better so that our talent pipeline gets the fuel that it deserves,” said Pai.

Vineet Agrawal cited an example from his life when he went to Germany as part of an exchange project from his engineering college. “I was stunned by the kind of facilities they were enjoying in their campuses. We couldn’t match them,” said Agrawal, whose startup Jiraaf is an online bond platform.

“It’ll be great to build a ‘startup city’ concept that provides policy level support and benefits to founders, on the lines of SEZs and the GIFT City. Once more R&D funds move into universities, I’m sure our founders will be able to take more risks earlier and innovate,” Agrawal said.

Adarsh Narahari of Primus Senior Living strongly advocated privatizing infrastructure in Bengaluru. “We have a world class airport, malls and other modern spaces. Let’s now privatise electricity/water supply, road maintenance and upkeep of other public amenities,” said Narahari, whose startup builds technology enabled senior living communities. “A city like Bengaluru needs better community spaces. ‘Agetech’ has become a strong area in this regard,” he said. Agetech startups are those that build technology to support the aged.

Pranav Pai stepped in at this juncture, listing a series of steps that need to be taken for a better Bengaluru. “We need to establish an expert committee of civic leaders and technocrats to augment the work of development bodies like the BDA, Namma Metro and BBMP. Create a public infrastructure war room with daily dashboards. The deputy chief minister himself should lead land acquisition negotiations and project monitoring on a daily basis. Prioritise Bengaluru’s projects over populist subsidies. Karnataka cannot afford to bankrupt its growth engine. Bengaluru contributes 50% of GDP and 60% of tax collections of the state. It needs urgent care,” he stated.

Putting the ball back in the venture capital court, Aniket Shah of Swish emphasized the importance of ‘patient’ capital. “A higher time horizon and bigger imagination is what we need now. If we have to move up the value chain, we need to have investors and policies that reward long term bets. There has to be a cultural shift that needs to celebrate failures as much as successes. We need more examples where we build products for global consumption,” Shah said, citing the example pf UPI. Swish is a Bengaluru-based food delivery startup offering quick 10-minute delivery of food from its network of cloud kitchens.

Dale Vaz, founder of Sahi, a stock trading platform, seconded Shah’s point of view. “If GoJek and Grab can have multi-country ambitions we can do too. We need to have that belief. Of course, consumer product play requires the backing of deep pockets but it’s also about ambition now that we have the capability. It’s a process of evolution in some sense,” said Vaz, who was earlier the CTO at Swiggy. “I’m sure in the next 10 years, consumer product play will open up in India. I’ve no doubt we’ll produce startups that become world beaters.”

Shreyans Daga of MyGate, the popular community management and accounting app, was of the view that building clusters of excellence in the country was an important step.

“Why is it that a city like Bengaluru, which is the technology capital of India, does not have an IIT? Or for that matter an ISB? Our centres of excellence are so far away from each other, spread across many towns and cities of the country. The same case with Ahmedabad or Hyderabad. They will have 1 or 2 institutes of excellence but what I would say is that all of our cities should have multiple centres of excellence where the best of talents come to study and work,” Daga said.

Sudhir Sethi backed up that argument. “How did Bay Area grow? Through immigration. A city like Bengaluru has tremendous talent to choose from but yet I feel we need international talent to keep pushing the envelope. We need more talent in aerospace engineering, marine engineering and material sciences,” he said.

But there is a lacuna. It is said that India has the highest percentage of women STEM graduates among major economies, with 43% of STEM graduates being women. Despite this, only 27% of women hold STEM jobs, according to certain studies.

Neha Bagaria of HerKey said, “We have to remove this bias. Access to equal opportunity is a must. We have to focus on upskilling and reskilling women in tech sectors. We should also develop more microentrepreneurs. We have to change employer mindset but this will take time. There are no short-term solutions. Women consumers have plenty of unmet needs and femtech can address this,” she added. HerKey is India’s leading AI-powered platform that works to unlock women’s work-life aspirations.

The topic then swung back into India’s opportunities in the next decade and Pranav Pai addressed the question: “India is actively developing homegrown capabilities in deep tech intellectual property and product innovation, expanding beyond its traditional strengths as a global hub for technology services and design.”

He added: “To build competitive product champions from India, the government of India has to eliminate the bureaucracy’s ‘nanny-state’ incrementalism. To accelerate lab-to-market transition, India needs sustained public grant funding and regulatory clarity. Supporting domestic capital through tax incentives will further encourage risk taking.”