NEW DELHI: India’s growing entrepreneurial mindset and the inclination among students to startup rather than opting for cushy MNC jobs is the biggest driver of innovation in the country.
And, this shift is giving a lot of confidence to US-based venture capital (VC) investor General Catalyst to step up its India investments.
The VC firm has already invested in 24 Indian startups, including unicorns like Cred and Spinny, and has deployed $200-225 million in the country in the last couple of years, CEO & managing director Hemant Taneja and partner Anand Chandrasekaran told a leading English daily in an interview published on April 25.
“The talent here and the change in the mindset of students towards entrepreneurship is a big deal. That is what is also happening in institutions like MIT and Harvard in the US. Our India investments are going to be significant — 10-20% of the dollars that we deploy out of our funds will be allocated to the country,” they said.
“As the economy grows, helped by rise in per capita income and increased consumer spending, a lot of new businesses are expected to enter and scale up in areas like healthcare, agriculture, climate, supply chain and semiconductors over the next five to ten years,” said Taneja.
The tech stack to power these businesses have already been built over the years. “A lot of work that has been done around telco adoption, Aadhaar, UPI, payment infrastructure sets us up well for innovation. Overall, I think it is a phenomenal opportunity for India in the next 15 years,” said Taneja.
