Founders from various key startups in India’s booming startup ecosystem took the stage at News18’s ‘Rising Bharat Summit’ 2024, talking about the profound impact of innovation and entrepreneurship on the Indian economy, and how, India’s homegrown startups are now ready to take on the world and provide their services globally.

The speakers included founder of Oyo Rooms, Ritesh Agarwal, co-founder of Dream 11, Harsh Jain, founder of Daily Hunt Virendra Gupta and CEO of Mobikwik Upasana Taku.

Speaking on how the startup culture stands today and how it has grown in the last decade, Harsh jain said “If you ask people it’s changed completely. 10, to 15 years ago I remember being on calls with some of our potential employees and their parents, trying to convince parents that working with a startup is okay, that it’s okay to leave a MNC job and commit to a startup. Today parents are okay with their own kids starting up.”

“10-15 years ago investors were scared of investing in an Indian company. Today, investors and entrepreneurs are saying only in India. These are very important outcomes to the initiatives of the Indian government like DIgital India, and Startup India,” added Jain, speaking on how investors and founders have grown confident of India’s startup ecosystem.

“Globally, people India is a bright spot in the world economy. However, I believe India is the brightest spot in the global startup economy. We are not only the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world, but also the fastest growing,” said Oyo Room’s Ritesh Agarwal.

“This means we are not that far away from staking claim to the coveted, second position, and then very quickly, go for the big one. Before India becomes one of the world’s top 3 economies, India will become one of the top two startup capitals the world,” he added.

India has often been seen as a great opportunity in terms of user count. However, businesses that have failed to take off in India, claim that it is extremely difficult to monetise and very hard to make money in India.

“Startups are not about making money in just one year. It is a journey Harsh and Ritesh have been building their companies for decades. People have this misconception that you start a startup and you will have a billion-dollar company,” said  founder of Daily Hunt Virendra Gupta.

“The companies that you hear of in the news, that have made over a billion dollars are the ones who have been going at it for 8-10 years, companies that have been grinding for about a decade or more. Also, When I started DailyHunt, I was often asked, ‘Does Bharat need the internet? Does a Hindi or Kannada-speaking user need the internet?’ VC were very averse to the idea of funding any business serving Bharat. There were a lot of naysayers back then, and the same naysayers are saying today that although India has a lot of users, but they are not monetisable,” he added.

Speaking on India’s monetisation capabilities, Gupta continued, adding, “Look at the macro-picture of the Indian economy. Our GDP per capita is growing leaps and bounds. We will be a $5-7 trillion economy soon. Businesses that push right now, will benefit hugely when the economy goes up.”

In a way, India is the startup capital of the world, claimed Gupta. “The enthusiasm one sees in India is not seen in San Francisco or anywhere in Europe. “People in Tier-II, Tier-III cities, are all talking about startups, Every engineering and MBA college now has an entrepreneurial cell. There are at least 60-70 accelerators across the country who are breeding startups. The aspiration to do better in the world in infectious in India,” he said.

CEO of Mobikwik, Upasana Taku spoke on how the government in India and the RBI have been very supportive of the fintech innovations in India, and laid the foundations for a fledgling industry through various aspects of DPI or Digtial Public Infrastructure. “Not just UPI, but Aadhar too has been a game changer for India,” she explained. “We’re buying properties using Aadhar, loans are being sanctioned and dispersed, investments are being made all digitally. Moreover, we move a ton of money in just milliseconds, which is not the case even in the most developed markets,“ she added.

“Before the word ‘fintech’ was coined, we got started, about 14 years ago. While India has a baout 800 million users, the number of users who use it for transactions is about 400 million, so from that perspective, there still is a lot of scope for growth,” said Taku.

In the next 5-6 years this number will increase to about 800 million transacting users. That, combined with the fact where India’s economy is headed, makes India’s fintech sector, an ‘evergreen’ one, claimed Taku.

All of this has been possible because of the investments in DPI by the government, which has helped in the making of an ecosystem. “Fintech innovation in India has been very strong in India for the last 5-6 years. Our tech stack is so strong that not only will they serve the Indian merchant base, but also go global and take over the dominant technology in other markets,” said Taku.

Indian startup founders have had an amazing run for the last 5-6 years. However, with a renewed focus on India’s startup ecosystem, Ritesh Agarwal of Oyo Rooms, Harsh Jain of Dream 11, Virendra Gupta of Daily Hunt and Upasana Taku, of Mobikwik believe we are ready to go truly global