10 Businesses VCs are Dying to Fund

So we launched techTribe on September 14th in Delhi, and the response has been fabulous.  Some of the news is posted on the website, and more will follow.  We also launched a campaign called connect2Develop to reward innovation.

The few weeks leading up to the launch, and the few after were incredibly busy as one would imagine.  I haven’t been blogging much over the last several weeks, and that needs to change.  So I’m hoping to get back into it now.  There – that’s off my chest now – there should never be a place for much guilt in our lives.

Anyway, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the air lately, and I read a great article a week ago called “10 Businesses VCs are Dying to Fund”.  It was in Business Today, an indian business weekly.  The article talks about the record venture capital pouring into India, and which sectors this money was chasing.

Per the article, the sectors are IT enabled services, InfoTech, Mobile, Internet, Media and Entertainment, Education, Hospitality, Healthcare, Microfinance/Financial Services, and Clean Energy.  While the article did an awesome job of showcasing examples of innovation that VCs are looking for in these sectors, the 10 sectors weren’t a surprise.  I mean – what did we leave out – Agriculture and Manufacturing?  I am being a little sarcastic I know ☺.

It’s interesting how we’re seeing a flurry of venture capital announcements about funds being formed, and the lack of real investments - early and seed stage investments in the technology sector.  I guess some of it is to be expected.  The eco-system of technology innovation in India is just getting started, and if we looked at where Silicon Valley was 10 years from the formation of Apple or HP, there wasn’t much early stage activity either.  But the times are different, and the VCs are willing to take much bigger risks.  I’m confident that we’ll see quite a few new startups in India, because the capital is available now, there’s always been bright entrepreneurs, and there seems to be mentorship that is beginning to take shape with the movement of Indians back from the West.

Back to Innovation in technology, looking at the Internet sector, India has 50 million or so Internet users today, and the number is growing.  Consumer services, based on the open platform of the Internet is ripe for the making, and the article also points out that VCs believe that are several successful businesses in the West that aren’t yet present in India.  It’s reasonable to expect there’s a market for them.  BUT, there are cultural differences which may make it very different for these companies to succeed in the Indian market. 

I can’t help but think about ORIGINALITY.  Are we to expect that most new internet ventures in India will be based on the American successes or extensions of them?  Will this be similar to the Bollywood theme where most mainstream movies are based on a storyline “inspired by a Hollywood script”.  They have a shot at being moderate successes.  OR, Is it likely that we see some originals that will be runaway hits, and those will take into account the state of the affairs in India – like “Lage Raho Munnabhai” and “Rang De Basanti”.  I think we all know what the answer needs to be, and what’s possible if one were to focus on the needs of the Indian market. 

We have a couple of million technology professionals in India.  We have a real estate market, a hospitality market, a financial services market, a media and entertainment market – you get the idea.  8 out of the 10 sectors mentioned in the article open up IMMENSE POSSIBILITIES for the use of technology that needs to be SOMEWHAT UNIQUE to the Indian market.  Imagine the possibilities if we tried to innovate for the need of the Indian community, rather than only thinking of exports ☺.

I’ll end on that thought for today.  I’m on a long flight tomorrow, so I’ll try and write some more then.

Find out more about connect2Develop at http://www.techtribe.com