According to the Ministry of Finance’s Economy Survey 2014-15, India is becoming the world’s fourth largest center for venture and angel funded startup businesses. The country’s technology sector is fueling this growth especially in the online space, where 240 million Indians now have internet access, according to research group IMRB International. IMRB says this is the third highest in the world after China and the U.S., which India is expected to overtake this year.
Investments into India’s startups hit more than $3.5 billion in the first half of this year, a new high, according to Yourstory.com, one of the country’s most popular websites for entrepreneurs. A significant proportion of this money comes from overseas, with funds such as Tiger Global, Sequoia and Accel in the U.S., and Japan’s SoftBank, leading the way, reports BBC.
Arjun Narayan, founder of Catamaran, a private investment company that has offices in both Bangalore and London says: “It takes a lot of learning here [India] as it is a very heterogeneous market with lots of different tastes and variants,” he says. “In many cases investors don’t have patience and don’t let that learning curve happen.” Catamaran’s principal investor is NR Narayana Murthy, co-founder and first CEO of Infosys.
