Roundtable Recap: August 11 – Exit Options for Indian Startups

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Mohanjit Jolly, Partner at Iron Pillar, and a long time player in the Indian startup ecosystem. Among other topics, we had an interesting discussion about Exit options for Indian startups.

Interamplify

As for our entrepreneur pitch, we first had Natalia Aldama from Mucia, Spain, pitching interamplify, an SEO service.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cameron Kramlich, General Partner of Angelneers (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s do some case studies. Pick your favorite companies that have come together in this fashion. Tell us some stories of what did they start with. When they came to you, what did they have? What did you see that prompted you to get involved fully?

Cameron Kramlich: One company that we’re excited about is Cycle which is a container management platform. There, we have an unbelievably gifted serial entrepreneur who’s the CEO. He’s done an incredible job building a great business with incredible metrics. We’re helping him build out his team and a better sales organization.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cameron Kramlich, General Partner of Angelneers (Part 1)

Cameron Kramlich, General Partner at Angelneers, offers a rare perspective in support of solo entrepreneurs.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Anup Jain, Managing Partner of Orios Venture Partners (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: You mentioned earlier that the Indian startup boom has happened in two cities – Bangalore and Delhi NCR. We’ve had a lot of success in Chennai as well. Some of the bigger successes came out of Chennai. What are you seeing in other places?

We are seeing companies coming out of Chandigarh and many other places. That’s part of the vision of One Million by One Million – to enable not only all corners of India but all corners of the world. We have companies from Tanzania. We have companies from Chandigarh. I’m from Calcutta, so I’ve always had a soft corner for Calcutta. It is a different India. It is a different world. How is that impacting the startup ecosystem?

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Anup Jain, Managing Partner of Orios Venture Partners (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What is your estimate of the heavily-funded unicorns in the Indian ecosystem? How many of those are going to become sustainable and successful companies?

Anup Jain: My wish is that each one of them does become sustainable. I haven’t performed that analysis but I think a large number, 80% and up, should be walking a straight line and will be able to do that. I don’t have any particular names in mind on the balance of 20%.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about go-to-market strategy. What are you seeing as some of the most effective go-to-market strategies out there? We are hearing a lot about these short videos like TikTok and reels. What are you seeing?

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Anup Jain, Managing Partner of Orios Venture Partners (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s double-click down on a couple of issues across your portfolio. What are you seeing by way of successful business models? What appeals to you the most? When you see a company and you’re pattern-matching against the business models that are working, what do you like the most?

Anup Jain: What we like the most is capital efficiency. When we see the way that the market has been approached with a solution that is creating the necessary virality and bringing down future customer acquisition costs, it is the healthiest sign of a business. It means that the initial set of consumers are satisfied. It means that they are passing on referrals to others free of cost to you. That is bringing down the cost of consumer acquisition which points to scalability.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Anup Jain, Managing Partner of Orios Venture Partners (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about your portfolio. What are some of the highlights that you’re proud of that are illustrative of how you operate? At what stage did they come to you? Why did you pick them over others?

Anup Jain: I’ll probably start with the principles. All our companies have to cross those barriers. We’re proud of having invested in each one of them. We look at the early stage for the quality of founders and the level of cohesion. When they pitch to us, we look for a well-crafted and well-communicated storyline. That is extremely important. In there is the rational and the emotional stuff.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Anup Jain, Managing Partner of Orios Venture Partners (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What is the fund size of Orios?

Anup Jain: I would comment on the check size. The check sizes at the seed stages have gone up. In response to that, Orios invests anywhere between $1.5 million to $2.5 million in the seed stage. We look for some degree of data and traction before we make that investment. Pre-seed is an area that is very vibrant.

2021 was one of the high points for India as well. We feel that we should participate given the rate of digital adoption in the economy. Companies are being given the opportunity to scale much faster. They shouldn’t have to come back to investors over shorter periods of time to seek an extension of runways or to conduct experiments.