India is the most important market for us, leading Chinese investors

New Delhi: Building on the momentum created by the inaugural day of TiE Global Summit 2019, the second day began with a Reverse Pitch session attended by more than 20 investors. The following session on ‘Global Investment Trends’ saw leading investors talking about the investment landscape and what makes investors tick. The key takeaway of the session was the need for organizations to create the right culture. Substantiating the claim, Saurav Bannerjee, Partner – Kalaari Capital, commented, “Studies show that companies with good corporate governance fare 28% better than their peers.”

Multiple indigenous founders exchanged their entrepreneurial stories in the first Keynote Fireside Chat for the day: ‘Building Global Brands for India’. The conversation featured Kanwal Singh, Managing Partner - Fireside Ventures along with Rishabh Chopra, Founder – The Ayurveda Experience; Sarvesh Shashi, Founded – SARVA; and Tina Chulet, Founder – Jivaana.

Dr Manish Diwan, Head Strategic Partnership & Entrepreneurship Development – BIRAC, highlighted the role of BIRAC in unlocking growth and scale for Indian biotech startups. He said that BIRAC has invested more than USD 136 million in the startup space in the last 7 years. He further added, “TiE Delhi-NCR is one of our key partners. BIRAC TiE WInER Awards, which recognizes women biotech entrepreneurs, will launch a special award focusing on biotech entrepreneurship in North East India.”

Later during the day, the audience got access to ‘Learnings from the Chinese Startup Ecosystem’. Chaired by Dev Khare, Partner – Lightspeed India Partner Advisors, the session featured Benny Chen, Managing Partner, BAce Capital and Shirley Mao, Executive Director Strategic Investment Department, Xiaomi Inc. Shirley Mao observed, “In India, things are different from state to state. Unlike the Chinese market, the Indian market is more fragmented, comprising different consumer bases that do not even overlap. This means that each of the large sectors has more opportunities and a lot of space for new players to emerge and drive disruption.”

The exceptional line-up of speakers also included noteworthy names such as Abhijit Bose, Head of India – WhatsApp India; Sanjeev Bhikhchandani, Founder & Vice Chairman – Naukri.com; Jan Metzger, MD – Citi Group; Andy Tsao, MD & Head – Silicon Valley Bank; Falguni Nayar, Founder & CEO – Nykaa; Dr Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman Emeritus – TiE Delhi-NCR; Damien Zhang – VP, CDH Capital; Jeffrey Yam – ED Integrated Capital; Tej Kapoor, Executive President & Head of Investments – Fosun India; Wai Leng Leong, MD Strategic Partneships Growth Market – Asia CDPQ; and Anna Roy, Senior Advisor – NITI Aayog, GOI, among others. 

Deep Kalra, Founder & Group CEO – MakeMyTrip & TiE Delhi-NCR Board Member in conversation with the keynote discussion titled ‘Irrational Belief: Musings’ featured Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder & CEO, Snapdeal. He said, “The beauty of India is that it is a heterogeneous economy from the consumption point of view. This gives way to great business opportunities.” On being asked about the much talked-about acquisition bid, he replied, “Things go from bad to worse when you keep vacillating between multiple paths. In hindsight, it was the only realistic choice.”

Film Actor, Entrepreneur & Investor Rana Daggubati delivered the valedictory keynote. Explaining his foray into the world of investment, he said, “Tech has always been the biggest supporter of how movies could become a global phenomenon and cut across boundaries. Furthermore, there are gaps in the entertainment world and technology is perfectly placed to bridge them.” Prasad Vanga, Founder & CEO – Anthill Ventures, who chaired the session, also compared movies to startups. The Baahubali actor responded: “A major difference is that the shelf life of a film is shorter than that of a startup. Conversely, prep and design are the most important factors while making a global product at scale.”

TGS4 also provided the backdrop for several coveted start-up awards. Staqu Technologies, Leverage Edu, and Bobble AI won the 12th Season of TiE Lumis Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards. Checko, Driftly, Mobycy, Deliver Fuel, E Charge, and Sheru were the finalists of the 9th edition TiE The Knot – a live funding pitchfest. The 3^rd Season of TiE QGlue Design Awards felicitated Crimson Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. and Heads Up For Tails for their innovative value propositions.

At the 6th Edition of Spirit of Manufacturing Awards, Pratik Gupta, Strom Motors won the IT Adoption & Innovation category; Neha Rastogi, Agatsa Software was recognized as Woman Entrepreneur of the Year; Deep Bajaj, Sirona Hygiene won in the Social Impact category, while Sandeep Kanetkar, Smartenviro Systems received the Jury’s Choice award.