9/10 top apps on Google Playstore will be from India

TiE Delhi-NCR hosted the 8th annual India Internet Day (iDay) – India’s largest conference for Internet entrepreneurs yesterday. Following the theme ‘India Internet Unboxed: Getting ready for a 100 Unicorns’, the conference assembled the finest entrepreneurial minds in India and key players from the Chinese start-up ecosystem. The day registered the presence of over 1,000 delegates, including several start-ups, top unicorns, industry leaders, investors, mentors, policy-makers, and other key stakeholders.

In a trendsetting move, iDay 2019 invited leading Chinese VCs to shed light on the start-up landscape in China. The speakers included Hans Tung, Partner-GGVC, the investor associated with 14 unicorns, Helen Wong, Partner- Qiming Venture, and Yun Lou, Founder & CEO – Clubfactory.

Speaking on the event, Rajan Anandan, President – TiE Delhi-NCR shared, “The focus of today’s event is to encourage and help innovative internet-centric start-ups in learning how to unbox the full potential of their ambitious ventures.”

After a welcome address by Rajesh Sawhney, Co-founder & CEO of InnerChef, the event commenced in full-swing with the opening keynote by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO – Paytm. “India is among the 'first world' as far as investment in start-ups is concerned,” he said. Highlighting the positive transformations in the country’s entrepreneurial landscape, the co-chair for the conference Vani Kola, Co – Chair for the event & Managing Director – Kalaari Capital, said, "India is finally going beyond the 3Ms: male, metros & millennials and using the 3Vs to do so: voice, video & vernacular."

In the first keynote on ‘Unboxing Innovation & Empowering Startups’ , Anant Maheshwari - President , Microsoft India mentioned, "The value of India is in that bottom of the pyramid of SME.” Deepinder Goyal, Founder & CEO – Zomato, urged entrepreneurs to draw value from outside India, valuations from India as part of the panel discussion on ‘Unboxing Indian Tech Going Global’. Speaking on ‘Entrepreneurial Milestones: Unboxing Pivots and Pirouettes to Exits’ Kunal Shah, Founder & CEO, Cred urged aspiring entrepreneurs, “It’s not the storytelling but the clarity of thoughts that can make your start-up successful.”

In an insightful keynote discussion about start-up valuations, Gaurav Deepak, Co-founder & Managing Director – Avendus, concluded “India has never been cheap. India values quality and market leaders along with entry at higher levels and higher exists. Once you build the market leader, ‘other’ disruptors lose stream.”

Six curated start-ups presented their unique products to a panel of investors as part of the   Launchpad at iDay.

iDay 2019 also provided a space to both industry leaders and emerging entrepreneurs to get together and exchange insights and experiences over knowledge sharing & mentoring avenues like Power Breakfast with iDay committee members and leading investors, the FinTech Founders' Lunch and the B2B Founders' Lunch. A product workshop further demonstrated the benefits of powering product management with innovative strategies in driving the evolution of a start-up into a unicorn.

TiE Delhi-NCR also joined hands with Diageo to hold a roundtable with leading entrepreneurs and influencers under the heading ‘Unboxing Best Practices for Regulations & Policies’. The conversations included topics like benefits of effective adoption of automated compliance in boosting regulatory enforcement as well as ease of doing business.

The leadership conference iDay 2019 was sponsored by Microsoft India, Avendus Capital, and several key partners.