Stalwarts from the Indian Startup Ecosystem converge on the need to explore different mechanisms of producing Unicorns even more speedily and more efficiently.
Mumbai, Maharashtra Apr 1, 2022 (Issuewire.com) - While the spurt of Unicorns creation in India has been an awesome development for the ecosystem, the question that begs to answer is, are we, as an Ecosystem doing enough? With the US and China galloping away with more Unicorns getting produced each year, the Indian Startup Ecosystem will have to either play the catch-up game much better or perhaps do different things and also do things differently. KofounderzTeam launches The Great Unicorn Hunt which is here to help build a Think Tank and an Action Group for the Startup ecosystem. It seeks to identify and nurture innovative ways and means, to help create more unicorns, speedily and more efficiently. Clearly, what got us so far is not going to get us to where we want to be and perhaps not soon enough.
The pain point that the Indian Ecosystem faces is that the capital infusion while on the upswing is still one-tenth the capital that the more advanced Startup ecosystems like the one in the US receive and many deserving Startups and well-funded Startups end up fending for themselves without adequate tools to get noticed by multiple like-minded investors in a short span of time. More than 50% of the portfolio companies of most VCs are ripe for co-investing but methods to get them future rounds of investment are still heavily dependent on founder hustle and informal/formal networking. Having committed itself to build a multi-stage platform supporting the Startup ecosystem with uniquely designed solutions, the KofounderzTeam has launched The Great Unicorn Hunt to further accelerate a more conducive discovery and conversation platform.
Keeping in mind the aim of helping startups acquire customers, capital, publicity, and scalability, Sachin Karnik, Founder and CEO of Kofounderz Team elaborated on the context of The Great Unicorn Hunt. He said, "It is clear that there is a huge disparity in the way capital is getting distributed, and even promising, well-funded Startups are not ending up on the right doorsteps. Any mechanism that could compress the discovery time of potential unicorns and make it easy for VCs and Investors to spot potential unicorns is going to be welcome, going by the reaction and welcome extended by some of the most prominent players of the Ecosystem."
No simple Solutions and no Short Cuts for the Startup ecosystem
With India emerging as the third biggest Startup Ecosystem in the world, it is surprising that the number of Unicorns is still in two digits and other Ecosystems are racing ahead of us and the gap is widening. This issue is similar to the Olympic Medals tally that India aspires for. Can we accelerate the process of creating more Neeraj Chopras? Can we make Moores' law apply to the Unicorns production in the Indian Startup Ecosystem? Who knows we may end up surprising Mr. Moore and ourselves in the process.
In keeping with the MVP or Minimum Viable Proposition approach that's so common in the Startup Ecosystem, Kofounderz Team conducted not just a poll but also conducted four detailed, closed-door, by-invitation-only symposiums and Round Tables to get insight from the leading players of the Ecosystem who have been on the forefront in terms of identifying, investing and nurturing winning propositions before they got noticed by the world.
The objectives of the Virtual Symposiums and Round Table sessions were very specific:
1. Are the painpoints plaguing the Ecosystem real, big enough, and worth solving.
2. Can we as an Ecosystem attempt at doing different things or doing things differently to crank up the way we are spotting and nurturing Unicorns?
- Can a central platform, well adopted by the Startup community serve the purpose of becoming a reservoir and a watering hole for the most promising Startups to attract scarce capital and acumen?
The debates and discussions clearly pointed to such an initiative not only being much needed but also timely. The warm and concrete support that was extended during the symposiums and the Congratulatory messages from the super-senior group of participants seemed to indicate that (a) Kofounderz Team certainly has a finger on the pulse of the ecosystem and (b) leading VCs, investors, Family Offices, Incubators, Accelerators, Angel Investors, practitioners, and players are extremely keen to evaluate and support mechanisms that could help them deploy capital even closer to Bull's eye zones compared to current proclivities. The icing on the cake that The Great Unicorn Hunt promises is in the form of Corporates' participation. More corporates joining the Hunt will augur well not just for Startups but also for the Corporates keen to smartly explore how India's famed Startup Ecosystem could turbocharge their toplines and shore up bottomlines.
Some of the prominent leaders that attended the First VC Symposium include :
Sumit Keshan ( Wipro Consumer Ventures), Annop N ( Chiratae), Pankaj Karna ( Maple Advisory), Bhavesh Jatania ( IDFC First Bank), Sachin Tagra ( JSW Ventures), Sanjay Mehta, ( 100x.VC), Rajesh Sehgal ( Equanimity), Sarvesh Agrawal ( Transparent Capital), Dhianu Das ( Agility Ventures), Ameya Prabhu ( Nafa Capital), Kishore Ganji ( Astir Ventures), Rachana Bhusari( NSE), Ajay Thakur( BSE), Anil Joshi ( Unicorn Ventures), Priyanka Thakkar ( Unilever Ventures),
Angel Investor Round Table Attendees included :
Shashank Ranadev ( 100X.VC), Anubhav Tiwari ( IIIT), Dr. Manish Diwan ( BIRAC), Dr. Rupesh Ghyar ( BETIC), Kishore Kumar ( Big Basket), Konark Rai ( SASTRA), Kartheek ( MiraiNxT), Mathew Mattam ( CYDA India), Vikash( Runway Incubator).
Angel Investors who attended include Rajeev Arora, Pranay Desai, Anand Shiralkar, Puru Modani, Ashish Agarwal, Vijay Hede, Sandhya Chaudhary, K.S.Raghunandan, Lalit Gupta, Neha Patil.
Corporate Conference Attendees included :
Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini ( Aditya Birla Group), GovindaRaj A ( Vodafone Idea), Amarjeet Khanuja ( Star Health Insurance), Bhavesh Jatania ( IDFC First Bank), Dr.Dhirendra Kumar ( Tata Steel), Smriti ( Shell), Jaikrishan( Preferred Consumer), Vipul Mathur ( Udaan), Parthiv Gandhi ( HDFC Bank), Aditi Khurana ( Softbank KK), Parimal Sheth ( Kennis Global), Sudhir Madhugiri ( Gartner)
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