“There are lots of plans and pitches we get on a daily basis that are attractive but they are not large enough for us. We want to invest in very large, transformative tech businesses,” said Khosla while speaking at Unstoppable India, TiEcon Delhi-NCR 2022 event on Thursday.
Khosla was earlier a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. The IIT Delhi graduate started his own venture capital fund Khosla Ventures in 2004.
“We don’t do business just for the sake of business but we are looking for large technology breakthroughs that can change the paradigm in a specific area. Whether it is in the blockchain world, or in the healthcare and nutrition world,” Khosla said.
Khosla mentioned HealthifyMe, an Indian digital health and wellness platform, as an example of a firm and tech idea he’d want to invest in.
“HealthifyMe is doing great work. They are using AIs in a very peculiar way, that we haven’t thought about. They are making nutritional services cost-effective with the help of AI (Artificial Intelligence). I find that really exciting,” Khosla said.
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Large markets, great people and ethical businesses are the three main criteria for Khosla Ventures to invest in, he said.
Khosla said that he is interested to invest in cryptos as long as they are compatible with societal laws.
“If Crypto encourages terrorist funding or for any other illegal trading, then it will be shut down. I’m a fan of using the best of the blockchain, Crypto and Web 3. However they should be compliant with societal laws,” he said.
Web 3.0, which is the next avatar of the world of the internet will create the network effects that Web 2.0 did, and there is a large set of needs that are to be served by the crypto world just like healthcare and infrastructure, Khosla said.
“In Web 3.0 tokens can create the network effects and not compete in a way that Web 2.0 did. It has very low transaction cost and low central control so there is a whole new opportunity there,” he said.
The first quarter of FY22 has been slow for Indian startups seeking to go public, owing to a global slowdown in tech stocks and continued market volatility due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
On the tech IPO slowdown, Khosla said that creating value is different from creating profits and he encouraged entrepreneurs to focus on long-term value creation for the society and for the customers.
“I’m a big believer In creating value than profits. If you have great opportunities and value-creation you will never worry about creating profits. In fact, I’ll not invest in projects that promise profits in the first two years,” Khosla said.
