The gathering of over 300 eminent personalities discussed several hot-button issues on the sidelines of the summit, which featured a panel discussion and speeches by guests of honour Union minister Piyush Goyal and minister of state for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
In this special newsletter, we bring you a roundup of all that happened at the ceremony to present India’s most prestigious startup awards.
Also in the letter:
■ Funding winter only in the mind: Piyush Goyal
■ India at par with US and EU, will shape the future of technology: MoS IT
■ ‘India Inc has Davos, startups have Domlur’
ETSA 2023: Profitability now the main mantra for Indian startups
ET Startup Award winners with Piyush Goyal, Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Satyan Gajwani
The days of growth at all costs and chasing fancy valuation metrics are over, and it’s now time to focus on revenue and profits, and building to go public—that was the abiding sentiment expressed by almost all the startup founders, venture investors and tech executives who attended the ninth edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards on Saturday.
Despite the macroeconomic headwinds around tightening money flows and high inflation, India’s startup founders found much to cheer about, and continue to be as enthusiastic as ever to build businesses for the next decades.
Guests of Honour: The star-studded ceremony had Union minister for commerce and industry Piyush Goyal and minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar as the chief guests.
Kunal Shah, founder and CEO, Cred; Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy and Sujeet Kumar, founder, Udaan
Also in attendance were Kalyan Krishnamurthy, chief executive of the Flipkart group; Kunal Bahl of Titan Capital; Harshil Mathur, cofounder of Razorpay; Vidit Aatrey, cofounder of Meesho; and top venture capitalists from across the spectrum.
Winners: B2B ecommerce startup OfBusiness won the Startup of the Year award this year for building a profitable business at scale. The Midas Touch award went to Jishnu Bhattacharjee of Nexus Venture Partners for investing and exiting profitably from multiple SaaS startups. Heads Up For Tails founder Rashi Narang was recognised as the woman entrepreneur of the year, and ZopSmart’s founders were hailed as the Comeback Kids. And, Space tech startup Digantara won in the Best on Campus category, while String Bio stood out as the Top Innovator.
The Buzz: The one question that every startup founder was being asked was about ‘profitability’. Jitendra Gupta, founder of fintech startup Jupiter, pointed out that the days of growth at all costs were past, and the startup sector was now fully focused on building sustainable and profitable businesses.
Lalit Keshre, cofounder of Groww, which was one of the contenders for the Startup of the Year award, said that after a decade’s experience in startups he now sees maturity kicking in among founders. The thought process of startups has improved over the past several years, he added.
And, while everyone agreed that the sector as a whole isn’t there yet, they were also confident of building towards that.
ETSA 2023 | Startups reset focus towards ‘sustainable profit’
From left: Prashanth Prakash, partner, Accel; Harshil Mathur, cofounder and CEO, Razorpay; Rashi Narang, founder, Heads up for Tails; Lalit Keshre, cofounder and CEO, Groww
At the ET Startup Awards, a panel that comprised top names from India’s startup and tech brigade discussed the new order and how they were laying the foundation for sustainable revenue and profitability. The panel also touched upon how the focus for startups continues to be public markets.
On the panel were: Lalit Keshre, cofounder and CEO of Groww; Prashanth Prakash, partner at Accel; Harshil Mathur, cofounder and CEO of Razorpay; Aadit Palicha, cofounder and CEO at Zepto; and Rashi Narang, founder of Heads up for Tails. The discussion was moderated by ETtech Editor Samidha Sharma.
Here are edited excerpts from the interaction:
ET: What is it that VCs have done in terms of the reset in the past couple of years?
Prakash: The first mistake is that we overbuilt a lot of tech and spent 3-4x the amount we should have spent on technology. We also saw misalignment in the whole valuation ladder that builds up (or markups companies receive). We lost sight of what it is to practically build a company for the public market. Nobody put that right. The third mistake was that we buried the importance of somebody being an operator.
ET: Would you (Zepto) be comfortable taking a down round?
Palicha: What really matters is what your valuation is after a decade. When we went to raise this capital, we didn’t really have a valuation target in mind. We raised this capital because we thought the business had reached an inflection point where there was really a strong use case for growth equity to accelerate value creation. We are trying to be a company that goes public early in our lifecycle. We want to go public in the next 18-24 months.
ETSA 2023 | Funding winter only in the mind, enough cash available for good ventures: Piyush Goyal
Union minister for commerce and industry Piyush Goyal said the funding winter is “only in the mind,” insisting that funds are always available for good ideas. The previous year of waning fund flows will only help India’s startup ecosystem mature and come of age, he said.
Speaking at the ETSA 2023 ceremony, Goyal said, “We will see a churn in the industry, but cash flows and profits are finally becoming relevant. My business experience says that whenever you have too much cash, you tend to make mistakes.”
Push for Indian products: The minister urged entrepreneurs in the room to promote India-made goods and inform customers of the country of origin—whether they are from India or the country’s friendly or unfriendly neighbours, or other parts of the world—as they should be given a choice to be part of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.
On FDI laws: The minister implored companies to stop circumventing rules of foreign direct investment (FDI). “Those who come in with foreign direct investment are not allowed to participate in the retail space. Those who come in with Indian money are allowed to participate in it as a retail business or like any other mall,” he explained.
Also read | Solutions follow jobs as startups build for new India: IDFC First Bank CEO V Vaidyanathan
ETSA 2023 | Pedigree of India’s tech ecosystem firmly established: MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Reiterating the greater acceptance globally of ‘Made in India’ technology products, minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said there has been “a reset from the old narrative” that the country was just a back-office, and it is now in the big leagues with the US, Europe and Japan.
“We are certainly in the league today. Americans and Japanese sign agreements on electronics and semiconductors with us. I think the world now recognises that the future of technology will be shaped as much by Indian entrepreneurs and Indian minds as American, Japanese or Korean,” he said.
On online gaming: On the recent decision to impose 28% GST on real-money gaming companies, the minister said the sector was a free-for-all for several years and bad actors had milked this lack of framework, but there were also good actors who worked on innovation.
Harmony in government: Asked about multiple laws and subsequent regulatory uncertainty for large as well as upcoming technology companies, the minister said all the laws—be they the upcoming Digital India Act, the Digital Data Protection Bill, the Digital Competition Act or the Telecom Bill—would be “harmonised.”
Corporate India has Davos, now startups have Domlur
From left: Rohit Kapoor, CEO, Swiggy Food Marketplace; Albinder Dhindsa, founder, Blinkit; Surobhi Das, senior executive, Blinikt; Adit Palicha, CEO, Zepto
Founders and VCs had a lot to discuss and debate about at the ET Startup Awards, from valuation and execution to the all-time-favourite debate: growth vs profitability. But there was one thing everyone agreed on: for the Indian startup ecosystem, there is no other event that comes close to The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA).
Davos for startups: The entire room was in agreement when 3one4 Capital’s Siddharth Pai compared the Startup Awards to the Davos Summit. “India Inc has Davos, we have Domlur,” (the location of the Leela Palace, Bengaluru, where the event took place), Pai said, during an interaction with union minister Piyush Goyal.
Also read | Passing storm will make our startups stronger, better, says Satyan Gajwani
Optimism on display: Harshil Mathur, cofounder of Razorpay, who was also a panellist this year and won the Startup of the Year award last year, spoke of the energy and optimism on display at the event. “The maturity of the ecosystem is truly on display today… there is no conversation around valuations, only around profitability and listing,” he said.
Next stop Chepauk: The who’s who of the Indian startup ecosystem was present at the event Saturday evening, and quite a few found themselves heading for the same destination—the India vs Australia match in Chennai the next day. Many of the guests discovered they’d be donning India jerseys on the very same 9:30 am Bengaluru-Chennai flight on Sunday.
Also read | ET Startup Awards 2023 | VC you can drive my car
