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Indian startups have raised a record $11.3B this year
- pearjuice 7y agoHalf of India doesn't have a usable toilet. The situation is improving but it's not uncommon to see people literally defecating in the streets simply because they cannot afford a toilet or infrastructure isn't there where they live. It's a big problem space and with a market of almost 1.5billion people there surely must be some sort of airbnb like service possible in the toilet industry. TaaS: Toilet as a Service.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- hos234 7y agoPitch it to SoftBank
- lowiqprogrammer 7y agoNot sure why you're being down voted it's a serious problem. Probably because half of Hacker News are Indians
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y agoProbably because most readers just tune out after the first sentence. Every HN article about the Indian space program or any other high-tech achievement is always accompanied by hand wringing about why a poor country is putting money into this instead of building toilets, curing polio, etc etc.
- piyushpr134 7y agoPolio was already eradicated in 2012(?) from India. They should replace it with something else now
- shripadk 7y agoBecause his figures are as outdated as he is. You just joined the same bandwagon. ISRO launches rockets into space: Oh but the toilets and slums. News about a tech startup getting funding: Oh but the toilets and slums. We, in India, call you lot the toilet brigade who regurgitate stuff shown on your news channels instead of actually travelling to India. But I dare not ask you to travel to India as your favorite destination would either be the Taj Mahal or a visit to Mumbai's slums. It's as if the rest of India doesn't even exist. So it's best you stay out of India. Now when Indians downvote your ignorant and condescending comment don't get upset. You deserve it.
- pearjuice 7y agoAh, a typical ad hominem. It's not outdated. The numbers are still in favor of almost half of Indian's population not having access to a toilet. A simple Google search will learn that the program introduced by the government has mixed results and even though they are throwing massive amounts of money into the construction of said toilets, there is barely any reform going on in education or in the typical household where defecating in public is still considered normal. It will take a few generations to get to the roots of the cultural problem. I have been to India recently, New Delhi even, and more than once I was greeted with people defecating in public. Even outside the perimeters of the designated defecation streets.
- pansinghkoder 7y agoWhat does the google search tell you about mass american shootings and what government is doing about them?
- aianus 7y agoMass shootings affect 0.00001% of Americans, it’s not a comparable problem.
- desi_ninja 7y agomass shooting threat is throughout the usa. don't throw in numbers to justify your points. average American does get affected by mass shooting, directly or indirectly
- g_langenderfer 7y agoThey have pay for use toilets in Colombia, and they work great. You pay a small fee and there is an attendant that cleans on duty the whole time.
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- gourabmi 7y agoWe can talk about it when Tenderloin is gone. What hypocrisy!
- dang 7y agoThis comment breaks the site guidelines. Please read and follow them when posting here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dang 7y agoPlease don't take HN threads into nationalistic flamewar. That tedious trope was done to death long ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- jsondiv 7y agoThis is really impressive: "It’s fascinating turnaround for the nation, which just 10 years ago had a very small startup ecosystem. In a recent interview with TechCrunch, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma recounted the early days of One97, the parent firm of Paytm, and how difficult it was for him to raise a few hundred thousand dollars."
- aditya 7y agoZomato, Swiggy and Paytm alone are expected to close rounds worth as much as $3 billion in the coming months - wonder where the other $8bn is going
- jmsflknr 7y agoIndian tech startups have already raised $11.3B -- the new financing rounds of Swiggy, Zomato, and Paytm if they happen this year and if it is indeed of $3B size would make Indian tech startup's raise this year to over $14.3B.
- GaryNumanVevo 7y agoWe're currently having issues hiring in Bangalore. We've been looking for a ML Infra person to help during non-US hours. Unfortunately hiring for such a position is bimodal in that market, you've got people with substantial experience really know their stuff, most of whom are getting snapped up by startups who pay much better, and then you've got the people who just threw ML on their LinkedIn to get into your search and can't tell you what a linear regression is.
- snicker7 7y agoThen you'd have to pay more.
- desi_ninja 7y agoExactly! I have lost count of how many times people on HN rant about quality of "Indian software engineers" when they are paying so less that they get bottom of the barrel. And they make quick stereotype out of that experience without any introspection.
- rolltiide 7y agoThat's a component and a big component of it is the non-technical managers and wannabe founders that are working with the indian software engineerings and failing to articulate anything in anyway for any engineer to accurately deliver upon.
- soulofmischief 7y agoSo much this.
- dmix 7y agoThat's part of the software engineers job too is it not? They're the hired expert. When I was consulting I spent half my being a product development/manager person because I needed to be.
- NTDF9 7y agoWhat's incredible is that once you factor in PPP, this is equivalent to $200B in local purchasing power. Imagine how much new economic activity that is for a country whose GDP is only $2.5T
- karthikshan 7y agoIf you adjust the funding for PPP you have to adjust GDP too :P
- NTDF9 7y agoThat is accurate
- aatharuv 7y agoMore like $30-$40 billion not $200 billion. The current PPP multiplier is somewhere between 3 and 4. PPP is most useful when looking at domestically manufactured items and services. When looking at anything that needs to be imported, normal exchange rates are a much better tool. In fact due to import duties in India, many international goods are more expensive in India that in most of the west.
- NTDF9 7y agoI literally used the multiplier here: https://data.oecd.org/conversion/purchasing-power-parities-ppp.htm https://data.oecd.org/conversion/purchasing-power-parities-p... As shocking as it sounds, PPP multiple is really 18x
- pansinghkoder 7y agoThat is very encouraging. Given that we Indians are such foodies, it is not surprising that Swiggy and Zomato are doing so well. I am trying to keep tabs on electric two-wheeler startup industry in India. Ather energy is emerging as a big name. Anyone knows how they are doing?
- spectramax 7y agoI always found the term “Foodies” strange. Given that we are hardwired to enjoy food and literally need it to survive, something is terribly wrong with the person’s health if they’re not a “Foodie”. Have you met someone who says they hate food and they only have it because their bodies need it to survive? Indians are no more foodies than the Americans or the Italians or the Japanese. Food is a central aspect of basically all cultures.
- pansinghkoder 7y agoWell I didn’t mean any disrespect to other nationalities but merely commenting on popularity of those two startups. Is there anything you want to add about my query?
- lotsofpulp 7y agoBeing a foodie isn’t about liking to eat, foodie is about enjoying different cuisines and having a discerning taste. Some people are okay with pizza/fries/burgers of any style, while a foodie would seek out specific characteristics and generally want more than just carbs/salt/sugar. I’ve met people that go to a big city and stick with eating from the chains they know from home. They like eating, but they wouldn’t fall under foodie, as opposed to someone who is researching different types of food or cooking them and using various spices and ingredients to add flavor.
- spectramax 7y agoI feel like this is a very narrow, elitist view of the world. Even folks who are not “foodie” in this definition given the opportunity to try new foods, they will. There is something about the term “Foodie” that bothers me because it’s such a general thing that applies to 7 billion people in the world. I can understand if a person is a musician or a doctor or something substantial they’d have to do to attain that title. What do you think of the term “Chef” or a “Cook” or a “Restaurant critic”? There is definitely more specificity. Foodie is a bullshit term for people that like to eat good food - basically all 7 billion people. It bothers me because I am an air-breathing enthusiast or as they say it a “Breathie”. I have a discerning smell for breathing air from various countries.
- ycombonator 7y agoMaybe some of this money can go into educating men of this country not to sexually assault their fellow women and foreigners.
- dang 7y agoIf you continue to post unsubstantive comments and flamebait to HN we are going to have to ban you. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- avocado4 7y agoI'm really hoping for India, the world's largest democracy, to overtake China as an industrial and tech powerhouse of Asia in the next 10-20 years.
- sombremesa 7y agoI'm no expert, but I'd imagine that India being the world's largest democracy is not guaranteed to be a good thing given that only 33% of Indian citizens get through high school (and 8% graduate college). Many politicians are themselves uneducated, and it's easy to sway the opinions of the masses using religion and hatred as leverage.
- Lucadg 7y agoGood point. Democracy works as its best when the masses are educated, otherwise it looks more like a dictatorship acting randomly. I don't know about India as I haven't been there in years but that certainly rings true to me as I reached the same conclusion while staying in many other countries around the world.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- SOMA_BOFH 7y ago>Seems like HN has seriously gone downhill. There has certainly been a reddit-like quality infecting the discussions these past couple of years.
- pcx 7y agoEducation is a bad indicator for the health of a democracy. Looks like the US isn't doing any better with democracy despite having higher education levels.
- boardwaalk 7y agoI don’t think a one variable comparison like that is at all useful.
- paxys 7y agoThe USA took literally all of India's top engineering talent for the past ~25 years, but thankfully that trend is reversing now. While improvements in standard of living, more urbanization, emergence of a real middle class, more local opportunities etc. are definitely all valid reasons for this, I believe the biggest one is that there is no path to US residency or citizenship for an Indian today. Even those educated at top universities there have to eventually come back (and that is great!).
- limeman 7y agoThat will never happen
- olcor 7y agoAlready started happening. I’m already a data point, and I know a few more. The generation going to grad school now is no longer thinking of settling in the states as their primary option; it is too cumbersome for most. Salaries for top talent in Bengaluru are better than almost everywhere on earth except the US. While that may or may not last, the immigration process is still very painful and there are many more opportunities here than before.
- limeman 7y agoThere are lot of other options like canada. Can you compare the salary/revenue to the people who make better in Bangalore than in Toronto?
- olcor 7y agoWell a direct currency conversion might not work, but in purchasing parity terms Canada seems to be less well off. Consider the conversation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21107264 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21107264 200k CAD is roughly comparable to 3 million INR in PPP terms, and that salary is for senior folks. Most senior engineers at Google Bangalore/Hyderabad or well established software companies are likely to make more than that. Both might be considered to be salaries for remote offices of American companies or internationally funded startups. But if I look at the market in general, I’d rather be a software engineer in India than in Canada. The market is too big and the possibilities are too varied to ignore, even considering all the known problems (Canada might also have some of its own, I’m sure).
- limeman 7y agoEverything speculated here is VC money and financial bubble with unrelaible financial values. Zomato, uber, paytm, flipkart throw discounts at the rate of losses. May be few can survive at the end. This hurts a lot for SMB too.
- Lucadg 7y agoOYO too, they raised 1.7 B.
- puranjay 7y agoFlipkart has already had a successful exit. Though if I'm honest, I don't see a path to profitability for PayTM and Ola.
- bahularora 7y agoPaytm will be one of the leaders with the new Ecomm model. I am sure they will be a huge player in ecomm also dont forget they would be the largest bank in India.
- puranjay 7y agoTheir losses increased from some ~1300cr to ~3000+cr while their revenue grew by 8% Not sure where you can draw a path to profitability from that.
- ignoramous 7y agoI really really hope the Indian "startups" aren't closet selling $2 for $1. Given the slew of discounts, cashbacks, and offers, I am left to wonder if at the cost of growth, the fund management has gone to the wolves. The Indian consumer is very fickle and always shops for cheapest alternatives and looks for the best deals. I'm yet to see any kind of loyal behaviour, though, I must say, they prefer to trust only the bigger brands (in terms of presence) when they do occasionally spend big. Another symptom is a lot of businesses acting like software startups riding the wave, when in reality, as a reductionist argument, could be simply classified as companies that get mobile and internet. It also isn't uncommon for the business to exploit the low income wage structure to improve margins. Worker rights, contractor rights, in this gig economy is absent. That's not to say some of these startups aren't delivering real value. They are... but race to the bottom seldom ends well for countries plagued with corruption, income inequality, and unemployment; and burderned with looming humanitarian crisis. In my personal opinion, businesses serving other starups / enterprises (Zscaler, Cloudflare, Brex, Stripe, GitHub, slack, aws et al) remain the most secure of the current lot. I don't think this disproportionate infusion of captial is going to end well: There do exist super valuable businesses but I highly doubt if they can justify their hype when they do go public. The investors are usually smart, but I hope they don't get dragged into hopeless optimism or become desperate. Some engs and mgrs arguing the Indian market is better than Canada are overestimating their monetary gains and grossly underestimating the environmental, political, and societal benefits, imho. PS Indian startup scene investments tracker: https://trak.in/india-startup-funding-investment-2015/ https://trak.in/india-startup-funding-investment-2015/
- blueblisters 7y agoI love this argument, there’s a lot of nuance to unwrap here. I see a lot of India startup cofounders who are really smart but fail to understand the challenges (often out of their control) that are in their way of making their businesses sustainable. Aside from the political, regulatory and socioeconomic challenges, India has a huge void to fill in terms of energy needs, manufactured goods, labor productivity and infrastructure before the economy becomes efficient enough to support high level services. The startup ecosystem, barring a few companies in logistics, is not focused on making any tangible improvements in productivity in the larger economy, for example, to start moving people away from agriculture.
- GrayTextIsTruth 7y agogrowth. growth. growth. growth. we chant as we march to our death. India is starting to boom now that climate crisis is getting worse.
- rrrazdan 7y agoYes we should freeze everyone's growth and maintain the status quo. Clearly only the Western nations deserve a high standard of living. The others need to make sacrifices for the greater good.
- harshvladha 7y agoI think the current situation of India is similar and can be compared to the DotCom bubble of '90s (in US). In Bengaluru it is said that, in almost every home you will find one CEO of a startup. I might be wrong but just thinking out loud. For example: PhonePe app - It's just a payment transfer app by Flipkart (although it is much better than GPay, in terms of usage speed) - its current valuation is around 7-8B+ USD. I don't get the much reason. There are no intermediary charges as PhonePe uses UPI Payment Interface (https://www.npci.org.in/product-overview/upi-product-overview https://www.npci.org.in/product-overview/upi-product-overvie...)
- amrrs 7y agoIrony that you're downvoted for staying a very relevant fact. Most of these startups that have raised huge funds are also burning cash like anything. And established startups like Oyo and Zomato are facing backlash from their business partners and couldn't expand to venture into new areas to find profitability. Profitability is still a very long way for most of these b2c startups
- harshvladha 7y ago> burning cash like anything Burning to acquire end-user (in terms of number). Not to gain loyalty, that's the sad part. Zomato is locked to food & restaurants. See Swiggy, they have not locked themselves and expanded to many other Supply chain related businesses Oyo, is like WeWork :)
- heroic 7y agoThe money comes in from businesses who are offered loans based on the transaction volume PhonePe sees. Online businesses that use "Pay with PhonePe" links have to pay commission. In the broad sense, if it scales, it's a pretty decent business.
- harshvladha 7y ago> Online businesses that use "Pay with PhonePe" links have to pay commission Can you please share, any relevant or merchant integration link which says about transaction charges. I don't think there are transactional charges, at least in beginning (I have not digged deep) but saying as per UPI. UPI service is directly by banks (and government) (transfer from user's bank to merchant's bank without intermediary). I can understand that very small transaction fees can be levied in future because PhonePe, Gpay may provide more business to these merchants as their user base grows. Why I am saying very small? Unlike dispute resolution in PayPal kind of platform (which holds money) here it is much difficult to provide similar resolution to end-user, as payment is directly done to merchant. But. It is B-2-B and B-2-B is mostly driven by trust, loyalty and partnerships, unlike end-users in India who runs after app providing new offer(s). Such B-2-B business can change the end-user behaviour in terms of loyalty. So that may be it. But there are so many apps for same payment interface, and I can imagine that there can be just an app which helps merchant receive payment from end-user without any additional fees (0.0000).
- bigil 7y agoI'm afraid given the lack of awareness on what exactly UPI is (without considering usage) and the ability of politicians to kill projects for bribes, it may be eventually replaced by the wallet model. Corruption is a huge issue in India which contributes to loyal users eventually leaving the platform. Zomato, Swiggy and UberEats have had huge growth over the last year but I see a lot of regular users (office goers, bachelors living alone or with other bachelors...) thinking hard before ordering food. The number of quality restaurants are in less ratio and there is only a subset of them being consistent. A huge portion of this quality restaurants offer cuisines not Indian (Thai, Chinese, Italian, American..) which is not preferred routinely. My guess would be, growing up most are accustomed to Indian cuisine and the cost factor. Majority of the restaurants cater to offers and provide cheap food and lack basic hygiene and food preparation standards. This "restaurants" (most of them have now converted to takeaway only) should have been closed after inspection(s) but bribe and stay alive. This startups have enabled this restaurants to thrive and profit just by providing cheap food and cutting costs (waiters, restaurant space...). Most of this "quality restaurants" have always had delivery options and so this startups are not providing much value to them or consumers. Unless better food preparation standards are followed along with it being transparent loyal customers will be a tiny minority and majority will try to exploit the offers and leave. This is amplified (anecdotal, not verified statistically) by health issues of frequent users due to poor quality food.
- llampx 7y agoProviding cheap daal, rice and butter chicken is a recipe for a race to the bottom. I can see why, as a restaurant owner, you might not want to cater to that market. There's more profit in going after the customers who are looking for a new experience and will pay for quality and exoticness.
- modi15 7y agoIMO the biggest Indian startups are dramatically reducing the cost of urban living. The fact that India's cities are heavily disorganised counter intuitively helps in this. The other sectors which is mostly overlooked but just getting started are military startups. IMO this should also scale dramatically over the next decade. This number might be a record but my prediction is that it would rapidly climb higher over the next decade or so.
- sunasra 7y agoSaaS startups are booming in India - Examples are Freshdesk, Zoho, Whatfix, Druva, Razorpay etc