Chinese investors bullish about Indian startups; jointly provide $50 mn of funding

A dozen Chinese investors offered at a technology summit here on Sunday to jointly provide funding of about $50 million (Rs 334 crore) for Indian start-ups. The investors include a Cyber Carrier, a Hong Kong-based Chinese internet enterprise that has set up a $30 million initiative fund in January to invest in six Indian start-ups. About 150 seed funded start-ups pitched for Series A funding at the two-day summit by presenting their ideas to a 17-member delegation of Chinese investors. “Each start-up is seeking $4-10 million funding from the Chinese investors, including Carrier, which helps enterprises in FinTech, B2B, e-commerce, healthcare, EdTech and AdTech areas,” the summit organisers said in a statement. Carrier partner Jessica Wong said that a few of the investing delegates were keen on first understanding the Indian market, while other were keen on investing in the start-ups here. “The delegation varies from people who have invested in over 30 companies globally to a few who are here to understand the Indian eco system,” she said. Participating in the summit, Aarin Capital Partners and former Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai said the opportunities for investment in India were immense, as 2,000 start-ups registered across the country in 2015, 1,250 of them got funded. “The start-up revolution shows the potential and scope of the Indian market, with India, China and the US as growth engines in the near future,” he said. The IT industry employs about 4.5 million techies across the country. “We have decided to make this (summit) a quarterly event to pilot and facilitate the integration and complementation of technology iteration, market exploration, business model upgrade and capital operation between China and India,” said Onionfans chief executive Hutu. TryKaro.com Chief Executive Brij said the networking opportunity for start-ups like his was encouraging and motivating, as the Chinese investors were keen to hear out and understand Indian products and ideas. “Their feedback is helpful and first-time entrepreneurs benefit from events like these. We have received initial interest from the Chinese delegation and are keen to hear back from them,” he added. TryKaro.com is an experiential marketplace that helps consumers to try out products they are keen on buying instead of seeing pictures online. The summit was organised by Onionfans, Cyber Carrier, Technology Issue magazine and Xpressn labs. IANS