Do More Faster India, 2nd Edition

Why Entrepreneurs in India Need Techstars

Bala Girisaballa 

Bala is president of Techstars India.

The year 2018 was a time of many firsts for the Indian startup ecosystem. A large startup (Flipkart) was purchased for $16 billion by a major corporation (Walmart). India’s homegrown digital payments platform called UPI (Unified Payment Interface), which was launched just two years ago, surpassed American Express’s 500 million global transactions volume.

It’s not surprising that India currently leads in globalization. India‐based companies build technology for leading multinationals across the world and our technology exports alone exceed $126 billion. In 2018, technology contributed 5 percent of India’s $2.5 trillion Gross Domestic Product. Last year, India‐based companies received over $25 billion of investments from venture capitalists and private equity firms. Today, as a result of our educated labor force (three million graduates with one million engineers annually) over 1,200 global corporations have operations in India to leverage the depth and breadth of our technical talent. The investments in technology and substantial employment opportunities with global corporations have provided Indian entrepreneurs experience and exposure to global markets.

The milestones that mark 2018 are ones that I would not have predicted 10 years ago. When I returned to India after working in technology in the United States in 2007, I created a startup. At that time, you could probably fit all ...