Investor's Lens on the Startup Ecosystem

Nov 19, 2021

The following would be a part of series- where we will have Mr. Brijesh Damodaran, Founding Partner of Auxano Capital, sharing his views on the startup ecosystem from an investor's lens.. Read more to find out !

The startup eco-system has gained traction over the last decade. And its acceptance in the listed space ,i.e equity markets is also a very health sign. Zomato started the acceptance of the space by the retail investors. Nykaa, PolicyBazaar , Paytm has entered the retail holdings of the retail investors and a few more unicorns of the startup space are soon to enter the Indian equity bourses. Freshworks – the Indian Saas company has gained worldwide acceptance and was successfully listed in Nasdaq, a few weeks ago. 

Now, as an investor, in the startup eco-system , what has happened in the last few years , which now makes this space more welcome & do I say , attractive , for an investor to invest?

The thing is – after looking all the outcomes and successes , which has emerged out of India, the investors have become more comfortable and more acceptable to this space. 

Investors are now , believe , they know, that all the investments may not be successful and some of the investments could go south . In simple terms , a particular investment can turn into a zero . This was not the case even a few months ago. Across the eco-system, the investors are willing to invest in this space- the space of funding the entrepreneurs in their dream and in turn the dream of making big money – on exits .

Let me share you a real incident. I was talking about various investment avenues and the lady of the house asked me - 

  • What is this investments in the startups , all about ?
  • Is it all hype ?
  • Is it true that all the money can become zero ? 
  • How many of the successes are real ? 
  • Is the money multipliers really real ? 

The battery of questions went on for quite some time and by the time the day ended, the lady was telling her man that should we not allocate part of our corpus in this space ? 

And well the couple were in the late 60’s . This is an isolated case. But then new India is looking to invest in its prodigal kids . 

Watch this space for more.. as we share more about the investing process and journey in this exciting asset class..!!

Author(s) :
Brijesh Damodaran