Rocketship India at TiEcon 2023

By Prakash Narayan-

 

With over 3000 in-person attendees, 200 plus speakers and 250 plus volunteers TiEcon 2023 was held at the Santa Clara Convention Center from May 3 through 5. There were grand keynotes, entrepreneur programs and relevant, immersive content in several tracks that kept the audience engaged for the entire duration. Quite a few of the tracks had jam-packed audiences with standing-room-only capacity. Overall, the conference offered relevant content and wonderful opportunities to network and connect with some of the best minds in the business.

One of the tracks, ‘Rocketship India’ was held on the first day of the conference, May 3. The theme of the “Rocketship India” was timely – highlighting the importance of India’s role in the Global economy. Asha Jadeja Motwani Chaired the track.

Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman of Chiratae Ventures at TiEcon 2023.

The track began with a keynote address by Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman of Chiratae Ventures. He mentioned the macroeconomic drivers in place, where over the next 10 years, India will witness a GDP growth from $3 Tn to $8 Tn. The backbone for the Digital Public Infrastructure is UPI – which is driving $2 Tn worth of digital payments across 300m Indians. UPI is expected to cover 700m Indians and go global in the next 5 years. Digital India is the world’s 3rd largest ecosystem. India is becoming the world’s factory. India’s Manufacturing Gross Value Added (GVA) is expected to go from $490 Bn to $2 Tn. India’s burgeoning startup ecosystem which was at $18 Bn in FY21 is expected to be at $200 Bn by FY30 – with increasing Global revenues. VCs have invested $280 Bn in the last 5 years. This is expected to grow to $450 Bn in the next 5 years. Startups in India are leveraging UPI to population scale in the areas of Healthcare, Payment Solutions, Climate Solutions, Insurance, Entertainment and Credit. The Total Addressable Market numbers are staggering: 300 Mn students for EdTech Solutions, 150 Mn farmers for Agritech Solutions and 70 Mn SMEs for Financing and Productivity. Five trends that are driving the rapid march of digital adoption are: The emergence of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to unlock digital inclusion at population scale (examples are UPI and ONDC – Open Network for Digital Commerce); The rise in investment (from VCs and Private Equity); The advent of 5G data; Multilingual, conversational AI technologies that are capturing the next wave of internet users; The Digital Market at Population scale.

This was followed by a panel on Insights from the Disruptors in Crafting the US-India Corridor. The panel moderated by Dr. Anurag Mairal, Director, Global Outreach Programs at Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign. The panelists were Lakshmi Pratury, Founder and CEO of INKTalks and Karl Mehta, Chairman of The Quad Investments America Frontier Fund. Lakshmi talked about the dichotomy between the reality of a burgeoning India and the perception in the Global Media. She quoted Luvvie Ajayi, “Until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” The narrative about India is slowly changing thanks to efforts by people like Lakshmi Pratury, who founded INK, India’s foremost platform for cutting-edge ideas and inspiring stories. INK is a platform for innovation at the intersection of science, technology, community and culture.

The biggest story coming out of India in the last few years is the creation of 115+ Unicorns with a cumulative valuation of over $350 Bn. In 2022 alone, India added 23 unicorns, overtaking China for the second consecutive year. A panel of VCs discussed Charting the Growth and Exits of Unicorns. The panel was moderated by Ashu Garg, General partner, Foundation Capital. The panelists included Anita Rehman, Partner, GCV International; Madhu Shalini Iyer, Partner, Rocketship Ventures; Gaurav Bhogale, VP, Galaxy Interactive; Vishal Gurbuxani, Co-Founder, Metablock Capital and Sanjay Nath, Managing Partner, Blume Ventures. India’s technology sector – with a focus on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and Internet of Things is fueling innovation and growth globally. Sanjay Nath spoke about how a startup from India in the Space Tech ecosystem, Pixxel, is building a constellation of hyperspectral earth imaging satellites and the necessary analytical tools to mine insights from that data – that could be used by agriculture companies and governments to monitor environmental conditions on Earth.  Pixxel is collaborating with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official state visit later this year in June, where he will be hosted by US President Joe Biden at the White House, this track at TiEcon was certainly relevant. It discussed salient points that underscore the growing importance of the strategic partnership between India and the United States. India is expected to overtake Germany (in terms of GDP) in 2025 and Japan in 2027 to become the third largest economy after US and China. Rocketship India has already launched. The world is watching.

 

 

 

 

 

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