startup mahakumbh: In 2024, there will be more funding for startups than last year: Sanjeev Bikhchandani
Sanjeev Bikhchandani: I think governance is important. You cannot build a large sustainable company which is durable for a long time unless you are well governed and governance, in my view, begins and ends inside the founder’s head. I will be honest, I will be clean, I will do the right thing, say the right thing and be truthful and fair to everybody.
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And do you think fintech is going to make a comeback, make a bounce back after everything that has gone with different sorts of players in the last few months?
Sanjeev Bikhchandani: It will certainly make a comeback. It has not gone anywhere. There are many fintech companies and even Paytm should make a comeback.Any last words which you have for the outlook for startups in 2024?
Sanjeev Bikhchandani: In 2024, there will be more funding than last year. There will be a larger market than last year. The future is bright. Hang in there.When you talk about private-public partnership, where do you see that going and how do you see India can be the topmost startup ecosystem and from the third largest to the largest one in the world?
Sanjeev Bikhchandani: I think the Startup Mahakumbh is a perfect example of private-public partnership. The idea came from the private sector. We went to the government and said, listen, we should have something like this and the government said, hey, you do it, we will support you and that is what has happened.
When do you think India can be the largest startup ecosystem in the world?
Sanjeev Bikhchandani: In some ways we already are. When you convert everything into dollars, the exchange rate is a disadvantage. But otherwise, if you look at the number of founders, number of companies, I think pretty much we are the startup ecosystem.
And is the startup ecosystem for sure the driver for India to reach the Rs 5 trillion economy?
Sanjeev Bikhchandani: Actually, three or four days ago, McKinsey in collaboration with CII released a report about which there was a discussion here also, which is called Unicorn 2.0 and that report said that in the last 10 years, roughly 13% to 15% of India’s GDP growth has come from the startup ecosystem. In my view, that is a conservative estimate and this number is likely to go up as we go along.
