The Indian start up ecosystem is in an evolving stage and not as matured as in the west. However, that is there in each and every evolving start up ecosystem. It happened in the Silicon valley in the United States and also in Israel but they have now reached a level of maturity. These observations were made by Dr Vivek Mansingh, an IT veteran who has worked with the likes of Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and John Chambers and holds six patents in the US. Currently as the general partner at YourNest Advisors, a VC fund, he feels that in the next three years out of the 8,000 start ups in India, nearly 7,000 will fade away and out of the remaining 1,000 it will be a tough journey and many of them may be on the verge of bankruptcy.
“This happens in all the start up ecosystems but the challenge in India is that there is too much overcrowding in certain segments such as food delivery and e-commerce. Many start ups have an idea but it may not be unique. Broadly they do not distinguish themselves from the rest,” said Mansingh.
As a global expert who has been in the industry for more than three decades, Mansingh feels that VC funds should aim at co-creating start up companies and work with them and help them reach a maturity level. “Some VC funds have invested in more than 90 companies and cannot give special attention to each and every one of them. Many of them are just interested in the spreadsheets of the start ups they have funded and they are not bothered about whether the start up idea is unique. On the other hand, our fund house has invested in only 20-25 companies which are into high end specialised technology areas such as IoT (Internet of Things), Machine Learning, Predictive Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. Start ups who are working in niche technology areas and who differentiate themselves with their specialised offerings have better chances of survival in the start up ecosystem in India,” said Mansingh.
Talking about Cron Systems, a Gurugram based specialised defence start up which his fund house is co-creating, he stressed that start ups need to be different. “Cron Systems is working in the field of smart border fencing technology and is doing a pilot project along the India-Pakistan border with the Border Security Force (BSF). I personally visited their office and also went into the field to see the kind of work they are doing along the border. Like this, other senior members of our fund house visit start ups and help them built their technology and strategy,” remarked Mansingh.
