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<keyword id="265338" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anand-Lunia">Anand Lunia</keyword> who started India Quotient with his old friend <keyword id="1506956" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Madhukar-Sinha">Madhukar Sinha</keyword>, had been clear from the beginning that he wanted to create a fund that had a close connection with the Indian Consumer and every company in their portfolio reflects that. India Quotient’s portfolio includes around 30 <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword> such as 91Mobiles, Roposo, ShareChat, LendingKart, HolaChef, and PrettySecrets. While a lot of companies in their kitty have shut shop, the investors have successfully exited four investments with many of the companies raising follow-on funding from larger venture capital funds. The fund’s internal rate of return (IRR) is in the range of 30-35 percent, and they are keeping a target IRR of 50 percent for the upcoming fund. Business Insider caught up with Anand <keyword id="3790283" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="lunia">Lunia</keyword>, Founding Partner, India Quotient who has been investing in start-ups since the past ten years.<div type="embedgroup"> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="58961264" title="Exclusive: Rohan Malhotra , Founding Partner, Investopad Thinks that Building Up Start-ups is Like Managing Sportspeople" rank="1.0" kind="RELATED" publishDate="Jun 02, 2017, 3:55 PM" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div></div>
Consumer Connect “In the last two years, every VC firm is leaning towards SAAS and B2B businesses but we believe that the India story is largely about consumption. We’re stepping up towards consumer space because we feel that we know and wish to perfect this sector as an investment firm,” says Lunia who says that he has been using the money he earns from his previous investments into India Quotient. Lunia revealed that the firm is hoping to invest in 25 startups through its new fund, which should have its first close by October, this year. The target corpus for the new fund, which will be the early-stage investors’ third, is expected to be around $50 million.<div type="embedgroup"> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="58964132" title="Exclusive: Rohan Malhotra, Partner, Investopad Supports India- specific Businesses that are not copied from other Markets" rank="1.0" kind="RELATED" publishDate="Jun 02, 2017, 6:55 PM" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div></div>
Partners to enable more connections This fund is a little different, as founders Anand Lunia and Madhukar Sinha will be the general partners, and Prerna Bhutani, Gagan Goyal will form the investment team investing across sectors with a focus on social media, fintech, niche marketplaces and smart devices in healthcare and edutainment. <div type="embedgroup"> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="59070016" title="Exclusive: Anand Lunia, Founding Partner, India Quotient reminisces how he moved on to investing from entrepreneurship" rank="1.0" kind="RELATED" publishDate="Jun 09, 2017, 4:39 PM" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div></div> “Instead of finding entrepreneurs that need mentoring, we try to find companies that don’t need any mentoring and we are just assisting them financially,” says Lunia who sees himself to <keyword id="6391" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tendulkar">Tendulkar</keyword>’s first coach instead of hand-holding the talent to success, which is the case with most investors. Advising start-ups to think back to why they started, instead of pivoting their business after every business meeting, Lunia said that they don’t meddle with their investments as they feel that it limits their growth and head-space, something that stops them from reaching the potential.

Exclusive: Anand Lunia, Partner, India Quotient wants to be entrepreneurs’ first coach instead of handholding them through the end

Anand <keyword id="3790283" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="lunia">Lunia</keyword>, Founding Partner, India Quotient is one of the investors who have seen the good, bad and the ugly of the start-up ecosystem and he’s better for it. 

 

 <div type="embedgroup"> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="58961264" title="Exclusive: Rohan Malhotra , Founding Partner, Investopad Thinks that Building Up Start-ups is Like Managing Sportspeople" rank="1.0" kind="RELATED" publishDate="Jun 02, 2017, 3:55 PM" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div></div> From founding a company to settling down as an early stage investor, Lunia has come a long way. Born and brought up in Ahmedabad Gujarat, Lunia didn’t think about entrepreneurship until he was placed at a job he hated after graduating from <keyword id="56716" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="IIM-Lucknow">IIM Lucknow</keyword>. “The social pressure of doing well got to me and after joining a corporate company as a management trainee, I just quit one day because I was unhappy,” says Lunia who is a free-bird, at heart. When he quit his job and decided to do something different, he couldn’t find a path so joined the banking sector, instead. In 1999, his college friend pitched the idea of starting up and Lunia was tempted to leave the corporate life once again. 

 

 <div type="embedgroup"> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="58964132" title="Exclusive: Rohan Malhotra, Partner, Investopad Supports India- specific Businesses that are not copied from other Markets" rank="1.0" kind="RELATED" publishDate="Jun 02, 2017, 6:55 PM" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div></div>




 Investing in Building Up Prior to launching India Quotient, Lunia co-founded edu-tech startup Brainvisa, which he sold in 2005. After selling the startup, he decided to try his luck as an investor, by playing the role of a partner at Seedfund, one of the first Indian early-stage funds. Even while he was struggling, he invested in food-start-up Faasos back in time when no one thought food start-ups had any future. Lunia said that his journey as an investor is of constant learning, even from their investment portfolio. He started India Quotient with his long time friend <keyword id="1506956" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Madhukar-Sinha">Madhukar Sinha</keyword> in 2012, and never looked back. “The philosophy was to stay away from crowded sectors and stay away from buzzwords floating in the media and <keyword id="6357097" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="venture-capital">Venture Capital</keyword> circles, like mobility, delivery, hyperlocal services, AI etc.,” says Lunia about the current sentiment of India Quotient. 

 

 <div type="embedgroup"> <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="58860501" title="Exclusive: Angel Investor Alok Mittal, is Debunking the Myth that IITian-led Start-ups are the only Good Bets in the Ecosystem" rank="1.0" kind="RELATED" publishDate="May 26, 2017, 9:00 PM" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div></div>




 “We believe in going with our gut and constantly questioning what the Indian consumer wants. We don’t believe in the current Venture Captial sentiment which alienates good ideas that have the potential to be say, India’s Facebook. The idea is to go away from the flow and investors need to believe that some ideas can work despite all odds if we let entrepreneurs stick to their guns,” Anand says with much fervour in favour of being hungry and foolish. The ‘average’ entrepreneur is aiming to be a ‘great angel investor’ and he says that his failures and successes have taught him to be frugal, cautious and hopeful; which is what has got him so far.

Exclusive: Anand Lunia, Founding Partner, India Quotient reminisces how he moved on to investing from entrepreneurship

<keyword id="3904156" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="india-quotient-india">India Quotient India</keyword>’s first few early-stage VC funds, and was established with the purpose of backing entrepreneurs who have gone against the grain of doing “business as usual” to come up with solutions, services or ideas that are truly innovative and are built for the masses. 
 
The firm has invested <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Goibibo-enables-guest-houses-to-collect-digital-payments/articleshow/55687264.cms">in a diverse set of companies </a>from <keyword id="3358959" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShareChat">Sharechat</keyword> to <keyword id="2678375" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Holachef">Holachef</keyword> and <keyword id="2368386" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Roposo">Roposo</keyword> to <keyword id="2869422" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lendingkart">Lendingkart</keyword>, which shows that they can predict the future, at least in the emerging business space. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Flipkart-retained-its-number-one-position-during-the-sale-period/articleshow/55700624.cms">ALSO READ: Flipkart retained its number one position during the sale period</a> 
 With this vision, two startup enthusiasts, <keyword id="265338" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anand-Lunia">Anand Lunia</keyword> and <keyword id="1506956" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Madhukar-Sinha">Madhukar Sinha</keyword> started this firm to focus on businesses that they thought could really make a difference. 
 Speaking to <keyword id="824043" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Business-Insider">Business Insider</keyword>, Madhukar <keyword id="6358012" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sinha">Sinha</keyword>, ‘the other half’ of <keyword id="2457593" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="India-Quotient">India Quotient</keyword> said that they tend to favor businesses and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/cashless-Gujarat-village-Akodara-and-heres-my-takeaway-from-what-I-saw/articleshow/55668912.cms">ideas that deploy technology or mobile solutions with the purpose of serving the larger mass market </a>and solving everyday problems that this market segment faces, because that is where India’s growth story is going to come from. 
 
That being said, the venture capitalists believe in investing in the sectors they are passionate about, but not blindly. 
 
Their team has raised two funds so far with both funds performing well where they have Invested in 35 companies in all, out of which more than half have raised follow-up rounds. ‘Our tickets sizes are usually up to $0.5 million where we are leading the first round with 90-95% share’ Sinha shares. 
 
‘ We are rooting for mobile first tech-enabled consumer-focused businesses because India is at an inflection point of breeding a mobile-first generation. With over 220 million unique smart phone users – and fast growing Internet penetration, entrepreneurs today have the opportunity to capture a large market segment swiftly, as long as their business offers sufficient value for the end consumer’ Sinha comments. 
 
On upcoming sectors, Sinha talks about fin-tech, education, healthcare being the sectors to look out for and online first brands and marketplace models are where the buck stops. ‘We are also hoping to find an agricultural based startup which caters to the needs of most Indians.’ 
 
From being optimistic futuristic to being rooted and focused, India Quotient knows how to pick them, early and fast; like the startup ecosystem itself.

EXCLUSIVE:The startup investor at India Quotient reveals the most lucrative sectors for investment

<ul><li>The fundraise was led by Lightspeed with participation from <keyword id="1148513" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Saama-Capital" source="Orion">Saama Capital</keyword>, <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> Quotient, <keyword id="15310947" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AUM-Ventures" source="Orion">AUM Ventures</keyword> and <keyword id="9353689" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Stride-Ventures" source="Orion">Stride Ventures</keyword>. </li><li><keyword id="15310948" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="GlobalFair" source="Orion">GlobalFair</keyword> solves manufacturing and procurement problems for the building materials industry across the US. </li><li>The fund will be used to deepen their manufacturing base across India and <keyword id="13486" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="vietnam" source="Orion">Vietnam</keyword>.</li></ul>GlobalFair, a technology-first global supplier of building materials in the cross-border space, on Thursday said it had raised $20 million through a mix of equity and debt in a Series A round. The fundraise was led by Lightspeed with participation from Saama Capital, India Quotient, AUM Ventures and Stride Ventures. The fund will be used to deepen their manufacturing base across India and Vietnam, launch capital finance solutions and build a sustainable end-to-end synchronised cross-border supply chain accessible at one click to the global buyer. The global construction and building market is worth $1.4 trillion <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/construction-materials-market-size-to-grow-by-usd-1-45-trillion--rising-number-of-smart-cities-as-key-driver--technavio-301536963.html">across</a> the world, with a $240 billion market just in the US spread across 700,000 construction contractors, said GlobalFair. “The construction industry has traditionally been unorganised with low to zero penetration of technology. This leads to low reliability and transparency across the supply chain especially when viewed from the cross-border lens,” GlobalFair said. GlobalFair is trying to build a border-less trade economy and specialises in ready-to- install custom products across multifamily residential and commercial hospitality segments in the US. “The pandemic exposed structural issues in cross-border supply chains and heightened the need for transparency, visibility and diversification in procurement, GlobalFair is using technology to address these issues for the global construction and building materials industry and we are excited to back the team as they modernise the industry and create new trade corridors,” Bejul Somaia, Partner, Lightspeed said. GlobalFair allows customers to start interacting with their platform across all stages of the traditional process, from building cost estimates using architectural plans and shop drawings to real time GPS-enabled tracking of final delivery of the materials as per installation schedules on job sites. The company plans to expand the current 110 member team spread across US, Vietnam and India and launch new supply bases. “With India and Vietnam set out to become the de-facto factories of the world, we love how GlobalFair is using technology to bridge the capacity gap and leverage economies of scale,” said Anand Lunia, Partner, India Quotient. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/shiv-nadar-tops-philanthropy-even-as-indias-most-generous-cut-back-after-the-pandemic/articleshow/94986416.cms">Shiv Nadar tops philanthropy even as India’s most generous cut back after the pandemic</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/master-blaster-sachin-tendulkar-joins-the-nft-party-with-rario-partnership/articleshow/94985960.cms">Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar joins the NFT party with Rario partnership</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/adani-transmission-bags-project-from-best-to-install-over-1-million-smart-meters-in-mumbai/articleshow/94982223.cms">Adani Transmission bags project from BEST to install over 1 million smart meters in Mumbai</a>

Construction materials startup GlobalFair raises $20 million from Lightspeed, others

The Delhi chapter of <keyword id="139680" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Indus-Entrepreneurs">The Indus Entrepreneurs</keyword> (TiE) will host on Thursday the 8th iteration of the <keyword id="4390638" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="India-Internet-Day">India Internet Day</keyword>, one of the largest conferences for Internet entrepreneurs in the country. India Internet Day 2019 targets entrepreneurs which attracts start-ups, unicorns, industry leaders, investors, mentors, policy-makers, and many more key domain experts from across the country every year India is presently home to over 500 million internet users and 21 unicorns. With the aim of raising a hundred start-ups and enterprises to become billion-dollar companies on the back of their internet-centric innovations, TiE Delhi-NCR is hosting the 8th iteration of India Internet Day. The vision of #iDay2019 is encapsulated in the headline of the event’s main theme: “India Internet Unboxed: Getting ready for a 100 Unicorns”. Enabling the next generation of leaders At iDay 2019, leaders of the internet and entrepreneurial community will deliver content for the benefit of young entrepreneurs, enabling the next generation of leaders to gain a deeper insight into the opportunities and evolving trends in the industry, Tie said in a statement. Building on the theme of ‘unboxing’, iDay2019 plans to have focused and thought-provoking discussions during the session line-up on topics including: Unboxing Indian Tech Going Global, Unboxing Funding, Unboxing Talent, Entrepreneurial Milestones: Unboxing Pivots &amp; Pirouettes to Exits, Unboxing 2nd Innings, Unboxing Valuations. It will also have a special focus on the Chinese startup ecosystem, key speakers will speak on Unboxing China, its Landscape &amp; Overview, Chinese VCs in India - A perspective and Cross Border Learnings. Additionally, entrepreneurs will be provided with a platform to showcase internet-centric innovations and get constructive feedback on their ventures. All about networking The conference is one of the most anticipated entrepreneurial conferences across the world as it gathers entrepreneurs and vision-holders in the midst of key investors, industry leaders, and policy-makers under the same roof. It will have sessions that will chaired by prominent industry leaders including Vani Kola, MD, Kalaari Capital, and Rajesh Sawhney, CEO &amp; Co Founder of Innerchef, the conference will open with a keynote address by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder &amp; CEO of PayTM. The opening address will be followed by conversations with industry experts including Anant Maheshwari, President - Microsoft India and Rajan Anandan, Vice President, Google &amp; President, TiE Delhi-NCR. Other ace speakers include Lathika Pai, Country Head - Microsoft for <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups">Startups</keyword> MENA and SAARC , Gaurav Deepak, Co-founder &amp; MD - Avendus Capital, Anand Lunia, General Partner – India Quotient, Helen Wong, Partner at Qiming Venture, Yun Lou, Founder &amp; CEO of Clubfactory, Hans Tung - Partner, GGVC Kunal Shah, Founder &amp; CEO – Cred, Amrish Rau, Ex CEO – CitrusPay, Aprameya Radhakrishna, Founder &amp; CEO of Vokal, Raul Rai, Co-Founder of Nicobar.com, and Mukund Kulashekaran from Urban Clap. Power Breakfast with the iDay Committee The event will kick off with a breakfast with industry leaders and the best in the startup ecosystem. The committee members who will be a part of this event include Rajan Anandan, Vice President, Google &amp; President, TiE Delhi-NCR; Alok Mittal, Co-Founder, Indifi Technologies; Amarjit Singh Batra, Managing Director, Spotify India; Arvind Jha, Multipreneur, Movico Technologies; Miten Sampat, VP, Times Internet; Deep Kalra, Founder &amp; Group CEO, MakeMyTrip; Gautam Gandhi, Angel Investor; Prasanto K Roy, Policy Consultant ; Karan Mohla, Partner &amp; Executive Director of Chiratae Ventures; Ravi Gururaj, Founder &amp; CEO, Qikpod; Dev Khare, Partner, Lightspeed India Partners. B2B Founders' Lunch Ace B2B founders who will be part of this session include Shridhar Gupta, Co-Founder - Loconav; Pranav Tyagi, Founder - Eigen; Ajay Chauhan, Co- Founder -SalezShark; Sachin Bhatia, Co-Founder &amp; Ex VP - Drishtisoft solutions; Rahul Bhalla, CEO &amp; Co Founder -Zeanatix will be part of the lunch tables Fintech Lunch Leading Fintech founders who will be part of the lunch include Ajay Vikram Singh, Consumer Business Head- Clix Capital ; Jonathan Bill, CEO &amp; Co- Founder – Creditmate; Kshitij Puri, CEO &amp; Co- Founder - Ziploan ;Sandeep Srinivas, Co-Founder &amp; CMO - Redcarpet Tech ; Kapil Mehta, Co - Founder – SecureNow; Alok Bansal, Co-Founder &amp; CFO – PolicyBazaar ; Mukesh P Kalra, Founder &amp; CEO – ETMoney #iDay Launchpad A platform at India Internet Day where tech businesses have a chance to demo/launch their new products/services in front of a large relevant audience of VCs, entrepreneurs etc. The start-ups will be selected by an influential jury panel #iDay Workshop A stellar workshop on product management professionals with Anshumani Ruddra, VP of Product (Social &amp; Gaming) – Hotstar will equip participants with new strategies &amp; principles to ace their field Gala Evening Network, interact, explore synergies over dinner and jive the evening away with a rocking band performance! The conference will take place from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm on 25th April, 2019, at Leela Ambience, Gurugram. Register here now! <a href="https://www.iday.in/">https://www.iday.in/</a> Note: Business Insider India is a media partner at the event.

Here’s all that you need to know about the upcoming India Internet Day 2019

Everyone, including entrepreneurs and investors, are in a confused state right now. Valuations of firms are sky rocketing, still <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=investors">investors</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=startup">startup</a> founders think the numbers are justified. Even though a correction is due, investors are still pumping money like never before. 
So what is really happening? Is the startup bubble going to burst soon? 
 
Not very soon. Consumer <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=internet+firms">internet firms</a> that have high valuations are hitting roadblocks as venture capitalists have started asking the companies to fix the loose ends in their business models. 
 And investors are open to pump money in newborn <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword>, which provide on-demand delivery to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=cloud">cloud</a>-based software product development. 
 So basically, newborn startups have abundant opportunities and later-stage tech companies, seeking Series-B and C or follow-on institutional rounds of <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword>, are likely to face a marked slowdown in growth. 
 
"Even in the US, the best companies raise rounds which are one year apart where valuation jumps are really high. Entrepreneurs should instead of focusing on jumping rounds look to create genuine value," said Anand Lunia, founder of seed-stage VC firm India Quotient. 
 
In the past 18 months, hedge funds invested millions of dollars into some of India's biggest consumer internet companies, including <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=snapdeal">Snapdeal</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=flipkart">Flipkart</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ola">Ola</a> and Quikr, in the process driving up valuations. 
 
"From 2006 to 2008, we saw prop books and hedge funds say that they will be in India for the long run, some even having teams on ground. But after 2008, we did not see most of them in the country," said Anand Prasanna, director of US-based investment firm Morgan Creek Capital. 
 
"Investors are happy that there is some slowdown as they are now able to invest more rationally and not under pressure to pull the trigger," said an entrepreneur in talks to raise a $100-million funding round. "Those who have money in the bank will get more aggressive as they will be able to get better deals." 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Newborn startups have an edge over later-stage ones. Here’s why

India’s mushrooming <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=startup">startup culture</a> is strengthening the entrepreneur identity of the country. Every other day, more and more people are coming up with innovative ideas and starting their own ventures. But, when it comes to investment, investors have become cautious than ever before due to approach by Indian <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=internet">internet</a> companies over valuation. 
 
In the backdrop of frothy valuations made by internet companies, investors are becoming choosy in investments and are asking tough questions. 
 
The<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=+venture+capital"> venture capital</a> (VC) investors aren’t really that excited about the internet companies as they were earlier. Now, they are asking questions on key business metrics, slowing bigticket deal-making in the sector. 
 
"There is some slowdown in valuation but (that's) not questioning the fundamentals of these businesses," Vani Kola, partner at Kalaari Capital and an early investor in Snapdeal and Urban Ladder, told The Economic Times. 
 
However, this depressed sentiment can affect the mindset of entrepreneurs, a situation VC investors can leverage to drive down valuations while closing early-stage deals quickly. 
 
"A lot of entrepreneurs who were thinking that let me burn the series-A money on discounting and quickly raise series-B are now going to act smarter,"said Anand Lunia, founder of seed-stage VC firm India Quotient told. 
"They will become more cautious, not negotiate much, take what deals that they can, and sit tighter on their funding, which is good," he added. Several Indian entrepreneurs have already raised capital this year to create a longer runway for themselves in an increasingly competitive market. Several investors said their portfolio companies have capital to operate for 18-24 months. 
 
All this is unlikely to stifle availability of capital for early-stage deals, however, as venture capital firms including Accel Partners, SAIF Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari have raised or are raising new funds totaling more than $1.5 billion. 
 
In last five to six months, several instances have been seen where internet companies and investors have disagreed over valuations, forcing companies to raise capital from their existing investors. 
Even so, investments above $50 million have increased from two in 2013 and 12 in 2014 to 25 till July this year, according to startup analytics firm Tracxn. Total funding for venture capital-backed tech companies increased to $5.4 billion this year from $4.7 billion in all of 2014. 
 
The abundance of capital has helped build businesses but without enough moats as it allowed companies-from e-tailing firms to food delivery and online classifieds startups-to lure customers with big discounts, masking the difference between real and artificial demand for a service and leading to questionable unit economics. Unit economics in India are worse than in many other global startup hubs, according to experts. 
 
According to a recent report by Kotak Institutional Equities, gross merchandise value (GMV) per buyer is expected to increase from $140 now to $146 by 2020, as compared to average GMV of $1,092 for Chinese peers such as Alibaba in 2014.

Here’s how the investors and startups are arguing over valuation

How would you feel if your company allows you to get your pet at work, or what if they organize a cake-fight for all the employees in the office itself? 
 
Sounds fun right? This is what <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Indian+startups">Indian startups</a> are currently doing to make their employees imagine more and brainstorm for innovative ideas. What else? On-demand service company, UrbanClap has specially formed a team of four members to organise<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/The-25-Most-Creative-Companies-In-The-World/articleshow/26221035.cms"> fun activities for the employees</a>. 
 
As reported by The Economic Times, startups like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=TinyOwl">TinyOwl</a>, LivSpace, DogSpot, Junglee Games and Intellipaat belong to a separate generation of startups with a goal of having greater work engagement and more <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/12-Weird-Things-That-Tech-Companies-Do-To-Make-Their-Employees-More-Creative/articleshow/21096431.cms">out-of-the box ideas</a> that help the startups stand out. 
 
This new breed of startups, fuelled by liberal doses of funding, is basically designing a work culture that emphasizes on creative thinking and collaboration among different departments, which doesn’t happen on a daily basis. To do this, they provide a plethora of activities including health and wellness sessions, team outings, hobby classes, provisions for indoor games, movies, book clubs and much more. 
 
Suresh Bhagavatula, assistant professor of entrepreneurship at the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore says, "I have a feeling it's a function of boom time. 
 
In a boom time there is a lot of exuberance and positive thoughts or energy around; then people may want to invest in all this. If there is a recession, all this will become much more serious—it's a reflection of what is out there in the economy." 
 "China is not doing too well and I am sure Chinese startups won't be doing the same thing <keyword id="982553" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-startups">Indian startups</keyword> are currently doing," Bhagavatula added. 
 
Bhagavatula, personally, isn’t much convinced with the idea of workplace fun. Bringing in light the other side he says, "It needs to be studied in greater detail than to just say that cool culture leads to better work. There has not been much research done to see whether it is actually a distraction. I assume so at some point it will become." 
 
Recently, DogSpot, a four-year-old pet supply store, has allowed its employees to bring their pets along at work. As per the company’s co-founder Rana Atheya, “it helped fill gaps in inter-department communication.” 
 
For gaming company Junglee Games, one of its periodic poker nights led to the creation of a new variant of the popular three-card game 'teen-patti', called Royal Teen Patti, which has attracted almost 2 million users. 
 
Not just this, but LivSpace, a home design and decor platform held a 48-hour design hackathon that included beer and pizza in the office. The designers were presented 1,000 photographs and design software and "we asked them to create beautiful imagery," said co-founder and CEO, Anuj Srivastava. The company revamped its website with these images, and has been attracting at least 10,000 page visitors since June, from about 3,000 earlier. 
 
"Designers haven't worked in the crazy internet world. They come from partner-driven firms where the culture's different, where owners are God. They take calls from them and here we ask for ideas," said Srivastava 
 
Anand Lunia, founder of seed-stage venture fund IndiaQuotient and also an investor in DogSpot however says, "Startups have realised (that) in their world it's not the number of people but amount of efficiency and effectiveness of each employee (that matters). This needs an environment that is conducive. Ordinary people have to perform extraordinary tasks and have to go beyond their past results." 
 
Even so, investors, too, are beginning to ask entrepreneurs about how they plan to build their startup's work culture, although this is not a prerequisite to signing a cheque. "Smart, experienced investors understand that apart from numbers and metrics it's important to build an organisation, especially at a time where companies are growing fast," said Varun Khaitan, co-founder of UrbanClap, which is backed by SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. 
 
But the litmus test will be when the chips are down, said entrepreneur-turned-investor Ronnie Screwvala. "If you are 15 days late with salary, will it make a difference if you have a dart board in the office, are eating 'pani puri' on Wednesdays or going to the pub on Fridays? I don't think so," said Screwvala. 
 
"No one has gone through that right now, because they are still in their multiple funding rounds," he added. 
 
Image: thinkstock

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