<ul><li>With uncertainty around the world, the bustling startup ecosystem in India too will have to face the wrath of the virus.</li><li>With the lack of clarity regarding the full extent of the crisis, economic disruption is a consequence of the unprecedented health crisis.</li><li>Some <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups">startups</keyword> could shut shop, and many others will have to tweak their businesses to stay afloat.</li></ul>The Coronavirus pandemic crashed stock markets around the world, productions have come to a halt and businesses look at a bleak future with little or no fear of running for months with no revenue. As uncertainty builds around the world, the bustling startup ecosystem in India too will have to face the wrath of the virus. <keyword id="6359051" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="investors">Investors</keyword> will now be cautious with their moves, while some say funding could soon come to a halt. During these unprecedented times, investments into startups will be a challenging task. Investors believe that this is a time to rethink strategies and re-evaluate how they want to move forward. Funding could come to a halt, valuations could change With the lack of clarity regarding the full extent of the crisis, economic disruption is a consequence of an unprecedented health crisis, believes Ishpreet Singh Gandhi, founder and managing partner at Stride Ventures. Gandhi also said that current valuations could be difficult to justify in the funding rounds of the future rounds. “Capital will flow more towards startups with robust proof of concept and institutional backing,” he said. But investors are also hopeful that things could soon change. “As things settle down, a bit of funding should resume as there is a lot of dry powder that needs to be put to work. Investors generally understand that growth will sputter for the majority of their portfolio and so will outside funding, so they will work with cos to increase runway and also support with capital to ride through the situation,” said Deepak Gupta, founder, WEH Ventures told Business Insider. Founders will have to tweak their businesses Unforeseen times also call for unforeseen measures. With the coronavirus pandemic, there are many startups that will have to change their course of work. A survey by Indeed says that 64% of Indian businesses are pivoting in response to pandemic. And investors who are all on board and helping out their portfolio companies deal with the crisis, have sent out a clear message - pivot if your idea doesn’t fit the bill. “Founders have been asked to tweak their business plans to ensure sufficient cash buffers due to lower than projected sales growth and slowdown in the funding environment. Portfolio companies as well as investors are conscious of the fact that implementing work from home policies may slow down their turnaround time, but these policies are essential to ensure that team morale and health are not affected over the course of the next few weeks,” Venkat Vallabhaneni, managing partner at Inflexor Ventures told Business Insider. Cashburn is not an option anymore Most of the sectors except for food, e-commerce and edtech have been severely affected. Many of them are seeing zero revenue right now. Even if they have revenue, they have no supply chain or the ability to deliver. Keeping this in mind, entrepreneurs will have to face the bitter truth – they might have to let go of some employees too. Vani Kola, managing director of Kalaari Capital told Business Insider in an earlier interview that this is a kind of planning no one has ever thought of or prepared for. “So it’s just a question of runway and cash flow and ability to keep their lights on and pay their employees. Many countries are caught in this vulnerable situation. Though their underlined business premise may still be true, it may take capacity to stay in the market for 6-9 months with severely reduced revenues and not every startup has that kind of a cash cushion to be able to ride the market,” she said. Investors are hopeful for ‘business as usual’ to return soon Investors are taking this time to extend their resources and expertise to founders. But many are also taking advantage of their backup support to help startups. Anup Jain, managing partner, Orios Venture Partners believes that investments could be delayed because the due diligence process requires boots on the ground from teams across the investment firms. “Having said that, we do not think that there will be an investment slowdown at the seed stage in this current situation, unless we see the spread grow further. We are facilitating back up support to our portfolio in case there is a funding holdup from an incoming investor at Series A,” said Jain. For some, work goes on as business as usual. Mumbai-based early stage fund house Unicorn India Ventures has announced the first close of its 2nd equity fund at $12 million. The second equity fund of $53 million was announced last year. “The investment would happen as it is, just the deal size and <keyword id="51393" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="valuation">valuation</keyword> may see some correction. The investment cycle may get longer due to lock down but overall we don't see sentiment going down, this is a temporary phase which will pass,” said Anil Joshi, managing partner, Unicorn India ventures. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/tech-startups-are-firing-people-via-video-calling-apps/articleshow/74905255.cms">Tech startups are firing people via video calling apps</a>

Startup funding could halt, valuations to take a hit and business models have to be pivoted say investors

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

<ul><li>The <keyword id="4390638" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="India-Internet-Day">India Internet Day</keyword> organized by TiE Delhi-NCR saw India’s unicorn founders and investors all gather under one roof. </li><li>“9/10 top apps on Google Playstore will be from India within the next 5-10 years,” said Hans Tung, Partner, GGV Capital.</li><li>“India is among the 'first world' as far as investment in start-ups is concerned,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma.</li></ul>On Thursday morning, it wasn’t the usual breakfast for some <keyword id="53533" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="entrepreneurs">entrepreneurs</keyword> in Delhi-NCR, for they got to sit down with the top investors and entrepreneurs of the country for a quick mentorship session. This was possible at the India Internet Day 2019 organized by TiE Delhi-NCR. Following the theme ‘India Internet Unboxed: Getting ready for a 100 <keyword id="2023017" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="unicorns">Unicorns</keyword>’, the conference saw India’s top entrepreneurs sitting alongside those who want to get into the game and also the top names from the Chinese start-up ecosystem, all gather under one roof. The day registered the presence of over 1,000 delegates, including several start-ups, top unicorns, industry leaders, investors, mentors, policy-makers, and other key stakeholders. The iDay 2019 also had Chinese VCs shed light on the start-up landscape in China. The speakers included Hans Tung, Partner-GGVC, the investor associated with 14 unicorns, Helen Wong, Partner- Qiming Venture, and Yun Lou, Founder &amp; CEO – Clubfactory. “9/10 top apps on Google Playstore will be from India within the next 5-10 years,” said Hans Tung, Partner, GGV Capital. Speaking on the event, Rajan Anandan, President – TiE Delhi-NCR shared, “The focus of today’s event is to encourage and help innovative internet-centric start-ups in learning how to unbox the full potential of their ambitious ventures.” Notes and Networking When unicorn startup founders and investors who have backed unicorns are present at an event, it is obvious to see entrepreneurs scrambling to take notes and hurrying outside to exchange cards. The event started with a welcome address by Rajesh Sawhney, Co-founder &amp; CEO of InnerChef, and an opening keynote by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder &amp; CEO – Paytm. “India is among the 'first world' as far as investment in start-ups is concerned,” he said. Highlighting the positive transformations in the country’s entrepreneurial landscape, the co-chair for the conference Vani Kola, Co – Chair for the event &amp; Managing Director – Kalaari Capital, said, "India is finally going beyond the 3Ms: male, metros &amp; millennials and using the 3Vs to do so: voice, video &amp; vernacular." In the first keynote on ‘Unboxing Innovation &amp; Empowering <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups">Startups</keyword>’ , Anant Maheshwari - President , Microsoft India mentioned, "The value of India is in that bottom of the pyramid of SME.” Deepinder Goyal, Founder &amp; CEO – Zomato, urged entrepreneurs to draw value from outside India, valuations from India as part of the panel discussion on ‘Unboxing Indian Tech Going Global’. Speaking on ‘Entrepreneurial Milestones: Unboxing Pivots and Pirouettes to Exits’ Kunal Shah, Founder &amp; CEO, Cred urged aspiring entrepreneurs, “It’s not the storytelling but the clarity of thoughts that can make your start-up successful.” Six curated start-ups presented their unique products to a panel of investors as part of the Launchpad at iDay.

India’s top entrepreneurs promise to make way for 100 Unicorns

It’s been five months since <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ratan+tata&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Ratan Tata</a> invested in any <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=startup&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">startup</a> but now the<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=tata+sons&amp;sortorder=effectivedate"> Tata Sons</a> emeritus is back. 
 <keyword id="6360722" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ratan-tata">Ratan Tata</keyword> said he is going to interact with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=entrepreneur&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">entrepreneurs</a> and invest in <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword> soon. 
 
"Entrepreneurs missed you in the last 5 months. We took your support for granted," Kalaari Capital's Vani Kola told Tata during a session at the VC firm's annual event in the city. 
 
"When I retired in 2012, I hit upon investing and interacting with startups as a new phase. I left the big business behind. I became excited by the innovation, passion. It stimulated me. The last five months have put me forcibly in the older world. I long to be back in the startup community with a vigour,” said Tata.

Shout out to entrepreneurs! Ratan Tata is back and ready to invest in your startup

<ul><li>In an interview with Business Insider, <keyword id="2228335" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Paytm-founder">Paytm founder</keyword> <keyword id="198636" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vijay-Shekhar-Sharma">Vijay Shekhar Sharma</keyword> says “Jio is our God” despite the threat of competition from Mukesh Ambani’s company.</li><li>Sharma also revealed plans to take <keyword id="6357120" type="DEFINITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="paytm">Paytm</keyword> to the US market.</li><li>In India, the fintech platform is targeting to have 25 million merchants on board.</li></ul>It’s not for nothing that when Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm, was introduced at the TiE <keyword id="4390638" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="India-Internet-Day">India Internet Day</keyword> event, he was called a “force of nature” by Vani Kola from Kalaari Capital, one of the country’s biggest venture capital firms. VSS, as he’s referred to in India’s startup ecosystem, had a high-energy speech, anecdotes from his early days as an entrepreneur, and blunt remarks, which got everyone else talking too. Business Insider caught up with Sharma to understand his strategy to battle the emerging threat to his business from Mukesh Ambani’s e-commerce venture under Jio. ‘Jio is our God’ Reports about scores of <a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet/what-went-wrong-at-e-commerce-unicorn-paytm-mall/68981705">losses suffered</a> by <keyword id="4225623" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Paytm-Mall">Paytm Mall</keyword> and the probability of it shutting down have been doing the rounds. When you ask Sharma about the same, he has a different answer – Paytm Mall is back on track. “Paytm Mall is a business that has learnt that Online to Offline (O2O) is the best business model. Our attention on partners keeping items in warehouses has now significantly reduced and we have offloaded many partners. Our focus now is on shops – from where the shipments will happen. This model has worked out incredibly well for us. Year on year, we are up and have already cut one third of the costs,” said Sharma. But Indian e-commerce currently has the likes of Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon taking the larger portion of the pie, with both of them even wary about Reliance Jio’s reported entry in the space. Jio with its wide reach and ability to incur losses too, can be a bigger threat in e-commerce. So, where does that leave Paytm? “Jio is our God,” said Sharma and laughed. “If the market has a business model that can survive competition, then it’s okay. I don’t know what their e-commerce model is but there is a good opportunity. India is such an underserved technology market. But I can say this for sure, Jio will be the last man standing. But does that mean we will have our play? Hopefully, we will,” said Sharma. Ticket to the US For Indian <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups">startups</keyword>, breaking boundaries and moving global has been the latest play. Startups like Oyo, Ola, Zomato are all expanding internationally and have found success too. Paytm too made the move to go global in October 2018, when it launched PayPay in Japan in partnership with Softbank. PayPay works as a payment wallet where users can store their money for transactions. It had also launched operations in Canada which is still one of their focus markets. But it’s actually closer to Canada where lies the ultimate aim – The United States of America. “The ambition is that what we have built in India goes to the rest of the world as well. Ultimately, America tops that list. In my life, I wish to take Paytm to US and fight the fight there. But that will be in the right time. The intention is clear – we want to ultimately become a business model which is called the Paytm Model and head to a few other countries before they replicate what we are doing,” he said. In India, Paytm plans to double down on their payments business and reach Tier-5 and Tier-6 cities. It is also targeting onboarding 25 million merchants by the end of the year. It currently has over 10 million merchants on its platform. “India is a big market and we are expanding our financial services – insurance is also a sector we want to be in,” he said. Paytm today has its footprint in almost every other industry – from payments to financial services to e-commerce and even the ticketing business. As Sharma, a Queen fan, put it-- “I want it all and I want it now.” See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/paytm-takes-on-airbnb-makemytrip-oyorooms-and-trivago-with-its-latest-offer-hotel-bookings/articleshow/67755276.cms">Paytm is competing with almost everyone in Indian e-commerce</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/alibaba-backed-paytm-receives-sebi-approval-for-stock-broking/articleshow/68682288.cms">Alibaba-backed Paytm gets greenlight from India's market regulator to launch stock broking services</a>

‘I want it all and I want it now’, says Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma as he plans a ticket to the US

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.

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Startup funding could halt, valuations to take a hit and business models have to be pivoted say investors

Sanchita Dash

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

BI India Bureau

India’s top entrepreneurs promise to make way for 100 Unicorns

BI India Bureau

Shout out to entrepreneurs! Ratan Tata is back and ready to invest in your startup

BI India Bureau

‘I want it all and I want it now’, says Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma as he plans a ticket to the US

Sanchita Dash

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

BI India Bureau