Some notes from the “Emerging Markets” seminar on opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurs (part of the IED Best Practice encounters series) at which I shared a panel with Prof. Gerry Geirge and Prof. Chris Toumazou:
- For the UK, India is now as important as China; Exports to China are £5.2bn vs £4.1bn for India
- There appears to be a significant correlation between “relative inequality” and entrepreneurship i.e. higher relative inequality leads to higher entrepreneurship (- as in the case of US perhaps?)
- Education in general (esp. tertiary education) is a big opportunity in India (I’m glad about my latest angel investment!)
- Chris mentioned how the future of healthcare and medicine is personalised drugs and disposable technology
- I made some deliberately provocative statements; the main one being “Why this century might be India’s century”; Mentioned India’s 3-D Advantage
- Gerry shared some very interesting slides on R&D linkages between Indian institutions and their international counterparts; I hope these slides are up on the website soon
- I also liked Gerry’s slide about FDI as % of GDP that showed a sustained increase in FDI into India (vs. a reduction in FDI in China). When you couple this fact with the growth in GDP in India, you realise the dramatic impact that this flood of money had between 2006 – 2009
I shared a couple of slides (see below) as a preface to my observations:
April 30th, 2009
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Shantanu |
China, Conferences and Panels, Emerging Markets, Entrepreneurship, India, My Presentations |
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Just back from an exhausting and intense 10-day visit to India, part of which was taken up by the Capvent VC/PE Conference in Goa.
I shared a panel on “New Media” with Rajesh Sawhney of Reliance Entertainment and Harel Beit-On of Viola Private Equity…and talked briefly about Enqii and an Indian start-up that I am very enthused about (it takes Out-of-Home advertising to a new level – leveraging the ubiquitous cycle rickshaws that you see across large parts of India – more on them later)
Interesting conversations on the sidelines and during the panels…but the “chill” in Private Equity was unmistakable – even as Goa seared at 33 degrees…
India seems to be holding up better though…and the sentiment is mildly optimistic…not least because of a rebounding stock market that has jumped 40% in the last three months - as it recovers from its multi-year lows.
I also concluded my latest personal investment – in an Indian start-up which I believe is very attractively positioned in the education sector in India. It is called Elements Akademia…Check them out.
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Somewhat related posts:
Feel the Shanghai sizzle…in Mumbai
Feeling the heat in China…
April 14th, 2009
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Shantanu |
Conferences and Panels, Venture Capital |
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Earlier this week, I chaired a panel discussion in London at Digital Business India.
Some key points that emerged from the various discussions were:
- Huge opportunity emerging in digital media/ digital business (probably the fastest growing market globally)
- Specific sectors of interest include education, animation, production, advertising & branding services
- Doing business is not easy and challenges remain
- Very attractive opportunity to leverage the large (and rapidly growing) mobile user base*
I hope to add more flavour to these notes later on…
* India added about 15million new mobile subscribers in Jan ’09.
March 7th, 2009
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Shantanu |
Conferences and Panels, Entrepreneurship, India, Tech & Innovation in Asia |
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At the second China VC & PE Eventin London last week, Ozaki-san of NIkko AntFactory presented some striking data about Japanese and Chinese demographics. I am trying to get hold of the slides and will upload them here. China is already Japan’s largest trading partner (both exports and imports) while for China, Japan was its #1 trading partner but is now at #3 (behind EU and USA).
He also mentioned how China is getting “expensive” (Uniqlo, the Japanese clothes maker has already moved half of its production facilities out of China) and “rich” (# of plasma TV sets sold are already more than Japan).
Some more quick notes:
- JVs are hard to execute in China (Alexia)
- Deals are getting more realistically valued (Fernando)
- JV model of creating a China Fund may not be the best approach…Easier option is to buy an existing management company (a la Sequoia, KPCB)
- Direct transplantation of deals may not work
Quote of the Day: “…The “Pioneers” are the ones with the arrows in the back…” (Courtesy Charles)
Related Post:
Amidst the global downturn, China continues to amaze…
October 15th, 2008
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Shantanu |
China, Conferences and Panels, Venture Capital in Asia |
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From an email I received y’day:
According to Zero2IPO Research Center statistics, a total of 29 domestic and foreign VC firms established 40 funds during Q2‘08. This figure represents US$3.02B of capital available for investing in Mainland China marking a record high for a single quarter.
Additionally, 159 Chinese entrepreneurial firms receiving venture capital disclosed investment totaling US$1.20B. In comparison with the same period last year, the number of deals and the disclosed investment amount increased 31.4% and 73.5% respectively.
Keeping up with the “booming…China investment market”, Zero2IPO is organizing its second China VC & PE Event in London next month. Try and be there.
I will be speaking just after the tea break on investment opportunities for European investors in China.
September 10th, 2008
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Shantanu |
China, Conferences and Panels, Emerging Markets, Venture Capital in Asia |
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Quick notes from a Web 3.0 panel discussion that I participated in [ at the Red Herring ATRE Conference in Mumbai y'day ]
1. Satya Prabhakar (Founder and CEO, Sulekha.com) mentioned: “Scarcest commodity in the world is human attention”
2. Seth of meebo.com talked about meebo and the challenges of monetising web 2.0 startups/ user traffic
3. Gerard Rego (MSC Software) spoke about the bottom of the pyramid markets
4. Gurudatt mentioned how the NetAlter.com might transform the current Internet architecture
I was on the panel that discussed Web 3.0.
I mentioned how:
1. Non-US users of internet (86% of total) growing at 30% vs. 3% growth of US
2. Epicentre decisively moving to Asia (driven primarily by large user base in India and China (e.g. Japan’s lead in mobile payments/ S Korea in broadband
and shared my thoughts on Web 3.0/ and how it is marked by three main features:
1. Internet Unplugged (i.e. going wireless and accessible not just through your PC/mobile but also through your game console, e-book, TV, fridge)
2. Internet 3.0 = Its all about the consumer (Consumers #1 users of semiconductors in the world (vs. IT + Government) AND Consumer IP traffic expected to surpass enterprise in 2008
(ARM has shipped more than 6bn microprocessors to date, mainly due to mobile and the microprocessor in consumer goods )
3. NOT just about the consumer BUT its all about *me* – personalised everything (search, contetnt incl news)
The Challenge is to “How to make it pay?”
November 6th, 2007
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Shantanu |
Conferences and Panels, Technology & Innovation, Venture Capital |
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