Meet 30 most promising startups in India; Ronnie Screwvala’s advice for entrepreneurs

Hi,

For the last 16 years, Your story played a key role in distinguishing and showcasing startups that are ahead of the competition.

This year too, we have shortlisted 30 of India’s most promising startups that have the potential to become major disruptors in the artificial intelligence, deeptech, space technology, agritech, fintech, healthtech and sustainability sectors. Thanks Tech30, Your story enables early-stage startups to become the next generation of changemakers.

You can download the Tech30 2024 report here.

For the second consecutive day, TechSparks Bengaluru 2024, YourStory’s flagship tech startup summit, hosted invigorating conversations between entrepreneurs, investors and other stakeholders from the Indian startup ecosystem.

From InMobi Group CEO Naveen Tewari sharing his ad tech secrets, Amagi co-founder Baskar Subramanian sharing what it was like to stream the Olympics, to entrepreneurs coming together to embed sustainability in their companies’ DNA, day two of TechSparks was all about transformation of Bharat.

But the best is saved for last!

Today’s grand finale will feature conversations with the greatest minds shaping India’s technological revolution.

While Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa, will reflect on the role of management in shaping India’s future, Ananth Narayanan, CEO of Mensa Brands, will decipher how he grew brands’ revenues from zero to Rs 100 crore.

At the conference, Shashank Kumar of Razorpay, Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal and Ajit Narayanan of Licious will talk about the real-world impact of their ventures and how artificial intelligence will write the next chapter of technology history in India.

Finally, to end the day in style, Bhavish Aggarwal, the maverick behind Ola, takes us on a journey of grit and audacity.

You can keep up to date with everything that’s happening here.

In today’s newsletter we will talk about

Build in ‘boring’ sectors, says Screwvala
Swiggy outperforms on its way to IPO
Naveen Tewari Stock Market Predictions

Here’s an interesting fact for today: Under which government was the “right to property” removed from the fundamental law?

TechSparks

Build in ‘boring’ sectors, says Screwvala

At TechSparks 2024, entrepreneur and investor Ronnie Screwvala suggested founders build in “boring” sectors.

“Serious businesses – solar and everyone who works in the green space – are built for the long term. They need equal respect… start (start) in these sectors and after 15 years no one will be able to beat you,” said the co-founder of edtech unicorn UpGrad and Swades Foundation.

Key takeaways:

During a fireside chat during the 15th edition of YourStory’s flagship summit, Screwvala shared his thoughts on the “big opportunities” and what investors are betting on in him.
Talking about artificial intelligence, he said, “The next 4-5 years will be a work in progress… We need to make a business of artificial intelligence.”
He added that while everyone sees the AI space as a tectonic or technological shift, the focus is shifting away from the fact that building a successful AI company will require much more creativity, innovation and consumer understanding, not just results.

Launch: Whatfix

Amount: $125 million

Round: E Series

Startup: M2P Fintech

Amount: 850 kr

Round: Series D

Launch: Qure.ai

Amount: $65 million

Round: Series D

TechSparks

Swiggy stands out on its IPO road

Swiggy co-founder Phani Kishan Addepalli believes the grocery company’s relentless focus on putting consumers at the center of every decision – even at the expense of making difficult calls – has been key to its success as the startup now prepares to go public.

Swiggy plans to raise a whopping Rs 10,000 crore from the market, giving an exit to some big investors like Prosus and Elevation Capital.

Food technology:

The company is prioritizing sustainable long-term profitability over short-term profit gains, Food Marketplace CEO Rohit Kapoor said after the company’s latest filing revealed a wider loss in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
He also said that Swiggy is one of the largest and fastest employment generators in the country. He disclosed that the company provides insurance to every supplier.
“Swiggy made profit by executing 200 separate projects ranging from 5 to 50 paisa,” he said. “We have sculpted the business so that every leader understands growth and profitability.”

TechSparks

Naveen Tewari Stock Market Predictions

Naveen Tewari, Founder and CEO, InMobi; Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory.

Technology companies will significantly increase their presence on the Indian stock market in the coming years, predicts Naveen Tewari, founder and CEO of InMobi. Revealing that InMobi will be part of this growth, Tewari said the consumer technology company will “go public soon.”

Into the future:

Discussing the evolution of the Indian stock market at TechSparks 2024, Tewari, who is also the founder of two tech unicorns – InMobi and its subsidiary Glance – predicts a significant increase in the presence of technology companies on the stock exchange soon.
On Insights, Tewari noted that successful companies in markets like India will evolve into digital conglomerates capable of generating disproportionate results much faster than their competitors.
The founder believes that the traditional method of searching for content from servers using search engines will become a thing of the past and will be replaced by a personal real-time Internet, tailored to individual preferences.

News and updates

Data protection: The Data Protection Commission, the European Union’s leading privacy regulator, has fined social media giant Meta $101.5 million for inadvertently storing certain users’ passwords without protection and encryption. So far, it has fined Meta $2.8 billion for violations.
Back to the office: Dell Technologies said its global sales team employees who can work from the company’s offices must do so five days a week from September 30. The goal of this change is to leverage the collaborative environment and “skill up” where the team should be in the office.
Excessive growth: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman denied that there were plans to give him a “gigantic share of equity” in the company, calling the information “simply untrue,” according to one of the people present. The meeting was a consequence of the management board’s decision to consider restructuring the company towards a profit-oriented business.

Under which government was the ‘right to property’ removed from the fundamental law?

Answer: Morarji Desai government.

We’d love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and what you didn’t like about our newsletter, send us an email (email protected).

If you haven’t received this newsletter in your inbox yet, register here. To check out previous editions of YourStory Buzz, you can check out ours Daily capsules page here.