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A similar leapfrog story appears to be pool has matured to include IT, software,
playing out in the entrepreneurial management, and R&D talent, leading to
ecosystem. India has historically been a the creation of an innovation hub.
land of traders and small-time A combination of mature talent and
entrepreneurs. A technology revolution markets is creating a third wave of start-
started with IT and Business Process ups in India. A supporting ecosystem of
Outsourcing (BPO) in the 1990s. The advice, expertise and capital is nurturing
ambition was clear: there is a demand for these start-ups, which are innovative,
software and India has the talent to meet focused on deep tech and solving problems
it. These scaled remarkably into a $180 in B2B and other spaces. Some challenges
billion industry with success stories like do remain, including a smaller number of
Infosys. early adopters. Yet there is a confidence
A second wave started with a focus on that these start-ups will take off and create
the Indian consumer. The aim was to meet value. Early signs are encouraging, with
the aspirations of a growing middle class India already becoming the third largest
online. Risk capital was available for some start-up ecosystem in the world.
of these models, and there has been a The leapfrog in the digital infrastructure,
boom in ecommerce, market places and and the evolution of the entrepreneurial
hyper-local delivery. This followed the path ecosystem create an exciting outlook for
of other markets, and many global leaders India. There are many challenges: India is
entered India. Indian companies have a chaotic democracy, regulatory institutions
competed in an open local market. India are maturing and infrastructure is still
now has more unicorns, the most evolving. However, there is the talent, the
successful of which has been acquired by supporting ecosystem, the market and the
Walmart. While some elements are growing economy. Together, these provide
comparable to what happened in China, the necessary ingredients to fuel
this growth happened in an open market, entrepreneurial aspirations, and allow India
despite weaker infrastructure, and without to make the next leap.
government capital. Sanjay Jain and Som Pal Choudhury are
Meanwhile, the first wave of IT, services Investment Principals at Bharat Fund,
and BPO matured into a large hub for investing in technology companies in
global R&D centres which now takes India. http://bharat.fund/
ownership of global products. The talent

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