UBS Investment Banking and Research Team hosted a dinner with the founders of some Internet start-ups (across the education,
food delivery, cloud-based platform, transportation solution, and auto classified verticals), including one who has partly exited his own start-up, angel investors, and a few investors. There was broad agreement that the funding environment in India is tighter now than 6-12 months ago. However, good ideas continue to attract angel funding. While the next stage of funding (Series B of say US$5-10m) is becoming difficult, subsequent larger rounds (say US$100mn) are still not that challenging. A focus on execution capability and unit economics now seem to be mainstream discussion points with investors, and gross merchandise value (GMV) less so.
