An interesting panel discussion on funding in India

I attended an informative panel today on “Evolution & Current State of Start-Up funding in India” by veterans and hosted by my good friend Vineeth Vijayaraghavan.

The distinguished panellists were:
⭐Mr Vishesh Rajaram – Managing Partner, Speciale Invest
⭐Mr Hari Krishna – Partner, Lok Capital
⭐Mr Balaji Kulothungan – Founder, Galore Networks (1998, EEE)
⭐Mr Murari Sridharan – CTO, Bank Bazaar (1997, CSE)

The panellists covered a wide range of topics:
1️⃣ The prevailing investment scenario in Chennai,
2️⃣ Historically capital for businesses was always available. Venture Capitalist funding was initially created to build products that didn’t exist,
3️⃣ There is a mismatch between founders and VCs on the timeline. The former doesn’t have a concept of time. The latter has that inbuilt,
4️⃣ When founders raise money, they need to look carefully for fitment with the source of the funding,
5️⃣ The leader in a segment leaving the second far behind.

The event was organized by my alma mater Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering’s Alumni association.