1947 Tech 🇮🇳: 109

Once a week newsletter: Insights on Tech, markets, startups, venture capital, and foreign investments in India

1. Govt starts e-retail chain for rural India

It’s basically Flipkart or Amazon, but for rural India. If it worked, it would be massive for India. 

Massive for the digital economy of India.

This would potentially bring the remaining 800M Indians online. 

What would happen if the remaining 800M Indians go online?

Massive opportunities everywhere.

What will happen then?

More founders will solve for smaller cities and rural India. This will attract more capital both locally and globally. More jobs will be created. Ultimately the economic growth will accelerate.

What will happen then?

Ok, that's it!

Govt starts e-retail chain for rural India 

2. Google report: Digital dependence is growing in lockdown

What has COVID 19 done to India?

It has affected India in both negative and positive ways.

I’m primarily focused on the positive side of it

It has accelerated the speed of internet penetration 

It has accelerated the speed of Digital payments penetration 

It has accelerated the digital government penetration. Government is going digital

Crises build families. COVID-19 has brought tech entrepreneurs and the government together. This will eventually help India in the long run

Overall It has accelerated the speed of India’s digital economy.

Whether you are an individual, a company, or government. One thing you have surely realized — Technolgy is eating the world, technology is saving the world.

Technology has almost become a self-reliant tool.

Google report: Digital dependence is growing in lockdown

3. Sequoia Surge backs seven Indian startups in the third batch

The $200-million fund has made seven investments in the country across sectors in its third batch, taking its overall Surge portfolio to 52 startups

The latest batch includes Atlan, which helps teams in large enterprises collaborate on data projects, community management platform Convosight, subscription-based smart water purifier product DrinkPrime, online fitness app Fittr, digital procurement platform Procol, site reliability engineering platform Last9, and a consumer brand in stealth

And an interesting trend to note: If you look at the other 9 startups, the majority of them are founded by India decent founders.

Meaning Indian entrepreneurs are building companies in SEA for SEA.

Here is the full list.

Sequoia Surge backs seven Indian startups in the third batch 

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Worth your attention

1. VC funding slips to $2.2 billion in Q1 as investors tread warily Link

2. Amid turmoil at SoftBank, its Vision Fund scouts for secondary deals in India Link

3. Flipkart invests $90 million more in marketplace, PhonePe platform Link

4. Paytm in talks to raise new capital from technology major Microsoft Link

5. Snap to evolve its app for India as user base surges amid lockdown Link

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A week in review 

Shiva Singh Sangwan @shivassangwan

This week in 🇮🇳! • Flipkart invests $90M more in PhonePe • Bira raises $20M from Sequoia, Sofina • Bugworks raises $7.5M • Indusface raises $5M • Convosight raises $4M • VC funding slips to $2.1B in Q1

Shiva Singh Sangwan @shivassangwan

• PayTm in talks to raise capital from Microsoft • Sequoia Surge backs 7 indian startups in the 3rd batch • ShareChat buys meme sharing app Memer • DailyHunt raises capital • India’s once lavish wedding are now taking place on Zoom

Thank you for reading. Please share any feedback, questions or comments with me on Twitter :)