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.Â
Massive for the digital economy of India.
This would potentially bring the remaining 800M Indians online.Â
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!
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 penetrationÂ
It has accelerated the speed of Digital payments penetrationÂ
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.
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 
Worth your attention
VC funding slips to $2.2 billion in Q1 as investors tread warily Link
Amid turmoil at SoftBank, its Vision Fund scouts for secondary deals in India Link
Flipkart invests $90 million more in marketplace, PhonePe platform Link
Paytm in talks to raise new capital from technology major Microsoft Link
Snap to evolve its app for India as user base surges amid lockdown Link
A week in reviewÂ
