1947 Tech 🇮🇳: 83

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

1. Why Y Combinator Went 8,725 Miles Away From Mountain View To Find The Next Big Startup

This year, Y Combinator had two stops on its trek to find the next big startup: Mountain View and Bengaluru (also known as Bangalore).

As the famed early-stage accelerator ups the amount of startups it invests in each year, India has become a focus. In this summer’s batch, 12 startups were from India, compared to five from the same time period a year prior. Applications to the accelerator from India increased by 50 percent

The WhatsApp wave 

There were tons of massive tech companies that were built on top of WeChat in China. WeChat as a distribution channel.

In India, WhatsApp is WeChat of China. 

Meesho, Digi-Prex, Vahan and many more are riding the WhatsApp wave.

Why Y Combinator Went 8,725 Miles Away From Mountain View To Find The Next Big Startup

2. Ribbit capital: India’s 9-month-old CRED raises $120M to help people improve their financial behavior

Fintech in India is going to be a massive space and Ribbit capital gets it. Just in the last 7 days, Ribbit capital has written two cheques.

1. BharatPe, a New Delhi-based firm that is enabling hundreds of thousands of merchants to start accepting digital payments for the first time link

2. Cred: Bangalore-based startup that is building solutions to incentivize credit card users in India to become more responsible with money and thereby improve their credit score.

India's 9-month-old CRED raises $120M to help people improve their financial behavior

3. Smartphones remain a must-buy even in overall slowdown season

Indians love their smartphones and Tech entrepreneurs and VCs love smartphone penetration. It is a win-win situation in India.

The smartphone market saw the highest-ever Q2 shipment of 36.9 mn units, registering a 9.9% yearly increase.

It seems like nothing can stop innovation in India 

Smartphones remain a must-buy even in overall slowdown season

4. If you are looking to move back to India, this tweet thread is for you:

Hemant Mohapatra @MohapatraHemant

Recently met ~80 people in SF / Bay Area who were interested in moving back to India. Lots of interesting Qs; many misconceptions cleared, many known truths reinforced -- both good & bad. Here’s a sample of the top Qs & As 👇& reasons to move back:

A week in review

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