“Fund, fund & fund. From where & how do I fund the money to start my business?” A question that strikes all startups in today’s world. All startups must understand that, nobody is waiting to fund money to you just because you have a new and exciting business idea.
“Irrespective of the capital needed and product to be produced, we look out for the unique business ideas proposed by the new age start-up entrepreneurs,” said Nikhil Vora, Founder and CEO, Sixth Sense Ventures.
Besides innovative startup ideas, investors also look for creative and inclusive businesses ready with their plans for three to five years, while catering the consumers of tomorrow. About the future of brick-and-mortar businesses in India, Nikhil Vora, Paula Mariwala, Executive Director, Seedfund and Swarup Beria, Vice President, Omnivore Partners agreed to the fact that, for brick-and-mortar businesses there is huge challenge to be relevant and scaled.
“Today, close to 30 % commercial places worldwide are vacant, which means people are really moving from offline consumption to online shopping,” added Nikhil Vora.
In the current challenging time, the biggest opportunity for brick-and-mortar businesses is to aggregate fragmented supply and provide that into a platform and then moving it closer to the consumer.
Most of the startups also agreed to the fact that, today the most expensive property in the world is on the first page of a smartphone and if a brand is able to do that, then the brand certainly succeeds in creating its image.
For the investors, in e-commerce, profit is not the sole criteria as long as the company has got millions of consumers transacting through its platform. Profitability for growth is a natural curve that will happen over a period of time and the investors are also not wary about it as long as visibility with the cash flow is coming over a period of time.
When asked about the tenure investors hold with the businesses, Paula Mariwala said, “We stay with the businesses till it is logical for us. We try to make it grow, at some point we want other investors to come in, so that it can grow faster. Sometime if strategic investment is coming in to buy that business out for more growth then we are happy to sell out. There is no formula. We have 10 year cycle within which we have to exit the company.”
