Of India and China’s tech companies, the differing trajectories
India’s startups have stormed the financial markets. After Zomato’s successful listing, Policy Bazaar and PAYTM India have lined up billion-dollar Initial Public Offerings (IPOS). They are part of the nearly 60 IPOS scheduled for a 2021 listing, and their success may encourage more to emerge.
Many more in the unlisted space have raised capital privately, with an unprecedented 26 startups joining the unicorn club – crossing the $1 billion valuation mark. These numbers change by the week. August ended with a big-bang all-cash acquisition of fintech startup Billdesk for $4.7 billion.
This is in striking contrast with China, where the brightest and best in the tech sector are struggling against multiple waves of a government-driven crackdown.
India’s economic divergence with
China, which began with restrictions on investments in April 2020, will widen due to China’s restrictions on its own tech majors. In the past year, Indian tech companies have belied fears that reduced Chinese funding will hurt this highgrowth sector. The circumscription in China is likely to scare off foreign capital, some of which may find its way to India, further offsetting the lower capital flow from Chinese investors.
Historically, Indian tech startups have relied on foreign capital as their funding requirements increased. Domestic venture capital hasn’t had the capacity to provide risk capital of $50 million-$100 million to unproven business models. This role has been filled by foreign capital, especially funds such as the Unites States’s Sequoia and Japan’s Softbank; companies such as Alibaba, Tencent and Facebook; and super-rich individuals, usually tech billionaires.
The last category is especially important – entrepreneurs who have made it big in tech are more willing to back untested ideas with their personal capital. In the Indian context, a good example is Sanjeev Bikchandani’s Info Edge, a dot-com era success, which was an early investor in Zomato. The initial investment of ₹4.7 crore is now worth over ₹10,000 crore. These are not bets traditional business houses can easily make.
Successful listings by Indian tech unicorns can help create two new categories of investors — Indian tech majors and Indian tech billionaires, both largely non-existent now. India’s software giants reinvested in their existing business models but did not invest in the broader tech ecosystem. The new tech, mostly e-commerce, billionaires, a larger pool of investors, will further offset the missing Chinese investors.
China’s own tech sector is facing headwinds. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has fettered its tech majors — Alibaba, Tencent and Didi Chuxing among others. Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma vanished mysteriously for several months and has been lying low since. Subsidiary Ant Financial and the group was fined $2.8 billion for abusing market dominance, all within months of Ma’s criticism of China’s financial regulator. Tencent, China’s most valuable company, stopped registration of new users on Wechat, a Chinese messaging service similar to Whatsapp. Ditto with Didi Chuxing, a China-based ride hailing company similar to Uber.
There have long been question marks on the true ownership and control of Chinese companies, and whether the Chinese private sector is truly private. The crackdown will raise further questions on actual control and, in the longer term, may also alienate western investors who have funded and championed many of these companies. With their valuations and future access to capital dipping, their progress could slow down. Greater oversight by the CCP will also likely cripple innovation.
To lure some of the available capital, India must get its house in order. India still has significant regulatory hurdles with issues ranging from land acquisition to the recently reversed retrospective taxation. If these can be lowered to the level of merely being irksome, then the IPO train can speed up, giving India a chance to truly become a significant global tech player.