1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Anup Jain, Managing Partner of Orios Venture Partners (Part 1)

Anup Jain, the Managing Partner at Orios Venture Partners, discusses the Indian startup ecosystem and its trends and nuances.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us a bit about your background as well as about Orios.

Anup Jain: I’m an accidental VC. I didn’t grow up in this ecosystem, but I’m very passionate about entrepreneurship. When I started my corporate career with Procter & Gamble, it was a dream job. I’ve always been excited about doing innovations and disruptions. It brings about meaning to all stakeholders.

As luck would have it, I got all those assignments that had a bit of technology in there. Sure enough, when India was booming and racing down this technology highway, I felt it was the right time to step in but as an investor. That’s what got me in this ecosystem starting in 2015. I’ve been here ever since.

Sramana Mitra: How did you get connected with Orios?

Anup Jain: I began angel investing soon after that. India was booming with an early-stage startup ecosystem around that time. That’s when I met Rehan, the founder of Orios. He was looking for a partner. That’s how I came on board.

Sramana Mitra: I know Rehan. I would say Rehan’s instinct is more on the consumer side. You come from Procter & Gamble. Is your instinct more on the consumer side?

Anup Jain: I’ve traveled the length and breadth of the country always keeping an eye out for business opportunities. Work has taken me to different domains and different industries. I’ve lived and worked overseas as well. That brought in a lot of knowledge of how things could shape up in India as India emerges from being a developing nation to a developed nation. Technology would play an inevitable part in that. I keep my consumer instincts intact right there and bring on everything else through gathering knowledge, reading and just listening.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about both of those topics. Rehan and I have talked over the years. What is your current analysis of where we are in the Indian ecosystem? What trends are you seeing? What trends are you projecting? How are you evolving Orios? Orios has been around for a long time. It was one of the early players in the Indian early-stage ecosystem. How are you evolving it to align with those trends?

Anup Jain: The Indian ecosystem is number three in the world in terms of the number of startups. It’s contributing in a big way not just here but also globally. India is known as a tech superpower and it’s coming to play over here domestically and all over the world. So far, the first wave of IT companies that came in from India were serving the world like TCS and Infosys. They continue to do a good job.

Now we’re seeing a lot of cloud-based internet companies that are solving India’s problems in different sectors. As the government has announced, India wants to be a five trillion economy in the coming years. How do we gallop the economy? The obvious answer is just like what manufacturing was for China back in 1995. A similar answer lies in the use of technology in India and harnessing it for every possible sector that matters to the country’s GDP.

The fund has identified six sectors that are going to drive the economy whether it’s agriculture, financial services, marketplaces, new content and gaming, and also health. All of this is not possible unless we get skilled manpower. Education is at the heart of this. We believe in upskilling India. That’s the last sector that we feel is pivotal along with the others to shaping India into one of the largest tech ecosystems and driving its economy.

This segment is part 1 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Anup Jain, Managing Partner of Orios Venture Partners
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