There were some known Indian-American faces in US president Barack Obama’s delegation when he landed in Delhi last week, although the outreach to the three millionstrong community may have got somewhat lost amidst the optics. In fact, while the diaspora investment initiative which was announced by Obama in Delhi did not receive too much attention in India, it is clear that White House is placing its bets on the Indian-American community for greater economic ties with India. A new public-private partnership will “help millions of proud Indian-Americans directly invest in India’s future”, Obama announced.
Back in Washington, Rajiv Shah, administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and one of the most prominent Indian Americans in the Obama administration and also part of the Delhi delegation, said in a statement that the transparent investment vehicle would encourage Indian-Americans to invest in the development of India, help create jobs and train a new generation of local entrepreneurs. The initiative is a partnership between USAID, Calvert Foundation and several private financial institutions in India.
So will this really help Indian-American entrepreneurs to engage in a much bigger way in India? “With the backing of the US government, it definitely has the potential of creating joint ventures, incubations and mentor-mentee relationships between Indian-Americans and young Indian entrepreneurs,” says Sanjay Puri, chairman of the Washington DC-based US Indian Political Action Committee.
However, while lauding the idea, Nishith Acharya, a senior fellow at the public policy think tank Center for American Progress, feels it needs to be managed by professionals who have deep ties with Indian-Americans. “Also, there is already so much investment in India by NRIs and so many entrepreneurs have footprints in both countries that I don’t know who this is aimed at,” says Acharya, a former director, office of innovation and entrepreneurship, and senior adviser in the US department of commerce.
When ET Magazine spoke to Indian-American entrepreneurs Rakesh Mathur and Reggie Aggarwal, both of whom have made their mark in the US, about the new initiative and their own India footprint, both highlighted their faith in the India story. Shelly Kapoor Collins, a San Francisco-based entrepreneur and Democratic fundraiser, too, sees a lot of value in coming to India more often on business trips and starting operations here. Here’s what they could bring to the India table:
Hitching a Ride into India
Rakesh Mathur,
Silicon Valley based serial entrepreneur and CEO of Flywheel, a taxi app company which follows an anti-Uber model
Rakesh Mathur, a Silicon Valley based serial entrepreneur and IIT-Bombay alumni, is no stranger to doing business in India. After the much-talked-about acquisition of his first startup Junglee by Amazon in the early dotcom days, Mathur was an investor in Webaroo Tech and Vegayan Systems, both in India, among many other ventures.
And now, having taken over as CEO of taxi app company Flywheel, which raised $12 million in series C funding a few months back, the Indian market is very much on his radar.
One of the reasons why the Indian market looks attractive for Mathur and his team at Flywheel — which includes new CFO Oneal Bhambani, partner at TCW/Craton, one of Flywheel’s investors — is that the business model is one of partnering with taxi drivers as an alternative to Uber, which has “vilified” them.
“The app-based taxi market is huge in countries like India and China, as in the US. Though we are still focussed on expanding in America, it’s foolish not to have our eyes on India,” Mathur told ET Magazine on phone from San Francisco. After his different mentoring roles in Indian startups, including Webaroo, an SMS platform serving 60 million users, he is upbeat about the youthful energy of the market. “Though we haven’t yet decided on what route to take for our Indian entry, I know the founders of Ola — Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati — and have discussed the market with them,” says Mathur, not ruling out tie-ups.
Mathur is keen to stress that the services Flywheel will roll out in India would be safe for users, with no surge in prices during rush hour, as happens with Uber. “Our product, which is being offered in San Francisco and many other US cities and is being developed at our centre in Mumbai, is available to consumers through taxi drivers, all of whom have background checks done by national security agencies,” he added.
Startup Czarina
Shelly Kapoor Collins,
CEO, Enscient Corporation, a San Francisco-based company that specialises in security and business development for the public sector Launched Root Square, a fundraising platform using gaming to enable political candidates and non-profits to raise funds across social media sites
Shelly Kapoor Collins strongly believes that Enscient Corporation, the San Francisco-based startup which she founded in 2008, has a lot to offer in India.
“We provide technology that supports human resources reskilling and tech talent development for government organisations. It works well in the US and should work very well for government and public sector in India too,” says Collins, whohonedher skills as a top fundraiser for Obama and other Democratic leaders and has held senior advisory positions in the government, including national co-chair for technology.
In 2010, she leveraged her entrepreneurial skills and dovetailed them with her political fundraising prowess to launch Root Square, an innovative platform using gaming to enable political candidates and nonprofits to raise funds across social media sites. “Technology and innovation play a very important role in political leadership. I am also involved in a big way in helping women entrepreneurs raise funds for their startups,which canoftenbe a very challenging process even in Silicon Valley,” says Collins, who is supporting the campaign of Indian American Kamala Harris, the California attorney general who is in the Senate race from California.
Collins, who was a member of Obama’s delegation during the Delhi visit, reckons that being an Indian-American woman in technology makes her well placed to help Indian women realise their entrepreneurial dreams.”Helpingwomen-drivenstartups to succeed in India willopenthe gates formore business interaction between the two countries, an issueObamaspoke about in Delhi,” she explains. The entrepreneurial energy and interest on both sides was very visible during the presidential visit, she says, with many business leaders and entrepreneurs present fromthe US, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bengaluru, amongst other global business hubs. “The takeaway was that to not think about scaling one’s business to include a footprint in India would be a missed opportunity,” she added.
Collins had self-funded Root Square with her husband, a Silicon Valley professional, because she didn’twant to face refusals from venture capitalists who may not have been open to the idea of a woman-led startup. “I am serving a three-year term in the Obama administration for the National Women’s Business Council and am one of the eight women CEOs appointed on the council as advisers to the President and Congress on women’s issues. In this role, I am firmly committed to help women in America raise capital and start their own ventures,” she says.
And, now, she’s committed to doing the same with women in India.
Cventful Ride
Reggie Aggarwal,
Chairman and CEO, CVENT, an NYSE traded, cloud-based software company focussed on event management in Virginia with back office in Gurgaon
Reggie Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Virginia-based Cvent, an enterprise event management software company, sees the US India relationship only getting better from this point, and with it the prospects of the Indian-American community. “I have been and continue to be bullishon the value our India operations bring toour entire company,” says Aggarwal, who set up Cvent 15 years ago as a two-person startup and followed that up with operations in Gurgaon soon after. The company, which has since gone public on the New York Stock Exchange and has a market capitalisation of over $1 billion, employs 1,450 people, more than half of whomare in India.
For Aggarwal, who started his career as a high-flying corporate lawyer in Washington DC, Cvent’s journey from keeping its head above water through two big global technology downturns to becoming a leader in the space of enterprise event management software has a lot to do with the India operations. “Senior officials from our US teams regularly come to Gurgaon to engage with the teams here.
The employees in India too are given the opportunity to work in our US offices to help them understand the global business culture,” says Aggarwal, who was born and bred in the US. As CEO, he believes that many of the young Indian employees, with engineering degrees from top colleges, benefit a lot from their exposure to the US business culture during these trips.
As an Indian-American entrepreneur who has always believed in the India story, Aggarwal’s advice to the Indian government is that businesses careaboutanenvironment that fosters innovation, fast growth and value to an organisation.
“Entrepreneurs love the atmosphere where two governments are working closely tomake doing business across boundaries easier and helps remove obstacles,” says Aggarwal, who was part of the business delegation during Obama’s visit.
Source: The Economic Times
