{"id":238149,"date":"2025-10-25T01:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T01:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/238149\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T01:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T01:02:10","slug":"indias-evolving-startup-funding-landscape-nithin-kamath-reflects-on-vc-growth-and-entrepreneurial-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/238149\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s evolving startup funding landscape: Nithin Kamath reflects on VC growth and entrepreneurial momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Indian venture capital (VC) and startup funding ecosystem has come a long way over the past 15 years, witnessing a profound transformation from a fringe concept to a mainstream economic force. In a detailed post on Twitter, Zerodha<\/a> co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath<\/a> shared his observations on this journey, describing how the landscape has matured in terms of funding sources, entrepreneurial aspiration, and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

He presented a broad overview of the current trends and structural shifts that are shaping India\u2019s startup ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Kamath opened by reflecting on how foreign the term “VC” sounded when he started Zerodha in 2010. \u201cVC was an exotic term, and there was barely any startup activity. The most popular VCs were dads, uncles and aunts,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

However, the picture began changing around 2010, driven largely by what Kamath called India\u2019s \u201copportunity size.\u201d Highlighting India\u2019s vast consumer base, he wrote, \u201cIndia’s population has done more to attract VC money than anything else. ‘India has 120 crore people, and even if 1% buy X’.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kamath noted that early interest concentrated around e-commerce and fintech sectors like lending and payments. These were viewed as the low-hanging fruit. But as those opportunities saturated, Kamath said, \u201cYou truly have to do something special to make VC-like returns.\u201d
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This has led to a noticeable shift toward more challenging, complex areas, such as deep tech.He further stated that the transformation is not restricted to VC activity alone but extends to the entire startup ecosystem.\u201cCheap Internet has spread talent and aspiration beyond metros into rural India. Better education means more risk-takers, and the growing economy attracts global institutional capital,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Kamath pointed out that infrastructure to support entrepreneurship is also developing through government and academic initiatives such as Atal Incubation Centres<\/a>, BIRAC, Venture Centre in Pune, and incubators at IISc, IITs, and other colleges. He also acknowledged the role of strong mentorship in turning ideas into viable businesses and noted that entrepreneurship has become \u201caspirational in parts of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the funding side, Kamath said, \u201cEvery wealthy individual now has a ‘family office,’ and there’s a global rush into VC\/PE. Stocks and bonds are boring; private investing is popular among the wealthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He conceded that while \u201cthere’s stupidity,\u201d the overall trend remains \u201cnet positive.\u201d He also credited the rise of smaller angel investors, reinvestments from exited founders, and corporate interest\u2014including his own investment firm Rainmatter\u2014for contributing to the funding pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese factors create feedback loops, building a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem,\u201d Kamath wrote. He also observed that this growth is taking place in the backdrop of a changing geopolitical climate, where \u201cglobalisation becomes a dirty word and geopolitics forces countries toward self-sufficiency,\u201d although he refrained from offering a personal view on whether that\u2019s good or bad.<\/p>\n

In his concluding remarks, Kamath expressed optimism about the future: \u201cI’m hoping this ecosystem grows wider and deeper, with many more Indian startups<\/a> solving local and global problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accompanying his post was a chart showing annual VC investments in India from 2010 to 2025. According to data sourced from Bain and KPMG, VC funding has surged from $0.8 billion in 2010 to a peak of $38.5 billion in 2021, followed by a moderation to $9.9 billion in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"AnnualETMarkets.com
(Source: Nithin Kamath\/X)<\/p>\n

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indian venture capital (VC) and startup funding ecosystem has come a long way over the past 15…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[112349,45,49,48,38017,137,11958,48891,112346,112351,112350,112348,26284,112347],"class_list":{"0":"post-238149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-atal-incubation-centres","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-deep-tech-startups","13":"tag-entrepreneurship","14":"tag-indian-entrepreneurship","15":"tag-indian-startups","16":"tag-nithin-kamath","17":"tag-rural-innovation-india","18":"tag-startup-ecosystem-growth","19":"tag-vc-funding-trends","20":"tag-venture-capital-india","21":"tag-zerodha"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}