'INDIA PLACED MUCH BETTER THAN OTHERS TO RIDE OUT THE CURRENT CRISIS'

Anup Jain, Managing Partner, Orios Venture Partners, a venture capital fund focused on early stage technology startups such as Pharmeasy, GoMechanic, Battery Smart, Zupee, WeRize, Beato, Kenko and Karbon, speaks about the potential of Indian startups to go aglobal, surge in venture private equity investments post-pandemic, scaling up D2C companies, emerging trends in the D2C sector, among other things, in a conversation with BW Businessworld. Excerpts

- Anisha Aditya

Being an early-stage VC firm, how do you identify an idea which changes an industry? What are the key parameters which you evaluate while shortlisting potential portfolio companies?

We are focused on investments in India comprising different sectors. All these different sectors are experiencing digitisation across businesses and consumers, which basically give rise to opportunities for investing.

When we are evaluating companies, we look towards large spaces and sectors in the Indian economy. We look for large problem statements that exist which can lead to large businesses. We go out and speak to stakeholders and validate those statements. And we look for how technology can be at the heart of the solution. We are therefore also looking at what is the intellectual property or defensibility or moat, as investors call it that the founders have created. That should be rooted in tech.

What is it that you try to find in the founding team before investing in a venture?