It's much easier to create startups today: Kunal Bahl

The co-founder of Snapdeal said smartphones and internet usage have changed the game

- Sowmya Ramasubramanian

It is much easier to build businesses today than it was more than a decade ago as the penetration of smartphones and internet usage has resulted in deeper markets and the emergence of new segments, said Kunal Bahl, co-founder of Snapdeal and Titan Capital, and promoter of Unicommerce.

"Ten years ago in e-commerce, there was one homogeneous lump of consumers—mostly urban, affluent, and connected. Now, in every possible segment that you can imagine, there are large pools of consumers of varying income, geography, age, usage patterns, and preferences," Bahl said at the Mint India Investment Summit and Awards 2025.

Moreover, now it is about the founder's ingenuity to come up with the ideas to go after these segments as opposed to questioning if the market exists or not, Bahl noted.

"With the per-capita GDP (gross domestic product) in some states going up, many businesses are getting there as well in terms of hitting inflection points," Bahl said.

Bahl founded one of India's first online shopping platforms, Snapdeal (now AceVector), in 2010 with Rohit Bansal. The duo launched Titan Capital, an early-stage venture investment firm, in 2015. They have backed several notable startups such as Urban Company, OfBusiness, Ola Cabs, and Razorpay.