The number of Indian startups selected by Silicon Valley’s famed accelerator Y Combinator (YC) has plummeted to just four in 2024 from 66 in 2021, marking a sharp decline in participation from one of its most active international markets in recent years, according to information sourced from YC’s website.
This comes at a time when Indian founders are increasingly opting to remain domiciled locally amid evolving regulatory dynamics and healthy prospects of listing on the domestic stock exchanges.
According to industry executives and founders from YC’s India portfolio, the decline is driven by multiple factors, including YC’s requirement for accepted startups to set up a parent entity in the US, Canada, Singapore, or the Cayman Islands, even if they are originally incorporated elsewhere.
There is also a growing trend of startups shifting their holding entities to India in preparation for domestic IPOs. This reverse flipping entails paying hefty taxes in the US. Among startups that were part of YC, IPO-bound stock broking platform Groww paid around $160 million in taxes as it flipped its parent entity from the US to India last year, while Razorpay is estimated to have incurred a tax outgo of around $200 million and Meesho is expected to pay around $280-300 million.
Another reason flagged by founders and investors is that YC is increasingly focusing on deeptech and AI-first startups, many of which require cutting-edge research and are often built around US-based technical talent. This evolving thesis has made it harder for early-stage Indian companies to gain admission, they said.
“YC has pulled back a little from India because they were not getting the quality they wanted at the volumes they were seeing in India. There are still a lot of Indian companies which go and apply, but they don’t have a separate India strategy now, which is why we are seeing a smaller number of companies selected,” an investor said on the condition of anonymity.
Under the leadership of OpenAI founder Sam Altman, during the 2014-19 period, YC began to double down on India intakes. This was the time when startups like Meesho, Groww, Razorpay became a part of the YC batches. Other high-profile companies like quick commerce platform Zepto came on board in 2021.
Source: Economic Times
#healthcarestartupindia #ycombinator #dseidehealthcarenetwork
This comes at a time when Indian founders are increasingly opting to remain domiciled locally amid evolving regulatory dynamics and healthy prospects of listing on the domestic stock exchanges.
According to industry executives and founders from YC’s India portfolio, the decline is driven by multiple factors, including YC’s requirement for accepted startups to set up a parent entity in the US, Canada, Singapore, or the Cayman Islands, even if they are originally incorporated elsewhere.
There is also a growing trend of startups shifting their holding entities to India in preparation for domestic IPOs. This reverse flipping entails paying hefty taxes in the US. Among startups that were part of YC, IPO-bound stock broking platform Groww paid around $160 million in taxes as it flipped its parent entity from the US to India last year, while Razorpay is estimated to have incurred a tax outgo of around $200 million and Meesho is expected to pay around $280-300 million.
Another reason flagged by founders and investors is that YC is increasingly focusing on deeptech and AI-first startups, many of which require cutting-edge research and are often built around US-based technical talent. This evolving thesis has made it harder for early-stage Indian companies to gain admission, they said.
“YC has pulled back a little from India because they were not getting the quality they wanted at the volumes they were seeing in India. There are still a lot of Indian companies which go and apply, but they don’t have a separate India strategy now, which is why we are seeing a smaller number of companies selected,” an investor said on the condition of anonymity.
Under the leadership of OpenAI founder Sam Altman, during the 2014-19 period, YC began to double down on India intakes. This was the time when startups like Meesho, Groww, Razorpay became a part of the YC batches. Other high-profile companies like quick commerce platform Zepto came on board in 2021.
Source: Economic Times
#healthcarestartupindia #ycombinator #dseidehealthcarenetwork
The number of Indian startups selected by Silicon Valley’s famed accelerator Y Combinator (YC) has plummeted to just four in 2024 from 66 in 2021, marking a sharp decline in participation from one of its most active international markets in recent years, according to information sourced from YC’s website.
This comes at a time when Indian founders are increasingly opting to remain domiciled locally amid evolving regulatory dynamics and healthy prospects of listing on the domestic stock exchanges.
According to industry executives and founders from YC’s India portfolio, the decline is driven by multiple factors, including YC’s requirement for accepted startups to set up a parent entity in the US, Canada, Singapore, or the Cayman Islands, even if they are originally incorporated elsewhere.
There is also a growing trend of startups shifting their holding entities to India in preparation for domestic IPOs. This reverse flipping entails paying hefty taxes in the US. Among startups that were part of YC, IPO-bound stock broking platform Groww paid around $160 million in taxes as it flipped its parent entity from the US to India last year, while Razorpay is estimated to have incurred a tax outgo of around $200 million and Meesho is expected to pay around $280-300 million.
Another reason flagged by founders and investors is that YC is increasingly focusing on deeptech and AI-first startups, many of which require cutting-edge research and are often built around US-based technical talent. This evolving thesis has made it harder for early-stage Indian companies to gain admission, they said.
“YC has pulled back a little from India because they were not getting the quality they wanted at the volumes they were seeing in India. There are still a lot of Indian companies which go and apply, but they don’t have a separate India strategy now, which is why we are seeing a smaller number of companies selected,” an investor said on the condition of anonymity.
Under the leadership of OpenAI founder Sam Altman, during the 2014-19 period, YC began to double down on India intakes. This was the time when startups like Meesho, Groww, Razorpay became a part of the YC batches. Other high-profile companies like quick commerce platform Zepto came on board in 2021.
Source: Economic Times
#healthcarestartupindia #ycombinator #dseidehealthcarenetwork
