Startup Ideas the DFJ Would Like to Fund

Mohanjit Jolly

Executive Director,
DFJ India

Coming to the topic of specific sectors, DFJ’s name has been synonymous for years with consumer media (internet and mobile) and cleantech. Those continue to be key themes in India as well. But in addition, India holds tremendous promise in areas such as healthcare, education, logistics/distribution, and retail. I often joke that the sure shot way of making money in India is to open an institution that is a combination of a school, hospital and a temple. The key challenge that companies face in India is truly around scale. The possible online revolution holds promise (whether that happens on the PC or the mobile phone, remains to be seen), so consumer media is something that we are closely watching. Right now, a pure online play is still difficult in India. There is often a physical infrastructure required in terms of handholding, and servicing (examples are plenty in travel, matrimonial, jobs etc.). But it's a matter of when, not if, India will start hitting the types of numbers that China, for example, has shown around areas such as online gaming, ecommerce, entertainment, mobile infrastructure and applications to name a few. For PC based online penetration to get to critical mass, reliable power issues need to be addressed. In the meantime, the mobile phone may become the so-called First Screen. As connectivity improves, as feature-rich handsets become more affordable, and as new business models around new applications proliferate, the mobile revolution will continue to unfold. As an example, I was recently speaking with an entrepreneur who enables people to be able to capture voice, photos and video and send them as sms to their friends/family.

Additionally, other people can act as "mobile jockeys" broadcasting information or creating interactive mobile sessions with thousands of spectators or participants. What was astounding to me was the fact that 80percent of this company's registered user base was not in metros but in tier 2/3 towns, where more and more people can afford gprs handsets, but without reliable power, have no use for a TV or a PC, even though they have both in their homes. As a result, they resort to the mobile as the device for communication and entertainment.

Additionally, the entire BoP represents an enormous market, which provides opportunities for entrepreneurs in the same areas as mentioned above (financial services, healthcare, education, cleantech, mobile, retail…). The challenge yet again is scalability. Tapping a large yet fragmented user base holds promise but will be tough. But those who can crack it, will create large sustainable enterprises. The MFI movement is one such success story that is playing out. There will surely be others.

Bottom line: The T's (team, traction and technology) and the M (market) on the one hand are important for any business, but key to rising above the noise on the other hand is passion and conviction that are infectious. DFJ is interested in sectors that are large and growing, ideally where leveraging technology, one can build a solid trustworthy brand and create organization in an otherwise highly unorganized fragmented space.

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