Chinese investors wary of hyped-up Indian start-ups, look for hidden gems

Compared to China, the start-up culture in India is still in a junior status, reports Tech in Asia

Chinese investors are finding different ways to discover India. Take the case of ZDream Ventures based in Beijing and Gurgaon.

It was founded in 2015 by two Chinese entrepreneurs, Li Jian and Jason Wang. Li Jian is an experienced hand in India where he was the public affairs manager for Huawei. From negotiating with telecom authorities to resolve security concerns to easing visas for Chinese visitors, he was at the centre of building new business relations between the giant neighbors. Later, he headed the Chindia chamber of commerce and set up consultancy firm Draphant to help Chinese enterprises enter the Indian market. ZDream is his latest venture.

His co-founder at ZDream Ventures, Jason Wang, had a different, but equally insightful grounding on the scene in India as chief correspondent in Delhi for China Radio between 2010 and 2013. He later co-founded tech media site GI Gadgets in Beijing.

Compared to China, the start-up culture in India is still in a junior status.

Their first investment in India was Gurgaon-based Milkbasket, an interesting play in the grocery delivery space which saw some big flameouts last year, such as the closure of PepperTap. Milkbasket, on the other hand, claimed to have achieved positive unit economics within nine months by choosing to limit itself initially to a few products and growing from one locality to another instead of mass scaling.

“We deliver in clusters of households, so we can deliver a large number of orders at a low cost like a newspaper vendor,” Milkbasket CEO and co-founder Anant Goel had explained to Tech in Asia. It seems like a made-for-India model.
This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here