China’s huge money in Indian Startups! Is It Easy To Boycott China?

Anti-China sentiment has taken over the country like a storm in the past few days after the land clashes fueled between the two countries leading many soldiers being martyred. It is absolutely clear that China has no intention to make peace with India unless India kneels down to its stringent conditions. This feud has led to the idea of boycotting Chinese products amongst the citizens of the country as a form of protest and rebellion. China has become an enormous manufacturing giant over the last few years. Its export capacity and its penetration into the Indian economy are huge. This makes the idea of boycotting Chinese products even more critical. China has its input in almost every industry including pharmaceuticals, smartphones & technology, toys industry etc. and the Indian startups are no exception. China has been a heavy investor in the Indian startup market which has given the country new-age entrepreneurs and opened employment opportunities for youth. This has also propelled the technological push India needed for a long while making the Indian market more innovative and pioneering both. But the aftermath of recent military escalations across the border can stunt this ever-increasing growth and affect the Indian startup ecosystem, which is third largest in the world now. When taking a look at how involved is China with the Indian economy it safe to say that China is embedded in the economy no matter what lens you look through. Huge investments by Chinese firms have backed up unicorns and budding startups both.

Here are a few Chinese investors who are hugely prominent in the Indian startup ecosystem-

Ant Financial 

Also known as Alibaba, it is the fintech arm of the giant Chinese Conglomerate Alibaba Group. It is has invested more than $2.7 billion across various Indian startups. Owned by Jack-Ma,  it has heavily pumped money into big startups like paytm and even separately funded its e-commerce arm paytm-mall and other startups like Snapdeal, BigBasket, Zomato among a few others. Not to forget that Alibaba is the single largest shareholder of paytm which reveals the investor’s strong goals for the future. 

Tencent 

A competitor for Ant and one of the aggressive investors in the Indian startups it has eyed to invest in another set of major companies like Flipkart, Swiggy and Ola. Tencent also runs its equivalent of WhatsApp in China called WeChat which has an almost $2 billion exposure across 15+ startups of India. Among many well-known startups in India, it has also invested in insurance aggregator policybazaar, growing startups like Ni-Yo (Bengaluru based banking app). It shows how Tencent is very bravely diversifying its portfolio investing in different types of firms as it had also invested in ed-tech platform Byju’s and sports fantasy gaming firm Dream11.

Xiomi

Yes, you read it right. After taking a huge chunk of market share under its umbrella through their high performing and affordable smartphones it has also been an active investor. Its aim has been to strengthen its hardware & software ecosystem through investment in Indian startups.  It has invested in Sharechat- an Indian regional social media platform, Krazybee- India’s largest student credit platform. One of their top officials said earlier that they were aiming to pump in 6000-7000 crores across 100 Indian startups by 2023. 

Shunwei Capital

Shunwei Capital, reportedly managing assets worth $3 billion and founded by Xiaomi founders Lei Jun and Tuck Lye Koh, had co-led a $5.5 million (about Rs 40 crore) investment round in regional language podcast app Kuku FM in February this year. It also has its money in leading startups like Zomato, Krazybee and newer players like Meesho- a reselling app. With almost $129 million worth of investment across 17 companies, Shunwei Capital is one of the major investors in the circle. 

Fosun Group

Founded in 2013, one of the fastest emerging investors in the Indian startup ecosystems has already invested more than $85 million in 12+ startups. Other receivers have been Ixigo, Delhivery, LetsTransport, Mylo etc. It has been experimenting with investments in sectors ranging from education, real estate, TMT – technology, media, and telecom – all across the world. Though it believes in small investments in multiple firms unlike Tencent & Ant certainly, India is one of the prospective markets for Fosun in the coming future too. 

There are other investors including Hillhouse Capital, TR Capital, SAIF Partners, Steadview capitals etc. those keep a keen eye for investments in India.