NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, January 6, 2017

Lately, there is a bit of China in some of the top Indian startups, from e-commerce platform Snapdeal and mobile wallet giant Paytm to ride sharing company Ola and travel portal MakeMyTrip.

In the last year or so, India’s startups have seen an influx of investments from China’s top technology firms Alibaba and Tencent.

The biggest highlight was Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding and its finance arm Ant Financial. Aiming to gain a stronger foothold in the country’s surging internet retail space, they invested a combined $680 million in mobile wallet Paytm. Alibaba’s investment is bearing fruit now, as Paytm, riding the demonetisation wave and ongoing cashless economy drive in India, has been witnessing over a million transaction per week since last November.

Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings led a $175 million funding in WhatsApp’s India rival Hike, and prior to that, it led a $90 million round in healthcare startup Practo. Tencent, through its joint venture with South Africa’s Naspers, also invested in Indian online travel firm Ibibo Group. Similarly, Ctrip, one of China’s largest online travel companies, also invested $180 million in travel portal MakeMyTrip.