Greater opportunities lie ahead for India: Kalaari Capital’s Vani Kola

India is on the cusp of possibilities and the entrepreneurs should try and tap the potential that lies ahead for the next decade, said Vani Kola, Founder and MD of Kalaari Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm. 

At the keynote speech at YourStory’s flagship startup-tech event TechSparks 2023, she said entrepreneurial reach, vision and aspiration should be used to create India’s next biggest companies, adding that the momentum was already there and the opportunity should be used to create immense value. 

“I think the theme of Techade is exciting and the opportunity for technology to disrupt over the next decade is exciting. India is sitting on the cusp of possibilities and we are sitting in the right environment and the right cycle for entrepreneurs right now,” she said at the summit.

Kola sounded bullish on the potential for technology services to drive value. In the last two decades, FAANG companies—Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google—have dominated the world and the next decade could now be about Indian entrepreneurs creating solutions in the domains of knowledge and science. 

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The investor also emphasised that India has changed and come a long way in the last 30 years.

Around 60% of urban India now shops online and about 40% of transactions are online. Brands are going "phygital", Kola noted. She expects core frameworks like UPI and upcoming frameworks such as Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) will help create the infrastructure layer that will be used over the next decade. 

There's also an opportunity for founders to become leaders as being a founder is not the same as being a leader for the industry, and being able to create impact and significance, Kola said. She emphasised that while breaking the rules of innovation and technology, startups should ensure that they don't break the rules of governance.

However, Kola also underlined that there is “no shortcut to success,” adding that it was easy to get trapped in the “valuation insanity” and that every entrepreneur needs to think about why they started on this path and they need to stay true to their motivations.

The VC firm has so far raised $850 million in total capital and has funded over 110 companies, including fitness startup Cult.fit and agritech company AGRIM.

(Disclaimer: Kalaari Capital is an investor in YourStory.)