India is home to the third-largest start-up community in the world. We have been partnering with Indian start-ups for over 15 years, throughout their lifecycle – while starting-up, scaling and expanding.
PwC recognises that challenges faced by a start-ups changes as the business scales. We provide necessary insights and advice needed by start-up founders and management build a resilient company
Indian startups had a blockbuster CY21 with approximately USD 35 billion raised, a 3x increase compared to CY20 and largely driven by FinTech, EdTech and SaaS.
We can see that the base of the companies in the growth stage and late-stage deals have improved significantly in CY21, depicting a stronger base of companies having the potential to reach unicorn status. With market sentiments favourably inclined towards startups, and the large base of scaled startup companies at the end of CY21, we expect the startups unicorn tally to go well beyond 100 by the end of 2022.
Despite uncertainties in the global economic environment, Indian startups have continued to attract capital, particularly in the growth capital stage. As more start-ups mature, conversations around corporate governance are now becoming mainstream. It will become increasingly important for Indian start-ups to design a corporate governance road-map synced with organisational growth aspirations.
PwC supports the Indian startup ecosystem across their entire value chain – from starting up a new business, disrupting the existing status quo and to sustaining market leadership thereafter. To help analyse the latest trends in the startup space in India, PwC speaks to industry experts about startup valuations, growth strategy, global expansion plans and the outlook for startups operating in various segments.
Ep 7: Mohit Jhawar, Director - Corporate Development at Flipkart discusses how startups can tide over global funding slowdown and emerge stronger.
Understand how VC funds are embedding ESG into their investment decisions and supporting their portfolio startups in their ESG transformation journeys.
Know how India healthcare startups evolved with new care delivery models during and after the pandemic.
PwC is the knowledge partner for ICONN 2022
Session on Last Mile Logistics: Opportunity for Startups
Electric vehicles - The Future of mobility
Investing in the clean energy domain
India - Singapore Startup Scale-up Strategies
Vendor due diligence services
For start-ups looking to raise funds or divest their business, vendor due diligence helps in avoiding ‘late surprises’ and the risk of value destruction during buy-side due diligence. Not much time would spent on buyer or investor due diligence which, in turn, minimises disruption to the ongoing business operations.
Global/ overseas expansion
We partner with start-ups in their global expansion journey (whether organic/ inorganic) and advise on investment structures, jurisdictional analysis, business model reviews, funding mechanisms, transfer pricing policies, Indian regulatory compliances and other requirements by leveraging the experience of our global network.
Raise private equity funds
We partner with high growth Start-ups across a wide range of sectors and regions for fund-raising and beyond. We help start-ups achieve a successful fund-raise on good terms, giving them more time to focus on growing their business.
Becoming and staying compliant
A business has to undertake multiple compliances across jurisdictions. As businesses grow, they struggle to keep up with compliances in a timely manner. Further, given the normal rate of attrition in organisations, it becomes difficult for them to track documents. We assist organisations in automating the process of undertaking the requisite compliances through our technology solutions. The solutions are tailored based on industry and global presence and enable real-time monitoring.
Employee compensation strategies
Hiring the best talent is key to a start-up’s success. We help start-ups evaluate and select the alternatives that works best for them – employee stock purchase scheme (ESPS), employee stock option plans (ESOPs) and stock appreciation rights (SARs).
Cybersecurity
When it comes to cybersecurity, no business is too small to be targeted by hackers. With data having become the new oil, there has been a tremendous shift in the focus and motive of cyberattacks. We can help start-ups develop an architecture to secure themselves against the risk of cyberattacks.
IPO strategy
An initial public offering (IPO) is a cornerstone event for an organization, and preparation for “being public” is just as important as preparation for “going public.” Gaining maximum value from an IPO requires confidence, decisiveness and the right foundation for success.
We assist start-ups in evaluating the various alternatives for going public –Indian/ overseas listing/ special purpose acquisition vehicles, etc. – to help maximise returns for shareholders.
Data and analytics
Our specialist team brings end-to-end consulting capabilities for data and analytics across industries. We can help start-ups optimise data assets and make the right decisions faster by providing them actionable insights and business outcomes using AI/ ML-based analytics solutions. In addition, we help start-ups find new sources of revenue and capitalise on the untapped business intelligence they already own.
Building a responsible business: Value-led ESG
For start-ups, transparency and gaining investor confidence in value creation are imperative. We help such companies navigate this journey. Our approach to ESG is holistic and well-integrated with how start-ups do business. We help start-ups understand where to begin by developing their ESG strategy and building an achievable roadmap. We also empower start-ups to present non-financial value creation in a way that investors, customers and their supply chain partners appreciate.
Ethics and governance
A strong governance framework helps a business supervise growth, ensure transparency, prevent revenue leakages, and instil organisational culture, which in turn enhances its overall brand value. We assist start-ups in setting up an effective and efficient governance framework, fraud risk management, monitoring and incident management programme that corresponds to their requirements.
Growth through eXperience (GtX)
We support in benchmarking start-up’s current customer experience against industry through a customer experience (CX) audit. Further, support in improving user experience (UX)/user interface (UI), brand refresh and renew GTM (Go to Markets).
The startup world is defined by bold bets taken by visionary entrepreneurs on disruptive themes. However, selecting the right investment targets with sound future-ready business models is as much a craft as it is a science, especially when data is hard to come by.
PwC combines deep primary research capabilities, with robust understanding of end-use sectors and vast experience in startup business models - to help add weight and logic to complex investment decisions. What's more - we help you get these customised insights at a rapid pace, so that your investment decisions align to the pace of your deal process.
Any organisation considering a potential deal must evaluate all pertinent parameters of the investment. An unbiased due diligence is necessary as it analyses and validates all financial, commercial, operational and strategic aspects of the deal.
PwC can assist you in identifying key business drivers and KPIs, value adjustments and other significant matters to ensure that you make an informed decision on the transaction.
During any investment decision - questions often arise: What is the fair value? What maximum price should be paid? At the same time, various stakeholders and regulators are demanding greater transparency through fair value reporting and emphasising on the importance of valuations.
PwC brings together professionals with extensive valuation, technical accounting, corporate finance, tax, strategy, and deep industry experience to help you measure, analyse and report on a broad range of valuation issues.
As organisations pivot toward becoming digital, more data is generated exponentially and shared among organisations, business partners and customers.
PwC can help you in IT due diligence procedures to assess the robustness of the target’s IT platform and its performance efficiency.
The world of regulation is continually evolving. All regulated and designated businesses face regulatory challenges, regardless of size or sector. Taking a proactive approach to regulatory compliance is the best way businesses can prepare and respond to these changes to mitigate risk and protect themselves.
PwC can help you understand target’s compliance with regulatory challenges, while strengthening trust.
Sumit on the value proposition, growth of B2B e-commerce startups and why multiple unicorns have emerged from the space.
Watch Ganesh discuss platformisation, regulatory compliance and global trends impacting the fintech space in India.
Know how big organisations are partnering with new-age tech startups and what is driving these strategic alliances.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
PwC's curated podcast playlist, built to help you tackle your most pressing issues as a startup in today's world
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
