PM Modi meets PE, VC investors to discuss ways of boosting inbound investment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met leading investors from the private equity and venture capital (VC) industry on Friday to understand how India could showcase its startup ecosystem on the global stage, as well as boost inbound investment, just months ahead of the Budget Meeting for the next fiscal year.

PM Modi cited key reforms to highlight the government’s proactive steps to improve the ease of doing business in the country.

These include initiatives like PM Gati Shakti to create a seamless multi-modal transport network, and the government’s role to help more startups set up shop, he said.

The investors who attended the meeting included Rajan Anandan, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital, Prashanth Prakash of Accel Partners, Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman of TVS Capital, Renuka Ramnath, Founder of Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Munish Verma, Managing Partner of Softbank, Amit Dalmia, Senior Managing Director of Blackstone, and Siddarth Pai of 3one4 Capital.

The Prime Minister sought suggestions from the attendees on further improving business operations in India, and committed to resolve the challenges that have been highlighted by the business community.

Sandeep Naik, Managing Director, Head of India and Asia Pacific, General Atlantic said the firm plans to increase its investment in India over the next decade.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next 10 years, we invest between $10 billion and $15 billion in India because this is one of the most critical destinations for us globally,” he was reported as saying.

The representatives of the VC and private equity industry also spoke about how India has immense entrepreneurial potential, and gave suggestions about how that could be realised at a global scale.

The investing community lauded the initiatives undertaken by PM Modi, and agreed that India is a critical investment hub for the world.

Siddarth Pai, Founding Partner at 3one4 Capital, termed Modi the ‘Startup Prime Minister’, while Accel’s Prashanth Prakash said there are a lot of great opportunities in the agritech space.

Shantanu Nalavadi of India Resurgent, Manish Kejriwal of Kedaara Capital, Ankur Gupta from Brookfield, Mukul Arora of Elevation Capital, and Sehraj Singh of Prosus were also present at the meeting.