Indian tech start-ups seek investment from China

The technology start-ups in India are looking for investments from Chinese companies like Cheetah Mobile. The booming Indian technology sector is attracting many tech companies in China to invest in these Indian techs start-up firms. India is a home to more than 18,000 start-up firms.

In November 2015, Cheetah mobile headed a $12 million funding round for the Indian-based maker of wearable fitness instruments, GOQii, managed by Vishal Gondal. According to Alex Yao, senior vice president of Cheetah Mobile, India seems to be the future growth driver for the worldwide internet market owing to the dense population, increasing internet exposure and robust economic conditions.

Chinese tech companies want to use this opportunity to stimulate their investment in the Indian lands. As part of this investment strategy, Cheetah expects to sign a minimum of 20 deals in the following two years to broaden its business portfolio in India. However, Industry numbers show that it is hard to receive new investments in 2016 as the number of foreign deals in India dropped during the fourth quarter of 2015. Moreover, technology investors like SoftBank and venture capital funds in Silicon Valley are less attracted by the boom in Indian technology sector, Financial Times said.

According to Vani Kola, Kalaari Capital's managing director, although it is tougher to raise capital, investment managers along with global pension funds started supporting domestic start-up firms. She added that Chinese tech giants are looking to spend in India to enrich their portfolio base.

Chinese investment in India began when Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, invested $680 million in PayTM, a payment firm in India. This move by Jack Ma was tailed by Tencent, a China-based internet company, which headed a funding round of $90 million for Practo, a health tech firm, in August 2015. Last month, Baidu said that it was planning to invest in three start-up firms in India, including Zomato. Many Chinese companies believe they can harvest successes by sowing in Indian lands.

Meanwhile, start-up investors are expecting a lower tax rate on their capital gains as they face greater risk than the public companies. The Indian Express quoted Rajat Tandon, VP of Nasscom 10,000 Start-ups, who want a reorganised tax rates for start-up investors as it involves a great risk in investing in start-ups at an initial phase. He added that indirect and direct tax rates must be reversed for these investors in order to lower their acquiescence burden and cash flows.

According to Jalak Jobanputra, FuturePerfect Ventures' managing partner, said that despite the ongoing global market hurdles, Indian markets continue to lure tech giant investors with huge capital to invest in the nation's internet industry. She continued that these capitalists must need to concentrate more on their financial metrics, International Business Times said.

India is the third largest country with many start-up firms and the growing technology sector attracts many overseas investors to invest in the Indian markets. Chinese companies believe they can win a dominance presence in India by investing in their start-ups.