India’s startup world is chasing tech valuations with out the tech to again it up, mentioned Shark Tank India decide and Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal, calling out what he sees as a rising phantasm on the coronary heart of the ecosystem.
Talking at an occasion hosted by Grip Make investments, Mittal mentioned India lacks corporations that may match the innovation and profitability of U.S. tech giants like Apple, Meta, and Google. “We have now corporations posing as tech,” he mentioned. “Everybody desires the tag—it unlocks greater valuations.”
He recalled recognizing an actual property agency branding itself as a “client tech firm” in a newspaper advert. “It’s absurd,” he mentioned. “That is the form of branding that misleads traders.”
Mittal drew a line between true tech corporations—these pushed by proprietary expertise and robust margins—and what he referred to as “tech-enabled” companies that merely use digital instruments to function. “Be extraordinarily cautious,” he warned. “If you are going to give it a 5–7x income a number of, ask whether or not it is actually tech or simply utilizing tech.”
Corporations like Zomato or Uber, he famous, depend upon tech however don’t meet the benchmark for pure tech valuation. “Principally in India, it’s tech-enabled or posing as tech. Actual tech is uncommon,” he mentioned.
Mittal’s remarks land at a time when traders, particularly retail ones, are navigating a panorama crowded with startups wanting to put on the tech badge—whether or not or not they’ve earned it.
