Good Indian startups

Peerzada Abrar, ET Bureau

(Growing proficiency of…)

The growing proficiency of Indian technology companies in building innovative products is drawing a great deal of attention from global corporations eager to acquire fresh ideas and skilled workers.

Applications that help ease online payments, offer security for data stored on multiple devices as well as those that help drive greater advertising revenue on mobile devices are some of the technologies on the shopping list of multinationals scouting for the right startup. In the next five years, experts say at least 40 technology ventures in India could be bought over by large corporations.

"Couple of them (startups) will be valued at over $1 billion (Rs 6, 200 crore), " said Ravi Gururaj, an angel investor who heads the software product council at industry lobby Nasscom. He expects about half a dozen technology ventures to be valued at around $500 million (Rs 3, 100 crore) while the rest will likely fetch a price of between $15 million (Rs 93 crore) and $50 million (Rs 311 crore).

A handful of such acquisitions has already set the ball rolling. Last November, Japanese engineering and electronics maker Hitachi acquired Prizm Payment Services, in a deal estimated at 0 million (Rs 1, 547 crore). In mid 2013, South African media conglomerate Naspers bought online bus ticketing firm red-Bus for about 0 million (Rs 618 crore), giving it access to not only the large Indian market but disruptive technology as well.

"Multinational companies primarily look for talent and intellectual property that can compete at global level, " said Prashant Gupta, group manager at Microsoft India (R&D). "There are early signs in India that such companies are emerging that can meet these demands, especially in cloud-driven application lifecycle and big data, " he said.

The global software maker runs an accelerator programme in India for technology startups that has graduated 22 ventures so far and is poised to make its first venture investment this year.