He remarked that VCs need to rethink how they finance and build long term companies in India and not just focus on an exit-focussed strategy
“I stay out of the VC ecosystem because I fundamentally don’t believe in it,” Vembu said
Zoho, not Vembu, is an investor in healthtech startup Voxelgrids, HR tech startup ePoise Systems, semiconductor company Signalchip and medical device company vTitan
SaaS startup Zoho is one of India’s bootstrapped unicorns. Its founder and Padma Shri awardee, Sridhar Vembu, has on numerous occasions maintained his distance from the fundraising system. Even during an event in Bengaluru, he asserted that VC-funded companies are too ‘exit focussed’.
“In Bengaluru, we are building a lot of companies, but the thing I see is missing is that a lot of these companies are exit focussed. There are too many VCs floating around who are too exit driven. That’s an incorrect strategy for our nation,” Vembu said during the Karnataka Government’s event on corporate governance.