The Man Behind Angry Birds, Peter Vesterbacka, Says Indian Startups Should Tap Europe As A Market. He Led A Nordic Delegation To India Earlier This Year
From our ancestors to modern-age tech gurus, Indians have known the power of working together for centuries and India has been a frontrunner in collaborating with other countries to lead the baton of innovation and change.
With startups being the new age business mantra across sectors and geographies, countries have been forming collaborations thick and fast to bolster their startup ecosystems. Beyond governments, individual industry stalwarts and many others have also taken the onus to identify opportunities for mutual growth and collaborations.
One such partnership champion is Peter Vesterbacka, a Finnish mobile game developer and the former chief marketing officer at Rovio Entertainment, the maker of the popular Angry Birds video game franchise. So, when Peter led a Nordic delegation to India in February, Inc42 caught up with him for a Facebook Live AMA and talked to him about his trip and his thoughts on the Indian startup ecosystem.
Peter Vesterbacka believes that India is a huge market with a lot of talent. Further, with ongoing developments in the technology and startup domain, several Indians are coming back to the country. At the same time, he believes that many leading entrepreneurs of Indian origin are making stuff happen in Silicon Valley.
“The same thing happened in China. All Chinese entrepreneurs went and studied in Europe and the US. And when things started taking off, they moved back to China. And, now you see the same here,” he explained.
Further, Angry Birds founder added that he believes that Indian and Nordic companies can complement each other in the global startup landscape and the two countries can play a mutual role in developing their ecosystems.
Peter Vesterbacka said, “And I think this is something because the startup ecosystem, by its very nature, is global. That’s one reason why we are here as we have many startups that could contribute massively to the startups in Asia, particularly in India. But I think we should also think the other way round. So, when a lot of startups think what to do next, they think of going to Silicon Valley and raising some money.”
He also recommended Indian startups to go to Europe because it’s a huge market. Vesterbacka said that the European Union is the biggest market on the planet, while the US is at number two, and China comes in at the third position.
Angry Birds founder also explained that several Chinese startups are now setting up shop in Helsinki, Finland, to take on the European market. An example of this is Tencent acquiring Supercell.
Peter Vesterbacka wrapped up, “So, together we can do amazing things. And we should do more between India and the Nordics, between India and Europe, and it should be obvious to do these on all levels.”
