 Hi everyone, this is Sonali. Thank you all for carving out some time for attending today's webinar on the episode 26 of the BusinessX Learning Series, Invest, Scale, Value and Exit. To all the attendees out there, please type in any questions you might have in the Q&A section and we'll try to answer as many as possible at the end of the session. I would now like to welcome our speaker, Mr. Gaurav Mahra, Chairman and Founder of the Franchise India Group. A very warm welcome to you, sir. Thank you, Sonali and welcome friends and welcome to another edition with BusinessX. And very, very happy New Year to you because this is a year where we are all looking positively to the outlook of our businesses and the economy and so on. While I think we are still in between of a little bit of uncertainty how things are going to shape up and today's session is actually going to be that while in the last 25 odd sessions, what we have done is that we have really talked about largely about how to invest, scale, exit and value your businesses and today I'm going to take about a little bit of overview about how I think outlook of 2021 is going to look like, how 2021 would shape, what kind of changes would happen, especially in the investment space, how investors are going to look at it. But before we go 2021, we need to really go and see what happened in 2020 and this year looks promising, but we have to also really look at what happened in the last year. And the last year was I would say exceptionally challenging, especially for some kind of businesses because I felt that some businesses were not able to really cover up and they were not able to come up to the point where they can pivot themselves and especially some hot startups really which were doing extremely well pre-COVID, I mean one of them say OYO or places like that, brands like that, so they really had a huge amount of challenges and we would certainly have to expect the next quarter to tell us the real results on how this needs to be done. But still I mean overall if you look at the industry viewpoint, there's some of the facts which I will share with you, there were 765 transactions still happened, which is a great news from this is only April to December data. We had about nine companies which started really ending the valuations of becoming unicorns, 8.4 billion dollar was raised that's also it's not a significant number if you really see a size of India viewpoint, I mean 8.4 billion dollar is not a significant number but it's still being done, which is obviously 30% lesser than what happened in 2019. But a lot of other things happened, I mean a lot of early stage startups really had to shut down, I mean I think a lot of businesses which were built to raise and then they were expecting their the first round or the second round to happen around the first quarter were not able to sustain that long. And some of the companies and especially the incubation centers I am closely working with we saw some kind of challenges, some have paused the business that's still not a bad news, the reality would be that how much they would be able to come back and start sustaining that would be a question to me, but a lot of people are on a pause mode, if you started a startup say late 2019 and you didn't was able to do that, so you reduced your cost, you paused this entire thing, were you just managing your business, but not doing too much at this stage. I would see some of them would start coming this quarter and that would start showing some kind of a better trend to happen. But another thing which we saw in 2020 was a lot of realistic valuations, I think the valuations came down to a little realistic level. Good sign which I've started seeing especially in the last two quarters is you know the first quarter when this all happened the money flow from at least the HNI and the large corporate stopped coming in because they were worried about their own businesses and how this would turn out and so on and as the businesses started opening the family funds really started coming back, so I am seeing a good trend now in that especially in some sectors I think good trends are already coming which is like health tech, edutect is one of the most exciting industries, while I would say a lot of changes would happen in the edutect space. FinTech was a little slow, it was not something which was to his expectation, FMCG saw a lot of investment went into FMCG, I would say FMCG food processing, this would continue to see a very strong I think gaming, OTT became again while India is not a big player on that but I think we would see a more startups and more opportunities really coming in the OTT space and enterprise software would continue to be study growth, so that's something which was still very very structured. But as we start looking at a path to recovery and I think the focus is clearly for people to not only just focus on the survival and sustainability but also go back to profitability and growth and that shift I think would have to be defined and which companies would be ready from moving from survival and sustainability, that's something which we've been talking the entire 2020 that everybody is talking about the survival and sustainability but now I think companies are investors are particularly looking at companies which can demonstrate growth but with profitability, that's something which is very very important, the only growth or scale I think would not be the really mantra of going forward, if you can demonstrate a bottom line along with that, that would be probably the next step to happening. Some of the sectors which I would see a particular large amount of focus going in is this vocal for local, today also Prime Minister came up and talked about it, while I have not seen so much being done in terms of the real policies coming out which can encourage a large amount of startups coming in that space and helping them to really get some kind of early liquidity, some kind of sport especially on the manufacturing side, I don't see much has already happened but there is a willingness, there is obviously a positive message, there is obviously a gap in the government funding also, so they don't have too much to really go out and create larger initiatives what they did in the startup India part of it but I feel that there is a clear intent from a Prime Minister's office and the Netia Yog and other players, they are looking at very clearly pushing this agenda, so this agenda should really create a lot of new startups coming in the manufacturing space and also to export opportunities and so on so a lot of good will happen and India obviously would take a edge on a couple of categories which I think can be a very interesting opportunity going forward. So we are going to talk about today in terms of what is outlook for 2021 and how the next year would frame up and some of the also areas which I felt was very important for the investors to look at is how you performed in these nine months, particularly in the last nine months if the companies are able to sustain themselves and they are able to really put some kind of structure and demonstrate that they were really built that and some were very rational, they were just very, very, they just wanted to put the business at stop and not able to do that but few of them really started pivoting themselves and started looking at that a new way of doing business and so on so to me those companies which have done I would say reasonably in the last nine months would attract better investors. So investors would not go all over now, I think the money is would still be difficult to attain but I think they would start going into businesses which have been more resilient and resilient businesses which would have not only focused on the top line part of it but they've also really bottom line, they were actually able to do in this period, I have seen, I've known some of the good startups, they were able to really find ways to generate their own cash so they started doing some kind of interaction because it was forced upon them so they started finding ways to really look at generating cash. There was overall sustainability in the structure, the structure was manageable, I think that's very, very important and some startups really went out of proportion so they're not able to manage any kind of adversity so any sustainable infrastructure was there that would be able to do that. Another area which is the new working way of doing things, some startups were not able to really do that but a lot of startups, I would say this is the area which we have done well as a that we have started adapting to this remote working and alliances and another area which I feel has been a very important highlight is that how your organizational structure was, how you're designed as a company, what your HR structure was, some very heavy HR structures didn't do well, I mean and they had to, I mean the company like Curefit or this fitness company which was promoted by one of the founders of Mentra, he actually had to let go about 600 odd people in the first month itself. To me it's a big call, it's a big call for the financial health of the business but to get back to the same structure to bring the whole organization back with the confidence would take a lot of challenge and doing that so they are also shifting. A lot of companies are also now shifting their models to asset light so they are looking at like in my other company, we're getting a lot of companies coming to us and they're shifting into franchise model like grophers have come to us, they've been a pure play online company, they've shifted themselves to now doing physical stores but all franchise businesses. Similarly, a lot of companies are now looking rather than putting their own K-Packs, they are looking at capital light growth models which to me makes a lot of sense that you can shift to not putting your own capital and put the capital whatever you have reserve capital into critical areas, critical areas are consumer experience and things of that nature but not necessarily go and put monies into which we're depreciating assets and so on so you can really bring in partners so a lot of these micro partnerships or franchising or licensing or things of that nature has started coming in because the other capital was scared to get so this all is making a lot of changes in that thing so I feel that we are on the right track, we are right track for our path to profitability but we have to keep our unit economics in mind. Any path to profitability should really continue to see and you need to divide your organization into smaller units and each unit has to see its own economics and you need to really balance that economics, that proportion should not lose, we should not go on to old ways of doing business just because of the field and building very very rational that how you want to really build this situation so that you don't go out of proportion so your unit economics of everything what you're doing is to be done very well. Some of the sectors I feel which would rise in the times to come and which has already done well in the last nine months and I think also would do better or is like surprisingly HR tech has done well, clean tech has done well, retail tech has been slow, it was lost, it has come back and a lot of these hyper local delivery direct-to-home kind of infrastructure so a lot of technology is going to be done there, we're still very very far from what we really had to have as a last mile user experience but I think that space is going to be very interesting. Mobility is where I would put my top dollar, I would say the mobility would have a very strong presence from India, India would see this especially this EV space for next four or five years or maybe more would have a very very strong capability. Other sectors which I think need more push and not too many startups up there is AgriTech, AgriTech can be a very large opportunity for India so these are areas which we need to really put more focus on so these are kind of opportunities which I would say there would be a bigger opportunity. A lot of reinvestment would also be done, I think some companies which have survived and done well they would go back to their investors and probably try to do another round with them and I think the investors would also be welcoming that situation because I feel rather than going out and investing into fresh assets if your assets have done well and they have survived this period, reinvesting in back to in the same businesses would make more sense and it will give confidence back to the promoters or founders of the companies that you are backing them at this stage. So I am actually more of the viewpoint that you should really back some of the businesses which have been there and surviving rather than looking at a fresh investment so I feel that the new startups would still continue to have a little challenge in terms of getting capital unless and only you are something which is very destructive and very clearly suited to current environments and so on so forth but companies which have been running and commercially proven and they would be able to attract more capital in these times so that is one of my view point on that and that where at least I would like to put my dollar on and I would like to put on businesses which already are commercially viable and those are the businesses which would be able to attract the another thing which would be also I think in last nine months was more about how do you preserve the whatever has been built I think consciously the next two quarters I think we will see the growth spots coming in and these growth spots would clearly be not going everywhere it would become deeper in the markets so that would be I think also should be demonstrated I know a lot of startup and I always give this example like OYO went out in multiple other spaces which was not good to do because they were expanding everywhere they were expanding globally and they were also doing a lot of vertical expansion and that's something which has to cut down I would see that a lot of assets which are non-core for businesses which would come in the market and there would be a consolidation on that so say if OYO went into a wedding business or a venue business to me that business has to be shelled off and to be integrated with much larger player much focused player to create a sensible venue business for that and I think or if you had something else which was fitting into your business model it might have to be shelled off to clearly define value and I think this would be one of the areas which investors have to put the thinking hat and say that where they would like to see their companies, dynasty companies make a conscious call on focus on key businesses and let out all the other businesses which are not part of their core capabilities and so on so now if I have to define few things which I would like to see where the funding would come in the 2021 what people would like to do. Second first is some points I will share with you one point I'm a big believer is the clarity of founders with their objectives and motivation that's very very clear all the money really follows founders very clearly the founders have to have a very clear what they want to do and at this stage they cannot sound confused they need to be even more laser clear where they are and what they want to do in next two to three years and very clearly in a short term define where is the cash coming from and how we want to be making a sense on that at this stage nobody is listening on two-year horizon or a three-year horizon well that would be a parameter but they would like to see end of tunnel at least from a cash generation viewpoint you know I think recently one of the companies which we work with was acquired by a ad to take company and clearly the answer was that it was generating cash and there was a certain amount of market share they were sitting on they got a good valuation and they were acquired by a big ad to take a business so clearly that if you are in that space where there is some kind of a value could been built you would be able to do that. Second is core valuation a core value proposition if you are very clear about your core value proposition who you stand for what is your product where it is needs to be done who is your customer base all that pieces has to be clearly clearly defined then only I think investors are looking at. Third point to me is focus on one market at the time don't spread thin that's not the case at this moment like a lot of companies are coming to me and I give them advice that if you are going to compete with the giants tomorrow first try to create your own cluster fix that cluster create a kind of entry barrier in that cluster rather than just spreading thin don't go everywhere like there is about now 212 EV startups in the country which are registered themselves as EV manufacturers electric vehicle manufacturers these are big Williams also but there are a lot of startups are coming now everybody is trying to go everywhere you cannot do that it's very difficult to do it so I'm advising these companies that you create clusters take one state go out and do a full one deep down cluster focus on one market create your value in that so tomorrow then the big boys really start doing it there would be value proposition you would have built in you'll create your own audience group and that's how the business has to be done so we need to really see that not every company would really have ability or financial capability to go all over so they need to really see through that they focus on one market at a time another area which is going to be a huge challenge for businesses and startups especially is talent talent is going to be a big big problem we have been last nine months a lot of people have cut down cost released a lot of people are talented shy away now these days getting a talent and and eventually retaining them would become a big problem so you need to really see what are you going to do to get that because people are facing two issues you know most of the people who are seeking jobs are seeking two issues one they are looking absolutely stability so they're looking a long term stability they don't want to take any chances on that second whatever they have lost as a as their market price they want to go back or rather go back and maybe expect a little higher from the market price so this is very this is very emotionally to be handled and this has to be done in a and I think there is a more dropout so like there is a I don't want to name the company but this company really went out and hired a lot of people to work from home is a is a head of tech business and gave them a little pieces so a lot of people joined in because they didn't have jobs because they felt that this was an opportunity which can give them some extra cash as fast they got this numbers up they're losing equally fast because as your market would start coming in people would go back to them and so the opportunist approach towards talent would not work anymore so people would have to really look at a permanent solution on so more hiring now you do don't do it from an opportunity viewpoint because you're getting talented cheaper price or something like that you need to now start looking at good talent which is available and you have to might give up a little higher so how do you design businesses to understand that design your organization structures in a manner that you are you're not heavy on talent but good talent is going to be a difficulty for a lot of businesses another area which you need to do is how do you design your organization would also change and I think the older way of doing your organizational design might not work so one of the TED talks I was talking about that the new design organizations have to be very different it has to be not by the departments of sales marketing and things that I would say the new departments have to emerge like creativity can be one which drives innovation resides chain cycles and so on so that's going to be one of the departments second is doing objectivity in everything which is done in the organization should have a strong objectivity while you're doing it and what is in that accountability accountability for every single stakeholder in the in the business has to be very important and fourth is the purpose a purpose starts missing you know why are we to start businesses because we want to create some kind of a solution you know for some problem and most of the time the problem is with the human life and and things of that nature so in in any human if there was a some problem which we clearly can define and we create a solution for that that's what the commerce really is all about so this is what one has to really define what was the purpose you started this business and what what was the problem you wanted to really solve and understand that we are very clear and keep reminding ourselves on that business will not do that so that would be very important aspect six point would be to me how you are commission hanged in this period so while we all understand our businesses and state of our businesses but we don't understand what is happening this period for the competition as it moved up how is it going down what is an opportunity where it is so new assessment of your competitive landscape has to be very clearly done so that we are able to understand where is a where is the competition where is opportunity for you some of the sectors I think there is a there is a good opportunity for you to really go out and lead the way because the competition is not so aggressive at this moment for for various reasons and so this for so people have different situations at this moment and their businesses so you have to really assess your own competition to see where you are so finally I think I'm coming down to my next four or five minutes of my closing point I would see that the the area which would really create a focus for 2021 would be the expectation would be clearly how do you stay focused on on you know the purpose of the business how do you stay focused on your digital adaptation digital adaptation is very very important and they demonstrate your scaling which would also not mean that you scale without showing commercial success in a near term and I think which is two quarters or three quarters opportunities in India I think a tremendous amount of opportunities available I feel that there is a huge opportunity which was unlocked for a global collaborations a lot of companies global companies would see India as an opportunity to manufacture I feel that that's going to be or produce or any kind of a development so see our global collaborations work on you know reaching out rather than waiting for somebody to come out I would say even the early startups should really look out companies out of Europe US I feel that when the market start opening up a lot of collaboration that deals would happen focus on tier two tier three tier four India is very large as the marketplace so you need to really see how you spread yourself in these markets these markets have given especially at franchise India group we saw a huge amount of opportunity in last year 2020 I would say is a is a good year for franchise India but we all the business we really did was in smaller cities and smaller cities came as surprise to us we did more businesses in the Gwalior's in the Bhopal and and places like Ranchi and likes of them so these opportunities surprise you the kind of you know people liquidity people are sitting on the consumption which is happening in those markets would be much bigger now finally I would say this also would end this 2021 would also see a lot of MNA opportunities huge opportunities would come in one and I would divide these MNA opportunities into three parts one is very clearly in the relatively mature sectors any sector which is largely mature has struggled in last one year would have run out of cash or would have have declining margins which are sitting there in the business because of the lesser sales pressure on businesses the margin wouldn't I think so there would be a lot of consolidation would happen there in these mature relatively mature businesses it can be auto it can be telecom we obviously seen all the done but if there is an opportunity what they might be another you know merger would happen so MNA opportunities in mature sector is no brainer to me because of what has happened so there is a but in sunrise sectors like a edu tech or a fintech or companies like that I think it will be chasing the innovation anywhere you will have a spark of innovation because these companies are relatively now sized like the byjuus and the likes of them they would see any opportunity which is there but has to be driven from pure innovation because they are logically getting into a size where they would get to the market and things of that nature I also see a lot of IPOs coming in the in the 2021 this is going to be a IPO ride for this year and the next year and in these cases MNA becomes very interesting to really scale up your business to a certain size and structure and investors would push that situation so I would see a lot of work going on in the in the sunrise sector I would also see the third kind of MNA deals would come in which would be driven from investors and investors would push the smaller companies to merge together to create a logical size to attract future investments and so on so that would be I would say push mergers because investing companies if investors would look at an investing company then if they're not sizable they're not able to do that they would push these mergers together to make some kind of a logical business out of that and we saw that happening in 2008 we saw that in in early 2012-13 some of the companies were merged together to build some kind of a logical we saw in e-commerce a lot happening in that time I see the same thing now also coming up in this year so this year is going to be very interesting in that sense because we see a lot of changes happening at BusinessX we are aggressively working to help our startup community or our business community to raise capital and also help them in terms of you know if there's some you know looking at opportunities of MNA or looking at exit we are helping them are doing it. So over to you Sonali for if you have any questions for me then I can I can see on a Q&A box some questions are there so we can take some questions and then we can. Sure so thank you so much for another wonderful session Gaurav sir and for sharing your valuable insights with us I'm sure it was helpful to all our business owners and investors attending the session today so we do have quite a few questions lined up with us I'll just take them up one by one so the first question we have is will hospitality startups funding see any growth as the industry is very volatile right now you know so this is this is no brainer to me that this hospitality or travel would come back faster than we know as the business gets on the normal but rather it'll see spike and I would say this would be a greater opportunity to really look at but if anything interesting is there in the market investors would love to look at investments in this space and investors don't look at you know the current situation they look at future they look at how the how the businesses are going to unturn themselves in the next 3 to 4 or 5 years so I feel that we don't see the sector from a current performance of the sector viewpoint see the from a horizon viewpoint what it is going to do and that's how people invest and most of the times people invest into futuristic and look at what is happening on on this you know Tesla's valuation you know it's it's ridiculous you know it's a it's because of something which is futuristic it's something which is is taken from conventional car companies conventional technology from businesses a valuation to a very different level purely from thing which is he's going to unlock in next 4 or 5 10 years and so his balance sheet is not supporting that so so it's essentially so please try to understand if you have anything which is which is futuristic investors love it and they they like that situation they like the change they like the shift of the customer they like disruption so all these are very important aspects absolutely and on similar lines we have another question that says what are the new parts or sectors that are created due to the coronavirus pandemic where startups can emerge so I think this startup so in anything which is coronavirus has really one of the biggest thing is that how do you do businesses and run these businesses with remote situations in and you know automation to me was very important automated everything from manufacturing distribution everything would be very important so a lot of these ideas which were very clearly everybody spoke about uh in the past but never did it but in the covid they were pushed to do it and and like the startups which were in the logistics space uh to me came very very strong in this period and and they all performed there and and I would I would put even more money behind this sector because I feel that India still is far away from our logistic capabilities and doing it and all levels so so those are areas which I think have risen apart from the visible ones which we clearly know direct to home and and and to tech and other things and I think I still feel that there's a lot of other sectors which are the entire thing agree tech to me is a very strong case and this should have been one of the agendas you know which should be driven by the the the central government and so on so so we have a lot of sectors which can really improve lives of average Indian and and that shows all sectors to me would be very very promising sure the next question we have is what is the future prospects for real estate franchise sectors for the coming years real estate franchise sectors yeah real estate franchise sectors I didn't understand you talking about real estate franchise broken sectors who asked this question Mr. Sudip though if you can just reply on this real estate franchise one of the real estate franchise sectors would mean I mean if this question is around real estate broken being franchised because developers community doesn't do franchising but if that is a question then obviously maybe by the time he comes with clarity then we take the next question sure so the next question that I like to take up is some companies are raising capital through cryptocurrencies what are your views on this yeah so cryptocurrency is also now stabilized so I would I'm not authority on crypto I'm not either invested myself neither I make comment but whatever I read from from where it is today it has stabilized so a lot of people are raising capital and eventually you know any currency or any trading form would come in it has to have both it has to have you need to invest then only the trading cycle would complete so they have to invest so fundamentally crypto would be investment I still would feel that how effective it will be how easily it's available how you will be able to raise that these are all questionable things in that but yes it is there to stay it is there to stay and and some countries have adapted much better some few European countries some Singapore and other places and India is also seeing some some action going on that but while we have still ambiguity in clarity in terms of a few things which which is there but yes it is it is a possibility sure the next question that I like to take up is since COVID-19 has also highlighted environmental change as a huge issue of the present and the future as a fashion industry startup how much do you see sustainable fashion or luxury goods startups growing in India so you know India the consumption is not a problem you know you can be in any sector you can be luxury or you know sustainable fashion there is enough and more customer groups available in the market I would say what differentiation you bring in the market how do you compete especially in the sectors like luxury it's very very competitive and it's very difficult to really hit these especially European brands they're very mature and operation and so on so how do you really bring that I mean India should do it I mean yeah I mean there is a lot of work being done in China by Chinese startups in the luxury space in every thing it can be cosmetics it can be other things but India has not seen so much I mean we've seen few we've seen some of the bridge to luxury kind of a brands like forest essential was invested by Louis Vuitton capital very early because they had a very strong promise I would have seen forest essential going much bigger globally as a business but I saw a strong promise of a luxury brand being built from India so not many big examples are there but there are a few good examples which have happened comma is a good example in in a luxury Ayurveda product I think but we're still not having a strong luxury player in the country from a startup viewpoint but there is an there's an opportunity which exists obviously which needs to be done I also feel that a lot of our designers had ability to do it but they also didn't do Indian designer story was very big to really go global and and build very big but it's not really taken off it's very strong in India but it's not a global situation right the next question that we have is about the agritic sector so I'll just combine two questions that we have related to it the first one is this agritic has scope in tier one or metro cities as the competition is much higher and the second question is do you think agritic is underrated why is it not as popular when we compare it to tech or edutic sectors or startups so it's a it's a you know it's a very unique situation you know anything which becomes successful everybody wants to follow that so but who makes it successful when you have one unicorn in agritic then everybody would come in that space so so it's success follow success it's not really people don't want to do it it's just about interest of these you know people to invest into the sector really comes from when this it starts seeing some success stories when the first investment big investment would come or some big marquee investor would come and invest in back that initiative then you will see everybody getting into that so agritic is waiting for that that to happen and and I'm very very sure 2021 is all about that you can hold me on this that I would say that there would be a few investments in this space absolutely the next question that we have sir is that there is a lot of activity in the telemedicine space in healthcare how do you see that as as a maturing sector and as a means of attraction for investment so this is been we've been talking about this for last three four years and telemedicine is is to me very important aspect of making healthcare inclusive there is no other way India can address a healthcare situation actually if you really ask me we were absolutely not ready when I see a mayor of London saying that NHS would not be able to handle the cases I I really saw talk see what India where there was no ability to handle I mean at least they are coming and say we don't have beds and diving but really ask me how does we have in any form ability to handle this pandemic or any other health hazard or something like that or even to bring in a basic primary healthcare to our last mile you know villages and things of that nature so telemedicine I think should be a government agenda it should be a very strong agenda basic healthcare is very important and you can only address in this country by telemedicine and things like this primary healthcare and and I feel that that's something to me is a very strong but again it's it it you know so you have to always understand that any business where investors try to go is also to see where they are going to find four years five years valuations commercial success of that piece and so on so sometimes in some sectors you don't clearly see that so these sectors really while we know that there is a there is a much need from a from a you know in the market but people don't invest into those sectors because they feel that this is been not going to get the commercial success so to say so so unless until I think we clearly start defining and we put some initiatives on around that and there is a so then I think everybody would back that you know sure sir so I know we are running out of time so I'll just take up the last two or three questions now one question that I would like to take up is what is the scope for mental health startups in 2021 according to you is very niche to me mental health I mean if there is some kind of a work being done obviously that's that is a genuine problem and not only for one healthcare problem I mean if you pick up any part of the healthcare mental health is obviously very ignored in in markets like India and it's becoming a serious subject globally for last 10 years and not been done so much in India but so these are good sectors these are this is what I really keep telling every startup and say just don't chase others in that thing find out your own problem area which you want to solve and there is so much of problems you know out there which which are there and you can just pick up one which one you have some kind of domain specialization just because you read something you don't want to follow that that's not in that thing or you have somebody who's a domain specialist with you on that work on that domain and do deep dive into that and every of these problems have a humongous opportunity every of these problems is a billion dollar company so there is all all everything you touch in India can become a billion dollar that's not a problem issue is that how do you how in depth you go into those businesses is more important absolutely sir and finally the last question I would like to take up is do you think the ed tech space is saturated as every second there is a new startup in the space is this space already reached a point of consolidation no no no so at that if I have to break down down into this space is is very at this stage also I think it is passing through a discovery process you know a discovery process is when you are not too sure where the end customer is going to land and how this isn't adding and you have different issues here you know you have to understand there is a regulator there is a conventional education practice there is infrastructure being deployed so a lot of things are going on and edutek also should understand that what is going to lead to you know technology I think would be a neighbor and will become at a certain level flat while you would continue to do the user experience capabilities but it will become even bigger but the real difference would come from content and delivery the content delivery would play a very very important role and that side is still yet to be completely done so and I feel that unless and until you do the full cycle of that and somebody is in I think it's still three four years away so which means that any genuine work in terms of you know the innovation done in edtech would really see a strong investments coming in the sector is becoming very exciting very very exciting a lot of money is already there so any kind of investment which you need to do any kind of a disruption or innovation would attract a very strong investment case to me but specialization would play so anyway you have to understand any sector passes through this own unorganized way of doing to organized organized to little bit of what I call specialized and specialized to personalized so I think we are going from a specialized to personalized piece in and there would be a lot of work being done and so you will see the sector in use almost every day for the 2021 the sector is going to do that but you see but there is a lot of still a path to be done we still have unanswered questions on how the formal examinations would happen how testing would happen how this would happen so all these are not being done so when this all connecting of dots would start happening and it will come in the main frame then I think what we are talking about is very very different I mean you can have a edtech company in India which can be valued at hundred billion dollar so now this is a very big number to really think through and looking at where I'm at this stage of the business is but it is not a big to really from a the canvas viewpoint there is not a big thing to really see that the richest one of the richest persons who is in the world is actually an edtech player from India so that's something which I would leave you with a thought process so and that's exactly what next four five years India is going to do especially in view of the tech sectors sure sir so with this we'll just wrap up the Q&A session we still have a lot of unanswered questions so I apologize to anyone whose question could not be answered but you please feel free to ask any questions that might that you might have to Gaurav sir directly so sir if you can just my email id because it's difficult to answer all questions in a short period so please write to me and I will give you full understanding of that and even if I don't have a complete understanding of your sector which you are asking because sometimes people go in specific sectors I'll read through it and I'll come back to you what I would be it would be my so to say understanding of that so please send it to me and if you have anything which we can help you in terms of raising your capital or helping you to even set your valuation and anything else I think reach out to Sonali and she'll be over to happen absolutely sir so email id is called gm at gauravmaria.com sure sir so we do have quite a lot of questions asking if businesses can help them in their fundraising journey and help them connect with the right investors so anything you would like to add on on to that sir absolutely that's what we do and especially in the early stage space so we are a you know mid-market player in this space for anybody to raise capital and another thing which is very important is that a lot of technology based businesses essentially still find an ecosystem but we are also a specialist on non-technology businesses when I said technology is part of every business now you cannot be in that thing but if you are a safe consumer brand you want to really do something so we are very very good at it and both for investments from strategic investors and also from a financial investors there's a lot going on in India in the consumer space so so if you have anything which needs to be done another thing which you have a business which has an idea to scale through franchising while it should not be done when you're very early because sometimes people come with the idea and they say I have no proven business and want to franchise and we've done that in past but I'm not a big fan now on doing it and I don't want to really step into that unless and until there and if you have any startup which you feel is really ready for franchising and and you feel that franchising can work and franchising can make money then reach out to me personally and I will love to evaluate that and if there is an opportunity to invest I will be the one who would come along with you to invest into that business. Absolutely sir so with this we'll just wrap up the session so thank you so much Gaurav sir for your valuable insights and for a wonderful session as always and thank you to all our attendees we really hope you were able to add value to your lives through this session and if you have any questions any concerns or you want to know more about business x and how we can help you so please feel free to reach out to me or to Gaurav sir and we would be more than happy to have a look and help you out in your journey anything you would like to say in the end sir and I would say for 2021 the message is very clear don't wait the world to change change the world go out and change your your own environments your the businesses you run the way you run everything change this is an opportunity this is an opportunity for everybody I say that's one year of 2020 has been has one thing in common with every single human on this earth one everybody has some problem there is nobody who's come out of this year which would say I had no problem there would be some problem it might be small it might be your children not going to school it might be something you know you have an elder at home which was not keeping well or something and one thing is also very common in this year we all had which is learning we learned something so so what I think is that I would like to remember 2020 as a year of learning and and move from there and and everybody should use and implement those learning whatever you got and and use it in 2021 to rise and and grow thank you thank you so much sir and to all our attendees please please join us next week this is a weekly series that we do and every week we take up topics from investments scaling up valuation and exiting your business so if you're interested in topics like these then please join us next week next Saturday at three o'clock thank you so much thank you