By Nesil Staney
After the ‘ghar waapsi’ of Tiger Global-backed Dream11 from Delaware in March, at least eight more reverse flippings are awaited this year, said Bay Capital in a white paper on India startups, published on Tuesday.
Among the eight, six firms are from Singapore – Pinelabs, Udaan, Zepto, Flipkart, KreditBee and InMobi – and two are from the US – Razorpay and Meesho.
Some of these startups are keen on getting listed on the Indian bourses.
Reverse flipping, in the context of startups, refers to a company relocating its legal structure and ownership to its home country after initially being incorporated on foreign soil.
“Reverse flipping is not a passing phase. It’s a sign that India’s capital markets, investors, regulators and founders are aligned,” said Keyur Majmudar, managing partner and CIO, Bay Capital Investments. The firm has invested $1 billion in India, mostly on startups.
Over the past two years, private equity and venture capital firms exited investments worth $40–50 billion. This money is now being reinvested in new ideas and early-stage businesses. The capital is not just going into e-commerce or fintech, but also into SaaS, logistics, agri-tech and climate tech, among other sectors — showing a broad-based shift in where innovation is happening, the paper noted.
“More liquidity means more risk taking. More risk taking leads to innovation. The virtuous cycle feeds itself,” said Majmudar.
Now, investment is also starting to flow into the next phase — deep tech. Areas from AI and quantum computing to space and climate technologies will shape the next wave of India’s digital economy. AI startups attracted over $1.2 billion by 2024, registering a 4.4x growth since 2020.
India is now ready to support and scale its own digital businesses. “As India’s digital economy matures with an increasing number of listed technology companies achieving profitability and new ones entering the market, we can expect the total market value of these innovative businesses to grow substantially in the coming decade,” the report said.
This shift will likely be reflected in the composition of India’s primary stock indices.