Home
Iniciar Sesión
Registrarse
Contenido de Estudio
Loading...
Práctica de escucha
Práctica de escucha
/
Video
/
CNBC International
/
Why India’s Wealth Is Moving into Startups
Why India’s Wealth Is Moving into Startups
Seleccionar modo de aprendizaje:
Ver subtítulos
Elegir palabra
Reescribir palabra
Highlight:
3000 Oxford Words
4000 IELTS Words
5000 Oxford Words
3000 Common Words
1000 TOEIC Words
5000 TOEFL Words
Subtítulos (112)
0:00
In 2016, Rajat Mehta backed an early-stage, online investment platform called Groww – a
0:06
startup he says was valued at just $1.3 million U.S. dollars at the time.
0:11
Fast-forward to November 2025, when Groww made its market debut
0:15
on India’s stock exchange at a valuation of $8.6 billion.
0:19
For the 30-something heir to the Mumbai-based Mehta Group,
0:23
it wasn't just a winning bet. It was a sign that India’s wealth is starting to move differently.
0:29
Historically, Indian families used to hold their wealth in gold or land assets, and now this money
0:36
is actually coming out and being invested back into the economy through a lot of these startups.
0:40
The new age, the new generation is coming up with ideas, and they just need somebody who can mentor
0:45
them and help them with better execution of those ideas. The old age firms who have built
0:51
over the last two and a half, three decades, that family office has looked at investments
0:55
who have started conservatively, have now looked at being much more aggressive in the market.
1:00
This shift isn’t being driven by India’s legacy families alone. It’s also being
1:05
shaped by first-generation founders who built their fortunes over the past three decades,
1:10
and a fast-growing “new rich class.” It's about reallocating capital in the
1:15
economy. Now they are thinking about investing in financial assets and
1:19
startups and tech and biotech and other sectors that didn't even exist ten years ago. To me,
1:26
that's a structural change in the economy. According to the 2025 Hurun Global Rich List,
1:40
India is home to 284 billionaires — up from 271 a year earlier — ranking
1:46
third globally behind the U.S. and China. Within that growing pool of wealth, India is on
1:52
the cusp of an unprecedented intergenerational wealth transfer of $1.5 trillion dollars.
1:58
At the same time, India’s ultra-high-net-worth population is expanding rapidly. These are
2:04
families or individuals that have assets over $30 million.
2:08
This number has increased to 13,000 and is estimated to grow to about 19,000 by 2028.
2:15
For generations, India’s biggest business empires have followed a familiar pattern:
2:21
a founder builds the company, the family retains control, and the next generation takes over.
2:26
If there's one family that defines India's wealth, it's the Ambanis. Mukesh Ambani is
2:31
Asia's richest man, and his succession planning involves transferring the leadership of his $250
2:37
billion empire to his three children – Akash, Isha and Anand. The Ambani family, has diversified
2:44
from its oil and gas business into retail, digital telecommunications and new-age energy.
2:51
Another example is the Adani business empire, which has interest across ports,
2:56
airports and energy. Gautam Adani has already made plans to transfer
3:00
the control of his empire to the next generation by 2030.
3:04
But not every succession story is well planned or smooth.
3:07
Across Asia, succession is more fragile than in the West. Much of today’s wealth was created
3:12
quickly, and many affluent families are still only in their first or second generation.
3:18
A 2025 study highlights the gap.
3:20
Among the 46 family-business founders surveyed,
3:23
91% said they intended for leadership to stay within the family. Yet, 28% of founders cited
3:30
a lack of interest from the next generation. And even among the 72% who have identified
3:35
a child as a potential successor, 24% said that successor is underprepared.
3:40
That matters because family-owned businesses still account for about 79% of India’s GDP,
3:46
one of the highest ratios globally. The governance risk is there. If the capital
3:51
is misallocated or creates asset bubbles, that's what we should worry about. These kind of disputes
3:57
are well known around the world, where heirs take over the company. They have different visions,
4:03
different ideas. I mean, these things have macro implications, if one of the heirs takes over,
4:08
and it doesn't really go the long way, because lots of investment is happening of private and
4:14
public capital in these companies, so when they fail, they can actually create major
4:19
disruptions for the economy. Indian family offices are shifting
4:23
from passive income to hands on, private equity style investing. And increasingly,
4:28
next generation heirs are backing startups that build on their family’s core industries.
4:33
When you invest in a business which is more like an affiliate to your own business,
4:37
or is correlated to your own business, you know how the ecosystem works.
4:41
So whenever the understanding of business is high, the money comes in at a very
4:44
early stage of investment, because your risk reward is potentially the highest.
4:48
You have a higher percentage of making that a success.
4:51
But India’s startup capital isn’t coming only from inheritance.
4:55
India opened its economy in 1991, rolling back decades of state controls and protectionist
5:01
policies. The reforms helped trigger a wave of private enterprise and, over time, the rise of
5:07
a large cohort of self-made Indian billionaires. Indian social fabric changed in the last two, two
5:12
and half decades – where that generation became much more confident with access to information.
5:18
They went through the phase when India was on a growth phase. They build something new. Now,
5:24
once they have built it, they understand the nuances of the new age requirement.
5:29
Now they have built enough capital for themselves to not look at new ideation, but to look at new
5:35
ideas where they can support. They can then help them with the kind of learnings that they
5:40
have gone through, help them reduce the kind of risk, or you can shorten the path to success.
5:45
Alongside them is a fast-growing “new rich” class: startup employees who’ve minted wealth
5:50
through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) – stock options that can become highly valuable
5:55
when a startup goes public or is acquired. The emergence of Flipkart was because there
6:00
was a democratization of ESOPs. This was a new age ESOP wealth creating firm which,
6:05
apart from its promoters, a large number of millionaires were created.
6:09
They believe that network can help the business grow. New companies have emerged and have gone on
6:13
to become sizably large market cap firms. In 2025, 12 startups executed ESOP buyback
6:20
schemes, providing more than $158 million in payouts to 9,265 employees.
6:28
So, how is all this wealth – old and new – actually being managed?
6:32
In just six years, the number of family offices in
6:35
India has jumped from 45 to 300 – together overseeing about $30 billion in assets.
6:42
Many Indian family offices now allocate over 10% of their portfolios to private equity
6:47
and venture capital – with some exceeding 20%. Now it is much more structured, well thought out,
6:54
well planned. The policies are well defined. It is just not money being kept aside for investment.
6:59
The governance is playing a significant role, and it is acting as a risk mitigator. There is
7:04
an absolute clarity of approach, which segment that they want to go under, what percentage of
7:09
allocation has been made for that specific sector. How much is going to listed, how much is going
7:13
to debt, how much is going to the unlisted space, early stage, the mid-stage, pre-IPO.
7:18
But this generation isn’t just trying to preserve wealth. They’re trying to grow it.
7:23
After a funding boom in 2021 and 2022, global investors pulled back. Startup
7:28
funding in India fell sharply – from $25.7 billion in 2022,
7:33
to $9.6 billion in 2023 amid higher interest rates and weaker public markets.
7:39
After the boom cooled, Indian startups had to look closer to home. And by then,
7:43
a new pool of domestic capital was ready to step in.
7:46
Back in 2024 quick commerce startup Zepto19, wanted to raise about $300 million but after
7:52
an overwhelming response from family offices, it ended up raising 350 million in four weeks.
7:59
This round was largely led by Indian family offices, which were managed by Motilal Oswal,
8:05
which is a private wealth management firm in India, and other individual
8:10
family offices like that of Rajat Mehta. In the startup also, they know that there is
8:15
a risk, right? They also understand that if they make ten investments,
8:19
there are chances that one or two can go through difficult times,
8:22
but can their better ones cover up for that, this downside? The key is,
8:27
how do you create your allocation? India’s startup boom was once driven
8:32
largely by foreign capital. Today, more of that money is coming from within.
8:37
Capital that once sat in gold vaults and family estates is now flowing into technology,
8:42
renewable energy, healthcare and infrastructure. If we create more domestic capital that is
8:49
invested, it means you're relying less on foreign capital, which means you can invest for longer
8:55
periods and take more risk as a company, because your cost of capital is lower. Interest rates are
9:01
typically high, but if the money is domestically generated, then the volatility is low for the
9:07
banks, so they provide it at a lower interest rate and so their ability to generate revenue
9:13
or generate profits on their ideas, higher. That allows you to take extra risk, allows you to
9:18
experiment slightly more and then successfully take the company public, create unicorns,
9:24
take companies to IPO and essentially benefit the entire ecosystem and the macro economy.
9:29
The question is whether this capital can build resilient businesses, deeper markets
9:33
and long-term growth, or will it just fuel the next cycle of risk? If not managed well,
9:39
it could destabilize markets, and the consequences won't just stay contained within India.
