Why India’s Wealth Is Moving into Startups

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0:00In 2016, Rajat Mehta backed an early-stage, online investment platform called Groww – a

0:06startup he says was valued at just $1.3 million U.S. dollars at the time.

0:11Fast-forward to November 2025, when Groww made its market debut

0:15on India’s stock exchange at a valuation of $8.6 billion.

0:19For the 30-something heir to the Mumbai-based Mehta Group,

0:23it wasn't just a winning bet. It was a sign that India’s wealth is starting to move differently.

0:29Historically, Indian families used to hold their wealth in gold or land assets, and now this money

0:36is actually coming out and being invested back into the economy through a lot of these startups.

0:40The new age, the new generation is coming up with ideas, and they just need somebody who can mentor

0:45them and help them with better execution of those ideas. The old age firms who have built

0:51over the last two and a half, three decades, that family office has looked at investments

0:55who have started conservatively, have now looked at being much more aggressive in the market.

1:00This shift isn’t being driven by India’s legacy families alone. It’s also being

1:05shaped by first-generation founders who built their fortunes over the past three decades,

1:10and a fast-growing “new rich class.” It's about reallocating capital in the

1:15economy. Now they are thinking about investing in financial assets and

1:19startups and tech and biotech and other sectors that didn't even exist ten years ago. To me,

1:26that's a structural change in the economy. According to the 2025 Hurun Global Rich List,

1:40India is home to 284 billionaires — up from 271 a year earlier — ranking

1:46third globally behind the U.S. and China. Within that growing pool of wealth, India is on

1:52the cusp of an unprecedented intergenerational wealth transfer of $1.5 trillion dollars.

1:58At the same time, India’s ultra-high-net-worth population is expanding rapidly. These are

2:04families or individuals that have assets over $30 million.

2:08This number has increased to 13,000 and is estimated to grow to about 19,000 by 2028.

2:15For generations, India’s biggest business empires have followed a familiar pattern:

2:21a founder builds the company, the family retains control, and the next generation takes over.

2:26If there's one family that defines India's wealth, it's the Ambanis. Mukesh Ambani is

2:31Asia's richest man, and his succession planning involves transferring the leadership of his $250

2:37billion empire to his three children – Akash, Isha and Anand. The Ambani family, has diversified

2:44from its oil and gas business into retail, digital telecommunications and new-age energy.

2:51Another example is the Adani business empire, which has interest across ports,

2:56airports and energy. Gautam Adani has already made plans to transfer

3:00the control of his empire to the next generation by 2030.

3:04But not every succession story is well planned or smooth.

3:07Across Asia, succession is more fragile than in the West. Much of today’s wealth was created

3:12quickly, and many affluent families are still only in their first or second generation.

3:18A 2025 study highlights the gap.

3:20Among the 46 family-business founders surveyed,

3:2391% said they intended for leadership to stay within the family. Yet, 28% of founders cited

3:30a lack of interest from the next generation. And even among the 72% who have identified

3:35a child as a potential successor, 24% said that successor is underprepared.

3:40That matters because family-owned businesses still account for about 79% of India’s GDP,

3:46one of the highest ratios globally. The governance risk is there. If the capital

3:51is misallocated or creates asset bubbles, that's what we should worry about. These kind of disputes

3:57are well known around the world, where heirs take over the company. They have different visions,

4:03different ideas. I mean, these things have macro implications, if one of the heirs takes over,

4:08and it doesn't really go the long way, because lots of investment is happening of private and

4:14public capital in these companies, so when they fail, they can actually create major

4:19disruptions for the economy. Indian family offices are shifting

4:23from passive income to hands on, private equity style investing. And increasingly,

4:28next generation heirs are backing startups that build on their family’s core industries.

4:33When you invest in a business which is more like an affiliate to your own business,

4:37or is correlated to your own business, you know how the ecosystem works.

4:41So whenever the understanding of business is high, the money comes in at a very

4:44early stage of investment, because your risk reward is potentially the highest.

4:48You have a higher percentage of making that a success.

4:51But India’s startup capital isn’t coming only from inheritance.

4:55India opened its economy in 1991, rolling back decades of state controls and protectionist

5:01policies. The reforms helped trigger a wave of private enterprise and, over time, the rise of

5:07a large cohort of self-made Indian billionaires. Indian social fabric changed in the last two, two

5:12and half decades – where that generation became much more confident with access to information.

5:18They went through the phase when India was on a growth phase. They build something new. Now,

5:24once they have built it, they understand the nuances of the new age requirement.

5:29Now they have built enough capital for themselves to not look at new ideation, but to look at new

5:35ideas where they can support. They can then help them with the kind of learnings that they

5:40have gone through, help them reduce the kind of risk, or you can shorten the path to success.

5:45Alongside them is a fast-growing “new rich” class: startup employees who’ve minted wealth

5:50through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) – stock options that can become highly valuable

5:55when a startup goes public or is acquired. The emergence of Flipkart was because there

6:00was a democratization of ESOPs. This was a new age ESOP wealth creating firm which,

6:05apart from its promoters, a large number of millionaires were created.

6:09They believe that network can help the business grow. New companies have emerged and have gone on

6:13to become sizably large market cap firms. In 2025, 12 startups executed ESOP buyback

6:20schemes, providing more than $158 million in payouts to 9,265 employees.

6:28So, how is all this wealth – old and new – actually being managed?

6:32In just six years, the number of family offices in

6:35India has jumped from 45 to 300 – together overseeing about $30 billion in assets.

6:42Many Indian family offices now allocate over 10% of their portfolios to private equity

6:47and venture capital – with some exceeding 20%. Now it is much more structured, well thought out,

6:54well planned. The policies are well defined. It is just not money being kept aside for investment.

6:59The governance is playing a significant role, and it is acting as a risk mitigator. There is

7:04an absolute clarity of approach, which segment that they want to go under, what percentage of

7:09allocation has been made for that specific sector. How much is going to listed, how much is going

7:13to debt, how much is going to the unlisted space, early stage, the mid-stage, pre-IPO.

7:18But this generation isn’t just trying to preserve wealth. They’re trying to grow it.

7:23After a funding boom in 2021 and 2022, global investors pulled back. Startup

7:28funding in India fell sharply – from $25.7 billion in 2022,

7:33to $9.6 billion in 2023 amid higher interest rates and weaker public markets.

7:39After the boom cooled, Indian startups had to look closer to home. And by then,

7:43a new pool of domestic capital was ready to step in.

7:46Back in 2024 quick commerce startup Zepto19, wanted to raise about $300 million but after

7:52an overwhelming response from family offices, it ended up raising 350 million in four weeks.

7:59This round was largely led by Indian family offices, which were managed by Motilal Oswal,

8:05which is a private wealth management firm in India, and other individual

8:10family offices like that of Rajat Mehta. In the startup also, they know that there is

8:15a risk, right? They also understand that if they make ten investments,

8:19there are chances that one or two can go through difficult times,

8:22but can their better ones cover up for that, this downside? The key is,

8:27how do you create your allocation? India’s startup boom was once driven

8:32largely by foreign capital. Today, more of that money is coming from within.

8:37Capital that once sat in gold vaults and family estates is now flowing into technology,

8:42renewable energy, healthcare and infrastructure. If we create more domestic capital that is

8:49invested, it means you're relying less on foreign capital, which means you can invest for longer

8:55periods and take more risk as a company, because your cost of capital is lower. Interest rates are

9:01typically high, but if the money is domestically generated, then the volatility is low for the

9:07banks, so they provide it at a lower interest rate and so their ability to generate revenue

9:13or generate profits on their ideas, higher. That allows you to take extra risk, allows you to

9:18experiment slightly more and then successfully take the company public, create unicorns,

9:24take companies to IPO and essentially benefit the entire ecosystem and the macro economy.

9:29The question is whether this capital can build resilient businesses, deeper markets

9:33and long-term growth, or will it just fuel the next cycle of risk? If not managed well,

9:39it could destabilize markets, and the consequences won't just stay contained within India.

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Why India’s Wealth Is Moving into Startups

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