Answer 1.
Looking at the history of Silver Lake Partners’ investment matrix, it is critical to understand that they target market leaders in their respective segments. With Reliance, the company clearly saw their immediate focus points:
- JioMart – the online groceries delivery service of Reliance. The fact that Reliance has partnered with WhatsApp further augments the service infrastructure of the group.
- Digital offerings beyond connectivity where Jio has been making investments but are yet to achieve meaningful scale
- The partnership with Google to develop an entry-level 4G smartphone could help bring forward the target of 500 million mobile subscribers.
Apart from the fact that the retail segment of Reliance, has had a huge expansion with its take over of the retail, wholesale and supply chain business of the Future Group.
Byju’s is the single largest education portal in India and with the pandemic coming in, online portals have gained tremendous growth. With Byju’s quality of educational model, it stands as the most potential pocket for investors given its future growth potential. At approximately $6 trillion, the education market is the second largest sector in the world and experiencing a significant surge in digital penetration. The online education market in India was valued at INR 39 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach INR 360.3 billion by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of ~43.85% during the 2019-2024 period. Ease of learning, flexibility, and a wide range of study materials have influenced the overall growth of the industry.
Answer 2.
When it comes to Indian companies, entities like Silver Lake Partners’ will help Indian companies to broadband their infrastructure and their process of globalisation through their equity based investments. With the recent policies by the current government giving special focus on industrial growth, a low cost capital will help spearhead the growth and business of established companies who have a proven track record of revenue delivery. With an exposure to entities like Silver Lake Partners’, such companies will also have the opportunity to better practices of process optimisation and will have a better reach to quality business and customer networks and world class mentoring. Post COVID-19, a lot of such industries in India are looking for a low cost breather which will help in creating a better platform for them to perform and also aid the overall employment matrix.
Answer 3.
As far as Indian micro start-ups are concerned, Silver Lake Partners’ can robustly consider that market specially in the segment of manufacturing. Companies in these segments have a very strong potential in the huge customer base of India considering the Indian policies of Self-Reliant India and Make in India. With imports majorly clamped down, the domestic demands will be well met by the manufacturing start-ups.
Answer 4.
India’s robust policies to create a strong environment of Self Reliance and augment its industrial matrix to become the next leader in global supply chain has seen many investors looking this way. With its close diplomatic ties with all the major economies, India stands as the immediate launch pad for start-ups in the Micro and Medium sectors. India’s strong customer base can easily support domestic production so much so that there will a requirement of major new entries to substantiate the global demand.
Answer 5.
This pandemic has opened a new order of business in 2020 which is collaboration. With collaboration, companies like Silver Lake Partners Tiger Global will be able to create a better financial reserve to demarcate different levels of financial applications. Currently being restricted to companies with a proven track record, this collaboration can well venture into the micro and medium start-up segments and create the platforms for dynamic entrepreneurs with vision and purpose. Cost of capital is the major setback for start-ups in any part of the world. With equity participation and a dynamic investment model, collaborations like these will easily create a stronger environment for start-ups to thrive. The collaboration can also involve merger and acquisition strategies to help rehabilitate potential business entities and thus enjoy a consolidated return on their investments.