Hello everyone, welcome to The India Opportunity Show where you get a front-row seat to people building India’s future. We talk about unlocking the potential of the country with founders, investors, creators, and successful leaders from different fields to bring you real-life stories and behind-the-scenes of what it takes to be at the forefront of building the India Story.
Episode 5, Season 5 of The India Opportunity Show is out now! You can watch it on YouTube or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
India had fewer than 10,000 active GPUs at the end of 2025. Today, that number is approaching 100,000.
A nearly 10x expansion in just ten months.
Yet, as global investors pour trillions into artificial intelligence, India’s public markets are increasingly being described as the “anti-AI trade.”
Is India falling behind, or is the real opportunity being built away from the public markets?
In this episode of The India Opportunity, I sit down with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Peak XV Partners and Surge, to explore why he believes India’s private markets tell a very different story.
From India’s first $100 billion venture-backed company to the future of AI, startup IPOs, venture capital and the next generation of founders, we unpack what it will take for India to produce globally dominant businesses.
Meet Rajan Anandan
Rajan Anandan is the Managing Director at Peak XV Partners, where he leads Surge, the firm’s platform for early-stage startups.
With leadership experience spanning Dell, Microsoft and Google, Rajan has had a front-row seat to India’s technology transformation, from the early internet economy to the rapid emergence of AI-native businesses.
An active technology investor and ecosystem builder, he has spent years backing ambitious founders and helping Indian startups scale.
He is also the co-author of Lift Off Nation, a book exploring India’s entrepreneurial potential and the forces that could shape its next phase of growth.
Few investors bring together Rajan’s combination of global technology experience, early-stage investing insight and conviction in India’s entrepreneurial future.
7 Key Takeaways from Our Conversation
1. India is not necessarily losing the AI race. It may be playing a different game.
India’s public markets may lack the AI giants dominating global indices, but the private ecosystem is evolving rapidly. Growing compute infrastructure, entrepreneurial talent and new AI-native businesses could create opportunities that conventional market comparisons overlook.
2. India’s first $100 billion venture-funded company may be closer than we think.
What will it take for India to produce its first venture-backed company worth $100 billion? We examine the sectors capable of generating that scale, the importance of global ambition and why the next generation of Indian startups may look very different from the last.
3. India’s lift-off depends on investing more in innovation.
India has made enormous progress in entrepreneurship and digital infrastructure. But sustained global leadership will require significantly greater investment in research and development, deep technology and the foundations of long-term innovation.
4. Five IPOs in five weeks signal a changing startup ecosystem.
The relationship between venture capital and India’s public markets is evolving. We discuss what the recent wave of new-age company listings reveals about investor appetite, valuations, governance and the growing maturity of India’s exit ecosystem.
5. India’s next global businesses may already be hiding in plain sight.
Beyond the most celebrated unicorns, Rajan highlights lesser-known Indian startups with world-class teams. We explore what separates exceptional founders from the rest, and why founder quality remains one of the strongest determinants of long-term outcomes.
6. Family offices need discipline, not just access, to succeed in venture capital.
Startup investing is fundamentally different from investing in listed equities. We discuss how family offices should approach portfolio construction, diversification, manager selection and risk, and why access to exciting companies alone does not guarantee attractive returns.
7. AI will redefine the career advantage for the next generation.
For professionals in their 20s and 30s, the question is no longer whether AI will transform their industries, but how quickly they can adapt. We explore the skills, mindsets and capabilities that may become increasingly valuable in an AI-driven economy.
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
01:48 – Is India the “anti-AI trade”?
08:14 – Can India win AI with much less capital?
13:41 – India’s first $100 billion venture-funded company by 2030
20:50 – The biggest risks to India’s lift-off
22:44 – How a private investor sees new-age IPOs
30:22 – What’s driving India’s fast-growing consumer brands?
33:37 – R&D: Government vs private sector
39:35 – Build in India or build in the US?
44:37 – What makes an outlier founder?
46:55 – Lesser-known Indian startups with world-class teams
49:47 – How family offices should invest in startups
52:20 – How India’s IPO market has changed
54:41 – Will new-age companies reshape the indices?
57:19 – How to upskill for the AI wave
📘 Introducing My Book: The India Opportunity
Inside the Mind of India’s Greatest Investors
Inspired by The India Opportunity Show, one of India’s fastest-growing business and investing podcasts with over 10 million views and 250,000 followers, my debut book brings together the wisdom of some of India’s most respected investors, market thinkers and policymakers.
Featuring Aswath Damodaran, Manish Chokhani, Sanjoy Bhattacharyya, Hiren Ved, Ravi Dharamshi, Devina Mehra, Sanjay Bakshi, Nilesh Shah, Samir Arora, E.A. Sundaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, among others, it distils more than 500 years of collective market experience into a practitioner’s guide to understanding India’s markets, capital allocation, investing temperament and long-term wealth creation.
This is a book about how India’s markets really work, told by the people who have helped shape them.
📖 Get your copy here: https://bit.ly/TheIndiaOpportunity
—
If you’re new here, I would love to have you subscribe to the newsletter and our YT channel for more updates. To those who have been with us for a while, I’m grateful for your support and excited to share more stories with you through this medium.
As always, will really appreciate your feedback and support as we build this out for the world!
Please help us spread the word by sharing this episode with your network!
Disclaimer: The content presented in this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Viewers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
netweb booked 773 cr of ai systems revenue in the september quarter alone, even if a big chunk was one strategic order. the gpu build is already sitting inside a listed p&l