India is the Next BIG Thing 🇮🇳🚀; Coinbase’s Bermuda Triangle 🇧🇲; Web3 is very tough right now… 😥

FinTech is Eating the World, 21 April

Hey Everyone,

TGIF! Today’s issue is the best one yet 💣 We’re looking at India, which is the Next BIG Thing (why & how + how India is dominating in payments), Coinbase’s Bermuda Triangle (what are the risks?), and Web3, which is very tough right now… (the latest data on startup funding). Let’s jump straight into the interesting stuff 🌶

India is the Next BIG Thing 🇮🇳🚀

The news 🗞 India has just surpassed China to become the world's most populous nation. The South Asian nation is estimated to have a population of 1.4286 billion surpassing China by 2.9 million people.

Does that mean more startup funding too? Let’s look at the data.

VC trends 💸 Venture funding to the two Asian countries, in fact, runs counter to their population trends, according to Crunchbase data.

In the last year, VC spending in India has fallen much more hastily when compared to China, which garners more than twice as much VC spending as its neighbor.

According to Crunchbase, VC dollars invested in India-based startups plunged 75%, to just $2.4 billion, in Q1 2023 compared to the first quarter of 2022. That’s down from $9.8 billion in Q1 2022 and down nearly 25% from $3.2 billion in Q4.

Venture funding to China-based startups also fell, though far less drastically: down 38% quarter over quarter and year over year to $8.1 billion in Q1 2023.

Nevertheless, I’m bullish that India is the Next BIG Thing. Here’s why:

+ How India is disrupting the entire global payments space 🇮🇳💳