In today’s episode I speak with Gopal Jain, co-founder and Managing Partner of Gaja Capital, one of the leading private equity firms in India.
It was a real pleasure to speak with Gopal because he’s lived through the boom-and-bust cycles within India’s private equity industry, so he’s able to place today’s environment in context, and impart some of the hard-earned lessons he’s gleaned over the last two decades.
Gopal and I cover a lot of territory in this conversation, so I’ll spare you the rundown of topics. But I’ve been marinating on two of the things that Gopal said since our conversation.
The first is that a couple decades ago, upwards of 80% of India’s most talented engineers and entrepreneurs were migrating to the United States; whereas today, most are choosing to launch startups within India, with the benefit of a robust private markets supply chain of capital at-the-ready.
The second is that Gopal thinks that India’s PE industry could grow from $50 billion in deals to $100 billion over the next five to 10 years. And if that happens, he thinks India could detach from the EM complex and become a standalone market like China.
I was also really enamored with Gopal’s “5+1” construct for explaining the foundational infrastructure that is accelerating India’s digital transformation.
One of the things we didn’t talk about — but I think you should know about — is the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize, which has some great suggestions to add to your bookshelves. I’ll be adding a few volumes to mine.
My audio came out a bit odd in places, so I apologize if it’s a bit distracting. The good news is I don’t speak much.
There’s so much food for thought in this episode that I don’t want to keep you waiting any longer.
With that, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Gopal Jain.
This podcast was recorded in November 2021.
Learn more about Gaja Capital and its Business Book Prize.
Follow Gaja Capital on Twitter.
Bain & Company, India Private Equity Report 2021.
Bain & Company, India Venture Capital Report 2021.