Zomato, GreyOrange, OYO—increasingly, Indian startups are looking at Europe as a market to expand. How do you decide if that market is for you?
The story of Zomato’s tryst in Europe isn’t very well documented. Unlike the Zomato of today, which has hunkered down on India and shut out everything else, the Zomato of the early part of this decade had a sense of global ambition about it.
Sometime in 2011, Zomato decided that it is going to grow its business outside India. Not on a whim but the idea that its business can be easily replicated; smartphones and restaurants aren’t all that different across geographies. Starting in 2012, backed by investors like InfoEdge and Sequoia, the company was launching new countries at breakneck …
With over a decade of experience in business development and strategy, Kabeer Chawla is chief operating officer and co-founder at Sancus Networks, a tech-enabled sales and distribution company. He has worked with companies like Jabong and CupoNation in the past, managing operations, strategy and sales. Currently based in Geneva, Kabeer will tell stories at the intersection of technology, retail and entrepreneurship. Reach out to him at kabeerchawla(at)gmail(dot)com.
kabeerchawla@gmail.com