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BT Exclusive: At least 90% of India’s foreign domiciled unicorns will flip back to India, says Siddarth Pai

Business Today · 4d

- Reverse flipping is a growing trend in the Indian start-up landscape, with companies like PhonePe and Groww successfully completing the transition. - Reverse flipping involves relocating assets, operations, and intellectual property rights from foreign bases back to India. - The dislocation between headquarters and operations has been a concern for Indian start-ups, and a simplified structure in India can result in less friction with authorities and ease of management. - Investor sentiment, both local and global, towards Indian start-ups is improving, and the shift back to India is driven by the higher value creation in the Indian market and the inability of the Indian public to participate in IPOs of overseas entities. - The Indian government's policies and infrastructure need improvements, such as a tax-free redomicile process, greater flexibility in issuing instruments, easier M&A norms, and a stronger corporate law system with dedicated courts. - It is expected that a significant number of foreign-domiciled unicorns and funded start-ups will flip back to India, with non-funded start-ups also likely to join the trend.