Ambitions go global

It's not just the likes of OYO and Ola, who have the backing from deep-pocketed foreign investors, that have big ambitions to go global.

Smaller homegrown start-ups functioning in various spaces are also starting to spread their wings. The desire to expand footprint by tapping overseas markets are also fuelled by the exposure and finance opportunities that come along with such a move.

WittyFeed, a content platform, has a presence in countries like the US, UK and Canada.

According to Vinay Singhal, co-founder and chief executive officer of Vatsana Technologies, the parent company of WittyFeed, US contributes nearly 40% to the total traffic while India's share is at around 45%.

"We design content from India but it is being crafted basis the markets, and thus, the local-ness and relativity are always maintained," Singhal said.

Hotels chain aggregator, OYO, which counts Japan's Softbank Group, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Hero Enterprises among its invetsors, has been expanding aggressively in international markets. It made its overseas debut last year by stepping into Malaysia and now boasts of business in other countries like Nepal, Indonesia, and very recently, China.

In January, ride-hailing company Ola launched its services in Perth, Australia. Since then, the company has expanded business in seven cities there and boasts of over 40,000 registered drivers in the country. Ola has also expanded to the UK and New Zealand.

Popular online travel website Cleartrip started operations in the UAE in 2012, where it now enjoys 60% ticketing market share, as per an article.

Health technology venture Stasis is another example of an Indian start-up going global. The company's CEO and co-founder Dinesh Seemakurty says that the company was designed to be a global company from the start.

The cloud-powered start-up provides a health monitoring system, outside the intensive care unit (ICU), to hospitals. The system can measure six vital signs.

The company's systems are live across 20 hospitals in India including Fortis, Columbia Asia, HCG, IQRAA and Cloudnine.

While India is a key market for the company, because of the existing challenges in healthcare, its expansion in the US is to provide high-quality clinical artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions. "In the US, competition, especially from incumbent players, is much higher than it is in India," says Seemakurty.

The move abroad, at times, also help companies improve their domestic business as well. According to Seemakurty, "The dual-country strategy provides Stasis with the opportunity to develop a product that can scale from small rural hospitals in India to large academic centres in the US."

Taking cues from one market to another provides the company with a comprehensive solution for a large customer base.

While these companies faced constraints while venturing abroad, in-depth research and adaptability helped them.

These businesses are now enjoying a good share both in India and abroad. "We used to do three to four branded campaigns every month in the first quarter of 2017 and today we stand at three active campaigns at any given day with a varied clients outlay from across country and industries," says Singhal, adding that the most important part is to identify the business market. "Understanding of the dialect and culture plays an important role here."

Also, the different working systems are a barrier for the domestic companies. For example, complex public and private players and insurance models in the US are an issue for Stasis. "We had done comprehensive research into understanding how our product would be covered, which budgets we could optimise and how a measurable ROI (return on investment) would be proven," says Seemakurty.

"We spent the last 18 months with a plethora of US clients and development partners to ensure our product meets the regulatory, operational, and fiscal requirements of the country."

However, for the many success stories, there are also some ventures that burnt their fingers while dabbling in markets abroad. For instance, in 2016, Zomato pulled out of nine international markets in order to cut costs.

SOME CHALLENGES

• The move abroad, at times, also help companies improve their domestic business as well. Taking cues from one market to another provides a comprehensive solution for a large customer base
   
• While companies face constraints while venturing abroad, in-depth research and adaptability help. Also, the different working systems are a barrier for the domestic firms