Tiger Global’s ride with the unicorns

This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.

The Covid-19-era bubble had not yet burst when the CEO sat down to write an email, hoping to woo Tiger Global.

It was early on in the pandemic, and he was running one of India’s buzziest startups: a tech unicorn that, like so many around the world, had been suddenly flooded with venture capital. “Everybody saw that we were a hot company,” he said, requesting to go by the pseudonym John. Like other sources in this story, he spoke with Rest of World on the condition that he and his company name remain anonymous to discuss private negotiations.

At the time, India’s startup market was booming. The pandemic lockdowns had thrust life online, and a crackdown on Big Tech in China had investors increasingly looking to other countries for opportunity. In 2019, venture firms poured a record-setting $10 billion into Indian startups. By 2021, that figure had nearly quadrupled, spawning 44 new unicorns – or private companies valued at $1 billion or more – in a single year. The lavish spending spree was backed by a who’s who of top-tier firms from around the world, with Sequoia, SoftBank, and Accel among them.

But even then, Tiger Global stood...

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