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The Soonicorn Spotlight is a brand-new video series by YourStory in collaboration with PayU, one of India’s leading payments solution providers. It was created to provide startup leaders with first-hand growth insights from some of the finest minds at the helm of the fastest-growing startups in the ecosystem.

In the fifth episode, Ashutosh Sharma, Head of Investments, India, Prosus Ventures, talks about ‘The nuances of fundraising for aspiring unicorns.’

Prosus Ventures is one of the largest technology investors in the world that partners with entrepreneurs to build leading technology companies in high-growth markets. As the Head of Investments for India, Ashutosh Sharma has a ring-side view of the tech investment space in India and characteristics, investment strategies, the roadmap, the India outlook and more for India’s aspiring unicorns.

Ashutosh shared his perspectives in an insight-packed conversation with Yourstory.

“The macro outlook in the startup ecosystem this year is one of cautious optimism. I’ve seen the Indian startup ecosystem mature a lot, the quality of ideas, entrepreneurs, startups and execution – all of that has gone up,” said Ashutosh, talking about his outlook for the ecosystem this year.

“We take a very long-term view on opportunities, so you will continue to see us investing more and doubling down on India this year,” he added.

Talking about the hallmarks of a soonicorn and the qualities he looked for in prospective startups, he said, “The Total Addressable Market (TAM) is the most important aspect of looking at potential investment in a company. Apart from TAM, the quality of the idea, the quality of the team and how tech is being used to disrupt the incumbent way of doing things is important.”

“Therefore the use of technology to get exponential scale becomes an important factor as we look at some of these startups,” he added.

Catch all these insights and more on the fifth episode of The Soonicorn Spotlight, brought to you by PayU. For more relevant content on powering your growth or scaling journeys, do visit the specially curated content Scale-up India page, here.