The last weekend of September saw Bangalore’s Shangri-La hotel swarming with Chinese investors, entrepreneurs and translators. Over a two-day event, the visitors absorbed talks on India’s macroeconomics, financial regulations, savings and lending markets and dozens of demos by eager fintech startups looking to land some investors.
The Chinese investors – about 18 of who had come to India including Baidu, Fenghou Capital and CITIC International – said they wanted to partner with Indian venture capitalists to find the next big idea. Preferably in fintech. Said one investor: “We anticipate a fintech boom in India too and we don’t want to miss that when it happens.”
And as for their choice of hotel, well, it was apparently chosen because it had the best Chinese food.