Nisheeth Srivastava

A founder who has spent 32 Years building IP-Owned Tech in India's Defense Sector. Ashok Atluri, Founder of Zen Technologies Limited shares a growth story bootstrapped from Hyderabad: -Revenue: ₹60 Cr (FY21) → ₹930 Cr(FY24) -Market cap: 40 Cr (2012-13) → 13000 Cr today -Growth: 400X in 12 years Takeaways from our conversation: 1. India historically imported 65–70% of its defense equipment. Today, defense exports have grown more than 30× over the past decade, with the private sector contributing around 60% of exports. Domestic defense production has increased to ₹1.27 lakh crore, a 174% rise since FY 2014–15. 2. For over two decades, Zen built advanced simulators but struggled to sell them in India because single-vendor bids weren’t accepted. The IDDM policy in 2015 gave preference to IP-owning Indian companies and allocated 75% of the capital acquisition budget to local sourcing. And decades of R&D became a real market worth ₹200 billion. 3. Defense tech startups in India have raised $184 million in VC funding since 2020. Zen’s journey shows that IP-owned Tech built with self-funded R&D can build the most defensible advantage, similar to how Apple captures value through IP rather than manufacturing. 4. Zen’s anti-drone systems were proven in field operations, leading to export inquiries from over 20 countries. This mirrors the broader trend of India’s defense exports growing from ₹1,940 crore (FY14) to ₹21,083 crore (FY24). Field-tested solutions build trust far faster than lab demos or pilot projects. 5. Government fundings are rewarding innovation over manufacturing. Programs like iDEX provide up to ₹10 crore for proven concepts, while DRDO offers ₹50 crore per system under the Technology Development Fund. This shift allows companies to reinvest profits into next-generation R&D. 6. Ashok believes that not all technologies should be patented. Highly secretive or complex innovations can be reverse-engineered if patented. Instead, patent what is obvious to outsiders to protect your competitive edge. 7. Build with a focused approach on Pareto technologies with maximum impact. Instead of chasing every opportunity, Zen concentrated on the 20% of technologies delivering 80% of results, anti-drone systems and simulators. Prioritizing high-leverage areas compounds impact effectively. 8. Time market entry around overlooked gaps: In 2018, drones were a hot topic, but there was little attention on anti-drone systems. Zen entered this gap and was ready when the need became urgent, from regional conflicts to domestic security. Opportunities often lie where others are silent. 9. Create policies around your innovation: Self-funded R&D firms face unique risks that conventional procurement rules often overlook. Zen advocated for new categories rather than adapting breakthrough technologies to unsuitable frameworks, ensuring their innovations could be evaluated on merit. Full Episode https://lnkd.in/gnAFEj3f

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📸 “Non-adoption of AI is not an option anymore. The window is closing.” Founders of ixigo - Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar share their AI adoption strategy on our next episode of IndiaAI in Action, a collaboration between Startup Policy Forum and IndiaAI Mission, an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. 🚀 Here’s a sneak peak. Full episode coming soon! 🥳🔥 Watch here https://lnkd.in/gqepSWkG The series is powered by Vultr, a global AI infrastructure company S Krishnan | Abhishek Singh | Kavita Bhatia | Anshul M Singhal | Avantika Gode | Shubhangi Poddar | Amit Rai | Piyush Gupta | Digvijay Singh Bisht | Arsheen K. Jain

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I had an exciting conversation with Sandeep Bardia who is currently the CFO of Cloud Nine Hospital with over 25 years of experience in corporate finance. We discussed - Role of CFO in Hyper Growth Vs. matured companies - Practical nuances of Short range plan & Annual operating plan (do you know what is Topline protection plan?) - Business partnering - what really it is in practice? - Managing Tensions, towards healthy & profitable growth - Governance and Steps taken towards preparing for IPO - CFO role & perspective Thanks Sandeep Bardia I really enjoyed it. I really believe this is useful for aspiring CFO's across all finance team members be it FC (finance controller), planning / business finance and treasury. I also think this is useful for CFO's as well. For full video: https://lnkd.in/gbbc2wpV #SBN #CFOlife #FClife #financereporting #resultlane Swaminathan Subbarathnam Deepak S Prasad Harish S K Sandeep Bardia Gagan Shetty Sriram Chidambaram Chitra Parameswaran Soundar R Dhawal Parvatikar

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