Innovation in India is involved in a tightrope between promise and reality. Despite a booming start -up ecosystem and a deep talent pool, entrepreneurs often find themselves against a system of systemic apathy – bureaucratic inertia, lean support from R&D and investors opposed to risk.
Nowhere is this struggle is more strongly captured only in a recent post Reddit by a founder whose autonomous retail startup fueled by AI has reached a dead end – not due to the lack of capacity, but a broken financing system little willing to support anything beyond fast victories.
In a blunt position of Reddit entitled “Indian startups will never be innovative”, the co-founder of a technological startup building autonomous retail stores and supplied by AI has exposed the obstacles to which Indian innovators are confronted.
“Hi, I am a co-founder of an Indian startup that works on the construction of autonomous stores using the Vision AI and Sensor fusion for 24 x 7,” wrote the founder. “We are the only company in India that has built a fundamental IA vision model to identify people and follow people … Our world competitor Amazon Go has $ 200,000 for the configuration of such a store when we can do it for only $ 7,500. However, we have lost because we are based in India. ”
Despite the construction of a lean product to a fraction of world costs, the team of three could not attract funding. The founder shared the blunt refusals of Indian VCs:
- “VC: Indians do not need such stores, Qcommerce Hai Hamare Paas (we have qcommerce).”
- “VC: Do not go for innovation, Yaha Pe Koi Paisa Nai Dega (nobody will give you money for that). Tissue it.”
Some demanded traction far beyond the scope of a startup at the start-up stadium. “VC: Get $ 100,000 at $ 200,000 AR, so we can speak,” said one of them. The founder rejected: “We build in AI without external team, how can we evolve up there without any support?”
Disillusioned, the position ended on a dark note: “Our VC sector is built around coffee financing, drinks, shirts, services based on dashboards or AI companies that actually work on Chatgpt. Indian startups will never be innovative because of this … once we are completely died in India.
The message quickly sparked a debate.
A user has highlighted the cultural and market inadequacy: “India is not the good market for this company at the moment … Go on the street and ask ten people if they will be acceptable to let the camera follow and identify them.”
Another underlined the structural problems: “Each VC wants to see a label IIM or IIT … No one wants to appreciate the sweat it takes to do R&D and build revolutionary technology.”
Others have offered prudent encouragement and advice on partnerships, subsidies and alignment of investors.
But the hardest comment struck the deeper cultural roots. “The R&D expenses of the best Indian companies are far from being global peers … Indians live near the Maslow pyramid … The self-autonomous boxes will not work here … Mechanization, automation and DIY have not resumed, will never resume.”
The position ended with an assessment that gives thought: innovation in India often fails not for lack of intellect or effort, but because the ecosystem – from VC to cultural behavior markets – is not designed to support it.
