Nov 6, 2025

ET Special Synopsis The ET Soonicorns Summit Sundowner series concluded its vibrant 2025 journey in Mumbai on October 29, celebrating India’s burgeoning startup ecosystem with a sharp regional focus on Maharashtra’s soonicorns and minicorns. The collective insights highlighted a maturing, selective capital scene where founder authenticity, financial rigour, and strategic alignment become the ultimate currency. ET Special Leading India’s regional startup narrative into a new era, The Economic Times Soonicorns Summit 2025 Sundowner series culminated in Mumbai on 29 October 2025. Launched as a focused regional extension of the flagship ET Soonicorns Summit, India’s largest congregation of soonicorns, following dynamic Hyderabad and Gurugram editions, the Mumbai finale spotlighted Maharashtra’s entrepreneurial vigour: the backbone of nearly a quarter of India’s unicorn base and over 4,400 startups. A blueprint for Mumbai’s startup prowess The evening commenced with a powerful keynote by Chetan Naik, Senior Fund Manager and Strategy Head at 360One Asset, who painted a comprehensive portrait of Mumbai’s unique startup ecosystem. He hailed the “Capital + Credibility” equation as Mumbai’s defining strength, where financial institutions coexist with founders championing “accountability and trust.” Naik articulated that Mumbai’s entrepreneurial blueprint is rooted in three pillars: seamless capital access through a vast network of venture funds; a culture of governance and transparency fuelling longevity; and a compounding culture of steady, disciplined, and profitable growth. This sets a benchmark for founders across India, aiming for sustained success over fleeting fads. Roadmap to future unicorns: Report unveiling The unveiling of The Economic Times Top Soonicorns and Minicorns of Maharashtra 2025 report, in collaboration with Research Partner Tracxn, marked a pivotal moment. Presented jointly by Chetan Naik and Shalini Karunakaran Kuila, AVP at Economic Times, the report evaluated startups across metrics such as founding year, funding velocity, investor quality, and sectoral momentum. This comprehensive analysis, based on Tracxn’s meticulous dataset spanning January 2020 to July 2025, offered a crucial lens on the next wave of Indian unicorns, reinforcing The Economic Times’ mission to spotlight and nurture regional innovation hubs. Together, the opening segment and report launch set the tone for the Sundowner’s mission: to deepen understanding of India’s evolving startup fabric and spotlight the power of regional ecosystems as a cradle for innovation, resilience, and enduring entrepreneurial excellence. From statistics to startup storytelling The evening gracefully shifted to founder-led storytelling through the Startup Open-Mic segment, where narratives of resilience met sparks of innovation. Kunal Gupta, Co-Founder undefined petrol engines won’t last long,” he stressed, marking a bold pivot towards sustainable mobility. He highlighted EMotorad’s cutting-edge technologies, such as smart e-bikes equipped with fall detection and geofencing, reshaping India’s mobility landscape. With a $50 million pipeline and ambitious plans for ₹1,000 crore revenue fuelled by global exports and local market dominance, Gupta embodies the ‘Make in India’ spirit. His journey exemplifies how “success in evolving markets demands vision, agility, and a willingness to disrupt tradition.” Satish Mishra, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Pi42, navigated the complex terrain of crypto derivative trading. “Cryptocurrency is a topic where people feel FOMO, but not enough understand how to make money out of it,” he observed. Piloting Pi42’s pioneering futures and options platform fully denominated in INR, Mishra emphasised the vision of “users only worrying about their trading strategies.” His leadership reinstates the critical role of mature risk management to safeguard new investors while advancing India’s crypto ecosystem with transparency and trust. Amit Kumar, Senior Director of Marketing at Netradyne, unfolded the strategic power of AI in fleet safety and marketing. “Brand perception plays a big role,” he emphasised, highlighting how celebrity endorsements and media trust revolutionise sales. Kumar reflected on Netradyne’s rise as a Series D unicorn with marquee clients, including Pepsi and Amazon, stressing the necessity of “personalisation and humanisation” in authentic storytelling that drives trust, inbound leads, and competitive advantage in evolving tech sectors. Sudhanshu Bhasin, Chief Business Officer and Head of Investment at Recur Club, portrayed the transformation of India’s debt marketplace for startups and SMEs. He contextualised India’s $3 trillion debt market’s opacity and inefficiencies and lauded Recur’s AI-driven platform matching over 2,000 companies with more than 150 lenders. Speed and transparency are Recur’s pillars, accelerating loans from three-to-four months to just seven-to-10 days. Bhasin noted, “We focus on providing the best debt options tailored for new-age businesses,” underscoring AI’s role in democratising capital. Beyond growth: The non-negotiables in a new funding landscape The Mumbai edition of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 Mumbai Sundowner came to a close with the panel discussion titled ‘Changing Metrics While Raising a Round of Capital’, featuring insights from Rajat Mangla (Vice President, General Atlantic), Chetan Naik (Senior Fund Manager & Strategy Head, 360One), and Abhishek Jain (Vice President, Eight Roads), and moderated by Miloni Bhatt. The panel dissected the evolving startup funding landscape in 2025, emphasising that growth alone is insufficient. Rajat Mangla, Vice President at General Atlantic, set the tone: “Growth is no longer enough.” Conviction and capital efficiency underpin success, with Mangla advising, “If you chase the customer and the customer keeps coming back, every VC will be chasing you.” He stressed that “a company ready to go public must have scalable growth, a profitability path, and strong governance,” setting new standards for maturity. Chetan Naik of 360 ONE Asset pressed the need for qualitative growth: “Growth remains the most important metric, but the context of that growth matters.” Founders must “know their numbers daily” and foster authenticity, as “it fuels trust.” Honesty about failures, Naik noted, is a hallmark of enduring leadership. Abhishek Jain, Vice President at Eight Roads, highlighted the founder mindset and discipline. “You should know exactly when you will be profitable by the time you finish your Series A/B.” Jain admired founders who “raise minimal capital and own over 40% equity,” a sign of true capital discipline. He championed the primacy of investor-founder alignment: “Choosing the right investor is more important than capital itself.” Together, they painted a sophisticated funding landscape where winning demands a confluence of customer traction, financial discipline, founder authenticity, and judicious investor partnerships. The panel reminded the audience that with capital easily accessible, what really counts now are disciplined metrics paired with passionate leadership. The ET Soonicorns Summit Sundowner series now cements itself as an essential forum for accelerating India’s next generation of unicorns. Add