Bengaluru founders should move to Mumbai to learn how to build serious businesses: Sorin Investments’ Sanjay Nayar

Sorin Investments founder and chairman Sanjay Nayar at the Moneycontrol Startup Conclave.

Sorin Investments founder Sanjay Nayar said that some founders from India's tech capital, Bengaluru, need to move to the country's financial capital, Mumbai, to learn how to build serious businesses.

Speaking at the Moneycontrol Startup Conclave on August 9, Nayar said, "I think the Bengaluru market has become very incestuous. Everyone is here. In Mumbai, real businesses get built despite how you live and travel."

The private equity veteran was responding to a question on why a lot of Bengaluru startups have not gone public.

Nayar also dismissed concerns about a funding winter, saying that the real problem is the lack of quality investment assets.

"I think a lack of supply of good assets is the case. Funding winter is a misnomer," he added.

Sorin Investments recently raised Rs 1,350 crore to invest in early stage startups.

Nayar has four decades of experience in global financial and capital markets, including 25 years at Citi and nearly 14 years at KKR before retiring last year. He established KKR's India operations in 2009 after leaving Citigroup.

At KKR, he led investments totalling around $14 billion across private equity, real estate, and infrastructure, with private equity investments being the largest, valued at approximately $10 billion.