Startups target legacy firms: BharatPe, Centrum Grp set to take over PMC Bank, PharmEasy acquires Thyrocare

It has been exciting and gratifying to chronicle the story of India’s startup universe. Over the last 19 years, Indian startups have come of age and Young Turks has been a witness to the changes. We start a fresh decade, in a milestone year, of IPOs and Big Deals. We look forward to telling more startup stories and building a robust community of founders, investors, and mentors.

We are talking of startups coming of age. Over the last six months, we have seen the M&A action in the startup space gather pace and aggression. Large groups like the Tatas and Reliance have been buying tech platforms in a bid to own a pie of India’s rapidly expanding digital economy.

While it is normal to see large conglomerates acquire startups, the tables seem to be turning. Over the last 10 days, we have seen two startups hit it big and target legacy businesses.

Six-year-old health tech unicorn PharmEasy acquired diagnostics firm Thyrocare- a first-of-its-kind takeover of a publicly listed company by a startup. Three-year-old merchant commerce platform BharatPe and Centrum Group combined have got RBI approval for a small finance bank and are all set to take over PMC Bank. It now looks like that the Davids are going for the Goliaths.

To further discuss this new trend of startups targeting legacy companies, CNBC-TV18 spoke to co-founders of these ambitious startups, Aashneer Grover, co-founder and CEO of BharatPe, and Siddharth Shah, co-founder and CEO at PharmEasy.