Chennai : Promising start-ups in e-commerce and e-retail space are the ones that will change the face of Indian merchandising and marketing business, Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata said.
“If I look at the landscape, I see the future in young managers, the young start-ups. It is what I saw in United States in the 70s and 80s,” he said. “The ability to think out of the box has made the United States change its appearance from smokestacked companies to innovative companies that we see around us today such as Apple, Facebook, etc,” Tata said.
In the past few months, Tata has invested in close to 10 companies, mostly in the e-commerce space, including Snapdeal and Chinese handset maker Xiaomi.
Elaborating on his interest on investing in start-ups, Tata said: “This is an opportunity to encourage and support young start-ups which are in new space such as e-commerce and e-retail, which in my view is going to change the face of Indian merchandising and marketing business.
“So, in a small token way, because I am not a very wealthy person I have invested myself in some 10 companies hoping that some of them will succeed. I think it ecommerce companies have great potential.” On his latest investment in Coimbatore based start-up firm Ampere Vehicles, he said, “I invested there because I was impressed by the management which had hands on experience.
