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Emerging startups and digital services platforms for Bharat have not just cracked monetization but are also giving large companies “a run for their money,” according to Accel's Sarthak Singh. Bharat, once seen as a blue ocean for startups, is now attracting increasing traction from entrepreneurs eager to develop tailored solutions for the market segment. 

"We always thought that there is a very strong demand pull for both paid and unpaid apps and platforms for Bharat," Sarthak said in an episode of SeedToScale's 'Decoding Bharat' series.

For India's top VC fund, Bharat is defined as the middle-income households earning between Rs 5-Rs 15 lakh annually, primarily located in tier 2, Tier 3, and rural regions of India. Consumers in Bharat are aspirational and increasingly willing to upgrade to better lifestyles, seeking quality products and services that meet their evolving needs.

Singh’s view highlights a major shift in the prevailing view and understanding of the Bharat audience. It challenges the misconception that this demographic is unwilling to pay, emphasizing instead that Bharat offers a scalable and reliable revenue stream for digital platforms. This indicates a substantial monetization opportunity for startups, reflected in the growing consumption of regional content within Bharat.

Seekho, an AI-powered ed-tech platform, began with a subscription-only model, illustrating the willingness of Bharat's audience to invest in valuable content. According to Rohit Choudhary, Founder of Seekho, people are willing to pay if they find value in the product or service.

"One thing that came out when we started building Seekho was that people are super ambitious, super aspirational, and they're looking for content that can help them grow, help them succeed, but it just didn't exist because no one ever thought that Bharat wants that content," he said in the episode.

Seekho is one of several platforms serving Bharat. Stage, an OTT platform solving for entertainment by focusing on India's diverse dialectics, also boasts a significant subscriber base. “This entire notion that Bharat doesn't have paying capacity or doesn't want to pay and Bharat is only in villages and outside cities is something that needs to be challenged in a very, very big way,” Stage Co-Founder Vinay Singhal said during the discussion.

The substantial opportunities in Bharat come with their own set of unique challenges. As Prashant Sachan pointed out, while tech-savvy users are familiar with certain prompts and iconography, those with limited tech experience or who are new to the internet might not interact with these elements in the same way. It is crucial to be highly mindful of these differences, he said.

Looking ahead, Bharat platforms have significant potential for growth and even international expansion, according to Sarthak. He said, when considering the total addressable market (TAM), the future stages of these businesses could be as substantial as their current achievements if they successfully address their core challenges. “I would recommend all the content startup founders to look towards China and see what China has been able to do just with the content first companies,” he added.