At the recently concluded Startup Mahakumbh 2025 in New Delhi, Dushyant Singh, Managing Director of Playbook Partners, spoke to Fortune India, highlighting India's resilient funding landscape and the importance of scaling innovation beyond metro cities. "...The year 2024 saw a slight increase from 2023. And the 2025 first quarter has been steady and given the global environment. I think the fact that India has been steady in that environment is an extremely strong outcome,” Singh said, calling India’s performance commendable amid global uncertainty.

Playbook, a Mumbai-based operator-driven growth capital (GC) firm investing in growth-stage, tech-enabled businesses, marked its first close of its maiden $250 million growth fund in September 2024.

Explaining Playbook Partners' investment strategy, Singh said the company focuses on growth-stage startups that have scaled beyond the early stage and demonstrated strong unit economics, and that the company's support includes both capital and operational expertise. “To that journey from a hundred crores to a thousand crores turnover, that's where we come in to help,” he said.

Singh advocated for spreading the startup ecosystem beyond metros: “You can't build an economy on five or six cities. Growth has percolated beyond that.”

Singh sees early-stage funding trends in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities as promising. "...such (Startup Mahakumbh 2025) initiatives will be crucial in building a truly inclusive startup landscape that aligns with India’s broader economic goals for 2047," he said.