Post-Covid, 6,000 challengers have emerged that will take on market leaders in next 5 years: Saurabh Mukherjea

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Saurabh Mukherjea, Founder & CIO, Marcellus Investment, says a new India is being born – the challenger franchises, roughly 6,000 companies below the top 800. The top 800 companies are the rulers, they make profits of around $60 million. But the fastest profit growth in the country is in the 6,000 companies below the top 800. According to Mukherjea, their job, in the last year, increasingly has been to load up on these new businesses as India's profit landscape changes dramatically.

What are the key highlights of your new report and research study and what triggered it?
Saurabh Mukherjea: What triggered it is in the two years after COVID, we realised that while the investee companies were continuing to generate 20% profit growth, there was a whole ecosystem of smaller companies – around 6,000 smaller companies – which are growing profits at 30-35%. These are not PE or VC-funded companies but were perfectly ordinary smaller companies that are growing profits at a rapid rate.

Unlock Leadership Excellence with a Range of CXO Courses

We realised through 2023 that a new India is being born. We call these challenger franchises, these are roughly 6,000 companies below the top 800. The top 800 companies are the rulers, they make profits of around $60 million. This is the basis of the government's corporate tax data. 800 companies in