For Akhil Gupta, deputy CEO of Bharti Enterprises, dealing with new challenges — and raising money for them — has never been a problem
When you began this journey, did you know where you were headed?
If you ask me today, did you dream about it then — absolutely not. What we were dreaming about at that time was Delhi. Then, we began dreaming about North India. We soon figured this is the business we can handle. JT Mobile was our first big bet. It was our first shift in strategy — acquiring Karnataka and Andhra. To raise that kind of massive funding was a huge task. Our big break came from Telecom Italia in 1995. It gave us ample money. Even with Warburg Pincus, we were able to raise money at the right time. In financial deals, we realised, right timing was important. We weren't worried about the best valuation.
The sense that I get while talking to people in the industry is that the insurance business isn’t doing very well. It is really at the bottom of the heap.
When we entered insurance, we were 16th. You are right. It’s not that we have become No. 5 in the last two years. But that’s the nature of the business. You have to build up your branches, cover territories, appoint agents, [etc].