India is not one market — it's twenty-eight of them, each with its own incentives, regulators, and pace. The opportunity is real. So is the cost of getting the entry model wrong the first time.
Manufacturing capacity, consumption growth, and a government actively courting foreign investment through production-linked incentive schemes — the "why India" argument has been made in a hundred board decks. It's rarely the reason an entry stalls. The reason is almost always the state, structure, and partner questions underneath it.
Entity and structure, FDI route, sectoral caps, state selection, certification, tax. Get these right and the market is open to you. Get them wrong and the position never holds.
If your business runs the other way — India into the UK or Europe — registration is trivial. Displacing an incumbent supplier and holding a buyer relationship is not. See the UK & EU Entry page →
Most expensive India mistakes trace back to one of these being skipped, or answered too quickly.
India's states compete for investment on land, power, labour, and incentive packages that can differ enormously for the same sector. The right state for your line is rarely the one with the best press coverage — it's decided by your specific supply chain, sector, and customer base.
Liaison office, branch, LLP, private limited, joint venture, or manufacturing entity under a specific FDI route — each has a different capital, repatriation, and control profile. Decided casually, it's expensive and slow to unwind eighteen months in.
Distributor, joint venture, wholly-owned subsidiary, contract or owned manufacturing, or licensing — the right model depends on your capital appetite, control requirements, and how fast you need revenue versus how durable you need the position to be.
Fastest route to first revenue. Least control over pricing, positioning, and the end customer relationship.
Local market knowledge and speed, at the cost of shared control and a partner-selection decision that matters more than any other in this list.
Full control, full compliance and capital exposure. The default for companies with a long-term, board-committed India thesis.
Often the PLI-eligible route. Land, state incentives, and supply chain localisation decide the economics more than the headline duty saving does.
Lowest capital exposure, weakest control over brand and quality execution on the ground.
We identify candidates against your specific criteria — sector experience, financial standing, existing distribution reach, and cultural fit — then qualify them through direct conversation before you spend a single meeting on someone who was never a fit.
Entity setup under the applicable FDI route, sector-specific approval requirements (automatic versus government route), compliance calendar, and tax structuring — sequenced so the position holds under scrutiny, not just on the day of incorporation.
Who already serves this segment, at what price, through which channel — and what would actually make an Indian buyer switch. Research built to be acted on, not filed.
Government (state investment promotion agencies and central ministries), industry bodies and chambers, and — where relevant — investors. The access that turns a market entry from a plan into meetings with people who can actually move it forward.
Is there a question here worth paying to answer? Check CETA eligibility and estimate the duty position on inputs or components you'd bring in.
Four minutes, onlineIndia Readiness: is the opportunity real for your line, and which state and model fit best? One answer, delivered straight — including the one that says wait.
Fifteen working daysHow exactly do we enter, and with whom? Entry model, entity route, state selection, and a named partner shortlist.
Six to ten weeksAre we actually operating? We hold the relationship after the introduction, through incorporation, first hires, and first orders.
Minimum six months · By invitationWe read an incentive package the way others read a market report. Land, power, labour, and approval timelines differ by state — we've sat on both sides of that negotiation.
Roughly half the enquiries we take do not need us, and we say so in the first conversation. We take no success fees: you are paying for independent judgement, not for a yes.
We introduce where we hold the relationship. We do not claim access to RBI, DPIIT, or sector regulators that we do not have.
Market assessment, partner search, and senior stakeholder introductions produced a clear go/no-go decision and a shortlist of vetted partners.
Sector-focused research across the automotive and mobility ecosystems, reducing a broad field to specific, addressable segments.
Senior stakeholder engagement across industry and government, convened at the moment it mattered.
Experience includes work across
Named clients and detailed references are shared directly in conversation, as confidentiality allows.
We keep our engagements deliberately few, and Corridor 02 capacity is limited each quarter. If you don't recognise yourself above, we'll say so in the first conversation rather than take the fee.
The more you give us here, the more useful the conversation is. Every submission is read by a partner — not a form queue — and answered within two working days.