Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on VC vs Bootstrapping

In 1984 Mazumdar built a dedicated R&D team at Biocon focused on novel enzymes and solid substrate fermentation. A pivotal external injection came in 1987, when Narayanan Vaghul of ICICI Ventures backed Biocon with a US$250,000 venture fund that financed a new plant built around a semi-automated tray culture process inspired by Japanese techniques. In 1989 Biocon became the first Indian biotech firm to receive U.S.