The rise and fall of Rocket Internet in India

On a hot summer afternoon at the Time Tower building in Gurgaon, a 75-day-old start-up was shutting down. The smell of fresh paint, new furniture and an air of heaviness filled the office on the fourth floor. Indian laws did not permit foreign investment in an online retail venture and the risk of running the business was high. The start-up, Asasa.com, an online fashion retailer, would have to be shut down (even before it took off), the founders told everyone gathered there.