RefferenceError: Can't find variable React

I'm not entirely sure why I am getting this error, as react is present in node_modules and imported in referenced file

Referred App.js file is this one

"use strict";var __importDefault = (this && this.__importDefault) || function (mod) {    return (mod && mod.__esModule) ? mod : { "default": mod };};Object.defineProperty(exports, "__esModule", { value: true });const react_1 = __importDefault(require("react"));const unstated_1 = require("unstated");const layouts_1 = __importDefault(require("./layouts"));const App = () => (<unstated_1.Provider><layouts_1.default /></unstated_1.Provider>);exports.default = App;

This is output from TypeScript ^. Non transpiled version is as follows

import React from 'react'import { Provider as StateProvider } from 'unstated'import AppRoot from './layouts'const App = () => (<StateProvider><AppRoot /></StateProvider>)export default App

My project structure looks like this

packages/  native-app/    node_modules/    ios    index.js    src/      App.tsx    dist/      native-app/        src/          App.js      server/  server/

I feel like this might be related to nesting inside dist folder? My main react native index.js imports App like this

import { AppRegistry } from 'react-native'import App from './dist/native-app/src/App'AppRegistry.registerComponent('MyApp', () => App)

Note: This looks like monorepo, but I am not using anything like yarn workspaces or lerna, packages are installed inside each folder i.e. native-app and server with some common devDependencies like typescript, tslint and prettier installed in root folder where packages are located.

Project uses following tsconfig

{"compilerOptions": {"target": "es2017","module": "commonjs","lib": ["es2017"],"removeComments": true,"allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,"esModuleInterop": true,"skipLibCheck": true,"strict": true,"noImplicitAny": true,"strictNullChecks": true,"strictFunctionTypes": true,"noImplicitThis": true,"alwaysStrict": true,"noUnusedLocals": true,"noUnusedParameters": true,"noImplicitReturns": true,"noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": true  },"exclude": ["scripts","packages/native-app/dist","packages/server/functions/dist"  ]}

And package json for native-app

{"name": "skimitar-app","version": "1.0.0","description": "Skimitar app","private": true,"dependencies": {"asq-react-native-device": "1.2.2","asq-react-native-facebook-log-in": "1.1.0","asq-react-native-google-sign-in": "1.2.0","asq-react-native-sensors": "1.1.0","react": "16.4.2","react-native": "0.56.0","react-native-firebase": "4.3.8","react-native-svg": "6.5.2","unstated": "2.1.1"  },"devDependencies": {"@types/react": "16.4.13","@types/react-native": "0.56.17"  }}