Goyal asks VC funds to invest in small-town startups
Global venture capital (VC) funds should focus more on startups from tier-II and tier-III cities, said Union minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal, who was chairing the fourth roundtable with global VC funds.
The funds should explore new sectors for investing, promote and protect the intellectual property created by young Indian entrepreneurs, provide expertise to scale up, and explore greater capital infusion, including risk capital, the minister said, according to the ministry of commerce and industry.
The roundtable organized by the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), was held through video conference as part of the Startup India Innovation Week. More than 75 VC fund investors from across the US, Japan, Korea, and Singapore, as well as some global funds domiciled in India, participated in the deliberations. These funds, which have a combined asset under management of more than $30 billion in India, made several suggestions to boost the sentiment of investors in the sector.
The government has taken several steps to support startups and would continue to come up with more measures. The government has undertaken 49 regulatory reforms to enhance the ease of doing business, ease of raising capital, and to reduce the compliance burden, to support the startup ecosystem.
The roundtable was held to discuss the progress of the Indian startup-VC ecosystem, as well as insights on impact investing, India’s global outlook, and opportunities for VC investments in the country.
The meeting covered topics such as ‘building for the world from India’, Digital India outlook, regulatory updates for global and domestic funds, opportunities in India, and ‘Vision for India at 2047’. It also covered major regulatory issues that need to be addressed with the Centre.
The meeting was also attended by Anurag Jain, secretary, DPIIT, major Indian regulators, and policymakers.
India has more than 61,000 recognized startups spread across 55 industries, with 45% of them from tier-II and tier-III cities, and 45% of then having at least one woman director, the ministry said.
The startup fraternity should nurture 75 more unicorns in 2022, Goyal had said at the inaugural ceremony of the Startup India Innovation Week, earlier this week.
