India To Soon Get Startup Hub To Connect With Incubators, Investors And Mentors

As the third-largest startup ecosystem of the world, India is now working towards enabling ecosystem conversations through mentorship, peer-to-peer support and more through a dedicated startup hub.

An ET report cited a government official as saying that the country has set up a hub for startups, which will act as a platform to connect with incubators, accelerators, mentors, and eventually, angel funds and venture capitalists. The platform is expected to be formally launched by union minister for IT and Electronics, Ravi Shankar Prasad, later this week.

The report added that the platform currently has nearly 1,000 startups and 130 incubation centres. The platform will be managed by former entrepreneur Deepak Agarwal, who will put together a team to run the same.

The idea for the platform is to list startups according to their area of expertise or the state they belong to. It will then act as a facilitator to bring together all existing programmes and connect startups to the right talent, mentor or VC fund.

Till now, Qualcomm and HSBC along with associations such as the Confederation of Indian Industry, have partnered with the government on the initiative. Through this platform, startups will get a dedicated webpage to showcase their enterprise, connect to incubation centres, seek guidance from mentors, benefit from government schemes, access centres of excellence, and avail R&D facilities and labs.

The government is also working on programmes to connect startups with venture capital firms or angel investors, create collaborative platforms for various firms to work together and provide learning repositories.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has been continuously working towards building the startup ecosystem of the country and make it easier to grow.

Recently, showing confidence in the ability of startups to bring innovation and drive business in the Indian economy, Modi said that the Indian startup ecosystem will help India achieve the $5 Tn target for the economy set by the government.

Modi also highlighted that India is one of the top-three startup ecosystems in the world and lauded Tier 2 and Tier 3 startups for powering the startup ecosystem. The prime minister also claimed that the world is looking at new India as a land of unique opportunities.

PM Modi has been called the startup Prime Minister of India, and over the past 5 years, India has seen the rise of over 40,000 startups who have created more than $130 Bn of value from January 2014 to September 2018.

The Startup India scheme has played a significant role in channelling the entrepreneurial spirit of India’s innovators and has penetrated Tier 2 and 3 markets as well. With plenty of initiative from the central and state governments, startups and early-stage businesses have been given every encouragement and incentive to grow and innovate.