Founders Of Zomato, Paytm, 52 Other Unicorns Meet Piyush Goyal; Discuss Forming Startup Association

SUMMARY

Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, EaseMyTrip’s Rikant Pitti, Droom's Sandeep Aggarwal, and Zomato's Deepinder Goyal were among those who attended the meeting

Goyal suggested forming an association of startups or a club of unicorns to raise the issues being faced by the startups

Droom founder Aggarwal said a number of suggestions were made on increasing the ease of doing business, access to capital, tax issues, among others, during the meeting

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal met founders of 54 Indian unicorns, including Zomato and Paytm, to discuss the growth trajectory of the startup ecosystem in the country.

The meeting, which took place on Wednesday (January 17), saw discussions on the role of domestic capital in boosting the country’s startup ecosystem and India’s position in the global startup landscape, news agency ANI reported.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, EaseMyTrip’s Rikant Pitti, Droom’s Sandeep Aggarwal, Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal, boAt’s Aman Gupta, and representatives from Flipkart, Phonepe, Swiggy, OYO, and Zerodha were part of the meeting.

Sharma told the news agency that during the meeting, Goyal suggested forming an association of startups or a club of unicorns to raise the issues being faced by the startups.

“With the association of startups, we can also come up with many solutions like connecting with bankers and investors to get access to capital,” Sharma said.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Droom founder Aggarwal said that a number of suggestions were made on increasing the ease of doing business, access to capital, tax issues, among others during the meeting.

Meanwhile, Sanjiv Singh, joint secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), said the government got suggestions from the founders, deliberated the roles that unicorn startups have in mentoring up and coming startups, and the addressable pain points that need addressing by the government.

The meeting took place a day after the country celebrated the National Startup Day. The DPIIT also released the states’ startup rankings for 2022 on the occasion. Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh emerged as the best performers in the rankings.

The government also announced the winners of the National Startup Awards 2023, which saw 20 startups being awarded across categories.

The government has launched a number of new schemes, like Startup India, Startup India Seed Fund Scheme, Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups, to promote startups in the country over the last few years. This has spawned thousands of startups in the country. As per the DPIIT, the country was home to over 1.14 Lakh startups as of October 2023.