#ScalingUpMSMEs: Inc42 & Dell Bring India’s MSMEs Under The Spotlight At ‘The Dialogue’

Inc42 & Dell are bringing the startup ecosystem together for The Dialogue on June 27 to celebrate MSME Day 2019 and help startups, tech giants navigate the MSME market, opportunities, and challenges to help them efficiently work with this vibrant sector. We invite all startups, investors, and other stakeholders from the Indian MSME ecosystem to come and enrich the roundtable dialogue.

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector in India has emerged as a highly vibrant and dynamic sector of the Indian economy over the past decade and has played a significant role in India’s economic growth. This is clear when you consider that the sector contributed around 30% to the Indian GDP in 2018. According to DataLabs by Inc42, the gross value added by the Indian MSME sector is estimated to be $866 Bn by FY’20, growing at a CAGR of 11.12%.

Given that there are 50 Mn+ MSMEs in India, it is a huge market for tech giants and startups to tap into. Inc42, along with Dell, is bringing The Dialogue roundtable discussion and this time the focus is squarely on tapping the full potential of the Indian MSME sector.

India’s MSME sector is ready to embrace the power of technology to scale and become more efficient, and the opportunities for startups and tech giants are set to grow multifold. The Dialogue by Inc42 & Dell on June 27 aims to support startups, tech giants understand the MSME market, the opportunities, and challenges to help them efficiently penetrate into this vibrant sector while supporting MSMEs in their scaling-up journey. This includes addressing the fundamental problems in financial inclusion, technology penetration as well as hiring and upskilling.

We invite all startups, investors, and other stakeholders from the Indian MSME ecosystem to come and enrich the roundtable dialogue.

Fintech And Lending Solutions For MSMEs

Access to credit is an important aspect for any business and so is the case with MSMEs, who often get left out of the formal lending market. Lending for MSMEs has mostly been dominated by informal financial entities such as money lenders and friends and family. In fact, nearly 40% of credit allotment to MSMEs in India is through informal channels.

But with new lending models and credit scores, MSMEs are also being targetted increasingly by digital lending startups. New-age digital lending has disrupted the lending models of banks and non-banking financial companies. This is being backed by increasing internet penetration in Tier 2 and 3 cities, where MSME businesses are higher in number.

Startups are using technology to fix common industry pain points such as the long loan processing times, lack of transparency in the process, insufficient loan size and inflexible loan tenures. They are also innovating in helping farmers repay loans in a more transparent manner and linked to their earnings.

The government’s MUDRA Yojna which was supposed to help MSMEs has become a graveyard of non-performing assets for banks. NBFCs, a major source for credit for MSMEs have been ailing since the IL&FS fiasco. This is causing a major liquidity crisis for MSMEs.

While a lot of these issues will be addressed with the new Union Budget, there is still a lot more that startups and digital lending companies can do to penetrate the MSME sector. The Dialogue will bring the key industry stakeholders together to discuss the gaps in lending for the MSME sector and how startups can leverage technology to fill these gaps and solve the problems in the MSME context.

Making MSMEs Tech-Savvy

While internet penetration has improved in areas where MSMEs are most prevalent, many of these businesses are still unregistered and do not have access to the latest tech or software solutions to manage their business.

Regulatory changes such as GST and demonetisation pushed many MSMEs to go digital, but the government’s forced transition did not work as smoothly as envisioned. Besides the technical assistance at district-level and government-backed incubation centres, a lot more that can be done to empower MSMEs.

Tech platforms such as SaaS and business analytics offerings can help connect MSMEs with potential clients to grow their business further, manage inventory smartly and enhance delivery efficiency of their product or services, manage filings, accounts and more.

The probability of adoption of business analytics tools in the MSME sector is higher given that 47% of MSMEs have adopted digital tools for business processes, payments, and online sales in India. This opens doors for several B2B tech startups offering SaaS, analytics, business intelligence and inventory management solutions to MSMEs. However, the tech-averse nature of MSMEs still remains a huge challenge.

The advent of GST has opened up new opportunities for startups providing tax-filing solution in the MSME sector. In addition to this the additional benefits such as the increased limit of tax exemption, and flat tax rates have made fintech based SaaS products even more desirable in the Indian MSME sector.

The Inc42 & Dell Dialogue is all about figuring out how technology can be adapted to increase awareness among the MSMEs and familiarise them about applying available technology solutions offered to their business for its digital upgradation and scaling up.

Solving Hiring And Upskilling Among MSMEs

The MSME sector provided employment to more than 123 Mn workers in FY’16 and with the increased prevalence of digital tools and the introduction of new-age technologies, a large part of this workforce needs reskilling and learning tools.

Besides the problem of skilling, the traditional hiring methods and approaches have also become outdated, especially as technology is a big focus area when hiring and such talent is not easily available.

Here, HRTech startups are working with MSMEs to solve their hiring pain points, and helping them train the workforce for the challenges that adopting technology in the business adds. Corporate learning and training platforms are helping MSMEs create custom training modules for their workers, which is in line with the specific goals for MSMEs, which are often vastly different from big corporations.

In addition to the government’s reskilling and upskilling programmes and initiatives, startups are playing a vital role in bringing the MSME workforce up to speed with the latest digitalisation and technological tools. The Dialogue by Inc42 & Dell will bring these innovations and tools to the fore while discussing how startups and corporations can make a bigger impact in terms of getting MSME workforce ready for a tech-first future.

Supporting India’s MSME Sector Through The Dialogue

The Inc42 & Dell Dialogue for the MSME sector will debate and seek answers to the above-mentioned issues, and how startups and tech giants are solving them to help MSMEs scale up. It will also decide the course of startup innovation towards the MSME sector by identifying the key issues that need to be tackled first.

India’s MSME sector is one of the most vibrant business communities in the world, and it’s time to hear from the experts, put forward your views, and discuss your concerns with the MSME sector and the startup ecosystem at large — we invite you to attend the Inc42 & Dell Dialogue on June 27.

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