Indian Startup acceleration will depend on how we build small town startups and nurture them through incubation centers. Union Minister Piyush Goyal while speaking at a virtual event organised by IIT Madras has said that the Government is committed to supporting startups from smaller cities and towns via better incubation centres.
Goyal expressed “By and large, the startups have created a good name for themselves, a very high level of credibility and I am fairly confident that going forward there will be more and more changes.”
“I am told, in many cases the startups do window shopping whose money they are going to take… that was not something we saw a few years ago when the startups were chasing capital.” He added
“Our Startups are making India proud and it is with this spirit that the Government is also working in the Advisory Council continuously with new ideas. The quality of technology and innovation is now, in many ways, world class and we are second to none in the world. That itself is a big evolution from the past.” Piyush Goyal Said
Government Committed to Push Startup Growth Across Geographies in India – Piyush Goyal
Currently, India has over 61,000 recognised startups spread across 55 industries, with 45% of them from tier-II and tier-III cities. The minister quoted Government-run or state-backed incubation centres have changed the fortunes of the sector. A case in point has been Telangana’s T-Hub.
Launched in 2015 under the public-private model, T-Hub has helped put Telangana on India’s startup map and has created a slew of entrepreneurial success stories. Its website states that it has incubated over 120 startups, raising a sum total of INR 1800 Cr funding along the way.
There have been other success stories like this. Technology Innovation Zone in Kerala’s Kochi touts itself as ‘South Asia’s Largest Startup Hub’ and has so far incubated over 500 startups.
Under the Atal Innovation Mission, Centre has set up Atal Incubation Centres (AICs) that nurture innovative startups and promote entrepreneurship in the country.
Centre also provides incubation support to the states as part of Startup India initiative. Under this programme, state governments collaborate with local premiere institutes like IITs and IIMs to establish incubators.
While these schemes sound wonderful on paper, something seems definitely amiss. While incubators are important, the entire ecosystem runs on mutually leveraging either pillars of strength that include innovation, R&D and foremost of all, venture capital.
In addition to the top three hubs, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai are the next few hubs which recorded more than $500 Mn in funding in 2021.
India saw as many 1.436 startups being launched last year, with as many as 108 startups recording deals upwards of $100 Mn and above, in the same period. Fintech startups led the market with maximum funding deals in 2021.
Automobile classifieds platform CarDekho in October last year raised $250 Mn, entering the much-coveted unicorn club with a valuation of $1.2 Bn. With this, the startup became the first unicorn headquartered in Jaipur
Other small-town startups too stood out like Jaipur based Finova Capital that raised $55 Mn, Odisha based-Milk Mantra that raised $10 Mn and Indore-based Pushp Spices that raised $16.3 million led by A91 Partners.
