Indian Business and entrepreneurs to dedicate a portion of their wealth to support startups for early - stage investing

On Wednesday, Piyush Goyal, minister of railways, commerce and industry, urged Indian businesses and entrepreneurs to dedicate a portion of their wealth to support startups for early-stage investing.

"I appeal to our Indian businesspersons to dedicate a part of their wealth to this cause, say a ₹10,000 crore fund which is professionally run and managed with no role of government. Even if 1% of your valuation is pooled in a domestic fund, we will not sell out cheap to international funds," Goyal said at Resurgence TiEcon Delhi – NCR, a four-day virtual event.

Talking about how the level of domestic investment could be increased, Goyal said that home-grown startups have not been able to get adequate domestic capital even though the government has tried to provide seed capital and guarantees through banks that lend money to startups.

"This is music to my ears if we can support startups through this domestic fund," he added. The minister, who was in conversation with Info Edge (India) Ltd's founder and executive vice-chairman Sanjeev Bikhchandani, also spoke about Invest India. This body helps investors looking for investment opportunities and options in India.

"It would be optimum if the ministry and Invest India have a help desk that looks into the startups' issues. Therefore, I announce that Invest India will pioneer a dedicated helpdesk for startups. It will act as a bridge and can work across ministries to sort out queries which startups may have," Goyal said.

Goyal said the National Startup Advisory Council, which has been set up to promote ease of access to capital for startups and incentivize domestic capital, will bridge policymakers and startups. "It's a body for the startups, by the startups and will work relentlessly to help them, government and policymakers to act accordingly to the needs of the startups."

Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said the e-commerce industry is growing at a 30% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) post-covid, compared to 25% before the pandemic.

He said that the middle-income segment would contribute to almost 75% of India's consumption economy, with the country being the third largest state by consumption expenditure by 2030.

"With the pandemic, it is clear that vernacular commerce, video content, kiranas will continue to grow disproportionately and with middle income contributing to consumption; making commerce more affordable will play a powerful enabler for e-commerce growth," said Krishnamurthy.

"Kiranas will also grow disproportionately. Therefore, providing them access to working capital, enabling reliable delivery of merchandise, technology and selection intelligence (for customers) will also play a vital role in e-commerce growth," he added.

He also said that Indian e-commerce market size rests at $90 billion -100 billion, almost double what it stood at 3-4 years back.

"With 41,000 startups and 37 unicorns, India is the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world. Startups have proved their mettle in the covid pandemic and are now the bedrock of India's economic revival," said Rajan Anandan, President, TiE Delhi & NCR & MD Sequoia India.