Tag: startup India

Indian start up culture and its problems

I am not a business expert . The views I am presenting in this article are based on my perceptions . Please correct me if I am wrong. Also, this is not a rant. Rather its a call for the talented entrepreneurs of this country to be more fearless.

I personally feel that entrepreneurship is the driving shaft for the wheels of development. During my graduate studies, I took courses in design thinking and basic courses in entrepreneurship. I think entrepreneurs and great companies are a byproduct of providing a solution to a problem. The problems could be huge or could be the smallest ones. The solution , either a product or service should add value and people would be happy to pay for it.

In the recent years India has seen a marked increase in the number of start ups. The country has more than 19,000 technology-enabled startups, led by consumer Internet and financial services startups, the report said. “Indian startups raised $3.5 billion in funding in the first half of 2015, and the number of active investors in India increased from 220 in 2014 to 490 in 2015. As of December 2015, eight Indian startups belonged to the ‘Unicorn’ club (ventures that are valued at $1 billion and upwards).”

A brief look at the companies listed by yourstory [2] reveals that there are more startups in food tech than in the energy industry. Is finding good delicious gourmet food right hour one of the biggest problems of our generation ? A country deprived of the basic necessities is creating entrepreneurs who want to disrupt the way people eat food from restaurants and fine dines. Here is a list of the most innovative companies in India [3]. Compare this to the most innovative companies of the world [4]. Majority of the start ups in India aggregate information and are filled with UI/UX designers who keep improving the user interface till it starts to glitter. I am of the opinion that, all that glitters is not gold.

I was talking to a friend who works for one of the leading PSU’s in India.From technical to managerial, problems are in plenty. The value attached to solving these problems are huge, both economically and socially. But nobody wants to solve these problems. Young engineers, who are recruited in these PSU’s , from the premier engineering colleges of India want to be comfortable with their Government jobs until they crack the famed civil services/CAT or start an e-commerce start up with their buddies.

I will generalize a little and go on to say that majority of the start-up founders are trying to solve problems which interest the venture capitalists. I was talking to a friend who has recently started a company and in his opinion Indian investors are risk averse. The fact that venture capitalists themselves are not ready to take risks is scary to say the least.Creating value or solving problems is seldom on the agenda. There is no denying that they still are trying really hard but unless the youth starts approaching problems, we would never have companies like TESLA originating in our country.

India is plagued by plenty of problems. It has region specific problems as well as problems which are overarching. Water scarcity, lack of uninterrupted water supply, traffic management, better education resources, farm to food supply chain are a few of the notable of them. The sheer size of these problems are huge. All these sectors have a huge amount of inertia involved , but the potential for improvement is huge. It will be difficult to implement but if the entrepreneurs wanted it easy they could have settled with their 9 to 5 jobs. Do we necessarily need to follow the western start ups, replicate and tweak them according to Indian conditions and call ourselves entrepreneurs ?

There are a few startups which are doing a commendable job at solving problems. Companies like husk power systems , farm and farmers, chakra, Infocold , tessol, promethean are a few of them . Please provide links about similar companies in the comment section , which are solving actual problems. I would love to read more about them .But we need many more. I implore rather beg anyone reading this post and dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur to find a problem first. While taking a course in systematic product development, out professor Dr Bruno Gries emphasized that in order to develop a good solution the problem has to be very well defined.

I think all entrepreneurs should follow his advice. There are a plenty of problems , apply your mind, create value ,and you would get the success you want. Money should never be the only objective for forming a company, solving a problem should be.

Source:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/indian-start-up-culture-its-problems-abhinav-bhaskar?trk=pulse-det-nav_art

Chinese investors bullish about Indian startups; jointly provide $50 mn of funding

A dozen Chinese investors offered at a technology summit here on Sunday to jointly provide funding of about $50 million (Rs 334 crore) for Indian start-ups.

The investors include a Cyber Carrier, a Hong Kong-based Chinese internet enterprise that has set up a $30 million initiative fund in January to invest in six Indian start-ups.

About 150 seed funded start-ups pitched for Series A funding at the two-day summit by presenting their ideas to a 17-member delegation of Chinese investors.

“Each start-up is seeking $4-10 million funding from the Chinese investors, including Carrier, which helps enterprises in FinTech, B2B, e-commerce, healthcare, EdTech and AdTech areas,” the summit organisers said in a statement.

Carrier partner Jessica Wong said that a few of the investing delegates were keen on first understanding the Indian market, while other were keen on investing in the start-ups here.

“The delegation varies from people who have invested in over 30 companies globally to a few who are here to understand the Indian eco system,” she said.

Participating in the summit, Aarin Capital Partners and former Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai said the opportunities for investment in India were immense, as 2,000 start-ups registered across the country in 2015, 1,250 of them got funded.

“The start-up revolution shows the potential and scope of the Indian market, with India, China and the US as growth engines in the near future,” he said.

The IT industry employs about 4.5 million techies across the country.

“We have decided to make this (summit) a quarterly event to pilot and facilitate the integration and complementation of technology iteration, market exploration, business model upgrade and capital operation between China and India,” said Onionfans chief executive Hutu.

TryKaro.com Chief Executive Brij said the networking opportunity for start-ups like his was encouraging and motivating, as the Chinese investors were keen to hear out and understand Indian products and ideas.

“Their feedback is helpful and first-time entrepreneurs benefit from events like these. We have received initial interest from the Chinese delegation and are keen to hear back from them,” he added.

TryKaro.com is an experiential marketplace that helps consumers to try out products they are keen on buying instead of seeing pictures online.

The summit was organised by Onionfans, Cyber Carrier, Technology Issue magazine and Xpressn labs.

Source:http://tech.firstpost.com/startup/chinese-investors-bullish-about-indian-startups-jointly-provide-50-mn-of-funding-337183.html

Mahindra Agri Solutions invests in startup MeraKisan

Mahindra Univeg today announced investment in Mera Kisan, an e-commerce startup.
He said Mahindra Univeg is a 60:40 joint venture between Mahindra Groups Mahindra Agri Solutions and Belgium-based Univeg (Greenyard Foods).

MeraKisan is an online shopping platform, which sources fresh vegetables and fruits directly from farmers and sell it to the customers.

“Our investment (minority shareholding) in MeraKisan will enable the farmers and the consumers to connect digitally and create a win-win situation for both farmers and customers,” said Ashok Sharma, MD & CEO, Mahindra Agri Solutions Ltd.

It focuses on developing fresh fruit supply chain in India and imports fruits to make high quality produce available to domestic consumers.

He added that Mahindra Agri Solutions interacts with farmers to improve their produce, quality and productivity by providing latest advances in farm technologies and agricultural know how.

“It also helps farmers by linking them to the market to provide better returns for their quality produce and thereby improving their lives,” said Sharma.
Prashanth Patil, CEO-Designate of Mera Kisan, said that leveraging the digital platform, Mera Kisan will ensure delivery of high quality fruits and vegetables at the door step of the consumers.

With this platform, farmers will be benefiting as payments are done to the farmers upfront through online payment gateways, Patil added. PTI SPK NRB ABI

Source:http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mahindra-agri-solutions-invests-in-startup-merakisan/1/775532.html

Rise India Raises Rs 14 Crore Funding From NSDC

Rise India has raised Rs 14 crore funding in form of a loan from National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

Rise India is now an affiliated training partner of NSDC and has been allocated this fund to setting up Driver Training Institutes across the country, with a target of training 2.5 lakh youth over the next 7 years.

Rise India Skill Solutions currently has 14 centres which are operational. Additionally, 28 new centres are being proposed to be opened under the agreed project.

Startup india consultants

61 locations have been identified of which 28 will be selected for setting up of these centres. The locations are across NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar. These training will be done in Light Motor Vehicles, Heavy Motor Vehicles and Heavy earth moving equipment like backhoe loaders, cranes and mixtures which are often used in infrastructure development.

Rise India offers effective training programme and courses in skill development that has transformed lives. Through this alliance, RISE INDIA would set up numerous driver training institutes across the country and deploy people, infrastructure, capacity, content, trainers to deliver the trainings efficiently. Rise India, through its own equity funding will contribute an additional Rs 4 Crore to make it total outlay of Rs. 18 crore, which will be invested in capacity creation over the next 18 months.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, GOI said, “We need commitments from corporate to help Skill India reach to the rural and economically underprivileged people of our country. We need more partners like RISE INDIA to come forward and help us empower the youth through education, training, skill and entrepreneurship development. This is certainly going to be a good example of a public private partnership for many.”

Commenting on the partnership, Manish Kumar, CEO, NSDC said, “Skill India needs the right kind of partnerships which have the last mile reach and help in filling the skill gap across sectors and geographies. We see huge potential in our partner Rise India and are certain that together this will bring about great impact along with some great opportunities for the youth of India especially for those who want to be a part of the automotive industry under this project.”

Ajay Chhangani, CEO, Rise India said, “This alliance is an important milestone for RISE INDIA and a recognition of our continuous efforts and diligent approach to provide effective skill training to youth in the country.” He added, “Our partnership with NSDC will take our journey forward to a next level, where we will multiply the existing number of skill centres, and contribute to the Skill India Mission.”

Source:http://businessworld.in/article/Rise-India-Raises-Rs-14-Crore-Funding-From-NSDC/21-09-2016-105931/

Haryana to give startups collateral-free loan up to Rs 1cr: CM Manohar Lal Khattar

Gurgaon: The chief minister announced on Saturday Haryana’s golden jubilee year would be one of development and job creation and appeared determined to walk the talk by setting up a Rs 1,000-crore corpus for the industry sector, particularly medium and small-scale enterprises (MSME).

He also said that in line with his government’s focus on startups, entrepreneurs would will be given collateral-free loans up to Rs 1 crore.

“We will focus on development and providing employment opportunities during the golden jubilee year and efforts will be made to provide employment to 2 lakh unemployed youths through entrepreneurs besides giving Rs 9,000 as supporting allowance to postgraduates who do not have a job. They will be provided 100 working hours from November 1 this year,” he said at an event organised by the Bombay Stock Exchange. “The government wishes to empower industries through easier finance and funding options,” he added.

The CM’s words generated huge interest in the city, which is a leading start-up hub. Sandeep Aggarwal, founder of Shopclues, said, “If we list the most important things for the success of a startup, the first six would be capital. In such a scenario, it is important that entrepreneurs have access to affordable capital. The cost of capital in India is 16% as opposed to 2% in the US and 3-4 % in China. The startup fund is a welcome move. But the government should match the pace of its talk with the walk.”

Rajesh Sawhney, founder of GSF accelerator and Innerchef, said more clarity is required on which sector will be the focus for the government’s funds. “Also, how soon the funds reach the entrepreneur,” he said.

Rajat Tandon, vice-president at Nasscom’s 10,000 Startups, said, “We welcome the announcement. Gurgaon has the potential to be the startup hub of North India. It would be nice to understand the sectors the fund will be deployed in.”

OYO Rooms founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal also greeted the announcement with enthusiasm, saying it would add further momentum to developing startup hubs across many parts of the country. “This is a progressive step which we welcome whole-heartedly,” he said.

In his talk at the BSE, the CM also mentioned that the state government has adopted the cluster approach to give a big push to the MSME sector in the state and 19 different clusters had been developed. “Haryana has a lot of potential given the number of MSME ventures in the state. However, of the 140 companies listed on BSE SME, only three are from Haryana unlike states like Gujarat,” said a BSE spokesperson.

BSE, with the help of state government, will educate the MSME about the benefits of listing and how it can help them bring down the rate of interest on their loans by proper maintenance of books of account.

Source from: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Haryana-to-give-startups-collateral-free-loan-up-to-Rs-1cr-CM-Manohar-Lal-Khattar/articleshow/54385162.cms

Global summit to facilitate exchange between India and Korean start-ups

Tomorrow’s India, a global initiative that brings together start-ups from diverse geographies, will host Tomorrow’s India Global Summit in Seoul later this month. Start-ups from India, Korea and Singapore are expected to participate at the event from September 25 to 29 at Seoul Global Start-up Centre.

HP Singh, Founder and Managing Director of Tomorrow’s India, says: “Besides promoting India’s strengths in business, knowledge and culture, we want to make Tomorrow’s India a platform for budding entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas on a global stage and contribute to the success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Start-up India, Stand-up India’ campaign.”

The summit will include a focused initiative for start-ups to win on-the-spot funding from international investors who will also join the event from India, South Korea, Mauritius and Singapore.A first event of its kind was held in Singapore in January this year. The second summit in Seoul is being organised in association with Accelerate Korea, Indian Angel Network, and IIT-Delhi’s Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer.

Accelerate Korea acts as a catalyst for developing opportunities between Asia, Europe and North America for the larger entrepreneurial ecosystem. It reportedly also runs indigenous initiatives to support late stage seed, early Series A and SME funding.

Pharmaceutical and healthcare, electronics, automobiles, machine tools, infrastructure, heavy industries and cosmetics sectors are likely to be represented at the summit, while there’s keen interest from companies based in Zimbabwe and Finland as well.

“It’s important for Indian start-ups to understand how business has evolved across the world and at a larger scale. We want them to look at the world market, and be informed of what’s happening among start-ups in countries like South Korea,” Singh shares.

More than 100 start-ups each from South Korea and India are expected to be in attendance. Healthy turnouts are expected especially from the Incheon, Seoul and Gyeonggi-do provinces of South Korea.

Source: thehindubusinessline.com/economy/global-summit-to-facilitate-exchange-between-india-and-korean-startups/article9115757.ece