No paucity of funds for start-ups with strong biz models, says Amitabh Kant

NEW DELHI: The innovation and start-up ecosystem is strongly positioned to find solutions to challenges facing the world today, India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said on Monday, asserting there is no shortage of funds for good startups, with strong business models.

Speaking at ‘Startup20 Shikhar’ event, he advocated a multi-pronged approach of ‘fund of funds’, credit enhancement schemes, and a sharp focus on good governance for a robust startup ecosystem. Indian start-ups have successfully demonstrated the power of population-scale solutions at low cost, he said.

Kant said there is no funding winter in start-up space, and pointed to “spring” of capital availability for good startups. The world is flushed with funds looking for well-structured good projects, he pointed out. Kant spoke about the success of India’s digital public infrastructure, biometric ID, digital payments, and the strength of its startup ecosystem, and added that the country has demonstrated the huge power of digital technology.

India has over 1,00,000 start-ups and 108 unicorns, he said.

Kant underlined the importance of self-regulation and good governance for startups and entrepreneurs.

“Start-up innovators start innovating and lose out on good governance. Today’s startup is tomorrow a Fortune 500 company. So issue of financial propriety and governance is important,” he said.

Kant added: “We must build culture of great, good governance among startups, which must be done by start-ups themselves,” he said.

The government must remain at arm’s length. “Self regulation is the key from inception to early stage to maturity to IPO,” he said.