The participation of large Indian corporate’s in providing financial backing to startups is growing, and while only firms such as Infosys and Wipro have set up dedicated startup funds, others are tracking disruptive technologies in their own sectors with clearance from their boards to sink money into startups if needed.

Majority of Indian companies like Tata Group, Tech Mahindra, Mindtree, L&T Infotech, Reliance Industries Limited, Aditya Birla Group, Times Internet and Flipkart track startups today, right from FinTech to retail. The idea that technology and startups with newer business models will not disrupt traditional businesses has been thrown out the window. Moreover, as these companies find it harder to attract the best technology talent, they’re being forced to nurture and back startups.

“Corporate activity in the startup space is growing and we are seeing more of them become aware. Whether it is older corporates or large corporates, they’ve now understood that they have to keep a watch in their own sectors for startups that are disruptive,” said Neha Singh, Co-Founder at research firm Tracxn.

According to Singh, there are four broad ways Indian companies are looking at the startup sector today: Track startups in their space and forge partnerships; setup accelerators and incubators to nurture startups, funding and acquiring startups in order to become future ready and setup a dedicated fund to actively make bets on new-age companies.

Taking a cue from large global companies such as Microsoft, Walmart and others, Indian corporates are helping foster innovation in the hope to get their hands on disruptive technologies. Reliance has tied up with Microsoft Accelerator to start GenNext Hub, an accelerator for startups with the lure of getting to work with Reliance Group and even raise capital.

Other large corporate houses such as the Tata Group invests in startups through its financial services arm Tata Capital that runs a sector agnostic venture capital fund.

Tech Mahindra and Mindtree have started startup garages within their existing organisation structure that allows employees to work on disruptive technologies that might not have an immediate business impact, with some ideas even being backed by capital. L&T Infotech has sought permission from its board to start investing in startups.

Source: Business Standard