CII aims at connecting startups to the global marketplace and their think-tanks to enable firms to scale up and succeed in an exponential way. The industry body will focus on startups which are past the idea stage and have been in operation for 2-5 years; those that need support for the next stage in order to scale up. Sanjiv Bajaj, Chairman of CII’s western region entrepreneurship & startup sub-committee, says the idea is to tap into CII’s large network of corporate India, which is willing to mentor startups over the next three months to one year.
“The government has a lot of facilities for startups but many don’t know how to access them. The nature of mentorship will be to assist startups in further fine-tuning their business plans, linking them to relevant member companies in the CII base, and help companies find relevant customers and strategic investors,” Bajaj .
But it is not just corporate India that startups can tap. CII will also enable startups to get immediate and direct global exchange through partnerships with the Canadian and Israeli governments where special facilities and tax sops will be provided to startups to begin joint ventures with their global counterparts.
But in an atmosphere where funding exuberance has paled, CII’s primary goal of mentoring isn’t with the end result of getting startups funded. “While funding may be slow in some sectors, overall, there is enough capital. So for CII, rather than being a fund, it is more important for companies to have a strategic interest in the startup business and through that they may provide funding. Funding by itself is not our main criteria; mentoring is,” said Bajaj.
Early stage venture capital firms investing in the space believe that corporate entry into the startup ecosystem may not be a valuable proposition since “corporates back a startup to essentially get a new line of business for themselves,” said a venture fund manager.
But some angel funds such as IAN believe corporates backing startups has been long overdue in India. “HNIs who are part of the industry are creating a high risk, high reward asset class right at the top and (investing in startups) is going to give them the kicker in their portfolio. So I think it’s a brilliant idea (for corporates to get in),” says Padmaja Ruparel, President at Indian Angel Network.
Source:Economic Times
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