Centre firming up road map to woo patient capital for start-ups

DPIIT will act as a facilitator to revolutionise the start-up sector “with open doors, open arms and open mind

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Monday chaired a crucial meeting to chart out a concrete road map for attracting insurance and pension funds, and angel investors to India’s start-up eco-system, a senior official told FE.

The meeting — attended by LIC chairman MR Kumar, Sequoia Capital MD Rajan Anandan, Oyo Rooms founder Ritesh Agarwal, Softbank India’s country head Manoj Kohli, UrbanCompany co-founder Abhiraj Bhal and Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl, top government officials, among others—focussed on ways to create a large corpus of patient capital, possibly with contribution from big investors, to fund the start-up growth story.

Goyal also impressed on participants to help bolster the flow of seed funding into start-ups by widening the base of angel investors. The number of angel investors in India is estimated to be only 6,000, while the US, which boasts of a vibrant start-up eco-system, has about 3,00,000.

A national-level mentorship programme will also be rolled out, with the assistance of key players, to help start-ups flourish and raise their awareness about various government initiatives that they can take advantage of, the source said. For instance, SoftBank India’s Kohli, Anandan of Sequoia Capital and UrbanCompany’s Abhiraj Bhal are likely to play the roles of mentors, as part of this initiative.

In the virtual meeting of the National Start-up Advisory Council, Goyal set a target of facilitating as many as 75 start-ups to become unicorns by the 75th Independence Day next year. DPIIT will act as a facilitator to revolutionise the start-up sector “with open doors, open arms and open mind”, Goyal said.

The meeting was also attended by Vineet Aggarwal, president of Assocham; Sanjeev Bhikchandani, co-founder, InfoEdge; Mohandas Pai, chairman at Aarin Capital; Prashant Prakash of Accel Partners; Anjali Bansal, founder of Avaana Capital; Sharad Sharma, founder of iSpirt and Debjani Ghosh, president of Nasscom.