With the NDA government returning to power with a thumping majority, the mood in the start-up community can best be summed up as happy and hopeful. Happy that the country will have a stable government which would drive a growth agenda for new businesses, and hopeful that the government will take further steps to ease the regulatory burden, make capital more accessible and execute initiatives that were introduced over the last five years.
“In the last five years, the government has launched more than 150 schemes and policies for the start-up community interest. With BJP coming to power again, we now expect clarity on angel tax, ease of active compliance norms and state level funding and infrastructure support,” said Kartik Agarwal, CEO at Staunch, a Delhi-based start-up. Echoing similar sentiments, Manas Mehrotra, Chairman, 315 Work Avenue, a leading co-working space provider, said that the government is expected to relax the regulatory compliance burden a bit and alter them in a pro-growth direction, since this is one of the biggest impediments to the growth of start-ups.
To support and sustain a startup ecosystem of over a 5,000 firms, the country needs an investment ecosystem that can pump in $15-20 billion every year, opined Dwijadas Chatterjee, co-Founder and CFO of HyperXchange. Currently, start-ups are stuck at the beginning of the funnel due to the lack of a vibrant investment ecosystem. Chatterjee noted that government policies could play a decisive role because it is no longer about just the number of start-ups but also about creating an investment pipeline with successful yearly exits across sectors.
“Currently, start-ups are stuck at the beginning of the funnel due to the lack of an investment ecosystem. Indian investors need to benefit from unicorns and successful exits to create a domino effect within the ecosystem. If Softbank or Tiger Global have massive exits from likes of Ola or Paytm, the money is going back to Japan or US,” he added.
Besides, the community also expects the new government to accelerate momentum on tech innovation, and focus on training and skilling initiatives for entrepreneurs — all of which will cement the country’s position as a hotbed for start-ups.