BENGALURU: The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is the next ‘UPI moment’, as it will enable interoperability between e-commerce companies and will also provide new opportunities for start-ups to grow. This will help new-age technology in getting access to the common man at affordable cost, said Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
Releasing the Nasscom Tech Start-up Report 2021 on Friday, he said, “Developed in India, ONDC provides equal opportunity to small and large players and will help control digital monopolies and make industry more inclusive for buyers and sellers alike.”
Goyal said that we should aim for at least 75 unicorns in the 75-week period to the 75th anniversary of independence. The minister also said that removing the burden of over 26,500 compliances, exemption of angel taxes and simplification of tax procedure were some of the steps taken by the government to boost the start-up ecosystem.He also said that there is a lot of potential in start-ups from Tier-II & III cities.
According to the Nasscom report, 29% of all start-ups are based outside the emerging start-up hubs such as Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Thiruvananthapuram and Surat. Of these 7% are deep-tech start-ups.
In the last decade, the start-up ecosystem has played a key role in growing direct and indirect job opportunities, providing 6.6 lakh direct jobs and more than 34.1 lakh indirect jobs. The industries that saw the most net new job creation were BFSI, edtech, retail and retail tech, foodtech, SCM & logistics and mobility.
With retail investors embracing new start-ups, alternate investment and exit options and global macro environments, 2022 will have at least 15-20 start-up IPOs by the end of this year. Over 2,250 start-ups were added in 2021 and over $6 billion has been raised through public markets with 11 start-up IPOs in 2021, said the report.
Also, start-ups have raised $24.1 billion in 2021, a two-fold increase over pre-Covid levels. When compared to 2020, there was a 3X increase in the number of high value deals (deals over $100 million), the report added.