Second Edition of Global Venture Capital Summit held in Goa

07-12-2019 | Panaji

 

The second edition of the Global Venture capital summit was held at Goa.The summit included engagements involving representatives of leading Global Venture Capital Firms, Government of India Officials, Corporates and select startups. The event showcased the India Advantage, diversity and scale of Indian market opportunity and the cutting-edge innovations originating in India.

Dr Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade opened the 2nd day of the Summit highlighting India's huge potential for startups and innovation. Objective of the Global Venture Capital Summit is to mobilize global capital by innovation in India and facilitate dialogue in cutting edge innovation,.Speaking on the occasion he detailed about the initiatives to promote the startup ecosystem like removal of regulatory hurdles and the National Startup Awards.National startup awards are instituted to recognize and reward outstanding startups and ecosystem enablers that are building innovative products, solutions and scalable enterprises, with high potential of employment generation. Applications for the same is open till 31st December 2019.

Union Minister of Railways and Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal via video message said that the venture capital summit is a great opportunity for all investors to have a constructive dialogue with regulators and policymakers regarding support needed to make India a global hub of ideas, innovation & entrepreneurship. He also said that India is in the third position globally w.r.t to startups. Over 25000 startups registered with DPIIT.

Dr Pramod Sawant, Chief Minister of Goa in the welcome remarks said  that the Summit provides an unparalleled opportunity to showcase Venture Capital opportunities in India, and gives a unique chance to startups to present their ideas and products before one of the biggest stages in the world.

Venture Capital ecosystem report 2019 was also released at the summit, revealing that 2019 saw the highest ever quantum of funding at 9 billion dollars. An increase of 30% in deal volume, Approximately 55% of the top deals are in consumer internet while Software as a service, Fintech and B2B tech are the fast emerging, according to the report.

The day long event saw technical several technical sessions and panel discussions on various topics. This included 'Enabling Regulations and Monetizing New India Opportunity" to discuss the pace of new business creation and government initiatives & policies. ' , 'Going cashless and beyond: Future of FinTech ' to discuss on Innovations in digital finance and their ability to expand reach of core banking products and services.

In the panel discussions,Cate Ambrose of Emerging Markets Private Equity Association spoke of experience from Chile and mentioned government programs should not be heavy handed and should work towards creating an environment where incumbents are not able block tech disruption through anti-competitive policies. Padmanabh Sinha, chairman of Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Managing Partner, Tata Opportunities Fund talked about the issue of the shifting focus from public sector trading into startup investment. Ganesh Kumar Executive Director RBI spoke about the importance of Fintech and RBI’s support through regulatory sandbox. RBI is also eager to make the most enabling environment as possible for startups as RBI’s commitment to the ecosystem.

Deepak Bagla, Managing Director of Invest India spoke about the engine of growth of India moving away from Tier 1 to Tier 2 and 3 cities, however Venture capital are largely Tier 1 centric, and we must look at a new models of funding.. We are number one in the amount of new startups added everyday and the willingness of the regulator to listen to industry is truly unique to India.

TV Mohandas pai Chairman at Aarin Capital said foreign pension funds are able to capitalize heavily on our market, and suggested EPFO to invest in Pivate equity market and pension funds could be encouraged to back startups in India.

Executive Director o SEBI S.V. Muralidhar Rao spoke about reduction of regulatory challenges and the strides it is making to open up to foreign investment through reduction of regulatory hurdles SEBI has committed to making an innovative growth platform on which companies can list.

Peifu Hsieh, co-founder of Karboncard, which provides corporate cards to the startups in India, sees the Indian market as the right place to be given growing internet access and its demographic dividend unlike in other markets.

The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion along with Government of Goa, organized the Startup India Global Venture Capital Summit, a specially curated day - long event for Fund Managers and Limited Partners of Top Global Venture Capital Firms.The conference was attended by more than 350 representatives of leading companies from 10 countries.Technical sessions on Education, Medicare,Life Sciences, Genomics were also held.