India@2047: Strengthening the hand of the entrepreneur

India’s startup journey has evolved significantly—from a time when ‘startup’ was an unfamiliar term to now becoming part of daily conversations. However, more work is needed to elevate the ecosystem and ensure that every corner is well-supported, top industry experts said at the Mint India@2047 summit held last week.

During the panel on Strengthening the Hand of the Entrepreneur, Amit Jain, chief executive and co-founder of CarDekho Group, emphasized that the real challenge lies with small, bootstrap companies trying to raise initial funds, rather than successful companies seeking additional capital.

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“The recently announced tax cut from 20% to 12.5% for private companies is helpful. But more things can be done,” said Jain, who is also a judge on on Shark Tank India. “The problem lies in a bootstrap coming trying to raise up to a million…People who come in that zone should be tax-free, in my opinion. This can help boost initial early-stage funding.”

Rajesh Magow, co-founder and group chief executive of MakeMyTrip, noted that while the pool of capital in India’s startup ecosystem has grown, some sectors and business models still lack adequate attention. He pointed out that sectors like agriculture, which may have longer gestation periods, often don’t receive the focus they deserve.

“If there is one thing perhaps we can improve over the years is that will be focusing more on looking at a wider spectrum of sectors including agritech, areas which might take more longer gestation period but not necessarily only after the hot companies,” said Magow.

The retail sector is dominated by large businesses, while the unorganized market still accounts for around 90% of the total industry, Aastha Almast, co-founder & CEO, of The New Shop, a chain of convenience retail stores.

She stressed the importance of equipping the unorganized segment with modern technology to meet evolving consumer demands. “There is a desire to protect these traditional businesses but the problem is that these businesses by just mere protection are not going to be able to serve the needs of the modern consumer, so the solution is to empower them to adapt to new modern form of retail formats,” said Almast.

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Another major challenge in terms of capital and ease of doing business is the lack of regulatory clarity, according to Bhavin Pandya, co-founder and co-CEO of Games24x.

“Even for investors, they want some clarity on what will happen to this sector or any new age sector. Is it going to grow or is it going to suffer from some taxation rules or law that will push it back to few years that’ll impede growth, so those are some of the challenges that we would like to see addressed,” Pandya said.

He also said that the entire ecosystem was affected by retrospective taxation and that the industry is realising the consequences and repercussions of it.

Sameer Aggarwal, founder & CEO of Revfin, focused on India’s technological advancements, stating that the next step is ensuring these technologies integrate seamlessly. 

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“What we need going forward is to make sure all of these technology layers that we’ve built start talking to each other. I think that’s the missing piece. I don’t think we need to do much technology development than it is to make it talk to each other,” he said.