A number of PSUs and CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) labs are now actively supporting start-ups, according to ‘Indian Venture Capital and Private Equity Report 2017’, prepared by IIT-Madras.
Released at TiECON Chennai 2017, the report, 9th in its series, analysed the policy framework and support provided to start-ups by the Central and State governments and various governmental agencies.
Since 2016, at least 10 PSUs have launched start-up support programmes with a total initial outlay in the region of ₹400 crore. CSIR expects to incubate 100 ventures in five labs, by this year-end.
“Five years ago, it was unthinkable that a PSU would create infrastructure or allocate funds for start-up ventures. But today, several PSUs and CSIR labs are aligning themselves with government’s policies on start-ups,” Thillai Rajan, Professor, Department of Management Studies, IIT-M, and Associate Professor at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, told a select group of reporters after the release of the report. At least 30 PSFIs (public sector financial institutions) have contributed in excess of ₹7,000 crore to the corpus of VC (venture capital) funds
The average round size of venture funds in which PSFIs have invested was $12 million and the average stake acquired was 22 per cent, implying a post-money valuation of about $50 million.
Rajan, who has edited and co-authored the report since its inception, explained that cash-rich PSUs such as ONGC, GAIL and BPCL are partnering with incubators such as IIT-M and other top institutions.
The 2017 report analysed policy robustness for start-ups among States. Seven States — Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana — were found to have comprehensive policy frameworks for start-ups.
Out of the 29 States, 22 have come out with start-up policies in the last three years. Cumulatively, State governments envisage the creation of incubation space of 5.1 million square feet, 48,000 start-ups and ₹34,000 crore of venture funding by 2022, the report said.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.