India to have 11,500 start-ups by 2020

NEW DELHI, INDIA: From 3,100 start-ups in 2014 to a projection of more than 11,500 by 2020, India is sure to be the Start-up Hub in the world.

Venture capital investments in India reached Rs 15,600 crore ($ 2,363) till June 2015, surpassing the total Rs 14,850 crore ($ 2250) invested in 2014, setting the stage for another record year as interest in local technology start-ups peak.

Raghunandan Rajamani, Executive Director, Indian Steps & Business Incubators Association, at a recent conference on Business Labs comprising the Investor, Incubator start-ups ecosystem, said, “India needs several fold increase in mechanism such as incubation and acceleration that can assimilate entrepreneurs to make them globally successful.”

Themed Creating Value 360°, the Incubation India 2015 conference provided an opportunity for interactive discussions and insights on incubation trends, solutions and unique initiatives.

Incubation in India is not more than decade old but it has and can create a huge impact. Incubation in healthcare and life sciences is far too complex if we were to compare it with IT. Healthcare is a very social subject hence tightly regulated and needs a completely different and dynamic ecosystem to take the product from bench side to bed side.

As per the detailed analysis by BIORx Venture Advisors, healthcare is a favourable incubation sector and liked by all the investors as long as it is asset light but technologically sound and patentable. Gandhi, Founder & Executive Director, BIORx Venture Advisors said that medical devices is one such sub sector which is gaining a lot of traction from all the players of the ecosystem.

This is largely based on the assumption that India's domestic consumption for such products is very high hence financially lucrative and viable for the medium to long-stage investors who will benefit the country’s healthcare needs.

Some of the key issues discussed in the conference include:

•    Impact of Business Incubation on the economy

•    Value creation strategies in Business Incubation

•    When does a start-up turn into a scale-up?

•    Valuing to exit and exiting for a value: start-ups, VCs, incubators

•    Marketing and communication strategies for early stage start-ups

•    Growing impact of venture capital in business incubation

•    Fuelling entrepreneurial activity: incubators, accelerators, co-working spaces, technology hubs

•    Initiatives taken by the govt and non-govt organizations, educational institutions to promote the concept of technology and business incubation

•    Opportunities for start-ups in investment management services