India youngest startup nation, 80000 jobs created: Nasscom India Startup Report

Over the years, India has become the breeding ground for new startups and innovations. Nasscom, that has been studying the startup scene here, has released its second report titled ‘Startup India – Momentous Rise of the Indian Startup Ecosystem’ along with Zinnov. Going by the report, Indian startup landscape has witnessed tremendous growth. India has provided a conducive ecosystem for the startups to thrive, and has moved up to the third position with the fastest growing base of startups across the world. India is now among the first five largest startup communities in the world, adds the report. By the end of 2015, the number of startups had crossed 4200 with a 40 percent growth. Take a look at some of the key highlights: 1. With 72 percent of the founders less than 35 years old, India is the youngest startup nation in the world 2. Over 50 percent of the 1200 startups focus on e-commerce, consumer services and aggregators 3. Only 9 percent female founders and co-founders in startup ecosystem 4. The number of accelerators also saw the rise by 40 percent, increasing the number from 80 in 2014 to 110 in 2015 5. 80,000 jobs were created by startups 6. Total funding saw about 125 percent growth in 2015 compared to the previous year 7. The total funding in the India based startups is estimated to be nearly $5 billion by 2015. It is being supported by various central and state government startup initiatives. R. Chandrashekhar, President, Nasscom, said, “The maturing Indian start-up ecosystem is now contributing to the Indian economy in many ways. Apart from positively impacting the lifestyles of citizens involved, start-ups are now creating innovative technology solutions that are addressing the key social problems that India is facing and creating significant growth opportunities for every stakeholders. To enable the next stage of growth for these start-ups, Nasscom will work closely with the government to ensure ease of doing business, by simplifying procedures and create a conducive environment for these start-ups to grow.” Besides, the Nasscom report also recommends ways to make things easier for startups in India such as simplifying rules and regulation for registration of businesses in India, funding, and compliance procedures by minimising licenses/permits/approvals/tax for start-ups. Some other recommendations include removal of angel tax, simple norms for capital raising, among others. The report also emphasises on encouraging recognition of the startups by sharing their success stories on a national-level and awarding at relevant Indian and global platforms. Ravi Gururaj, Chairman, Nasscom Product Council, said “India is the youngest start-up nation in the world with 72% of the founders are less than 35 years old, and 50% rise in share of female entrepreneurs in 2015 over 2014. We are thankful to the Government for the policies and initiatives that are aimed towards improving the overall start-up ecosystem. Nasscom has been partnering with the Governments for Start-up warehouses to create a micro-ecosystem where start-ups and entrepreneurs can work together, share their learnings and best practices with each other. This is fostering an entrepreneurial culture contributing to the increased knowledge, employment and societal wealth.” The report also identifies the current scale and size of the startup landscape, what impacts the growth of the overall ecosystem and what we need to do to make the environment more conducive for start-ups.