Two-day Startup20 Inception Meeting begins in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The two-day Startup20 Inception Meeting has begun in the city on Saturday. Chintan Vaishnav, Director, AIM to Innovate addressed the gathering at inaugural session of Startup20 Inception Meeting at Hyderabad.

On Friday, addressing a joint media conference here with Anurag Jain, Secretary, Department for Promotion, Dr Chintan Vaishnav, chair, Startup20, Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa, said it is for the first time that the new engagement group Startup20 has been initiated as part of G20 India Presidency.

He said Startup20 aspires to create a global narrative for supporting startups and enabling synergies between startups, corporates, investors, innovation agencies and other key ecosystem stakeholders. The primary objective is to harmonise the global startup ecosystem through a collaborative and forward-looking approach.

The purpose of this group is to provide a common platform for startups from G20 member countries to come together to develop actionable guidance in the form of building enabler's capacities, identification of funding gaps, enhancement of employment opportunities, achievement of SDG targets and climate resilience, and growth of an inclusive ecosystem.

The key themes of the inception meeting of Startup20, include foundations and alliances, finance inclusiveness and sustainability.

The foundation and alliances meet is to generate definitions, and frameworks and to encourage cross-country collaboration that gives rise to global alliances among stakeholders of the startup ecosystem in G20 countries. The main objectives are to harmonise the global startup ecosystem through consultation meetings with experts from the startup ecosystem of the respective countries and explore avenues of collaboration.

Similarly, the meeting on finance focuses on developing policies and frameworks to ease startup financing and create a supportive environment for startups by providing networking and pitching opportunities.

The main objective is to "Involve VCs and Investors from the respective countries to initiate a dialogue on ease of funding and increasing access to capital for the global startup ecosystem."

The inclusiveness and sustainability will be exploring setting up mechanisms to accelerate startups addressing critical SDG gaps or representing groups whose inclusion requires special focus (eg women entrepreneurs, PwD) — in sectors of common interest of all other nations.

The meets objective is to mutually decide areas of global importance connecting them to the themes of sustainable development goals and inclusivity, with each country presenting their best practices, and most promising startups and exploring areas of collaboration, he added.

The startup20 activities will span over five events. The inception meet of startup20 will be held in Hyderabad on January 28-29. The summit event will take place in July 2023 in Gurugram with three intervening events have been planned in different parts of India.

Expected outcomes and key deliverables of startup20 include the official policy communique, startup handbook with a set of commonly agreed-upon definitions and terminologies, a global innovation centre to foster collaborations across borders and the promotion of startup20 as a global point of contact for startup ecosystems worldwide.

About 80 overseas delegates and 100 Indians, including incubators, startups, investors and industry partners among others are expected to participate in the meetings.

Apart from the G 20 countries, delegates from nine observer countries will also be taking part in the event.

The main agenda will be a mix of plenary and interactive sessions amongst the invited delegates who will discuss the key themes of startup20. The sessions will include experience sharing among the G20 countries about their startup ecosystem through elevator pitches, closed-door meetings and open moderated discussions. As part of the two-day event, the delegates will be showcased the culture of Telangana, presenting 'Oggu Dolu' and Perini Natyama. Besides, a visit to Golconda fort. They will also be introduced to the startup showcase of about 50 Indian startups at T- Hub, Hyderabad, he said.