Access To Capital Is Biggest Obstacle For Indian Startups

The Indian startup ecosystem has been proving to be adept at bringing new innovative ideas, but seems to be lacking capital to see these ideas to fruition.

"The biggest obstacle for a startup company is not the idea that they can sell, but getting access to the capital," said Frank F Islam, Founder, FI Investment speaking at the US India Startup Forum.

Frank also pointed out that India has a lot of startup energy, enthusiasm, innovations and creativity and that it needs to unleash the potential of a young country. "There is a lot of energy and enthusiasm among the young generation in India for entrepreneurship, innovations and creativity. I think India needs to unleash the potential of this young generation so that they can excel as entrepreneurs," said Frank.

Frank spelled out the qualities of an entrepreneur saying that they are not born, but made. He also noted that an entrepreneur is fair but firm, and he provides an environment to excel, possesses integrity in spite of difficulties that inspires others to excel.

The US India Startup Forum is an industry event that provides the platform for business ideas to receive crucial capital. The Forum is aimed at meeting agendas that comprise of the Startup India initiative that was launched by the Government of India and to create an ecosystem that drive the growth of startups, foster entrepreneurship and promote innovation.

The Forum is organized by The American Bazaar and succeeded in Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai. As startups tend to have less experience of the market compared to other firms, this forum allows them to explore opportunities when it comes to pitching investors and to also understand the market dynamics.

At the Forum event, Sanjay Puri, Founder, AutoNebula, USA, too, pointed out that Mumbai, along with Bengaluru and Delhi is the epicenter of startup revolution in India. According to one study, the three cities accounted for 249 deals out of the 307 deals announced in the first quarter of 2017.

Besides, the US investors are getting the pulse of Indian startup ecosystem.

"American investors have got the experience of the startup ecosystems of Mumbai while Indian startup founders and early-stage entrepreneurs found a platform to listen to, interact and network with the US investors," said Puri.

The forum brought together various startup businesses that were in need of capital, and a competition was held to present their products and ideas. The startup competition was held to shortlist companies that have the potential to convince U.S based investors to invest capital in their ideas.

AlgoSurg, an IIT Bombay based incubator, was selected among a dozen potential business ideas to pitch to US investors. The platform allows surgeons to upload 2D images of the patient's bone and get it's 3D model in a few seconds. The transformation from 2D images to 3D is possible through XrayTo3D which is a nationally acclaimed technology. The product is cost effective and a time saving solution to get accurate surgical outcome. With improving surgeries using the best of technologies won the startup competition among many other potential candidates.

Among other notable startups at the event, Book My Parts, an online platform for spare parts, provides industrial machine parts that can be ordered online.

KO Dwell Technology reinvents telecommunication with their product called KOWEAR. The device has potential to reinvent telecommunication with camera portability, internet and blue tooth connectivity, multimedia accessories, organizers (alarm clock, calculator, calendar and time), health and fitness monitor counts, voice calling functions, emergency response mechanism and personal AI assistance.

Swift Chill by Comfort Products that tends to provide instant chilling solutions for beverage products. The product can chill beverages instantly without compromising the quality of the beverage and helps in relishing drinks at a suitable drinking temperature.