Entrepreneurship In The Digital Age

Digitalisation has democratised entrepreneurship worldwide, inspiring millions of citizens to taste and test their hands-on entrepreneurship and explore their inner inquisitiveness to try and dream big.  

Digitalisation, low-cost internet accessibility, and pandemic induced forced consumer behavioural change have ushered a new generation of the entrepreneurial spirit, creating a new class of global economy – startup economy or new-age digital companies. 

Digital age entrepreneurs have significantly brought forth novel ideas and products to the market, transforming the age-old physical market into a digital marketplace through ecommerce platforms. This has enabled entrepreneurial opportunities and has also enabled product and price discoveries for a larger consumer base, thus disabling the old economy barriers. 

The omnipresent growth of digital age entrepreneurship has been well-established by now, and it reflects in one of the recent reports of HDFC Securities Ltd., where it points out that India has added about 42 unicorns in 2021 as against 37 unicorns created in the previous 10 years together and probably another 100 new unicorns will be added in 2022. 

Not only new-age digital entrepreneurs, but even entrepreneurs from the old economies have joined the digital bandwagon. Digitalisation has a phenomenal impact on small businesses, neighbourhood Kirana stores, Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and even large corporations. Digitalisation has touched all kinds of entrepreneurs, and most of them have adopted and adapted to the digital way of doing business. Believe me, I have been lucky to be amongst the prime witnesses to this transformation. 

I have personally experienced and lived this entrepreneurial digital age phenomenon and witnessed it at Infibeam Avenues Ltd. We have had a fantastic, high-growth, high-passion, and most dynamic journey, having played our role in bringing digital empowerment to merchants, brands and businesses through platforms, payments and data centre solutions. We are also fortunate to be a part of the Government of India’s ecommerce initiative, Government E-Marketplace (GeM), a one-stop government good and services procurement ecommerce portal hosted by the Union Government of India. Since 2016, we have been the ecommerce platform technology partner, engaged in building and maintaining GeM, and it is the most amazing instance of acceptance and adoption of digitalisation by the smallest and largest of businesses. 

Last year, in June, even the Department of Commerce, Government of India, has publicly acknowledged that GeM has provided enormous market access to seller groups like MSEs, Women SHGs and startups. Today, there are more than 39 lakh sellers and service providers registered on the GeM portal, and a maximum of them are Medium and Small Enterprises (MSEs), which proves the growing digital entrepreneurship in the country. 

“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are months when decades happen” – these words of the Russian revolutionary and politician Vladimir Lenin describe the current digitalisation of entrepreneurship in India very aptly. Especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, the next two decades belong to digital entrepreneurship, as Covid has accelerated the digital adaption amongst the masses through forced behavioural change. 

Today, a large chunk of people are buying even groceries through online portals, using online payments, booking tickets digitally, imparting online education and have started trusting and realising that online education is also productive, have begun using online doctor consultation, the office has adopted video conferencing and digital meetings, online pharmacy is surging, and a plethora of WhatsApp businesses have penetrated every mobile phone in the country. Whether we liked it or not, this Covid induced accelerated digitalisation is here to stay forever as it has brought a significant human/consumer behavioural change. And mark my words – this is an irreversible change. 

This irreversible consumer behavioural change has put us all in the centre of booming digital consumerism. As per a recent Redseer report, India’s consumer digital economy, which was at USD 90 billion in 2020, is now expected to grow 10X in 10 years, at 25 per cent CAGR, to become an USD 800 billion market by 2030.

And with multiple recurrences of the Covid-19 cases in China, it is understood by now that Covid-19 is far from over. This understanding of the masses has also, to some extent, reflected on Indian digital age companies' IPO listing, where almost all – Policybazaar, Nykaa and Zomato, has witnessed initial trust and listing success. 

With retail and other investors backing and believing in them, I fear there is no turning back for digital age entrepreneurs. 

This decade belongs to digital entrepreneurship and the sky is the limit for entrepreneurs.

So, stop being afraid, embrace, adopt and adapt to the changes and start building your digital businesses. And being an enabler, we at Infibeam Avenues Ltd, staunchly believe in this adage – “Together we shall scale new heights.”