InstaOffice in Gujarat – the Upcoming State of Startups
InstaOffice is now in Gujarat – the upcoming state of startups! Gujarat as a state is home to some of the most industrious and business savvy populace. In fact, Gujarat has 29 of the top 500 Indian corporates.
Why is it that despite this, the stats has had few successful startups? Did tech-based entrepreneurship take a backseat when compared to large manufacturing and trading hubs in Gujarat?
Gujarat Startups – What was missing before?
Before, the one factor that was holding back growth for Gujarat-based startups was the founders’ unwillingness to part away with equity to raise money. Usually, Gujarati entrepreneurs were wary about diluting their equity, which was never the case in other startup hubs. Also, the mindset of having a Plan-B for the business could have also been a hindrance in the entire process of making a startup work. The level of aggression that a startup hub needs was lacking in some of the Gujarat-based startups because of the presence of this Plan-B.
The startup scene has been undergoing a rapid and drastic improvement. In fact, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of tech startups in Gujarat in the past few years. Owing to this, an entire ecosystem of incubators, investors, influencers, and accelerators have come up as well.
Gujarat Startups – The Startup Policy
The Startup Policy was formulated by the Government of Gujarat in June 2016 to support this changing ecosystem in the state. The policy was formulated around three main parties – The innovator, who would get the incentive for the idea and the venture, the institution, that would mentor the startups during the initial phase, and the government committee, who would be responsible for approval and financing of the projects. The state’s IT & Electronics Startup Policy was finalized to promote 2000 new ventures over a period of 5 years. In January 2017, a State Innovation Fund with a corpus of ₹200 crores was launched, of which ₹100 crores was to be allocated by the State Government and the rest by internal sources and departments.
Gujarat Startups – What has changed?
Various investments firms have come up in Gujarat in the past few years for fund-raising and making working capital accessible to new ventures. There has been a rise in the number of mentors and advisors to guide the startups coming up in the state too. IIM-A’s CIIE, ESpark Viridian Accelerator, MICA Incubator, International Centre of Entrepreneurship & Technology, NBDI, Incube Ventures, VentureStudio, IIT-Gandhinagar Incubator, DA-IICT Centre for Entrepreneurship & Incubation, and CED, are some of accelerators and incubators in Gujarat. Others include HeadStart, eChai, Startup Weekend, and TiE Ahmedabad.
Even if the white-collared investors were to fall short, the high net-worth individuals, established entrepreneurs, and local businesses of the state are seizing opportunities ti to fund startups and new ventures today. This push from some of the largest conglomerates of the country is vital to develop a concrete and collaborative ecosystem in the state.
Gujarat Startups – Changing trends
Startups that were earlier concentrate in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, are now moving to cities like Pune, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur.
With this level of development and growth in the startup ecosystem in the state, a number of co-working spaces are coming up too to support the functioning and working of these startups and its ecosystem. To be a part of this change in Gujarat, InstaOffice has also grabbed the opportunity to set up a co-working space in GIFT CITY, Gandhinagar, to support the growth of the startup ecosystem of the state.
In 2018, Startup India is launching a ranking among states and union territories, based on the initiatives. This ranking exercise is believed to trigger a level of healthy competition, consistently improving the startup ecosystem in the country.