PM Modi meets private equity, venture capital players; seeks suggestions to attract more capital

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday hosted the roundtable interaction with representatives of venture capital and private equity funds in a bid to boost the investment climate of the country.

Prime Minister sought suggestions towards improving Ease of Doing Business in India, attracting more capital and furthering the reform process in the country. He appreciated the practical suggestions received from the representatives and said the government is committed towards working to resolve the issues and challenges highlighted, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.

He discussed the efforts undertaken by the government to bring in more reforms, future potential of initiatives like PM GatiShakti, and steps taken to reduce the unnecessary compliance burden. He also mentioned the innovation happening in India at the grassroot level and the boost to the startup ecosystem, the statement read.

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Praising the initiatives taken to boost the Startup ecosystem in the country, Siddarth Pai termed the Prime Minister as the ‘Startup Prime Minister’. The venture capital and private equity fund representatives praised the Prime Minister for his leadership which has been a prime driving force behind the massive boost to the investment climate in the country.

The venture capital and private equity fund representatives also talked about the entrepreneurial potential of the country, and how it can be leveraged so that our startups can attain global scale.

Accel’s Prashant Prakash highlighted the opportunities that are present in the agri startups. Rajan Anandan from Sequoia suggested working towards making India the global hub in education by leveraging technology.

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India Resurgent’s Shantanu Nalavadi praised the reforms undertaken by the country in the last 7 years especially the step to set up the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). Blackstone’s Amit Dalmia said India is among the best performing geographies for the Blackstone (funds) globally.

HDFC’s Vipul Roongta praised the policy initiatives that have been taken by the government, in the housing sector especially in the affordable housing segment.

Gopal Srinivasan, chairman and managing director of TVS Capital said the meeting was wonderful and the PM was very motivating. He said it was absolutely correct to call Modi as the Startup Prime Minister as he started Startup India and even today he only spoke about startups in every aspect – rural business, agri business & holistic business.

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Munish Varma of Softbank said, “The investment climate in the country has become much more positive. We have seen that in the amount of capital that has come into our country, we have seen that in the amount of entrepreneurs that are being created, we have seen that in public markets, so overall it was a great interaction with the PM. He had some phenomenal insights and gave some very good suggestions.”

Prashant Prakash of Accel said, “It was a great opportunity to interact with the Prime Minister. I presented the idea of this being the moment to encourage agri startups. He clearly saw the same vision. It was his view that agri startups, especially FPOs will have a key role to play in helping double farmer’s income which is his core vision.”

Rajan Anandan of Sequoia said, “The Indian startup ecosystem has come a long way. If you go back 10 years ago, we had no unicorns, this year at end of 2021 we will have over 70 unicorns. In fact this year we have doubled the number of unicorns. 10 years ago we had less than a billion dollars of funding per year going into startups, this year we will have over $30 billion. I credit a large part of this to the extraordinary focus that our PM Modi as well as our government has had on startups. The whole Startup India movement really started accelerating since about 2015 and every year the movement is getting stronger and stronger.”

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Sandeep Naik of General Atlantic said, “The interaction that we had with the PM was amazing. The intent with which the PM was listening to every single input and the recommendations from the people in the meeting was very deliberate and was very clear that there are big changes coming in India. From an investment standpoint we are extremely bullish about India because of the steps that the government has taken, because of the entrepreneurial energy and because of the environment that Startup India has created.”

Siddharth Pai of 3one4 Capital said, “It has been a privilege for us to sit across the table with a Startup Prime Minister. Modi invigorated the nation. India as a nation right now is full of dreamers who no longer go to Bollywood to become actors, they come to Bengaluru to become entrepreneurs and that is a change that PM has brought about. Through this change, the economic development and India becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2025 is a dream that all entrepreneurs hold very close to their heart and is something that all of us will bring to fruition and reality.”

The representatives also discussed the opportunities that are emerging because of India’s exemplary climate commitments including the ones in the sphere of energy transitions. They also gave inputs about areas like FinTech and financial management, software as a service (Saas) etc. They also praised the Prime Minister’s vision of making India a 5 trillion economy.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow