Mumbai: A group of unicorns Startup In the meeting with the Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal On Wednesday, the possibility of setting up a Unicorn Club or simply an association of startups, which would regularly connect with the minister’s office and suggest measures to boost growth, was discussed. Ecosystem, Founders who participated in the meeting said that in the meeting that lasted for about four hours, the startups also urged the minister to consider the possibility of simplifying the ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) taxation structure. Representatives from around 40-50 unicorn startups were present, including Zerodha, Zepto, Oyo, CarDekho, Paytm and Flipkart.
The meeting, held against the backdrop of a sluggish funding environment, also discussed the need to increase availability of domestic capital to support startups. The minister is understood to have suggested unicorn startups to consider the possibility of setting up a fund which can be used to financially support emerging startups. “Currently, a lot of startup founders invest in young startups in individual capacities. The idea is to look at ways in which they can contribute to the fund and help other smaller players,” said Rikant Pitti, co-founder of EasyMyTrip. “Many small startups today are struggling to get funding from banks. If they are supported by larger ecosystem players, it could mitigate some of these challenges,” Pitti said.
Funding for Indian startups dropped to a seven-year low of $8.2 billion in 2023. This compares to approximately $25 billion of investments that companies had managed to secure from investors in 2022. Hit by lack of funding, many startups laid off employees, while some ceased operations. Another unicorn founder, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “On a policy-based solution, it was discussed that companies operating in India but with an offshore legal entity could shift their domicile to India without incurring heavy tax burden. How to enable startups with