Goa meet agenda: G20 nations look at common framework to define start-ups

The Startup20 engagement group’s upcoming meeting in Goa will see G20 nations having discussions on creating a common framework to define start-ups. This will not only aid in policy making but also help investors and other stakeholders.

The framework of choices will help countries create a definition.

“The idea of the foundation is to come up with a start-up definition framework, which is applicable across different economies. When you talk about global start-up ecosystems coming together, working together and becoming interoperable, you realise that there are no common definitions of start-ups across these nations,” Startup20 India chair and mission director Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog Chintan Vaishnav said on Monday.

The meeting will take place during June 3-4 and aim to build consensus on the draft policy communique, which the Startup20 published last week and sought comments on. There are five task forces under this group — foundation, alliances, finance, inclusion, and sustainability.

While the foundation will focus on definition and under alliances, countries are trying to ensure that there is some form of platform to promote cooperation between key stakeholders of the start-up ecosystem, such as incubators and regulators.

A finance task force will unlock financing of start-ups in general for nations to invest in these enterprises and also for cross-border investments.

“If a start-up wants to go to another country, is there a way to enter into that ecosystem? We are looking at some kind of common financing for start-ups, how much money to allocate and how do you invest across borders,” Vaishnav said, mentioning the possible outcomes of the meeting. “We are hoping for such kind of outcomes,” Vaishnav said.

There are around 850,000 start-ups across the G20 nations. And, out of this, over 98,000 recognised start-ups are in India. There are about 1,600 unicorns in these economies, of which, 108 are in India.