Aman Gupta backs Piyush Goyal's push for deep-tech focus in startups

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boAt co-founder Aman Gupta has come out in support of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal's recent remarks urging Indian startups to focus more on deep-tech innovation.

Gupta's comments come amid an ongoing debate within the startup ecosystem where several founders have countered Goyal's critique of consumer-focused ventures like food delivery and luxury goods startups.

Gupta took to social media platform X to echo Goyal's call for startups to move beyond consumer-centric models like food delivery and fantasy sports apps and instead prioritise technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum computing.

"It's not every day that the government asks founders to dream bigger. But at Startup Mahakumbh, that's exactly what happened. I was there. I heard the full speech. Hon. Minister @PiyushGoyal Ji isn't against founders. He believes in us. His point was simple: India has come far, but to lead the worldwe need to aim higher.

"It reminded me of something I say often on Shark Tank India, If you want to build a world-class product, you must know your competition. That applies to India too," Gupta wrote.

The minister, during the inaugural of Startup Mahakumbh on Thursday, asked the Indian startup community to shift their focus from grocery delivery and ice cream making to high-tech sectors like semiconductors, machine learning, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

He had questioned Indian food delivery startups for turning unemployed youth into cheap labour.

"Are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls... Is that the destiny of India...this is not a startup, this is entrepreneurship... What the other side is doing -- robotics, machine learning, 3D manufacturing and next generation factories," Goyal said, showing a slide titled "India vs China. The Startup Reality Check".

The minister had pointed out that only 1,000 of India's 1.57 lakh recognized startups operate in deep-tech spacesa situation he described as "disturbing" given India's aspirations to become a developed nation by 2047.

Startup founders including Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha, Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu, and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma have countered Goyal's comments.

Gupta, however, said pitching the country against China is a smart strategy.

"Benchmarking against China, the US, or anyone else -- isn't weakness. It's a smart strategy. We're already the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world and the fastest-growing major economy. But if we want to be No.1, we need to also go deep into AI, deep tech, climate, mobility, and infra. We need LLMs and innovation stacks that compete on global standards.

"And to make that happen, we also need Scientific risk, More patient capital, Founderpolicymaker collaboration and a long-term national vision," Gupta wrote.