Piyush Goyal urges corporates to create pool of funds to support startups

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday appealed to Indian corporates to create a pool of funds to support startups of the country, saying many entrepreneurs end up selling a large part of their equity at abysmally low prices to foreign firms.

He also asked domestic firms to focus on quality, innovation and sustainability to push the country's economic growth.

"I have a complaint about many of the billionaires that Indian domestic capital is not coming sufficiently to support the Indian startups. So I do wish to see Indian companies, Swadeshi capital coming in a big way to promote the startups because there's tremendous potential.

"And sadly, a startup sellout, a large part of their equity ownership, at abysmally low price, very low price when they need that first seed capital or early stage funding," he said at an event in Mumbai.

He added that the "sharks" out there just tend to kill the ideas of Indian startups or buy them out very cheaply.

"I want to appeal to all of you, let's look at a more domestic pool of capital supporting startups," the minister said.

There is a need that domestic capital should supplement the money that the government puts up for startups, he says.