PANAJI
After the launch of the Goa Start-up Policy as an initiative by the late chief minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar in 2017, around 130 Goa start-ups were certified. The data from Start-up India shows that about 160 Goa start-ups are certified by DPIIT, government of India.Goa has the highest percentage of start-ups vis-a-vis its population among all the States in India. And though IT/ITES still remain the highest percentage-wise sector in the composition of Goa start-ups, a sector-wise breakdown will show that the State has a healthy mix of start-ups across climate, sustainable Ed Tech, consumer tech, tourism, F & B, hospitality, medical services etc.
Another encouraging factor is that about 20% of these start-ups are founded by women entrepreneurs. Again, this might be the highest percentage of women founders compared to any other Indian State. Hence, we should believe that Goa Start-up Policy 2021 has special provisions and schemes for women entrepreneurs.
During the pre-covid phase (2018-19) few Indian start-ups including 91 Springboard, Delhivery and Brown Tape moved their major operations to Goa and started working from Goa. The trend of entrepreneurship was always there and start-ups were mushrooming well in Goa. During and after the lockdown many Goan professionals returned to the State leaving their jobs or after they were asked to leave their jobs. These ventured into their own start-ups.
At the same time with the ‘work from anywhere’ concept gaining traction, Goa became a choice of destination for professionals from across the country to work from. “This probably gives an impression that the start-up trend happened only due to lock down but in my opinion, it only became mainstream, then. Start-ups and ventures were already building from Goa,” opines Rajesh Joshi, CEO, Atal Incubation Centre at Goa Institute of Management (AIC-GIM).
The AIC-GIM is now calling for applications for these funds and an Investor Seed Management Committee will decide on the worthy Goa start-ups. It’s a sector-agnostic scheme prima facie and the committee will decide based on the entrepreneurs, team potential, market size of the business and the lifecycle stage of the start-up.
“So right now we are only calling for applications from Goa start-ups. We will update once the funds are distributed on the sectoral break up,” said Joshi, pointing out an encouraging trend that about 20% of these start-ups are founded by women entrepreneurs. “Again, this might be the highest percentage of women founders compared to any other Indian State. Hence too, we believe that Goa Startup Policy 2021 has special provision and schemes for women entrepreneurs,” says Joshi.
These start-ups will get funding as a grant or debt (CCD, Venture Debt) and up to Rs 20 lakh will be given as a grant. “So, on this, there is no expectation of return. It’s a grant given to worthy Goa founders to launch their ideas as Minimum Viable Product,” explains Joshi. He adds further, “Up to Rs 50 lakh will be given as debt or debt to be converted to equity. Over here the guidelines say that the debt will be given not above the repo rate (around 4%). Also, this debt could be converted into equity at some point in time and it will depend on each start-up agreement and the mutually agreeable terms thereof.”
Currently, AIC-GIM is calling for applications to allocate the funds and an Investor Seed Management Committee will decide on the worthy Goa start-ups. “It’s a sector-agnostic scheme prima facie and the committee will decide based on the entrepreneur, idea and team, market potential and the lifecycle stage of the start-up and traction,” adds Joshi.
AIC-GIM is the implementation partner of two Central government schemes under which the funds of approximately Rs 8 crore are provided to AIC-GIM and 24 Goa start-ups are offered hand-holding. “As part of our incubation support services, we provide, have provided and will continue to provide the below services to start-ups. We help them having access to market, talent, finance and offer knowledge support through our industry, mentor and subject matter expert. We help with networking and learning opportunities too,” says Joshi.
Till date, AIC-GIM has supported over 30 start-ups through the above and all start-ups under these schemes apart from the above grant, debt will receive the above incubation services for free from AIC-GIM. “We are one of the few incubators who do not levy any fees from start-ups for providing the above services and our business model is driven purely by their success,” boasts Joshi.
AIC-GIM didn’t distribute the funds directly. The funds disbursed were and from the Startup Promotion Cell, Department of Information Technology of Goa government. “We collaborated with ITG (the implementing agency of Goa Government Startup Policy) and enabled that all 85 plus start-up applications were processed with due diligence. High powered committee meetings were held and the funds were disbursed. From Lockdown March 2020 till now over Rs 1.10 crore was disbursed by the government of Goa to Goa start-ups,” concludes Joshi.
