FICCI exchanged an MoU with Department for International Trade at the High Commission of India at the inaugural programme of techXchange 2019, on Thursday 19 September to facilitate mutual cooperation between UK and India. The purpose of this collaboration is to provide the cohort of startups visiting the UK from India, as well as the one planning to visit India from the UK, with an access to market and money (help them to pitch their ideas for investments, B2B meetings with investors, market experts, buyers) as well as provide required knowledge and appropriate networks to expand.
The first ever techXchange programme, which was a vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed during his visit in Spring 2018, was launched on 20 June 2018 in London and was organised by the High Commission of India in the UK and FICCI UK between 17-21 September 2018 over 5 days. A minimum of 30 startups from India had participated.
Her Excellency Mrs Ruchi Ghanashyam, the High Commissioner of India to UK, attending this inaugural event on Thursday, told an august gathering of financial experts, industry and government heads, potential investors, startup owners and other invited guests at Gandhi Hall that, “Startups are becoming a great asset to both UK and India. UK-India launch pad will help in promotion of India's startups. At the backbone of these programmes lies the initiative that were launched by the Prime Minister of India, like Startup India and Digital India.
“The fact that 8 Unicorns were added in 2018, establishes the potentials for growth of startups in India. India has turned it into a leading nation in startups and FinTech in the world. India is also attracting larger volumes of investments. In the first quarter of 2019, according to reports, FinTech startups in India received venture capital investments of US Dollar 286 million...”
She further added, “UK has a strong cultural and economic ties with India. Indian businesses make an important contribution to this country. Programs like techXchange and UK Startup launch pad provides Indian startups with a global platform which can give direct access to money and market.”
Derek Goodwin, Head of Global Entrepreneur Programme, Department for International Trade who has had 15 years of experience of working with the Indian market said, “Foreign entrepreneurs coming to the UK make a massive contribution to the economy. In 15 years, we have brought in 1200 leading tech businesses in the UK and about 15-20% of them are from India. What differentiate our team from other teams in DIT is the team of successful entrepreneurs, who can help aspiring entrepreneurs like yourself, with their knowledge.”
The startup delegation from India included Bobble AI, Cashify, Creditmate, 5C Network, Entropik Technologies, Imaginate, Indus OS, Magicbox Animation, MintM, Mobident, Mukunda Foods, Oizom, Shoptimize, Synersoft technology, Vphrase Analytics, StrataEnviro.
A report by BDO LLP and FICCI on 'Developing a startup ecosystem: Lessons from the UK' was also launched at this inaugural event which was attended by Simon Spier, Head of International Trade, techUK, Sunil Parekh, Co-Chair (India), TechXchange Programme, Arbinder Chatwal, Partner Business Assurance, BDO LLP, Shruti Singh, Director, DPIIT, Government of India, Andrew Masters, Senior Economic Adviser, Asia Region, DFID, Manish Singh, Minister (Economic), High Commission of India and Rohit Vadhwana, First Secretary (Economic), High Commission of India among others.
