The second meeting of the Startup20 Engagement Group under India’s G20 Presidency was held on 18-19 March in Gangtok, the capital of North-eastern state of Sikkim.
The two-day meeting of the Startup20 engagement group under India’s G20 Presidency concluded at Chintan Bhawan in Gangtok.
The Startup20 engagement group aims to bring together global startup systems while ensuring that every nation has the freedom to grow its unique ecosystem.
This meeting will go a long way in providing a unique opportunity to promote startups in North East India.
The G20 Startup20 Engagement Group held its inception meeting in Hyderabad in January, featuring delegates from G20 nations and nine special invitees from observer countries, representatives from multilateral organizations as well as the Indian startup ecosystem.
The Startup20 has three main taskforces; the Foundation and Alliances Taskforce, Finance, and Inclusion and Sustainability.
Foundation and Alliances Taskforce
The Foundation and Alliances Taskforce will work to harmonize the global Startup ecosystem through consensus-based definitions. It will promote a global community of knowledge sharing among the Startup ecosystems to explore opportunities.
Bridging the knowledge gap between the Startup ecosystems of G20 member countries and emerging economies through partnerships to enable more industry players across G20 nations to work with Startups and concrete solutions will be on its agenda.
Finally, it will aim to create supportive policies for industry players and government organizations to work with Startups and provide points of contact for the participating G20 countries sustained collaboration.
Finance Taskforce
The Finance Taskforce will aim to increase access to capital for Startups by providing financing and investment platforms specifically for early-stage Startups to broaden the array of financial instruments available to Startups. It will also create pitching and networking opportunities for Startups with the global investor community. Lastly, it will work to provide a framework built upon best practices for global investors to fund Startups across G20 member nations, helping build suggestive frameworks that could be implemented in emerging ecosystems for building investment capabilities.
Inclusion and Sustainability
For Inclusion and Sustainability, the roadmap involves increasing support for women led Startups and organizations; promotion of Startups working on making communities more inclusive and to promote Startups working on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in areas of global interest. Besides, this Task Force aims to enable more investors to invest responsibly in Startups built upon sustainable practices and to encourage mentorship support to the Startup ecosystems of the G20 member countries and emerging economies.
Key deliverables of Startup20
Expected outcomes and key deliverables of Startup20 include the official Policy Communique, a Startup Handbook with a set of commonly agreed upon definitions and terminologies, a Global Innovation Centre to foster collaborations across borders, and promotion of Startup20 as a Global Point of Contact for startup ecosystems worldwide.
