Wednesday 1 July 2015

How to fund your own startup

This deluge has lasted several years, but no one's complaining. It has been raining startups in India for the past 3-4 years and has swept away all divides. From bubbling graduates to brainy professionals, from salaried staffers to sparkling housewives, in metros and small towns, all are hopping on to the idea bandwagon. There seems to be no venture too wacky, no business plan too flaky to succeed.

In fact, India ranks fifth in the world in terms of startups, with nearly 3,100 currently in operation. " India is seeing high quality of entrepreneurs giving up large opportunity costs and it has never been witnessed before. This, combined with the Internet growth story, makes it a very attractive investment market," says Gopal Modi, President, Investments, Orios Venture Partners.

In tandem with the surging enterprise, funds are flowing in like never before and the country is buzzing with options—venture capitalists, angel investors, incubators and banks. Currently, the number of active investors in the country include 172 VCs, 43 angel investors and 48 incubators. As much as $4.75 billion of VC funding came through in 2014 and it has already touched $3.18 billion in 2015. Flipkart made the biggest splash with its two rounds of $1.7 billion funding, the highest in 2014, ..

The business environment is also turning more conducive, with the government setting up the MUDRA Bank, which offers a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore for small and medium enterprises. Besides, various banks and finance companies have stepped up to encourage the trend.

If this has got you fired up to launch your own enterprise, hold on. Stories abound of individuals who have raised millions of dollars with merely ideas and passion as collateral, but these often overshadow the struggle, sweat ..

Full Story from Economic Tims Published on 29 Jun 2015