ISF Angel Investors Look To Invest Rs 250 Cr In Startups

Hyderabad: The International Startup Foundation (ISF), a not-for-profit organisation, in collaboration with NTT Data, is hosting three-day International Startup Festival 2024, till September 28, 2024 at Engineering Staff College of India, Hyderabad.

The third edition of International Startup Festival was launched by Telangana IT Minister D Sridhar Babu. The ISF Expo was inaugurated by D Shetkar Suresh Kumar, Member of Parliament, Zahirabad, and Jayesh Ranjan, Special Chief Secretary, Government of Telangana.

Delivering the welcome address, JA Chowdary, Chairperson, International Startup Foundation, spoke about the growth in the success ratio of startups over the last decade and the role of ISF in eluding them from the valley of death. “ISF angel investors have committed Rs 250 crore till date, of which Rs 40 crore has been invested. However, as funding plays only 10 per cent role in a startups journey, ISF stands strongly on providing mentoring and market connection support to startups. This has been our strategy in creating successful startups,” he said.

JA informed that ISF 2025 will be held in April in Netherlands and in Hyderabad in November, for which, the Foundation will be bringing in 100 Global CIO’s for the first time to this city.

More than 200 curated startups including 30 Junicorns (school and undergraduate students) are demonstrating their innovations at the exhibition.

Speaking about Telangana government’s contribution in the growth of the startup ecosystem in the State, Jayesh Ranjan said, “The popular narrative in startup hubs is that the government has a limited role of a facilitator to play is this landscape, hence it should be left to the market forces, enthusiasm of the private sector, and organic growth through networking. We challenged this narrative and stood up to drive this ecosystem. From two to three innovation spaces, the State has over 70 spaces today, and from 50 to 60 startups we have now grown to house more than 6,500 startups.”

Themed ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the AI Era,’ ISF 2024 got underway with the Foundation signing 12 MOU’s with institutions like Singularity University, We Hub, US India Chamber of Commerce, Association of Business Women in Commerce and Industry (ABWCI), RICH (Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad), Telangana State Innovation Cell, Quality Engineering Foundation, World Trade Centre - Shamshabad, GMR Innovation Centre, IIIT Hyderabad, HYSEA, and NIT Warangal, for mentorship and market access. During the day, the ‘ISF Pitch Fest’ winners were also announced.

More than 250 CXOs, 300 VCs, 800 Global Angels, 5,000 delegates from over 15 countries (USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, UAE and eight countries from Europe) are attending the Festival.

India’s startups multiplied 30-fold in 10 years

Over the last decade, the strength of startups in India has grown from less than 5,000 to 1.50 lakh. The Unicorn startups number has grown from handful to over 100. This indicates how India is scaling up in promoting entrepreneurial mindset. As network of people is a startups’ net worth, platforms like International Startup Foundation and ISF24 is the network of stakeholders that bolsters the startup ecosystem leading to the growth of Indian economy - Prof K Nagabhushan Raju, Executive Director, AIC-SKU

Startups fueling rural growth in India

Startups are about recognising and unleashing the opportunity with the right product and service. India has that opportunity right now which can be unleashed through all that entrepreneurial energy inherent in Indian heritage as mass employment was never a phenomenon in our country. ISF24 highlighting rural empowerment is visionary. I have been to World Women Economic Forum in Egypt, World Economic Forum at Davos, the vision of ISF to come up with Rural Economic Forum in India will be wonderful - Ravi Gundlapalli, CEO & Founder, MentorCloud