Industry leaders celebrate National Startup Day: Here’s what they said

In 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that January 16th would be celebrated as National Startup Day to promote the startup culture at the grassroots level. India is known as a hub for startups, and government initiatives like this one help to further encourage innovation across various sectors.
To celebrate National Startup Day and the Indian startup ecosystem, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), within the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is organizing the Startup India Innovation Week.The initiative will bring together successful entrepreneurs to collaborate, innovate, and excel. Here are some views from startup founders on this special day.
Divya Jain, Co-founder Seekho
India has become a major hub for startups in recent years, thanks to its large youth population and growing consumption economy. The country offers a unique opportunity for experimentation and problem-solving. On National Startup Day, it is exciting to celebrate the achievements of these startups and provide them with the support and encouragement they need to continue growing, as their success is crucial for the future of our country.
Krutika Lal, Co-Founder & CMO, Aretto:
Over the past decade, the startup ecosystem has undergone a significant change, moving from skepticism to nationwide adoption. As e-commerce, digital payments, and data democratization continue to shape the future of business, we are entering a new phase of exponential growth. The startup community has become a thriving environment where collaboration and support are emphasized. New designs, innovations, and ideas are constantly emerging and the public is more open than ever to embracing local, homegrown startups. Together, we are growing and driving the future of entrepreneurship.
Vicky Dodani, founder of Agrizy:
The National Startup Day is a meaningful recognition of the hard work and dedication of entrepreneurs and budding startups from various sectors. It also encourages them to continue to innovate and come up with new and exciting ideas in the future. The agritech industry in India is rapidly growing, with startups leveraging technology to disrupt the agriculture sector. Indian agritech startups are utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as ML/AI and IoT across the agricultural value chain. This will also drive advancements in the digital landscape, further fueling the growth of the Indian startup ecosystem.
Ms. Zaiba Sarang, Co-founder, iThink Logistics:
India boasts some of the fastest-growing and most innovative startups globally. The ever-evolving end-user segment and dynamic business environment have played a key role in strengthening the role of startups in the growth of the Indian economy. The celebration of National Startup Day has provided a boost to entrepreneurs, resulting in the foundation of 69,000 startups last year. Startups have received significant support in terms of new scheme launches and smoother regulations for a stronger future. The declaration of January 16th as National Startup Day has been a greatly inspiring initiative for the Indian startup sector.
Nishant Behl, Founder and CEO of Expand My Business :
The adoption of technology is booming across all sectors, and businesses are becoming increasingly digital-first. A single concept can change the trajectory of one's career. Digitalization has opened up numerous opportunities that were previously unimaginable. However, there are many challenges that entrepreneurs face while building a startup such as financial management, team building, intense competition, guidance, consulting, and training. But with the right information, support, and IT solutions, these challenges can be overcome."
Chetan Rexwal, co-founder of Ekank Technologies:
The year 2022 was a turning point for startups. While we saw the size of startups rapidly increasing, we also saw a decrease in funding due to a 'funding winter' and a decline in investor confidence. The future of startups will involve identifying problems or areas that have been previously inaccessible and finding sustainable solutions using technology. In 2023, startups will be more focused on profitability and unit economics, which is an economically sustainable and profitable business model. This will help them understand the return on investment in acquiring customers and determine the profitability and growth potential.
Rajagopal Menon, vice president, WazirX:
National Startup Day is an important event that recognizes and celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation in India. Startups in the crypto industry are playing a crucial role in shaping the future of the digital economy. In 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that January 16th will be celebrated as National Startup Day. He stated that startups will play a significant role in the development of the country as it marks 100 years of independence. The day is a reminder to acknowledge the importance of entrepreneurship and the impact it has on economic growth. Entrepreneurs provide jobs to others and generate employment opportunities for an entire ecosystem. Indian startups raised $42 billion in 2021, a significant increase from the previous year, showcasing the strength of this sector.
The industry is rapidly evolving, and startups are at the forefront of driving this change. As entrepreneurs, we must strive to contribute to making India a 5 trillion dollar economy and work towards realizing this goal.
Imthiaz, CEO & Co-Founder, Raaho:
The National Startup Day marks a historical period in the development of India’s economy. The government has leveraged the national platform for startups to be recognised, appreciated, and find the appropriate opportunities to build partnerships and grow together. We applaud this initiative, and take pride in being part of India’s vibrant startup culture. Logistics functions as the bridge between various industries, and its contribution to the development of the Indian economy has been enormous. The widespread prevalence of entrepreneurship in India is spearheading change, growth and evolution across industries, and logistics will play a prominent role in making India’s startup ecosystem rise to the top!
Pramod Kathuria, Founder & CEO, Easiloan:
"The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams." - Oprah Winfrey. This quote is fitting for National Startup Day as starting a business is a big challenge and a true adventure. It requires courage, determination, and a willingness to take risks. Success is not just about having a great idea or product, it's also about having the drive and passion to see it through to fruition. So, if you're thinking about starting your own business, remember that it's not just about the destination, it's about the journey. Embrace the adventure and enjoy the ride. And remember, the biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams. Entrepreneurs and startup founders need to stay true to their passion and not settle for anything less than their best work. Finding our true calling in life and pursuing it with love and dedication is the key to success and fulfillment. At Easiloan, we align with this thought and are working towards solving the home loan problem in India. Easiloan is India’s 1st unified digital marketplace for home loans, bringing together all key stakeholders of the ecosystem on a single platform. Easiloan's IP tech platform integrates interactions between home loan seekers, real-estate developers, and lenders in a secure, neutral, and trustworthy environment. Our vision is to build a complete digital lending platform with multiple product offerings. We started with home loans but plan to foray into other verticals such as Balance transfer, Loan against property, Insurance, Interiors, Personal loan & Business Loan.
Abhimanyu Bisht, CEO, Venture Catalysts:
National Startup Day is a great testimony as well as inspiration for all the stakeholders of the Indian startup ecosystem - Entrepreneurs, Startups, their employees, VCs and angel investors. The current government has taken some quick and prudent steps to promote entrepreneurship and make startups as the “backbone" of our economy. Currently, startups are contributing about 3% to the overall GDP and that is likely to become 10% in the next one decade and this gives us even more confidence in working towards creating proper infrastructure to fuel the growth of early stage startups and those entrepreneurs building in the Bharat. Tier 2,3 city based startups contribute about 50% to the National data on startups, since the last three years we have been consistently seeing a spike in the proportion of startups applying to us for funding. In 2022, we had almost 30% of the startups coming from towns beyond the metros.
Aayush Ghosh Choudhury, CEO and Co-Founder, Scrut Automation
"With the increasing adoption of cloud and growing sophistication of cyber-attacks, there will be an increasing pressure on business leaders to take active measures to protect their company data, from regulatory bodies, shareholders, and customers alike. Information security will continue to be a key focus area across businesses, and is expected to become a boardroom topic across the globe. For new age startups, establishing trust with their ecosystems strongly correlates with developing a robust security posture. As a result, startups will rapidly transition to treating security as a founda
Rohit Garg, CEO and Co-Founder, SmartCoin:
“There have been several significant developments and standards for digital lending startups, and the complexities have been evolving. Digital lending has become a popular option in India, and is now easily accessible & mandatory to small businesses, thanks to the development of technology-driven fintech businesses and the advancement of digital and innovative services. Customer experience — from ease of access to frictionless service and data security — will take center stage for fintechs in the coming years, leading to greater expansion of the industry and startup space, where technology will play a critical role in driving business growth, increased efficiencies, and enhanced user experience.”
Sandeep Agrawal, Co-Founder and Director, TeamLease RegTech
"The Indian startup ecosystem ranks 3rd globally and has seen tremendous growth in the past decade. We now have more than 77,000 registered startups with over 100 unicorns. Looking beyond these numbers we find an intricate and dynamic web of laws and compliances that have to be complied with by these enterprises. A total of 1,536 acts and 69,233 compliance requirements govern doing business in India. Just in 2022, there were over 4,500 regulatory updates published on more than 2,000 websites by government ministries, departments, and regulators. In addition, as soon as a startup starts to expand its scale, it has to comply with more than 400 compliance requirements in a year. For startups, regulatory complexity lies not only in the number of regulations but also in the nature of compliance. An enterprise with a single manufacturing unit has to fulfil around 50 display requirements, maintain at least 40 unique registers in different formats and obtain at least 30 licenses/ registrations from various different authorities. Furthermore, every 2 out of 5 regulatory requirements carries a jail term for non-compliance. Entrepreneurs, thus, face a huge burden to stay on the right side of the law. The onus lies on the startups to strengthen their compliance management. As enterprises grow, ad-hoc, paper-based, and people-dependent processes fail to scale. They need to adopt digital solutions to move towards a cashless, paperless, and presence-less compliance management system."
Aditya Soni, CEO and Founder, CheQ, Credit Management platform
“Entrepreneurship was always a matter of 'when' and not 'if' for me. Growing up in a family of business owners, I knew that I would start my own company at some point. With a strong background in fintech through my experience at CITI and Flipkart, I was naturally inclined to start CheQ - a credit management platform. I believe that the past decade has seen a thriving ecosystem for entrepreneurship in India, with government initiatives such as Startup India, advancements in digital technology, and a young and educated population all playing a role in making now the perfect time to start up.”