The biggest private conglomerate, Reliance Industries said that the company is ready to invest more in startups. Through this, it aims to establish an ecosystem to build high-value startups and make India as a startup and innovation hub in the world. Reliance Industries also aims that by 2022, India should be at par with places like Silicon Valley and Israel.
GenNext Innovation Hub
The company’s venture capital arm, GenNext Ventures had joined hands with Microsoft Ventures to come up with a startup accelerator program, which is known asGenNext Innovation Hub. The program has now selected its second batch of startups, this week. There are 10 startup companies in this batch, two of which are from Israel. This will bring global exposure for the inexperienced startups in India.
The first batch of the program was only a pilot. It was a learning process for both Reliance Industries and the startups. The program is significantly expanding now. Reliance Industries is actively engaging itself with the program. It will select the top three or five companies from the upcoming batches to work with its business units.
The second batch of the GenNext program will be looking for companies building on areas like installing bill payments in restaurants and retail outlets, operational intelligence for the Internet of Things applications, instant credit scores and lending, audio and video call-based consultation with doctors, real-time advertising on public screens, etc.
The GenNext program is beneficial for both the parties. Through this, startups get to interact and engage with big clients and large corporations get innovative ideas and technologies from the startups.
Plans of Reliance Industries
Managing Partner of GenNext Ventures, Vivek Rai expressed that his company has taken the initial steps and in few years want to see India leading in the global startup map. "We are keen to ensure we have global companies in our mix. We can learn a lot from different cultures, which have different investment practices," he said.
Reliance Industries is setting up a unique platform for upcoming companies. It will associate these startups with its own businesses and create direct consumer opportunities. The company may also partner for large-scale enterprises that may be worth nearly $ 5 billion. Some of the startups have already joined hands with Reliance Industries in the fields of corporate security, logistics and supply chain management.
Rai also informed that there are other 20-30 companies that have become more matured as the Hub is enabling them to directly engage with ventures. Reliance Industriesis also trying to set up local hubs in varied cities. This will create a large web of entrepreneurship talent. The company may partner with someone for this or do it single-handedly, too.
GenNext Ventures is a company that has a large global scope. It may soon take up to 15% share in few companies that will be selected for the next batch of its program. This will also affirm its idea of getting more funding.
Summary
Reliance Industries will be investing in more startups with an aim to make India a global startup hub, by 2022.