Big Ugly - Startups’ Changing Role In Corporate India
The ongoing period has proved to be one of incubation, leading to mammoth change and development across various business sectors and organisations in the country. With the situation of the pandemic, innovation, new skill-sets and technology have become vital for the business ecosystem.
Witnessing major growth in the last two decades, the startup ecosystem in India has replaced many giant corporates existing for decades. They have been instrumental in doing so merely because of innovation and cutting-edge technology.
Resonating along similar lines, Abhinav Jain, co-founder of Almond, said, "Due to COVID, the opportunities for startups and entrepreneurs have grown multi-folds. For every small problem that we one faced, there is now a solution and a tech-savvy app for it. That's where the opportunity grows faster."
Tapping the right opportunities and upscaling is another key element for startups, specially amidst such times. While some startups have shown a mammoth increase in investments and operations, others fail to keep up with the burden created by such turbulent times. This is where corporates and other startups step in. Several multi-million-dollar corporates now look towards startups as answers to various problems and as is rightly said by Shailesh Gupta, Founder & CEO, Yolobus, ‘Startups are driven by innovation and corporates are driven by distribution. Thus, startups fill the gap that corporates leave behind and this is the sweet spot where startups are looking to operate."
In the race to strive and thrive what corporates, entrepreneurs and startups may leave behind is mental wellbeing, a crucial resource element revived by the pandemic. With work from home, extended working hours, the pressure has worsened.
The area around mental wellbeing is a boom for startups. Throwing light on this, Anouskha Adya, Founder & Chairman, Grow said, “The pandemic has created various economic disturbances, human connection to relations even at the workplace has been lost and with companies and corporates really feeling under the bus, mental health has suddenly regained relevance. With this insight, our role as a provider of mental health comes into play and that’s how we fit into the big corporate setup.”
With widening scope in various fields like pharma, technology, e-commerce, E-education, Artificial Intelligence and automation, mindfulness, cloud infrastructure etc. Startups are sure to be seen as thriving in the post-COVID world and reach the last mile digital.
The speakers spoke at 6th Annual Young Entrepreneur's Summit organised by BW Businessworld virtually.
