Commerce and industry ministry urges unicorns to mentor startups

New Delhi, Jan 18 (PTI) The commerce and industry ministry has urged the unicorn startups to mentor budding entrepreneurs through government-backed MAARG portal, an official said.

The MAARG (Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience, and Growth) platform was launched in January last year to facilitate mentorship for startups across diverse sectors, and geographies.

It was suggested during a meeting between Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and senior representatives of 40 unicorn startups like Lenskart, Zerodha, and Boat here on January 17.

On the other hand, the companies asked for a better funding mechanism and lower rates of interest to increase their growth prospects.

Issues which figure in the meeting included sustainable growth, India's positioning in the global startup landscape and mobilisation of domestic capital for the larger startup ecosystem.

It was suggested to them to provide at least 30 minutes of mentorship to budding startups, the official said.

Startup firms valued over USD 1 billion are categorised as unicorns.

Meanwhile, President Droupadi Murmu interacted with a group of women, who are founders and co-founders of leading startups and unicorns, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

The president urged women entrepreneurs to identify other enterprising women and think of new ways to support them in their journey of empowerment.

The government has taken a series of steps to promote the startup ecosystem in the country.

Over 1.17 lakh startups are recognised by the government. They are eligible to seek certain tax incentives.

The Startup India initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 16, 2016, to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation, boosting startups, and encouraging investments in the startup ecosystem of the country. PTI RR SHW SHW