Majority of startups die early in India due to their failure to survive ‘Valley of Death’ – a popular usage in IT world to refer to failure of startups from ideation to taking commercial shape for want of incubation and funding facility, according to National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) chairman and Managing Director H. Purushotham. Not beyond 10 to 15% of startups are successful in launching prototype of their products/services conceived at the beginning and hit the market from ideation stage.
Mr. Purushotham, who was here to interact with startups on intellectual property rights at Sunrise Incubation Hub, told The Hindu on Sunday that the ‘Valley of Death’ was claiming several casualties due to failure to organise bootcamps at early days of college life of the prospective entrepreneurs.
Admitting that idea validation was the main problem, he said as part of ecosystem, emphasis should be laid on bootcamps, incubation, funding and promoting entrepreneurship by direct and virtual mode of mentorship.
NRDC is a Government of India enterprise under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in the Ministry of Science and Technology. Set up in 1953, the corporation has turned into a self-sustaining entity by offering 5,000 technical licences by collecting upfront fee and 2 to 3% of royalty to various organisations. It could earn ₹27 crore last year and is expected to clock a turnover of ₹30 crore to ₹35 crore during current year. The corporation had also exported licences to 24 countries in Africa, South East Asia and South Asia. With eight centres spreading over seven cities, including Visakhapatnam, NRDC recently signed an MoU with AP Innovation Society to extend support to spread startup culture. It has collaborations with premier institutes like DRDO, ICAR, ICMR, CSIR, NISER, IIMs and IITs.
On seed funding, he said a promising city like Visakhapatnam should have a network of angel investors to encourage startups. He said though high risks were involved in startup funding, the returns were phenomenal if the startup validated the idea and took the commercial shape.
