Top experts at GVFL’s Annual Investors Meet advise startups to be more frugal

Ahmedabad : Experts at the GVFL Annual Investors Meet 2023 advised businesses and startups to reevaluate their business models and implement more frugal business practises to attract investors in light of the current economic climate.

“We live in trying times. There is capital available, but investors will be selective. In his opening remarks, Kamal Bansal, MD, GVFL, emphasised the importance of reevaluating revenue models, implementing more frugal business practices, lowering expenses, and concentrating on profitability in order for startups to survive the current economic downturn. Bansal also revealed upcoming plans for GVFL, stating that the firm will soon release its tenth fund. He said that in the next three to five years, GVFL hopes to catalyse investment of more than Rs. 3,000 crores in startups in Gujarat thanks to the “Gujarat Young Entrepreneurs Venture Fund” announced by the Government of Gujarat in the budget.

More than 250 startup founders, investors, incubators, institutional investors, funds, and other stakeholders gathered at this year’s GVFL Annual Investors Meet to talk about investing trends and other important topics. Risks and rewards of seed-stage investments, lessons learned in startup investment, and other topics were discussed in panels throughout the daylong event. Participating in the roundtable discussions were representatives from Speciale Invest, Jupiter Capital, JSW Ventures, Omnivore Partners, Carpediem Advisors, IVY Cap Ventures, Blume Ventures, Mumbai Angels, CIIE.co, Venture Garage, and Iroller Capital.

The meeting’s experts emphasised the importance of developing business strategies that target the pyramid’s middle and base as well as its apex. Innovation, ideas that help solve real-world problems, and proper implementation were also stressed. Keynote speaker Piruz Khambatta, CMD, Rasna Group, urged startups to find solutions that promote inclusive growth and nation-building at the grassroots level.

Sunil Parekh, an advisor to major corporations and a tireless promoter of startups, asked the audience, “Indian startups have had a tremendous impact on us as consumers and citizens, but have tech startups and unicorns developed any innovative technologies, done some foundational technological research?” The resounding response is “no.” According to him, India has the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world and is home to 91,000 registered startups and 108 unicorns. Yet, he pointed out that almost no Indian unicorn has been formally incubated in an incubator, prompting him to ask the audience to consider why the most successful ventures are occurring outside of the formal incubation ecosystem.

In his remarks, Mihir Joshi, President, GVFL said, “There is certainly a cash crunch. Investors are being cautious. But is this the funding winter? No, we are back to normal from the unsustainable, high startup valuations had touched.”

Nine startups, in which GVFL is an investor, also made presentations about their business, their growth, and their plans. The startups include Zero Cow Factory, Video SDK, Saarthi Pedagogy, Zoivane, Pivoting, PetPooja, All that Dips, Qarmatek and Eronkan.