Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has called for deeper India-Japan cooperation in startups, with a focus on patient capital, deeptech funding and cross-border innovation, as more than 200 Indian business leaders travel to Japan to explore investment and partnership opportunities.
Addressing a startup roundtable in Tokyo, Goyal outlined four areas where India and Japan could build a stronger startup corridor.
A key proposal is an India-Japan Deeptech Capital Corridor aimed at improving access to early-stage funding and patient risk capital for startups at the innovation stage. Goyal also invited Japanese investors to co-invest in Indian funds, pointing to a second Fund of Funds focused specifically on deeptech.
India's existing $1.5 billion Fund of Funds has catalysed $10 billion in investments, according to Goyal. He stressed that no startup should miss growth opportunities because of a lack of funding.
The minister also pitched India as a design-to-deployment market for Japanese startups, urging them to test, build and deploy products in India. The proposed two-way innovation bridge would connect universities, incubators, venture capital firms, testing and quality facilities and manufacturing clusters across the two countries.
Another idea was an India-Japan Shark Tank-like pitching series, where Indian startups could pitch to Japanese investors while Japanese startups pitch to potential Indian partners.
Goyal highlighted the breadth of India's startup ecosystem, noting that around half of Indian startups originate from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. He also described India as an emerging technology player and an energy-surplus country.
For Japan, the pitch is also about capital. Goyal called the country indispensable to India's startup ambitions because of its patient capital, while noting that Japan is already India's fifth-largest FDI investor.
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