Chennai: Majority of the startups in the state are reluctant to scale up their ventures and face challenges in attracting external funding, said Sivarajah Ramanathan, chief executive of StartupTN, the nodal agency for entrepreneurship development instituted by the state government.
Speaking at the CII ‘Thrive’ Startup conclave on Thursday, he said a vast number of 8,500 startups in Tamil Nadu, registered under Department of promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) since 2016, are not growing, but surviving and are cash flow positive, based on a study by his agency “There can be two possibilities (either) they are highly reluctant to funding, scaling and lack access to mentors and incubation centers or many of these startups are typical micro or small enterprises and think they are startups,” he said. However, he declined to share official figures of the startups. He further stated the study is under progress and a report will be published in the public domain in a month to improve the startup ecosystem. StartupTN is connecting startups with investors and spreading entrepreneurship across the state, he added.
Tamil Nadu has roughly about 8,500 DPIIT registered startups at present, growing from 2,300 in March 2021. Earlier speaking at the event, Srivats Ram, chairman of CII Tamil Nadu state council and MD of Wheels India said ecosystem is very important for development of startups and it needs to bring together investors, entrepreneurs, and needs a certain scale. He acknowledged the challenges faced by startups in sustaining the business.
