Founders of large-scaled tech startups such as Sachin Bansal and Bhavish Aggarwal have been voicing concerns over safeguarding their interest against deep-pocketed global behemoths from over a year. They even urged the Central government to intervene.
However, now it appears that they are launching an industry body to lobby for them. According to an ET report, Flipkart, Ola, Hike and Quikr among others are set to launch – Indiatech.org.
Led by Bansal, Indiatechorg will be a non-profit entity. It’s slated to appoint a retired IAS officer as CEO who is likely to joint outfit in the next 2-3 weeks. The move will help these companies to lobby for policy support with the government and other stakeholders.
“The group wants to become the Nasscom for the startup space,” said ET citing two sources. Ola, Flipkart, Quikr, MakeMyTrip and Hike are likely to be a part of outfit’s executive committee while many other startups are also slated to join. Bansal will be the president of Indiatech.org.
Last year, Bansal and Aggarwal iterated on multiple occasions about measures required to be taken to safeguard the interest of home-grown startups against foreign players. Both are locked in intense battles for market share with the Indian subsidiary of US-based heavy-weights – Amazon and Uber, respectively.
The primary purpose of the outfit is to persuade the government in favor of homegrown internet companies. The outfit has also invited investors, including Softbank, Tiger Global, Steadview Capital, Matrix and Accel to join Indiatechorg.
Currently, there are other lobbying outfits such as NASSCOM and IAMAI for product and technology startups, however, they also have representation from global behemoths such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook. Their representations hamper homegrown companies in scouting the agenda for a level playing field.
While the formation of Indiatech.org is going to help local companies in easing policy framework and protect them for financial muscle power of Amazon, Uber, and others, government stakeholders aren’t sure about what specific measures local entrepreneurs want.
