Twenty Indian Startups selected for Mayor of London’s IE20 business programme
The India Emerging 20 (IE20) business programme, an initiative by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, has received its third batch of Indian startups.
“IE20 is an important element of the UK-India Technology-Partnership which was agreed by our two Prime ministers in April and formally launched in India last week by Digital and Culture Secretary, Matt Hancock,” said Dominic McAllister, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Bangalore.
The twenty selected Indian companies include: · Appnomic Systems · BiOZEEN · BlackPepper Technologies · Chai Point (Mountain Trail Foods) · Happay · Intello Labs · Ittisa Digital Media Services · Senseforth · Chakr Innovation · Dineout / inResto · Fork Media · Lucideus Tech · Morph.ai · Videonetics Technology · Wigzo Technologies · Hug Innovations · FSM Education · Gaia Smart Cities · Iksula Services · SaffronStays.
Eight of these twenty companies are from Bangalore, seven from Delhi, four from Mumbai and one from Hyderabad. [B:D:M:H - 40:35:20:5 %]
The selected companies will receive help in setting up or expanding their business in London. They can also avail discounted rates on a London office and advice on marketing, access to finance and local market analysis. Wework London will offer free desk space to these companies.
“London has strong cultural and economic ties with India, and Indian businesses make an important contribution to our city. Following my visit to India last year, I see lots of opportunities to strengthen investment between London and Indian cities,” said Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London. “London is a truly global business centre and presents lots of opportunities for Indian companies looking to expand their business overseas.”
Last December, Sadiq Khan visited India on a trade mission to strengthen business links with London. During his visit he announced a number of Indian investment deals for London, including 400 new tech jobs for the capital. He also revealed plans to open a new Bengaluru office for his promotional agency, London & Partners, to provide further support for Indian businesses looking to expand in London.
According to the India Meets Britain Tracker 2018, there are approximately 800 Indian companies operating in the UK, with combined revenues of £46.4 billion (£47.5 billion in 2017) and employing 104,932 people. The bilateral trade between the two countries totalled £15.4bn. More than half of all Indian companies investing in the UK (53%) choosing London. This is up from 44% in 2017 and 39% in 2016. In 2015, only a quarter of Indian investors chose London.
London attracted 32% of all Indian FDI to the UK from 2007–2017, with 2017 being the highest year yet for Indian FDI inflows to London.
India is the third largest contributor of foreign direct investment (FDI) into London and has almost doubled since 2011. Over a third of the FDI from India originates from three cities: Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi.
The IE20 programme helped some earlier winners setup or expand in London. Indian medical technology company, RX Prism, opened a £2 million innovation hub in London, while Chennai-based analytics firm LatentView and Curadev Pharma expanded their operations in London as a part of the IE20 initiative.
According to London & Partners, 2017 was a record year for foreign direct investment from India into London. Indian technology companies like Wipro and Infosys have grown significantly in London over the last ten years, accounting for over half of all businesses investing in the capital. The UK exported £358 million of digital services to India in 2015.
Some of the featured winners selected for the 2018 programme include:
Hug Innovations (Hyderabad) — Hug Innovations is a wearable tech company developing IoT platforms that allows users to complete tasks including controlling apps, electronics, VR headsets, toys and home automation using just hand gestures. The startup is also working with other companies to develop IoT solutions in personal safety, automotive, health & fitness and gaming.
Furtados School of Music (Mumbai) — FSM works with schools and other institutions to provide training in musical instruments. The company, which first raised funds from angel investors in 2014, has grown more than 1,000% since then. FSM is currently testing a mobile application to bring together people interested in learning music and music teachers.
Ittisa Digital Media services (Bengaluru) — Ittisa is a marketing technology company offering analytics, digital marketing, branding and strategy services with an emphasis on the use of technology. The company is already working with a number of Indian and global brands including Flipkart, Airtel and Vijay Bank.
Dineout (Delhi) — Dineout is a table reservation platform, operating out of 8 cities, with a listing of over 25,000 restaurants and real-time reservation enabled at over 3,500 outlets across the country. Currently Dineout seats more than 500,000 diners per month across its partner restaurants.
Chai Point (Bengaluru) — Chai Point, an organized Chai retailer. Beginning with the first pilot store set up in Bangalore in April 2010, Chai Point has rapidly grown over time, now selling over 300,000 cups of tea a day. The company is coming out with a subscription model which will be offered through leading aggregators.
“The India Emerging 20 programme has opened doors for our business and helped us with our international expansion plans. Through our involvement in the programme, we have gained valuable insight into the UK market and understood how best we can bring future focused talent solutions to build the workforces of tomorrow. London and Bengaluru share strengths in technology and innovation and London was the natural choice for us to grow our business in Europe,” said Arjun Pratap, Founder & CEO EdGE Networks and 2017 IE20 winner.
“London and India boast of a healthy trading relationship. London and other metro cities in India have thriving startup ecosystems and it is important that Indian and UK businesses explore these opportunities across cities. London & Partners launched their proprietary property — India Emerging 20 with BDO as the nominating partner and has successfully completed 3 years of identifying high growth Indian companies, ready to scale into international markets,” said Arbinder Chatwal, Partner and Head of India Advisory Services team at BDO.
Last month during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the UK, the UK government announced a UK-India Tech Partnership to identify and pair businesses, venture capital, universities and others to provide access routes to markets for British and Indian entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises.
“The UK and India are global leaders in technology and two of the world’s most innovative countries. The new UK-India Tech Partnership will be testimony to that. A pilot soon to be launched In Karnataka will focus on augmented and virtual reality, advanced materials and artificial intelligence — technologies which a number of our winners today are already deploying. The Partnership will seek to: develop a network of people and programmes to facilitate ideas; provide access routes for British and Indian entrepreneurs and SMEs to each other’s markets; and encourage broader innovation and productivity by helping businesses in the UK and India to develop closer relationships,” added Dominic McAllister.
“It is now 16 years since I moved from India to London. This great city welcomed me with open arms and thanks to its entrepreneurial spirit helped me to launch two successful businesses. It is great news that these 20 companies will now be able to experience the same welcoming business environment that I enjoyed,” said Rajesh Agrawal, Deputy Mayor for Business. “London is the best city in the world in which to grow a business, so I am delighted that these exciting companies will now be able to explore opportunities to expand here in the capital.”
The technology sector accounted for 53% of the foreign direct investment into London from India between Jan 2011-Sep 2017 while life-sciences and healthcare accounted for 7 percent.
The UK is the second largest destination market for Indian FDI (behind only the US) — attracting 320 projects, with capital investment £10bn and 38,827 jobs created.
Total trade in goods and services between the UK and India was £18 billion in 2017, a 15% increase from 2016. UK exports to India, led by machinery and mechanical appliances, form a large part of this and also increased significantly by 14.9%.
