P&G to invest in Indian startups

Procter & Gamble Co (P&G), an US-based consumer goods giant, has set up a fund to invest in Indian startups, according to an official statement on October 11. The Indian unit of P&G has set up the fund, named ‘Innovation Sourcing Fund’, with a corpus of several million dollars. Apart from the funding, P&G has launched a programme known as vGROW to accelerate innovation through joint initiatives. vGROW will search and partner with grassroot ventures, up-and-coming entrepreneurs as well as medium to large enterprises to develop industry solutions and business opportunities.

P&G also organised a vGROW External Business Partner Summit for entrepreneurs to present their ideas. The company is also looking to launch an online platform ‘P&G Hackathon’ which is expected to create an ecosystem of solutions, involving a vast array of stakeholders, while creating lucrative business opportunities. With the ventures, the FMCG giant is hoping to tap into India’s rich entrepreneurial base, while gaining further access into the nation’s fast growing consumer market. Currently it operates five plants and nine contracted manufacturing operations in the country.

The Indian home-grown startups have competed well against global giants with overall investment in the PE/VC space in India touching an all-time high in 2017. Indian Government is doing its bit as well towards building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country, through the Startup India initiative. Launched in 2015, the programme focuses on startups as the cornerstone of the strategy for employment generation and development of the economy.  More than 11,000 startups have been recognized across the country, and 129 have been funded so far under the Startup India Initiative.