UK to help Indian firms scale up
Hyderabad: The UK government’s Global Entrepreneur Programme (GEP) was established in 2005 to help the world’s best entrepreneurs including those from India to go international by creating their global headquarters in the UK with the support of a team of dealmakers. Once in the UK, the programme supports these businesses to scale-up, globalise and create high-value jobs.
Alpesh Patel, dealmaker, UK Department for International Trade, tells Telangana Today new initiatives taken up under the GEP and the sectors where Indian businesses have a potential to go global.
Fintech initiative
We have launched a fintech competition as part of our GEP to attract global talent including entrepreneurs from India. We are looking at companies that are high-growth oriented and driving innovative businesses with global ambition. Leading venture capitalists in the UK will evaluate the potential of Indian businesses who will apply for the competition. Applications will be received until the end of July, and by the third week of August, the list of finalists will be ready, and the Indian companies will be integrated into the programme from thereon, who will receive a range of benefits.
Scaling businesses
We are seeing many entries from Indian entrepreneurs already. Instead of choosing one winner, we will have multiple finalists shortlisted. We want to choose outstanding companies that want to scale up their business by making the UK their global base. Networking, ease of doing business, strategic advice, and access to market, capital and business development are some of the benefits Indian companies will get through this initiative.
Prospects for fintech
Pre-Covid, sectors such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity were seeing tremendous growth. Pandemic has accelerated growth of fintech companies and platforms, which are attracting a lot of investor interest. There is a lot of capital available from the UK-based investors who are looking for attractive returns. This trend is set to continue in the near future as there are a lot of innovations happening in the fintech space, and many from India.
Scope to collaborate
We would like to showcase the strengths of the Indian entrepreneurs in the fintech space, which will also allow room for collaborating among themselves as they seek to create global presence, bringing together their synergies, to solve market problems.
Potential sectors
Though the finance sector is seeing a boom for which we have launched the fintech competition, there could be opportunities to roll out dedicated programmes from the UK Department for International Trade for healthtech, cleantech and cybersecurity in future as well, as Indian companies have shown their potential for growth in all these sectors.
Success stories
Companies such as Carbon Clean Solutions, Builder.ai and Hyderabad-based Voxta have been benefited by the UK’s GEP. Voxta offers voice biometrics, speech recognition and dialogue management solutions. The UK, because of its access to the Europe and US markets, remains a key location for Indian companies to set up bases.
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