India has emerged as the third largest and a vibrant startup ecosystem in the world after the US and China, taking the culture of entrepreneurship forward. According to Launching The State Of Indian Startup Ecosystem Report 2021, the Indian startup ecosystem is home to 38,815 active startups and totalling more than 60,000 registered startups.
The ecosystem that is fuelling Indian startups, has immense technology capability and innovative solutions, giving India an unparalleled lead in the world to solve local as well as global problems. Indian startups are bravely making the journey towards creating a global footprint.
BHive is one such organisation that aims to help bolster this ecosystem, by helping startups from India to make that all-important journey. It is a collaboration between the City of Brampton and the Toronto Business Development Centre. BHive’s Startup Visa Program, leverages the Canadian Start-up Visa (SUV) program offers incoming foreign startups with guidance they require to establish and scale their business in Canada and North America, which are important global markets.
Recently, BHive has powered about 20 startups through this program. Art&Found is an online platform for artists to showcase, share and sell their work and to empower the artist community. Aditya Mehta, Founder CEO, Art&Found says, “We were very clear on the SUV program and Brampton’s commitment to building an innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem with the Brampton Innovation District. We have received tremendous support right from answering queries regarding our application to clearing doubts on due diligence, help on grants and funding opportunities with promptness, efficiency and clarity while motivating us at every milestone.”
SkaaS, a HR services startup aims to host a ‘skills marketplace’ with its AI-powered technologies and virtual lab environments and a whole suite of solutions for automating tech recruitment end-to-end. J K Paul, Director SkaaS says, “We are extremely confident and excited to set foot in Brampton and take SkaaS to the North American market and scale it to become a global company. SkaaS (Skills as a Service) has built a platform for technical assessment and recruitment envisioned to be the AWS for skills (an end-to-end platform). We intend to hit the US$ one million mark in revenues, within the first year of starting our operations at Brampton.”
“At BHive we are helping startups from India to make that all-important journey to become global entrepreneurs. Along the way we are also growing the next wave of startups in Canada by bringing high potential founders from around the world. We know how challenging moving across borders can be and we offer the most appropriate supports in place as our startups’ transition. We closely partner with Indian and internationally recognised ecosystems, to navigate markets for opportunities as well as support these founders right from the start of their journey,” said Vikram Khurana, Chief Executive Officer, BHive.