Start-ups lead the path in offering solutions to SMEs

Whether it’s in the form of exchange programmes between SMEs of various economies, foreign investment into Indian SMEs through specific channels, or some of India’s start-ups innovating to help make SMEs more efficient, the landscape for the small business owner is turning promising.

Over the next few years, India should strategically focus on making its small and medium businesses globally relevant and competitive if it wants to meet its export targets.

The ecosystem seems to be ready — catering to India’s small and medium enterprises is making strong business sense to large corporations and start-ups alike. But with start-ups proving to be on top of the innovation game, there’s a good chance they may be the ones leading the change.

A number of start-up solutions/platforms are enabling SMEs to do better, faster business. In late 2014, the Central government set a target of $900-billion exports from India, and there is scope for SMEs to contribute here.

However, according to Connect2India’s founder, Pawan Gupta, in spite of the country’s SME strength, less than one million of them export their products.

The Connect2India platform helps Indian and overseas businesses find each other and connect for trade.

On why he set up the firm, Gupta says: “To me, what was missing was global awareness and low digital presence among SMEs, which made them less globally visible and competitive.”

NowFloats, a start-up that helps SMEs get discovered by prospective customers, is invested in how customers interact.

Ronak Kumar Samantray, co-founder, NowFloats, says: “SMEs that will survive over the next five years will be the ones that offer niche products — be wherever the consumer is involved in the process. This is not only about ‘buy now’, but also about how conversation can be a vehicle to drive commerce.”

Power2SME, a platform that enables SMEs to transact cost-effectively, recently allied with the Foundation for MSME Clusters (FMC) to conduct a series of SME Transformation Camps across the country, specifically to help SMEs adopt lean manufacturing and new technology.

R Narayan, founder and CEO, says: “Our first camp was held in Pune in August 2016; we then had a series of these events in multiple regions on a quarterly basis. We were able to reach out to 700-800 SMEs. This year, we plan to perform these camps at a bigger scale.”

Founder of LookUp, Deepak Ravindran, has always considered his platform a “Google Offline”. If users were searching for groceries, ordering home delivery or making price enquiries, LookUp was designed to do all of that in one app and help merchants in the vicinity serve customers better.

After being acquired by NowFloats in 2016, the conversational commerce start-up is all set to continue down the path of “more machines, less humans”. Ravindran shares: “We’re now able to automate some responses, and LookUp will connect with PoS terminals to find products. But we won’t rely entirely on message. We want to be in the voice market too, even as Google Home and Alexa become popular across geographies.”

Samantray of NowFloats adds: “The NowFloats on-boarding model for merchants will be via conversation so that there are no more forms for small business owners to fill.”

With more than 5.5 million listed businesses, Connect2India reflects in “top Google rankings for thousands of trade-related keywords”. Gupta says: “If we could get even 10,000 more SMEs to export, India’s exports will be higher.”

Against that potential, start-ups, with their ability to innovate rapidly, seem more ready to serve Indian SMEs than India’s larger technology enterprises.

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