A visit by a delegation of Indian angel investors, paid for by the Canadian government, is the latest example of the importance Canada places on expanding business ties with India. In the first programme of its kind, Canada recently hosted seven Indians, drawn from the incubator and venture capital sector across the country, on an Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Mission that took the team to Montreal, Toronto and Waterloo, the city where Canadian technology company BlackBerry is headquartered.
"This mission aimed to raise awareness of opportunities in India for Canadian start-ups, provide an overview of the Indian innovation ecosystem to Canadian stakeholders, as well as to encourage collaboration between Indian and Canadian start-ups and entrepreneurs, and between support and acceleration structures," said a spokesman for the Canadian high commission in New Delhi.
The team toured innovation hubs in the three cities, and met with Canadian angel groups, influential incubators and startup accelerators as well as legal experts. The visit was timed to coincide with the annual Communitech Leadership Conference in Waterloo, a tech community gathering where speakers this year included BlackBerry's President and CEO Thorsten Heins, and Patrick Pichette, Chief Financial Officer of Google.
Puneet Vatsayan, Co-Founder and Chairman of The Hatch, a leading incubator for startups, was a member of the delegation. The Chandigarh-based Vatsayan, who is also a board member of the Angel Investors Consortium, said several factors are behind the drive to increase interaction between start-up ecosystems in India and Canada. "First is, Canada has discovered India. Second is, entrepreneurship has become cool in India, which was not the case earlier," he said.
While the Canadian government is looking to enable an environment that would provide a soft landing spot for young Canadian start-ups in India, Vatsayan says there is also a high appetite among Indian angel groups to do deals outside India, and particularly in Canada, given its reputation as a nursery for technology and a large pool of venture ready entrepreneurs. This is true for many mature markets, but Canada has the added advantage of being undervalued. "If I went to Silicon Valley and saw a good team and a good product, that team may be valued at $10 million. But the same thing would be valued at $1 million, maybe $2 million or $3 million in Canada. So, as an investor, that piques my interest," says Vatsayan.
Prashant Gulati, an angel investor and serial entrepreneur based in Dubai and with sizeable investments in India, was also in Toronto around the same time as the Indian team, to explore opportunities in Canada. The Canadian government was doing a lot to encourage start-ups, he observed, having evaluated half a dozen proposals in a visit lasting less than 48 hours. Gulati, who is also a co-founder of The Hatch, said the time was right for the two countries to work together. "It looks like Canada and India are made for each other because Canada is very immigrant-friendly and a lot of Indians or people of Indian origin have chosen Canada as their place of work," he said.
The Canadian high commission in India started planning the mission early this year. The programme had been in the works after last November's visit to India by Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper. During the visit, Canada's Minister for International Trade Ed Fast had inaugurated the Canada pavilion at The Hatch's incubator in Chandigarh.
The Harper government has consistently promoted the expansion of trade ties with India. The two countries are currently negotiating a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, scheduled to be finalised by the end of this year. The Canadian finance minister's annual Budget speech on March 21 singled out the agreement as one of the priorities for his government's trade agenda.
While neither side expects to see immediate results or deals from the first Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Mission, Vatsayan said the interest level was high among Indian investors. According to the spokesman of Canada's high commission in India, among the objectives of the mission was to "create understanding of the start-up ecosystem in each country, and increase the likelihood of cross-border projects and collaboration". Mission accomplished, says Vatsayan: "Are they looking at Puneet Vatsayan cutting a check of $50,000 or even $100,000? I don't think so. What they are more concerned with is that all of us go back - and we're very influential in our own ecosystems - and that's when action starts."
