BSE STARTUPS PLATFORM STEPS UP EFFORTS TO GET FIRMS LISTED

BSE Ltd, Asia’s oldest stock exchange, has attracted India’s top companies but has failed to woo startups. Only two companies —Alphalogic Techsys and Transpact Enterprises—are listed on the exchange’s startups platform, nine months after the platform was launched. This has prompted BSE to step up efforts to include more companies.

Several meetings have been held with startup founders and investors, said Ajay Thakur, head of BSE SME and Startups.

Memorandums of understanding have been signed with HDFC Bank and the governments of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and West Bengal to create awareness about the platform and the benefits of listing on it, Thakur added.

“A few companies will soon sign on to the startups platform,” he said, adding that the startups index will be created after 15-20 companies get listed. “The Startups platform provides an opportunity for investors to make an entry into a company, and they also have a ready-made platform to exit. Depending on how well the stock performs, startups can after two years, migrate to the main board of the stock exchange,” Thakur said.

For instance, the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, IIT Bombay-incubated medtech startup Transpact Enterprises, which designs and manufactures therapeutic devices for differently-abled people, believes the listing has been worthwhile. Aslam Khan, founder and chief mentor of Transpact, said the company was able to raise around ₹1.3 crore from their recent initial public offering. Transpact, which was founded in 2013, had earlier raised an angel round and a seed funding of ₹25 lakh from IIT-Bombay.