GeM portal hopes to get more startups onboard: official
The Union government’s procurement portal, GeM (Government eMarketplace) is looking to encourage more and more startups and small and micro enterprises to list themselves as sellers.
Since the platform’s inception, almost 23,000 startups have come onboard, Ajit Chavan, Additional CEO, GeM said in his address at the Startup Mahakumbh event.
“GeM portal has been one of the earliest successful experiment of the government of India in the digital landscape. From just about ₹422 crore in 2016, we expect to cross ₹4lakh croremark in terms of GMV (gross merchandise value) this year.
Small enterprises
“We have 1.5 lakh buyers across the three tiers of the governmentCentral, State and local governments. We have a base of 21 lakh sellers which includes a large chunk of small and micro enterprises, underserved seller groups such as women and SC and ST entreprenuers among others,” Mr. Chavan stated at the event.
GeM Sahay 2.0
Encouraging startups to leverage on the opportunities offered by the public procurement portal, he said, “Just last year, startups fulfilled 84,000 orders worth ₹9,725 crore on the GeM portal.”
Stating the GeM portal offered easy market linkages to startups exempting them from certain requirements to list as sellers, Mr. Chavan said that the GeM will soon be introducing a revamped, mobilebased lending platform called GeM Sahay 2.0.
Collateral-free loans
This initiative endeavours to offer collateral free loans of up to ₹10 lakh to startups and entrepreneurs at interest rates of up to 10% and will be approved within 10 minutes.
Mr. Chavan also urged startups to leverage on GeM’s ‘Startup Runway’ initiative, which gives startups direct visibility with the buyers of the public procurement portal.
(The writer is with The Hindu businessline)