Hyderabad: The Startup20 Engagement Group, initiated under India’s G20 Presidency in 2023, held its inception meeting in Hyderabad.

The second day of the two-day inception meeting on Sunday was addressed by Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, YourStory founder and CEO Shradha Sharma, and actor and active investor in the Indian startup ecosystem Suniel Shetty. The three addresses focused on personal stories and their journey through the startup ecosystem in India.

The Startup20 Engagement Group aims to create a global narrative for supporting startups and enabling synergies between startups, corporates, investors, innovation agencies, and other key ecosystem stakeholders.

The engagement group comprises three taskforces – Foundation & Alliance, Finance, and Inclusion & Sustainability, where delegates will come together to discuss efficient policy frameworks to promote scaling up of startups in the G20 nations.

Startup20 Chair, Dr Chintan Vaishnav launched the Startup 20X, which has also been incorporated under the Startup20 Engagement Group.

Startup20X has been launched to bring together leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, visionaries, educators, incubation professionals, women, youth, artisans, artists, activists, and others, to discuss experiences and best practices. The conferences and series of talks will enable efficient policy formulation throughout Startup20 Engagement Group and task force discussions.

Following the Startup20X launch, the delegates proceeded to round table discussions on the objectives and deliverables of each of the task forces where each participant recorded their opinions and discussion through an online form. This was followed by nominations for the international and national delegations to the three task forces. The session concluded with closing remarks from Vaishnav.

Post the networking lunch, the country representatives proceeded to a closed-door session on Startup20. This was followed by a cultural excursion tour to Hussain Sagar Lake and Golkonda Fort for the Incredible India light and sound show.