‘We need to aim higher’: boAt co-founder Aman Gupta backs Piyush Goyal’s remark on Indian startups

NEW DELHI: Consumer electronics firm boAt’s co-founder Aman Gupta has backed Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on the need for Indian startups to aim higher and start working on bigger solutions.

Drawing a parallel with China, the Union minister last Thursday said Indian startups are working on food delivery apps while Chinese counterparts are working on electric mobility, battery technology and other future technologies. The Commerce Minister made these remarks at the just-concluded Startup Mahakumbh.

The minister had suggested that India needs to raise the bar and help prepare for the future of the nation. Goyal supplemented that he had no issue with the startups working on food delivery services but he wants to see more entrepreneurs work on serious problem-solving.

boAt Co-founder Gupta, who was in attendance at the Startup Mahakumbh during Piyush Goyal’s address, took to social media platform to post his comments.

It’s not every day that the government asks founders to dream bigger.

But at Startup Mahakumbh, that’s exactly what happened. I was there. I heard the full speech. Hon. Minister @PiyushGoyal Ji isn’t against founders. He believes in us.His point was simple: India has come far,… pic.twitter.com/bA4ontAz1M

— Aman Gupta (@amangupta0303) April 6, 2025

“It’s not every day that the government asks founders to dream bigger. But at Startup Mahakumbh, that’s exactly what happened. I was there. I heard the full speech. Minister Piyush Goyal isn’t against founders. He believes in us. His point was simple: India has come far, but to lead the world…we need to aim higher”, Gupta wrote.

“It reminded me of something I say often on Shark Tank India. If you want to build a world-class product, you must know your competition. That applies to India too. Benchmarking against China, the US, or anyone else isn’t weakness. It’s smart strategy. We’re already the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world and the fastest-growing major economy”, the startup leader said in his X post.

But if India wants to be No.1, Gupta said, it needs to also go deep into AI, deeptech, climate, mobility, infra. “We need LLMs (large language models) and innovation stacks that compete on global standards. And to make that happen, we also need scientific risk, ,ore patient capital, founder-policymaker collaboration and a long-term national vision”, he added in his X post.

India has about than 1.6 lakh startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). India has the third largest startup ecosystem. On January 16, 2025, India marked nine years of Startup India, a flagship initiative that began in 2016. (ANI)