Startups Must Follow Good Corporate Governance, Says G20 Sherpa Kant

New Delhi, Apr 4 (PTI) Startups need to emphasise good corporate governance and follow self-regulation if they want to become big corporations, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said on Friday.

Citing an example of Infosys, he said, it was once a startup which has gone on to become a huge monolithic IT company because they were able to bring in good corporate governance.

Speaking at Startup Mahakumbh, he said self-regulation will have to be critical and for self-regulation to happen, there must be ethical governance, good audits, and good financial management.

Meanwhile, Kant launched India Fintech Foundation (IFF), the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for the fintech industry, also known as the SRO-Fintech Development Foundation (SROFT-DF).

The proposed SRO aims to bridge the regulatory gap by enabling innovation while ensuring responsible conduct and consumer protection. The organisation already has nearly 100 members on board.

With a diverse and growing membership base of nearly 100 players across sub-sectors such as digital lending, payments, wealthtech, insurtech, regtech, account aggregation, and emerging technologies like DeFi and Web3, India Fintech Foundation aims to foster innovation while ensuring compliance, standardisation, and consumer protection.

SROs play a crucial role in setting industry standards, and they enforce compliance and act as a bridge between regulators and fintech companies, he added.

"If innovation is not responsible, it could result in accidents. Therefore, it's important that whatever innovation is taking place becomes responsible and SRO plays a very important role in that," said former RBI Deputy Governor and Chairman of India Fintech Foundation NS Viswanathan.

IFF's current board includes a diverse group of founders from across fintech sub-sectors, including Jitendra Gupta (Founder of Jupiter), Sujith Narayanan (Co-founder at Fi Money), Harshvardhan Lunia (Founder of LendingKart), Anurag Sinha (Co-founder at OneCard), Srikanth Rajagopalan (CEO of Perfios Account Aggregation Services), along with former senior officials from RBI, SIDBI, SBI, and CERSAI.

On the launch, IFF CEO Sai Sudha said it is focused on five key goals, including building a robust ecosystem across the entire fintech value chain; fostering innovation across all fintech sub-sectors; and creating a credible, transparent, and collaborative industry voice.