BRICS nations officially backed a startup incubator network and proposed an innovation fund at the 18th New Delhi Summit. This move is a direct push to bypass Western tech dominance and fund home-grown innovation across the Global South. For Indian founders, this opens up a new, albeit nascent, funding pipeline and market access beyond traditional routes.
How We Got Here
The New Delhi Declaration, adopted at the 18th BRICS Summit in September, formalises discussions around strengthening tech and entrepreneurship ties. This builds on prior talks to enhance cooperation, notably on Digital Public Infrastructure, across member countries.
The Numbers
- The proposed BRICS Startup Innovation Fund aims to catalyse startups specifically for innovation-led growth.
- The declaration also called for a digital public infrastructure repository and pilot projects for DPI-led digital transformation among members.
- A virtual platform for BRICS youth startups is proposed to help them network and exchange ideas across member countries.
- The BRICS Payment Task Force is actively studying interoperability between payment systems and the use of local currencies for trade settlements.
- The Jaipur Consensus was welcomed, which aims to study an invoice discounting mechanism for MSMEs within BRICS to unlock working capital.
What Happens Next
🇮🇳 Why This Matters for India
For deep-tech founders in Hyderabad working on AI or quantum, this creates potential demand and funding avenues from new markets beyond the traditional US/EU focus.
The Take
Everyone's focused on the fund, but the real play here is the explicit commitment to a BRICS-wide DPI repository. That's a direct challenge to Western tech stacks, creating a potential parallel digital economy for the Global South.
Source:
YourStory ↗