India’s startup ecosystem and what it means for Caribbean MSME growth

Zahra Henry, ZLH Careers

Zahra Henry, Director and Founder of ZLH Careers, at the ITEC Training Program on Entrepreneurships in India

From Kingston, Jamaica to Hyderabad, India, the entrepreneurial contexts may look very different at first glance. Yet many of the underlying questions are surprisingly familiar.

How do startups move beyond ideas into sustainable growth? What role should institutions play in supporting entrepreneurs? How do ecosystems make innovation more practical rather than aspirational? And what does meaningful international collaboration actually look like when businesses and institutions are trying to expand their reach?

These were some of the questions that followed me through India in August 2025, where I represented Jamaica as one of two delegates selected for the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme on entrepreneurship, hosted by the Government of India through the Ministry of External Affairs and the MCR Human Resource Development Institute of Telangana.

For two weeks in Hyderabad, I engaged with India’s entrepreneurship ecosystem across academic institutions, startup infrastructure, women’s enterprise groups, cultural and creative industries, and conversations with peers from across the Global South. For ZLH, this kind of exposure matters not simply because it expands networks, but because comparative ecosystem literacy sharpens how we think about growth, institutional support, international opportunity, and what translates meaningfully across regions.

Startups thrive where support systems exist

India’s startup ecosystem did not feel accidental. That may sound obvious, but it is worth stating clearly. Strong entrepreneurial ecosystems rarely emerge because founders are individually ambitious or markets happen to be dynamic. They are often shaped by deliberate infrastructure, institutional support, ecosystem coordination, and visible pathways for entrepreneurs to move from concept to execution.

At T-Hub, widely recognised as one of the world’s largest startup incubators, that infrastructure was visible in practical terms. Entrepreneurs were not simply working independently with ambition and ideas. They were operating within a structured environment that connected founders to mentorship, investors, technical support, networks, and growth pathways. That distinction matters.

Across the Caribbean, conversations about entrepreneurship often celebrate entrepreneurial spirit, resilience, or innovation potential. Those qualities matter, but ambition alone does not create scalable businesses. Strategic support structures make a significant difference, which is closely connected to what we explore in our article on strategic planning for business growth.

Funding matters, but it is not the whole growth story

One of the easier assumptions in entrepreneurship conversations is that access to funding is the primary constraint. Funding is important. But ecosystem design often tells a more complex story. Across the India programme, what became increasingly clear was that entrepreneurship support was not framed narrowly around capital. Training, incubation, institutional visibility, community support, mentorship, and structured technical development all formed part of the wider growth environment.

That matters for Caribbean MSMEs.

In regional conversations, businesses are often encouraged to pursue funding, grants, or investment, sometimes before the operational foundations for growth are fully in place. Financing can accelerate growth, but it cannot substitute for execution capacity, systems, positioning, or strategic clarity.

Strong MSME support ecosystems tend to recognise that distinction.

What structured enterprise support actually looks like

Some of the most interesting lessons came not from high-growth startup spaces, but from women’s enterprise ecosystems. Visits with organisations such as the Association of Lady Entrepreneurs (ALEAP) and SAFA Society offered a useful reminder that entrepreneurship support becomes much more meaningful when it is structured, visible, and integrated into wider systems rather than treated as isolated encouragement. These were not simply community groups in the informal sense. They represented organised support structures that combined skills development, production capability, enterprise support, and economic participation in ways that directly shaped livelihoods and market access.

For regions like the Caribbean, where women-led MSMEs play a significant role in economic life, that raises useful questions about what enterprise support looks like beyond short-term training programmes or fragmented interventions.

Creativity needs commercial infrastructure too

India also offered a useful reminder that creativity becomes economically powerful when infrastructure exists around it. Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad and the largest film studio in the world, demonstrated what happens when creative industries are supported at scale, with serious commercial infrastructure, production ecosystems, and global market orientation.

That lesson resonates beyond India.

In the Caribbean, creativity is often recognised as cultural value, but commercial infrastructure for creative economies still varies significantly across markets. We touched on some of these wider questions in our exploration of Trinidad Carnival’s festival economy and creative industries ecosystem.

Entering new markets: easy to say, harder to do

International expansion is often discussed in broad aspirational terms, but market expansion usually becomes far more complex in practice.

Doing business across regions requires more than enthusiasm, introductions, or high-level interest. It requires understanding how ecosystems function locally, where decision-making sits, what institutions matter, how markets are structured, and where partnerships make strategic sense.

That was part of what made the India experience useful. It offered exposure not just to entrepreneurial activity, but to the broader environment shaping that activity across public institutions, academic ecosystems, business infrastructure, grassroots enterprise groups, and cultural industries.

That kind of ecosystem awareness increasingly matters for businesses exploring international growth, export opportunities, or regional expansion. Similar questions surfaced in our review of Caribbean trade and investment forums, where competitiveness, partnerships, and market positioning repeatedly pointed back to readiness and strategic clarity.

International relationships open doors, but strategy determines what happens next

One of the most valuable aspects of the programme was the peer exchange itself.

With participants from 21 countries across Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, the experience reinforced something important: international relationships create possibility, but possibility alone does not create outcomes.

Shared histories, cultural familiarity, Global South solidarity, or warm bilateral relationships may create openings. Translating those openings into meaningful partnerships, business opportunities, knowledge exchange, or sustained collaboration requires much more intentional strategy.

This is where international exposure becomes commercially and institutionally useful, not simply interesting. For ZLH, experiences like this strengthen how we think about ecosystem design, international collaboration, entrepreneurship support, and market positioning across contexts. If your business, institution, or industry association is exploring international collaboration, ecosystem development, entrepreneurship support, or market expansion and would value a strategic conversation, you’re welcome to book a discussion here.