Patents and sustainable innovation in Indian Startups

Patents help in protecting research and development efforts in an organisation. They are known to increase valuation during merger and acquisition and act as signal for investors to make investment decisions in startups. Despite the value that patents add to a firm, vast majority of patents remain unutilised across organisations. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing is gaining popularity and investors are increasingly using ESG analysis to make investments. In this paper, we study patents filed by Indian startups which pertain to one or more ESG factors, that is, environmental, social, and governance factors. The startups selected were externally funded startups. We believe that startups having patents pertaining to ESG factors will foster sustainable innovation, responsible investments, and better patent utilisation in startups.