The Tech Entrepreneurs Association of Mumbai (TEAM) met Maharashtra's deputy chief minister (CM) Devendra Fadnavis on November 7 to offer their suggestions on ways to build ‘Brand Mumbai’, a conducive place for the city’s start-ups.

TEAM is a collaborative body representing more than 30 Mumbai-based start-ups. This includes the founders of Nykaa, PharmEasy, upGrad, Upstox, Good Glamm Group, Zepto, Pepperfry, Infibeam Avenues, Pine Labs, BillDesk, CleverTap, LogiNext, Rebel Foods and others. The organisation aims to build Mumbai as the start-up hub of India.

The association is likely to be chaired by Harsh Jain, co-founder of Dream 11 and Aakrit Vaish, co-founder of Haptik.

Mumbai, India's financial capital, has tremendous potential when it comes to developing a start-up ecosystem. It currently houses 18 among 108 unicorns in the country, which is the third highest after Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR.

However, the city has not received recognition as the hub for Indian start-ups primarily because of the high cost of living, according to a Moneycontrol report.

Talking about the meeting, Vaish said, "Deputy CM Fadnavis is very passionate about the topic of Mumbai tech sector. He showed great enthusiasm toward building the city into a credible start-up hub. It is in line with the government's vision of Mumbai 2.0, which is a coming together of all the Infra development between coastal road, metro and trans harbor link."

He added that all stakeholders will work with Fadnavis' office to chart out an action plan to develop the tech ecosystem in the city.

"We discussed how we can improve Mumbai's tech ecosystem, how to effectively communicate brand Mumbai,  policies to put in place and how to create a happening community," added Vishwas Patel, director of Infibeam Avenues, who participated in the meeting. "The Deputy CM said that TEAM should ideate, while the government will help execute these initiatives."