Karnataka govt, Nasscom to set up new startup warehouse

Bangalore: The government of Karnataka and information technology (IT) industry lobby group Nasscom is launching a series of new initiatives to help shore up the local startup and technology ecosystem in the state, including plans to build what will be one of Asia’s largest startup warehouses and also the country’s first “hack-celerator,” a combination of a hackathon-like programme and an accelerator.

A new “Internet of Things” lab and a mobile development lab will also be launched as part of this initiative. The Internet of Things lab, the first such incubator in India, will incubate startups that are attempting to build new products around the Internet of Things, which refers to the idea of everyday objects having internet connectivity.

The state government has also initiated an ambitious plan to ensure public access to wi-fi all across Bangalore in about a year—making it the first metropolitan city in India with such facilities.

The new initiatives have been launched with the idea that it will serve as a template for other states across the country to replicate and also bolster Bangalore’s reputation as one of the world’s premier startup ecosystems, executives involved with the planning of the initiatives said.

“Our competition is not with neighbouring states; our competition is with the Silicon Valley,” Karnataka IT minister S.R. Patil told reporters at a press conference.

The Karnataka government is investing about Rs.4-5 crore to build the 50,000 square-feet startup warehouse, which may house well over 200 startups and will be located in the Diamond District locality of Bangalore, another government official said. The warehouse is expected to be up and running by November.

In April, Mint had reported that the Karnataka government and Nasscom were working on a new initiative to build a start-up warehouse that would incubate at least 25-30 startups and also a new “hack-celerator” programme.

The initiative to build the new warehouse, which will have about 500 seats, comes a year after the Karnataka government and Nasscom had built the first state-level startup warehouse, which had attracted about $1 million of investments.

“(The warehouse) will basically become a one-stop shop for angels, VCs, startups, etc,” said Ravi Gururaj, chairman of Nasscom’s product council. “We are taking similar such steps in other states but this is the first state where we’re taking multiple steps. And this will serve as a template for others to follow.”

The Karnataka government also said that nine engineering colleges in Karnataka will receive funding of up to Rs.40 crore to set up incubation centers that will help nurture student entrepreneurship—part of an initiative to ensure that other cities and towns outside Bangalore also benefit from government technology programmes.

The nine colleges are located in towns and cities as Mysore, Belgaum and Shimoga. Apart from the incubation centres, the Karnataka government will also conduct hackathons for student teams from these nine colleges in September and October. Each selected team will receive upto Rs.3 lakh to develop and scale up their ideas.

The state IT department is also partnering with e-commerce firms such as Amazon and Snapdeal to help bring small and medium-sized enterprises online by using their marketplace platforms.

Separately on Tuesday, aerospace and transportation equipment maker Honeywell has also proposed to invest about Rs.1,400 crore to build a new facility in Bangalore. The investment plan from Honeywell, which has so far pumped in about Rs.1,600 crore in Bangalore, is yet to be cleared by the state government.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.