Bangalore

Bangalore gets a unit to nurture startup companies

 

 

 

BANGALORE: To consolidate Bangalore's position as the country's startup capital, the Karnataka government has partnered with Nasscom to launch India's first Hackcelerator within a new 50,000-sqft Startup Warehouse that is expected to be operational in November.

A hackcelerator is a combination of hackathon and accelerator. It acts like a test lab for entrepreneurs to come together to find partners, and explore, test and refine their ideas before they launch a startup.

The new facility will also house labs that startups can use to work on projects related to internet-of-things (IoT), mobility and design. Sources in the government said Cisco and Intel may support the labs with equipment, technology and funds. The government is also trying to pull in a top IT services company to support the technology incubation centre.

The Startup Warehouse, a co-working space for entrepreneurs established a year ago, is currently an 8,000- sqft facility with 28 startups. This will be expanded to 50,000 sqft to accommodate 500 entrepreneurs. Selected startups can take the space for six months at a nominal rent per seat.

"We will invest Rs 4-5 crore in the new facility. We are talking to three or four large private companies to become co-sponsors of the hackcelerator," said Srivatsa Krishna, the state's IT secretary.

Ravi Gururaj, chairman of the Nasscom Product Council, said the new warehouse would be a template for the nation. "The new facility can house over 100 startups. Industry partners will mentor and nurture the startups, execute skill development workshops, and assign executives-in-residence to provide specialized skills in areas of product development, mobile and internet-of-things," said Ravi Gururaj, chairman of the Nasscom Product Council.

Globally, hackcelerators conduct large scale hackathons for developers to embrace new tools and demonstrate their skills to the community. San Francisco-based Angel Hack is a hackcelerator that conducts over 100 hackathons every year. More recently, incubator space 1776 and management consultancy firm Booz Allen Hamilton came together to host a hackcelerator series.

In tier-2 cities

To promote entrepreneurship in tier-2 cities, the government has launched new incubation centres in nine engineering colleges. The colleges have been selected based on the World Bank's Technical Education Improvement Programme report. Some of the colleges are National Institute of Engineering in Mysore, Siddaganga Institute of Technology in Tumkur and Basaveshwara College of Engineering in Bagalkot.

"These centres will receive state support of up to Rs 40 lakh per college over a period of three years. All the incubation centres will be networked to exchange experiences and learn from one another," said S R Patil, minister for IT. The state government is also conducting hackathons in Bagalkot, Tumkur and Dharwad. "About 30 students per college will participate in the event. The selected team will receive funding of up to Rs 3 lakh to develop the idea," Patil said. Karnataka's IT Skill Development Society has entered into an MoU with Microsoft to train 240 students on its various certification programmes.