Beyond Bengaluru: Karnataka launches Mysuru seed fund, technology centre

The Karnataka government on March 17 launched three programmes aimed at Mysuru and other parts of the southern state to expand the information technology (IT) and startup ecosystem beyond the capital city of Bengaluru.

As part of the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM), IT-BT minister CN Ashwath Narayan launched  Mysuru Cluster Seed Fund (MCSF), Mysuru Global Technology Centre (MGTC) and Karnataka Accelerator Network (KAN).

"We are encouraging more start-ups and other firms to invest beyond Bengaluru," Narayan said.

Moneycontrol wrote on March 15 that the state government wanted startups to look beyond Bengaluru and was planning incentives to encourage them to move to other districts of the southern state.

The Rs 25-crore Mysuru cluster seed fund is expected to benefit 70-80 startups in that region. Separately, MGTC, a 2 lakh sqf/3,000-seater plug-and-play office infrastructure on the lines of ITPB in the Whitefield area of Bengaluru was also inaugurated.

KDEM officials said they had received letters of interest from nine companies so far.

Narayan said the availability of world-class office infrastructure, access to easier capital and a business accelerator would help generate more than 1,000 jobs a year from these 70-80 start-ups alone.

The minister also announced that the 26th edition of the Bengaluru Tech Summit would be held from November 29, 2023 to December 1, 2023.

Spawning startups

Karnataka Accelerator Network is expected to address the challenges involved in the startup journey.

"The stakeholders who will be partnering in the KAN initiative would be (not for profit) three accelerators across Bengaluru and three potential accelerators in Mysuru, Mangaluru and Hubballi- Dharwad- Belagavi clusters," KDEM chairman BV Naidu said.

The objective was to boost the startup ecosystem and create a mentor-mentee network between accelerators and incubators in Bengaluru and Beyond Bengaluru regions, he said.

KAN would support and nurture 306 startups developing products, services, solutions, etc over a period of three years, EV Ramana Reddy, additional chief secretary, IT-BT, said.