Karnataka Government announces Rs 50 lakh grant for startups

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The Karnataka government announced a grant worth Rs 50 lakh for startups providing solutions for rural development in the state.

"To encourage any innovation that will be focused at rural development and well-being with a strong social impact, my department will be willing to support startups across the state with a grant of Rs 50 lakh," Social Welfare Minister Priyank Kharge said at a conference organised by Shell E4, the company's startup hub.

The hub featured a unique gathering of energy focused startups, Venture Capitalists, Energy Experts and Academia, among others, the company said. The day also served as the graduation event for Shell E4's first cohort of energy and sustainability start-ups.

Launched in 2017, Shell E4 Startup Hub aims to foster a vibrant ecosystem of energy entrepreneurs by bringing together talent, technology, capital and know-how to accelerate India's transition towards a sustainable energy future, it said.

Earlier this year, Shell selected five startups - Detect Technologies, ION Energy, IoTrek, Trashcon and Ossus Biorenewables that are working on a diverse range of solutions.

They are working on solutions including realtime pipeline monitoring, creating safer infrastructure, automating segregation of municipal solid waste and infrastructure for electric vehicles, it said.

These start-ups are successfully integrating technologies like IoT and Artificial Intelligence within their core products. Shell Companies in India Chairman Nitin Prasad said the company is committed to be a trusted partner in India's growth story through its people, partnerships and innovations.

"We will continue to evolve Shell E4 to foster solutions that can help India access more and cleaner energy and drive sustainable growth," he added. The company would continue to liaison with them through Shell's alumni network to help them further develop and deploy their technologies at a larger scale, Prasad said.

Shell E4 Startup Hub General Manager James Unterreiner said the E4 incubator invests in the most promising startups to develop early insights in critical innovations and to build alignment and commitment with companies that it likes to partner with.

The startups were offered a seed funding of $20,000 each and access to state-of-the-art testing and prototyping laboratories for product development and testing Boot camps aimed at customer discovery and improving the product, he said.