The Beyond Bengaluru initiative of the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) is DRIVING THE NEXT by contributing to Government of Karnataka’s existing efforts of moving technology and innovation to the Clusters beyond Bengaluru. Bangalore has already proven as the investment hub of leading companies. Now KDEM is putting efforts to enhance the ecosystem of creating beyond Bengaluru clusters. Efforts by KDEM have led to enhancing the ecosystem in these clusters by building a strong industry connect, resulting in an increase in demand from IT/GCC/ESDM companies for workforce in these clusters.
KDEM unveils driving the next strategy for emerging clusters. Post covid has created a new normal of working from anywhere. Now companies are looking at how to address the new opportunities presented by the post covid era. Driving the next strategy presents with a spoke shore strategy, which will cater to this new normal and help industries to retain the talent, grow the talent and expand their operations across emerging clusters. Through this KDEM is also looking at nurturing the talent for future needs of the industry. Aim is to have 5000 new companies and startups under the spoke shore strategy, to create 10Lakh employment and USD 10Bn of exports from these clusters.
Today, at BTS 2021, KDEM has launched “Beyond Bengaluru Startup Grid” exclusively to connect startups across the clusters of Beyond Bengaluru. The aim is to provide network, facilitate market access, Mentor access and investment access as forum for the startups to interact and grow among themselves. KDEM through its industry anchors will enable and extend all the support for its Beyond Bengaluru Startup Grid members. Nearly 40+ startups from emerging clusters like Mangalore, Mysuru and Hubali were felicitated for becoming the part of this grid.
“We are quite excited to see the Momentum is building for the “Beyond Bangalore” mission and Industry is responding well to expand to these locations as well encourage the statups to grow in these clusters to reach our aspirational goal of 5000 start from these clusters. StartpGrid is step in that direction” said BV Naidu, Chairman KDEM.
“The time is right to look at Beyond Bangaluru and Karnataka Startup vision Group will be working with KDEM to implement the strategies under “Beyond Bangalore Startupgrid” said Prashanth Prakash, Chairman, Karnataka Startup Vision Group.
Dr C N Ashwathnarayan, Hon’ble minister for Higher Education; IT & BT, Science & Technology; Skill Development, Entrepreneurship & Livelihood while inaugurating in his address mentioned efforts of government of Karnataka in setting up of KDEM and Beyond Bengaluru strategy. In his words during the leadership conclave, he addressed about Beyond Bengaluru and the efforts of the KDEM, where early results have been seen. With companies of the like of IBM (employment 250) & Glowtouch (employment 300) setting up their Global Delivery Center in Mysuru; companies like I-Merit (employment 150) being grounded for its operations in Hubbali, creation of employment opportunities in the first six months has been validating the Beyond Bengaluru commitment of driving the next. In his words he lauded that “Beyond Bengaluru initiative is performing beyond expectations” Startup Grid is next big move to boost innovations and growth in the clusters.
Industry clusters driven by the industry anchors has been very active in driving the Beyond Bengaluru. In Mangalore, Prashanth Shenoy, CTO & Co-Founder Unicourt who represents the Mangaluru industry cluster expressed ‘Mangaluru being a cradle to 7 banking institutions, is poised to develop as a Fintech hub. KDEM is working towards encouraging & promoting the home-grown start-ups from the region towards scalability’.
In Mysore, Sanjay Srinivasmurthy and Krishnadas Unni, while showing the early results of IBM and Glowtouch in Mysore asserted ‘As GCCs are now leveraging Spoke Shore Strategy and setting up a spoke office in Beyond Bengaluru clusters, KDEM is working towards attracting 5 GCCs in the cluster by next 6 months.
Rohit Bhat the emerging leader of unicorns in the Beyond Bengaluru who sold his company at USD 100Bn+ said “Startups from Beyond Bengaluru have all the potential to become unicorns with the robust ecosystem of nurturing and mentorship”.
Vivek Pawar, who early established Sankalp and now leads the Hubli cluster has been looking into creating new startups under the rural innovations and bringing in companies like iMerit has said ‘Rural Innovation, AI, and EduTech are the focus areas that will drive growth for the Hubbali-Dharwad-Belgaum region’.
Sanjeev Gupta, MD & CEO Lahari opined that “These strategies and Beyond Bengaluru Start up Grid are the go-to plan for Karnataka to provide enormous growth and employment opportunities in these clusters. In essence Beyond Bengaluru will provide Karnataka an edge for not only retaining the top position in the country but also growing faster in attracting investments into the states in emerging clusters. “
