Chennai, NFAPost: Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an organisation under MeitY that is working for the creation of startup ecosystem in the country, has signed six different MoUs with Bank of Baroda, Yes Bank, Mathworks, Yourstory, Freshworks and Pontaq (the Fund Manager selected for Next Generation Incubation Scheme).
The MoUs are intended to promote entrepreneurship and create a nurturing ecosystem for STPI Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in emerging technology areas such as digital and mobile payments, blockchain, IoT, big data, and other emerging technologies.
In order to deliver an all-embracing service to the incubated start-ups, STPI/STPINEXT has been constantly exploring associations with various partners from industry, academia, financial institutions, advisory bodies and experts to leverage their services, knowledge and expertise for bringing comprehensiveness to the service portfolio of the CoEs.
Speaking on the occasion, STPI Director General & Chairman STPI NEXT Omkar Rai highlighted it is a momentous occasion that the organisation is signing MoUs and forging partnership with our esteemed partners, and this will further catalyse the startup momentum.
“STPI CoEs initiative is not an isolated one; it’s part of a larger startup program that MeitY has envisioned to accelerate startup growth through MeitY Startup Hub (MSH),” said Omkar Rai.
STPI Senior Director Shri Devesh Tyagi said STPI and STPINEXT are trying to create a startup ecosystem to address the problems of startups.
“We are attracting ideas, promoting innovation & research, and giving them a platform to translate their ideas into market-ready products. The concept of chief mentors, who are industry stalwarts & entrepreneurs, driving the success of startups differentiates us from other incubators,” said Shri Devesh Tyagi.
STPI Director and MD & CEO, STPINEXT Shri Subodh Sachan during the Exchange of MoUs & Announcement of Partnerships said STPI has 177 startups on platform from already launched 13 STPI CoEs and NGIS. “Signing of MoUs is a key step towards building a robust startup ecosystem in the country,” said Subodh Sachan.
On this occasion, Mathworks Country Manager Shri Sunil Motwani said signing of MoU with STPI & STPINEXT is an appropriate feat for further expanding technology reach with engineering institutions, industries, and startups for scaling the skilling of professionals through MathWorks tools like MATLAB.
Yes Bank Transaction Banking Group Country Head Shri Ajay Rajan said Yes Bank has always been at the forefront of the digital revolution as one of its key evangelists and practitioners, fostering path breaking technology led innovations and guiding start-ups across their entire life cycle.
“It shall be our joint mission to use this platform for co-creating solutions that will help consumers of financial services, across India and Bharat to adapt to digital services in a seamless, intuitive and ubiquitous manner. The fresh perspective brought through this collaboration will bolster the overall start-up ecosystem,” said Ajay Rajan.
Bank of Baroda Chief Digital Officer Shri Akhil Handa accentuated this is a momentous occasion for the bank to partner with STPI & STPINEXT and further fuel the growth of startup ecosystem.
“We can accelerate the growth by encouraging more young entrepreneurs joining the ecosystem. I can see the network of STPI CoEs pan-India and I am sure with this partnership will boost the startup ecosystem,” said Akhil Handa.
Brief About MoU Partners:
The Mathworks Inc, is a technology-oriented company which develops mathematical computing software for engineers and scientists. MathWorks will offer one year of free access of its software tools (MATLAB, Simulink and 90+ add-on products), MATLAB, Simulink and Deep Learning onramps, online self-paced tutorials, 50% off Training Credits usable for all on-line and public classes. It will also offer promotion opportunities upon mutual interest to publish user stories, technical articles, case studies, startup blogs and LinkedIn promotions.
YES Bank with their Knowledge Advisory Services will be offering services in the four areas – YES BANK’s API Hub Integration with Fintech CoE, Outreach Partner to STPI’s Smart City challenge (as and when conducted), Knowledge Partner to the STPI CoEs in EVs, Blockchain and Smart Agri, Industry Partner to NGIS in particular as well as to STPINEXT overall.
Bank of Baroda (BoB) will be providing complete banking solution to STPI/STPINEXT Startups and give access to startups related scheme/benefit of the Bank. BoB shall make available all banking product and services along with Startup Kit (which includes cloud credits, mentorship etc.). BoB will create awareness about initiatives/schemes of STPI among Startup community of the bank. STPI/STPINEXT shall explore ways of engaging at the level of domain specific CoEs to promote innovation in various technologies/sectors particularly FinTech, Blockchain and Agriculture.
Pontaq is a Cross Border Innovation Fund investing in early-stage technology businesses across UK and India. They have been identified as Fund Manager for managing the total corpus of INR 120 Crores under NGIS. The initial fund of INR 60 Cr of STPI/STPINEXT will be invested into 300 select start-ups (pre-revenue stage with demonstrable POC and /or demonstrating strong business proposal).
Pontaq will raise the matching corpus of INR 60 Cr and will be invested as follow-on investment into start-ups (estimated to be 150 out of initially invested 300) which successfully demonstrate possibilities of commercial success with a market ready product.
