Flexeye launches incubator called HyperCat for startups in IoT space

The 8,000 sq ft centre in Hyderabad will accommodate 40 Indian startups that are focusing on IoT and smart city technologies

Flexeye, an UK-based privately-held software and solutions provider, on Wednesday opened HyperCat, an accelerator and incubation centre in Hyderabad, to nurture Indian startups in the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities space.

HyperCat, a not-for-profit consortium involving 700 international businesses including British Telecom, Cisco, Flexeye, KPMG, Symantec and WSP, is led by Flexeye and supported by the UK government.

HyperCat has set a standard to drive secure and interoperable IoT. The HyperCat specification allows IoT clients to discover what data an IoT server has available. With HyperCat, which is built on the currently-available web standards, developers can write applications that will work across many servers.

A recent McKinsey report estimates that this interoperability is essential to unlock 40 per cent of the $11 trillion future value of IoT.

"The 8,000 sq ft HyperCat centre will accommodate 40 Indian startups which are focusing on IoT and smart city technologies," Flexeye India managing director Srinivas Chilukuri, told mediapersons.

Justin Anderson, chief executive officer of Flexeye and chair of HyperCat, said the UK government had been proactive in encouraging IoT and smart city technologies and had committed an investment of 40 million British Pound (GBP) to this space, of which HyperCat was a key initiative.

"The investment in the Hyderabad accelerator and incubation centre, however, has come directly from Flexeye's balance sheet," he said, adding that the centre would also provide seed funding to the startups, with the typical hand-holding period being three to four months. KPMG backs Flexeye to the tune of 3 million GBP.

According to Andrew McAllister, British deputy high commissioner to India, the new HyperCat centre in Hyderabad would foster collaboration between the UK and Indian businesses in the arena of IoT.

"It leverages the existing UK government funding in HyperCat and supporting the agreement between the UK and Indian governments to jointly develop three Indian smart cities," he said.