A warehouse for start-ups in Bangalore

Karnataka has set up a warehouse for start-ups in this tech hub in partnership with IT industry body Nasscom to mentor, nurture and fund technology entrepreneurs, an official said Tuesday.

"The first-ever 'Start-Up Warehouse NextGen' in India has been set up with the state government investing Rs.5 crore to incubate new companies in six months across industry verticals," state IT secretary Srivatsa Krishna told reporters.

Located in Diamond District in the city centre, the 50,000-square feet warehouse can house over 100 start-ups with a dozen employees in each of them.

"It will provide co-working space on pay-per-use daily/weekly basis for entrepreneurs and a well-equipped community events space, an IoT (Internet of Things) lab, a design lab, a mobile experience lab and hotelling office space for investors," Krishna said.

When ready by this year-end, it will be one of the largest multi-disciplinary technology incubation facilities in Asia and the largest across India's top five metros.

It will also have the country's first Hackcelerator, a combination of a Hackthon and an Accelerator.

"The Hackcelerator will function as a mind lab for about 500 whizkids to churn out ideas and incubate start-ups, with Nasscom and global and Indian IT majors partnering the programme."

"Bangalore has emerged as the world's second largest technology hub after Silicon Valley in the US with its rich and diverse talent pool, ideal eco-system consisting of 400-plus research and design and innovation centres and a pro-active government support," state IT, biotech, science and technology minister S.R Patil said.

The state government and Nasscom had on a pilot basis set up a facility in the same place a year ago where 28 start-ups were incubated with about 100 jobs for $1 million (Rs.6 crore). Six of these are serving the global market.