Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an organisation under MeitY has been working for creation of start-up ecosystem in the country and creating 28 Centres of Excellence in emerging technologies. STPI 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 & create a nurturing ecosystem for STPI CoEs in areas such as digital and mobile payments, blockchain, IoT, big data, and other emerging technologies.
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Participants at STPI MoU signing
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 Dr. Omkar Rai, DG, STPI & Chairman, STPINEXT highlighted, "It's a momentous occasion that we are signing MoUs & forging partnership with our esteemed partners, and this will further catalyse the start-up momentum. STPI CoEs initiative is not an isolated one; it's part of a larger start-up program that MeitY has envisioned to accelerate start-up growth through MeitY Start-up Hub (MSH)."
Shri Devesh Tyagi, Senior Director, STPI articulated, "STPI & STPINEXT are trying to create a start-up ecosystem to address the problems of start-ups. 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 start-ups differentiates us from other incubators."
"We have 177 start-ups on our platform from already launched 13 STPI CoEs and NGIS. Signing of MoUs is a key step towards building a robust start-up ecosystem in the country," cited Shri Subodh Sachan, Director, STPI and MD & CEO, STPINEXT during the Exchange of MoUs & Announcement of Partnerships.
On this occasion Shri Sunil Motwani, Country Manager, Mathworks expressed, "Signing of MoU with STPI & STPINEXT is an appropriate feat for further expanding our technology reach with engineering institutions, industries, and start-ups for scaling the skilling of professionals through MathWorks tools like MATLAB."
Shri Ajay Rajan, Country Head, Transaction Banking Group, YES Bank 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."
Shri Akhil Handa, Chief Digital Officer, Bank of Baroda accentuated, "This is a momentous occasion for us to partner with STPI & STPINEXT and further fuel the growth of start-up 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 start-up ecosystem."
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 online and public classes. It will also offer promotion opportunities upon mutual interest to publish user stories, technical articles, case studies, start-up 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 Start-ups and give access to start-ups related scheme/benefit of the Bank. BoB shall make available all banking product and services along with Start-up Kit (which includes cloud credits, mentorship etc.). BoB will create awareness about initiatives/schemes of STPI among Start-up 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.
