Cluster seed funds for startups in Mysuru, other tier 2 cities to boost entrepreneurship

Tier-2 cities emerging as economic drivers; KDEM facilitating creation of mature startup ecosystems in these cities. 40 companies brought to 3 clusters in last 20 months; Govt. providing ₹25 crore each for Mysuru, Mangaluru, Belagavi & Hubballi-Dharwad. UoM has important role to play in fostering ecosystem; Govt. laying emphasis on skill development. 130 startups in Mysuru, 30 with potential to grow; Cluster seed fund available.

Karnataka Digital Economy Mission CEO Sanjeev Gupta said here on Saturday that the tier-two cities were emerging as economic drivers and the startup ecosystems were set to flourish well in the days ahead.

He was speaking at the Eduskill Conference 2023 organised by the ANZ-India Business Chamber and Excelsoft on the theme of ‘’Education, Skill Development and EduTech: The evolving new triangle of opportunities’’.

Mr. Gupta said during the last 20 months almost 40 companies have been brought to the three clusters comprising Mysuru, Mangaluru, Belagavi-Hubballi, and Dharwad through the initiative of the KDEM and the aim was to increase the numbers.

He said though the startups are growing in tier 1 cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, etc, the economy of tier 2 and emerging cities like Mysuru, Mangaluru, Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad is growing and the government as an enabler, wants to facilitate the creation of a mature startup ecosystem in tier 2 cities as well.

He said the State was coming up with the concept of democratisation of entrepreneurship under which anyone can aspire to be an entrepreneur and the government would act as facilitators for which a cluster seed fund of ₹25 crore each has been dedicated to Mysuru, Mangaluru, Belagavi, and Hubballi-Dharwad cluster.

In this context he said Mysuru already had companies in the areas of edutech, healthcare, aerospace, defence, robotics and IoT etc and going forward the University of Mysore also had an important role to play in fostering the ecosystem.

Prof. N.K. Lokanath, Vice Chancellor, University of Mysore, spoke of necessary skills in the workplace and the need for upskilling, cross-skilling, and special knowledge skills. The student community would do well to choose one or two skills sets and break them into manageable goals instead of aspiring to master all of them, he added.