GenNext Ventures, the venture investment management arm of Reliance Industries ltd (RIl) on Friday signed a pact with software giant Microsoft India to set up innovation hubs to offer resources to technology start-ups.
The three-year partnership to set up a pan India initiative to catalyse the country’s technology startup ecosystem was signed by RA Mashelkar, Chairman, GenNext Ventures and Board Member, RIl, and Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India.The MoU allows GenNext Ventures and Microsoft Ventures to bring together key stakeholders -— academia, students, entrepreneurs, investors, and corporates -- at the GenNext Innovation Hubs.
Microsoft Ventures will help GenNext identify, shortlist, on-board promising startups and power the accelerator programme. Microsoft Ventures will also provide these startups access to software and technology advice."At the end of the accelerator program cycle, GenNext will invest strategically and selectively in some of these IT startups," the two companies said in a joint statement.
Mashelkar said: "Technology startups, which are a key source of innovation in India, are at an inflexion point today. While the numbers have grown exponentially year on year, the industry is at a nascent stage."Microsoft India’s Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik said the initiative, called GenNext Innovation Hubs, is not aimed at generating profits but boosting entrepreneurship.
The company’s Microsoft Ventures runs an accelerator lab for entrepreneurs in Bangalore, while Reliance Industries already has its venture investing business GenNext Ventures.Entrepreneurs will have to apply for four-month long course aimed at enhancing strategic, tactical and communication skills.Officials, including GenNext Ventures’ chairman and scientist R A Mashelkar and Pramanik, at a press conference here refused to give any indication on the investments, including the size of the corpus created to invest.
"The first hub will start operations in October in Mumbai, and will be subsequently emulated across multiple cities in India," the companies said in the joint statement.The company’s Microsoft Ventures runs an accelerator lab for entrepreneurs in Bangalore, while Reliance Industries already has its venture investing business GenNext Ventures.
Entrepreneurs will have to apply for four-month long course aimed at enhancing strategic, tactical and communication skills. The programme will start from a 12,000 sq ft facilitycreated by Reliance at a facility in the satellite city of Navi Mumbai from next month, GenNext’s Managing Director John Kuruvilla said, adding, this facility will conduct two programmes of four months each every year.
Pramanik said both the partners are aiming to scale it up to eight centres nationally and the work of identifying the locations for the centres is on.Mashelkar said while RIl brings speed, scale, sustainability and domain knowledge across sectors to the partnership, Microsoft brings in the global reach and network.
To a question on helping the start-ups work around the maze of regulations, Mashelkar, who also sits on the board of RIl, said there is a need to reduce the same and he has voiced it at several fora.
Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. Microsoft Corporation (India) Private ltd is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, USA. It has had a presence in India since 1990 and currently has offices in nine cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune.
Microsoft Ventures is a global initiative to help entrepreneurs build great companies. We work with startups at every stage of maturity to provide the tools, resources, and expertise they need to succeed.