Startups, the social connection

Bengaluru's emergence as a globally renowned startup hub has triggered hopes that its young entrepreneurs will one day make the city more liveable. He

Its IT image severely dented by acute infrastructural woes, Bengaluru desperately scrambled for a face-saver. But just when the City looked destined for an abysmal collapse, its young engineers responded resoundingly. Nurtured by a hi-tech ecosystem, they turned innovators and entrepreneurs to rebrand Bengaluru as an agile Startub hub of global repute.

Yes, this dramatic makeover is yet to shake up the city’s dark underbelly. The dynamism of the startups is yet to drastically alter the Bengalurean’s everyday life. But driven by a passion to activate big ideas into workable systems, the startup entrepreneurs are getting there.

Marrying technology with innovation, social concern with functionality, they are readying for that one big collective splash. And Bengaluru is their playground, a city replete with multipleplatforms, funding and a receptive user base.

Vibrant ecosystem
Ready with a beta version of a clinical device developed to track chronic epileptic, vertigo and migraine, medical tech startup Cyclops should know why this city matters: “A very vibrant startup ecosystem, excellent pool of very talented people and a pretty good workspace support system,” says its co-founder, Niranjan Subbarao.

The ecosystem has evolved beyond engineers to include medical professionals, lawyers, artists and number crunchers. Subbarao explains, “Plenty of platforms such as TechSparks and Antar Prerana (offered by IIMB) are now open for startups to showcase their prowess. A lot of tech-based incubators and accelerators have now come up across the City.”

Graduating to the next level, startups of the likes of InnAccel have themselves turned incubators of other bright entrepreneurships. “We create our own products, medical devices. But we also incubate other startups, provide them support such as access to labs and connections with hospitals and doctors. We then take stocks in their company. When they grow, we grow,” InnAccel’s co-founder and CTO, A Vijayarajan explains the win-win strategy.

Medical innovations
InnAccel’s support could soon launch a device that accurately measures the foetal distress in pregnant mothers through a foetal ECG. People generally go for C-section since they are averse to take risks. But with this device, other safer options becomes available. Many more such devices are in the pipeline for Innaccel, a startup that launched operations in 2013!

This startup, like most in Bengaluru, had seen a huge opportunity in making medical products that the US or Europe wouldn’t have the need for. It had seen a big potential in medical equipment, 75 per cent of which are today imported. “Even now, 53 per cent of the 25 million births in India happens outside a hospital setting. Why would US make a product that suits this scenario? A lot of our problems need local innovations that are India-specific,” Vijayarajan explains.

Startup Council
Maturing fast, Innaccel has turned a funder for other startups. Bengaluru has many more such success stories with a distinct social echo. Acknowledging this huge potential for growth, the State government has now proposed to set up a Startup Council of Karnataka with a clear policy for startups.

That should be the natural followup of a policy that had triggered the IT boom and subsequent entry of global bigwigs into Bengaluru. In 1999, the State had launched the Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital Fund (Kitven). “Startup” was still an alien word in India then!

Today, the City has emerged as the world’s second fastest growing startup ecosystem. In the global list of 20 top startup hubs, Bengaluru is the only second city from Asia after Singapore. Leveraging social media to beckon the startups to incubators and startup warehouses, the State could potentially spread the boom far and wide. But Bengaluru wants them to remain socially connected.