Technology giant Cisco on Thursday announced the introduction of LaunchPad, an initiative to accelerate startups, mentor and help them create solutions.
Speaking at the launch, Amit Phadnis, President, Engineering and India Site Leader, said, “We have an unprecedented opportunity to digitise the next three billion people in one-third the time it took to connect the first three billion.”
LaunchPad looks at both early- and late-stage startups across various verticals. “There will be a selection process to identify and shortlist startups. We are looking to mentor 5-8 startups initially for 4-6 months to build a relationship with startup community, and we will continue our association with them till they come up with solutions,” Phadnis told Deccan Herald.
Startups can work at Cisco’s Bengaluru campus and make use of various technologies. “The Bengaluru campus is one of the best facilities of Cisco worldwide. The company has already committed $280 million for the startup community in India,” he added.
Through LaunchPad, startups will get an opportunity to work on solving business-relevant problems by catering to use cases that are identified and validated by Cisco go-to-market teams.
The company also announced its collaboration with Tech Mahindra to develop digital solutions for the Indian electric utilities. Both the companies will work with select startups and developers to accelerate digitisation of the power sector.
L Ravichandran, President and COO, Tech Mahindra, said that they are working closely with Cisco to bring the power of digitisation to millions of people.
