British PM Theresa May lauds Bengaluru startups prowess

Influenced by the tech prowess of Indian startups, British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday exhorted the need for deep technology partnership between the countries, especially with Bengaluru, and wooed them to set up offices in her country.

May got an overview of Indian startups through a panel discussion and a roundtable interaction with the selected five startups at India’s Silicon Valley, organised by the British High Commission.

According to Nasscom Product Council Chairman Ravi Gururaj, who participated in both meetings, British Prime Minister pointed out that there is a lot of opportunities for Indian startups to interact with the UK ecosystem.

“The UK is a launch pad for startups to Europe. Also, she pointed out that the UK companies can also come to Bengaluru and avail opportunities in the Indian market.

Besides collaborating in deep tech research with academia and startups, she wanted to explore the ways to link Bengaluru to the startup cluster in the UK,” he said.

The startups that met May included Radiowalla Chief Executive Officer Anil Srivatsa, English Dost Founder Ram Kakkad, Cardiac Design Labs Founder and CEO Anand Madanagopal, Data Glen CTO and Co-founder Tanuja Ganu, and SAHA Fund CEO Ankita Vashishtha.

Talking to DH after meeting the PM, Vashishtha said it was really a great focussed interaction, as she reached out to startups, investors, corporates and policymakers.
“She started off with the need for strong bonding with India, especially with Bengaluru,” Vashishtha said, adding that she highlighted that the UK wants to invest in innovation and technology. She also pointed out that the UK is the sixth best destination in ease of doing business. “Obviously, post-Brexit, they want to highlight the importance of the UK and want others to explore it,” Vashishtha said.

She also said that the PM wanted many Indian businesses to invest there and vice-versa. “She highlighted the importance of sending more focussed delegation to each countries and make investment a reality,”  she said.

Madanagopal said it was interesting that she took time from all the people gathered and decided to spend time with the startups.

“Her acknowledgment and appreciation of the work done by startups here gives great brand value for the startup eco system of Bengaluru,” he said. Madanagopal also pointed out that the event was an interesting one with the government, senior executives from the industry and startups together.

According to  Srivatsa, England is reaching out to India when Brexit is right on their minds and they are losing on the probable collaboration with the other European Union nations. “India seems to be a great partner to them. Her reach-out was to ensure that the investors over here come out and invest in England. That was I think was her primary objective,” he said.

Sharing her experience with DH, DataGlen Inc Co-Founder and CTO Tanuja (Bapat) Ganu said it was definitely a pleasure to meet British PM.

“Her visit to Bengaluru and specifically meeting the delegation of SMEs shows the commitment from UK to increase business collaboration with India. There are a lot of Indian start-ups,  including DataGlen, who work in bringing innovations in energy, healthcare, transportation etc. which are applicable to Indian as well as UK markets,” she said.

Ganu  also pointed out that systematic approach for this Indo-UK collaboration would help Indian start-ups to explore opportunities in UK market in terms of investors, partners and customers.

“It would also help Indian start-up eco-system to learn from the experiences and success stories of UK ecosystem,” adds she.

Dream come true for Dynamatic CEO
It is really a dream come true for Udayant Malhoutra when British Prime Minister Theresa May visited Dynamatic Technologies as part of her visit to Bengaluru on Tuesday.
“I am really overwhelmed by her decision to visit Dynamatic Technologies. It is really a net result of our focus on innovation-led manufacturing where latest technologies are converging,” he said. Malhoutra also pointed out that  India can be a manufacturing hub provided it has a global delivery model.