Startup Village forays into Gujarat through MoU with Gujarat Technological University

Signing up a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat Technological University (GTU), Kochi's Startup Village has now forayed into Gujarat. Through its tie-up with the varsity, the initiative now looks to bring in its incubation expertise to Gujarat.

"Startup Village is bringing the incubation expertise to Gujarat in partnership with GTU and offer courses that will result in practical outcomes for aspiring student entrepreneurs and startups recognised through a certificate course. We will look to set up a Startup Village base in the long run in the state," said Pranav Suresh, chief executive officer of Startup Village.

As part of the MoU, Startup Village will look to assist student startups in Gujarat with its pool of mentors as well as incubation facilities. The initiative intends to use its digital platform to help startups in the state connect with mentors based out of other parts of the country as well as Silicon Valley.

Apart from Startup Village, GTU also signed MoUs with financial institutions and educational institutions like Gujarat Venture Finance Limited (GVFL) and MICA Incubator to boost student startups.

"GTU will play the role of locating and identifying potential startups from among the student projects. While the role of Startup Village and MICA Incubator will be that of mentoring and incubation, GVFL will assist in bringing in capital at the right time," said Akshai Aggarwal, vice chancellor of GTU said.

Talking about the finance, Harish Pattnaik, managing director of GVFL said that the company has created a Rs 200 crore fund meant for startups which has recently been registered with SEBI and is now in the process of raising funds for the same.

"We will continue to invest in startups that have reached a certain stage of growth even as we look for commitments for raising finance for the startup fund. We will achieve the financial closure in one year," Pattnaik added.