Electropreneur Park to expand nationally: IESA

First electropreneur park setup on Delhi University at Rs 21 cr currently incubating 10 startups

The department of lectronics and information technology (DeitY) in association with the Indian electronics and semiconductor association and STPI is planning to expand its 'Electropreneur Park' program to help more startups in the electronics and semiconductor space reach some maturity.

The first electropreneur park which was setup at the Delhi University with an investment of Rs 21 crore is currently incubating 10 startups that were selected from 168 entries.

Through the setting up of more such facilities, they hope hardware and IoT startups which often fall under the radar of venture capitalists are able to raise more funds.

"There are tremendous problems and we're getting four incubators added, two of which will be in Bengaluru. The larger challenge is to help them bring their ideas into shape and help them discover customers, it's too early to worry about exits," said Arvind Tiwari, Chairman of the IoT Forum, TIE.

Startups that become a part of the incubation program, will get access to manufacturing facilities and a small amount of funding to sustain themselves for a year. Post this, the startups will have to find external funding or get customers in order to sustain their businesses.

 

The move is in line with DietY's goal to provide monetary assistance and expertise to 50 startups over the next five years, helping boost India's expertise in the hardware, electronics, IoT and semiconductor space.

"Activity is happening at three levels. One is the maker revolution, for which you have maker spaces. The second level is proper incubators where startups are given space and access to manufacturing facilities. The third is more specialised for people working on specialised topics," added Tiwari.

He estimates that there could be around 40 maker spaces, with a lot of participation from colleges across India, by the end of the year. Work is also ongoing to setup secondary incubator facilities at Bangalore and Coimbatore, while a tertiary unit will be setup by the government of India for which Nasscom is the program manager.

With home/workspace automation and sensory led innovations drawing a lot of attention globally, the Indian government is trying to aid startups in the space grow. Hardware and electronics have been two key regions where startups have found it hard to raise venture capital funding, with investors turning a blind eye to anything but consumer facing e-commerce companies.