Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Jan 17: Mangaluru is set to be a key beneficiary in Karnataka’s Startup Policy for 2025–2030, with the city included in the first phase of the "Beyond Bengaluru Cluster Seed Fund", part of a wider Rs 570.68 crore initiative aimed at creating 25,000 new startups by 2030, including at least 10,000 outside the state capital Bengaluru, officials said.
The policy, formally launched by the state government on Friday, also unveiled two major funding programmes: ‘ELEVATE NxT’, a deeptech flagship with an allocation of Rs 150 crore, and the Rs 75-crore "Beyond Bengaluru Cluster Seed Fund", specifically designed to boost startups in non-metro innovation hubs such as Mangaluru, Mysuru and Hubballi-Dharwad.
“Deep tech will define the next decade of economic growth, and Karnataka intends to lead that transition,” said IT and Biotechnology minister Priyank Kharge at a felicitation event in Bengaluru, held as part of National Startup Month.
Anchored on seven pillars —funding, incubation infrastructure, skill development, market access, international collaboration, inclusion, and regulatory facilitation—the policy also includes the ‘Government First’ initiative, allowing eligible startups to pilot and sell solutions directly to the Karnataka government as their first customer.
Under 'ELEVATE NxT', launched through the state’s Local Economy Accelerator Program (LEAP), startups across India in deeptech areas will receive grant-in-aid support of up to Rs 1 crore per startup via a milestone-based model. Focus sectors include AI and machine learning, Internet of Things, blockchain, robotics, biotech, quantum computing, cybersecurity, green energy, and space technology.
The "Beyond Bengaluru Cluster Seed Fund", with a total corpus of ?75 crore, includes Rs 20 crore from the state government, with the remainder mobilised from institutional and private investors. Phase I will focus on Mangaluru, Mysuru, and Hubballi-Dharwad, with additional clusters planned later.
The fund will make equity and equity-linked investments starting at ?50 lakh per startup, capped at 10% of the fund’s investable corpus per investment, in accordance with market regulations. Eligible companies must be government-registered startups in sectors including IT, electronics and semiconductors, biotechnology, and animation and gaming.
The fund will be managed by the Karnataka Asset Management Company, in collaboration with the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission, with the state expecting it to spur job creation, exports, and startup density beyond Bengaluru.
At the event, the government also recognised 146 startups under the 'ELEVATE 2025' programme, committing total grants of Rs 38.85 crore. Among the winners were 103 startups under 'ELEVATE 2025', 33 under 'ELEVATE Unnati', and 10 under the 'ELEVATE Minorities' category.