BENGALURU: To create a sustainable startup ecosystem in Mysuru with coworking, incubation, academic and early stage accelerator programmes, Silicon RD Ideation Labs was founded by IT professionals this year. The initiative strives to bring together the premier educational, research and professional institutions to make Mysuru a hub for startups in India. Sid Mookerji and Sophie Mookerji (founders of Software Paradigms Infotech, now called Softvision) along with senior professionals founded the startup in May this year.
The startup has signed MoUs with premier educational and research institutions in the city to promote an entrepreneurial mindset within the student community and provide them support through academic accelerator programmes.
A six-week academic accelerator programme for students will be held at Silver Spirit Technology Park, Hebbal. This programme aims to identify, nurture and mentor the potential entrepreneurs among the student community. The programme combines classroom learning along with projects that will help students to solve real-world problems. The students will get an opportunity to associate with the industry experts and may find help for funding. The early stage and academia startups can enjoy several benefits by being associated with the Silicon RD.
Apart from this programme, the startup plans to identify and accelerate the Early Stage Startups (ESS) with a viable product and who aspire to take their companies to the next level. The ESS have to undergo an intense 12-week Seed Accelerator programme which will consist of several classroom training sessions, workshops, mentoring sessions, expert connects, industry connects, and the venture capitalist connects. The ESS teams graduating from the accelerator programmes will receive seed funding, mentor support and will have an opportunity to work out of a shared community environment.
The startup will use technological tools such as cloud computing, unlimited bandwidth and advanced video conferencing facilities to allow startup companies to connect with overseas customers and partners with ease.
Sid Mookerji, CEO of Silicon RD, says: “Mysuru has the potential to become a premier startup hub in the country. Additionally, Mysuru is well placed as far as quality and cost of living are concerned and is the next obvious destination after Bengaluru as it provides access to the best academia, infrastructure, connectivity and the expat community. We are looking at this an opportunity for the best research and educational institutions in the city to come together in a synergistic manner and create an ecosystem where the best startups in the country will have a chance to thrive.”
The Silicon RD concept, idea, and objectives have been shared with select educational institutions in Mysuru, and the team has already completed multiple rounds of talks at SDMIMD, CFTRI and NIE, and other engineering institutions in Mysuru, adds Sanjay Srinivasmurthy, Head, and Director.
Silicon RD will host a networking event on August 25 for industry professionals, students, and academic institutions. A hackathon event on September 1 and 2. To register, log onto hackathon.siliconrd.com. It will also be held followed by their first accelerator programme towards the end of September. Interested would-be-entrepreneurs, as well as startup companies, can opt to attend the programme. For further details, log onto www.siliconrd.com.