BENGALURU: The state government on Saturday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with data and insights-led firm Jupiter Meta to undertake a large-scale, founder-led research initiative aimed at strengthening and future-proofing the state’s startup ecosystem.
Under the pro bono engagement, Jupiter Meta will conduct a privacy-first, data-driven study covering 2,000 stakeholders, including startup founders, venture capitalists and students. The research aims at generating actionable insights on founder needs, ecosystem gaps, programme effectiveness and emerging opportunities across the state with a special focus on tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
Minister for Electronics, IT and Biotechnology Priyank Kharge said Karnataka’s position as India’s startup capital must be reinforced through evidence-based policymaking.
“This collaboration will help us understand founder needs across stages and regions, benchmark Karnataka against other leading ecosystems, and strengthen initiatives such as the Karnataka Booster Kit to support the next wave of startup clusters across the state,” he said.
The study will also assess the effectiveness of government initiatives in comparison with private accelerators and peer-state programmes. The key focus areas include surveying 2,000 startup founders, most of them from Karnataka, along with 100 venture capitalists and 100 students; assessing founder needs across sectors, funding levels and geographies; and identifying opportunities to attract, retain and scale startups beyond Bengaluru.
Jupiter Meta will submit a comprehensive insights report, an executive presentation, an interactive dashboard and a policy brief to support data-driven decision-making and strategic programme design.