Visakhapatnam will be developed on the model of Goa plus Bangalore to make it a leading startup hub.
During talks with Menlo Park (California) Mayor Catherine Carton, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said they were preparing a plan to showcase Visakhapatnam as the new startup hub by creating the required ecosystem to encourage entrepreneurship among students and youngsters.
The government signed MoU with MobMe Wireless Ltd of Kochi Startup Village fame on September 29, 2014 to manage Sunrise Startup Village at Rushikonda here and create 500 to 1,000 startups in the next five years and conduct 100 boot clubs at various college campuses.
With the city being chosen by the Centre for development into a smart city with the support of the United States, Ms. Catherine, who visited the city recently, expressed her complete satisfaction to explore twin city collaboration among Visakhapatnam and Menlo Park. She also explained to him on how they could make Silicon Valley near San Francisco the world’s best destination for incubation by startups with venture capital funds.
Progress
In the city’s startup village, the first in Andhra Pradesh, 20 among 50 sanctioned units have already launched their operations. Another 20 are expected to occupy space at the imposing building shortly.
“We are confident of making Visakhapatnam a startup hub. We will not only encourage the young entrepreneurs but also facilitate some of them to run billion dollar technical companies in Silicon Valley,” Kochi Startup Village co-founder Sanjay Vijaykumar told The Hindu .
As part of Innovation and Startup Policy, the government wants to create 5,000 startups across the State by 2020 by roping in several big names from the IT industry to act as mentors.
