Bangalore among top 8 technology innovation clusters
03:29
BANGALORE: India's IT capital figures among eight largest technology innovation clusters in a global rating by MIT Technology Review, a magazine on innovation brought out by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US.
The other seven innovation clusters are Silicon Valley, Boston, Israel, Beijing, and three government-supported ventures — Tech City in London, Paris-Saclay in France, and Skolkovo Innovation City, near Moscow.
Innovation clusters are places with dense webs of interconnected technology companies, customers, and suppliers. The magazine looks at four key factors that improve a cluster's chance of flourishing — strong IP protection, liberal immigration laws, entrepreneurial culture, and good weather.
Silicon Valley is seen to be the benchmark, and its technology cluster is strong in all four respects. Bangalore's strongest point is its weather, which helps foster a culture of optimism and openness. The magazine notes Bangalore received $300 million in venture funding in 2012.
In elite league
Silicon Valley tops in all parameters considered for rating — strong IP protection, liberal immigration laws, entrepreneurial culture, good weather Bangalore's strongest point is its weather, which helps foster business culture of optimism and openness India's IT capital has received over $300 million in venture funding in 2012
'Bangalore city has the right depth of technical talent'
Mukund Mohan, chief executive officer of Microsoft Ventures in India, says Bangalore has the right mix of talent, great entrepreneurs and a thriving ecosystem that nurtures innovation.
"It has great support from a growing list of venture investors, early-seed investors and smart capital. The city has the right depth of technical talent to scale an organization. The city has many grassroots networking organizations for startups. All these bring together a dynamic, consistent and ever-learning startup ecosystem that makes it easy for new entrepreneurs to take the plunge," he said.
In November 2012, global research firm Startup Genome had ranked Bangalore among 20 influential startup ecosystems around the world. Bangalore had scored its best rank in Mindset Index, measuring entrepreneurs' high risk appetite, strong work ethic and ability to overcome challenges faced by startups.
Ravi Gururaj, chairman of Nasscom's product council, says there is no question that Bangalore has innovated tremendously. "Most people tend to think of products when they think of innovation. But there is also innovation in business processes and models — that's the kind of innovation Bangalore has done for the global software industry. Now, we have a high-potential product innovation ecosystem emerging, with a lot of folks feeding off each other, and the emergence of investors and successful entrepreneurs," he says.
Bangalore's close link with Silicon Valley is a major contributor to its innovation culture. AnMIT Technology Review article quotes AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Information, as saying: "Where global technology centres have successfully developed — as in Bangalore — it's been because people 'marinated' in Silicon Valley and then returned home to start companies."
Sanjay Anandram, venture partner with Seedfund, notes that Bangalore's entrepreneurial culture can be seen in the activities of networking organizations like Open Coffee Club, Barcamps, Startup Saturday, and Mobile Monday.
VentureIntelligence estimates that startup incubators in Bangalore can incubate and mentor up to 60 companies a year, almost twice the number Delhi does.
According to Anandram, Bangalore is still capital starved and there is very little local money available to entrepreneurs. "The exit scenario for investors is abysmally poor, and policies are not favourable to entrepreneurs," he says.
Skill city
Global research firm Startup Genome had in November last year, ranked Bangalore among 20 influential startup ecosystems around the world Bangalore had scored its best rank in Mindset Index, measuring entrepreneurs' high risk appetite, strong work ethic and ability to overcome challenges faced by startup companies.
The other seven innovation clusters are Silicon Valley, Boston, Israel, Beijing, and three government-supported ventures — Tech City in London, Paris-Saclay in France, and Skolkovo Innovation City, near Moscow.
Innovation clusters are places with dense webs of interconnected technology companies, customers, and suppliers. The magazine looks at four key factors that improve a cluster's chance of flourishing — strong IP protection, liberal immigration laws, entrepreneurial culture, and good weather.
Silicon Valley is seen to be the benchmark, and its technology cluster is strong in all four respects. Bangalore's strongest point is its weather, which helps foster a culture of optimism and openness. The magazine notes Bangalore received $300 million in venture funding in 2012.
In elite league
Silicon Valley tops in all parameters considered for rating — strong IP protection, liberal immigration laws, entrepreneurial culture, good weather Bangalore's strongest point is its weather, which helps foster business culture of optimism and openness India's IT capital has received over $300 million in venture funding in 2012
'Bangalore city has the right depth of technical talent'
Mukund Mohan, chief executive officer of Microsoft Ventures in India, says Bangalore has the right mix of talent, great entrepreneurs and a thriving ecosystem that nurtures innovation.
"It has great support from a growing list of venture investors, early-seed investors and smart capital. The city has the right depth of technical talent to scale an organization. The city has many grassroots networking organizations for startups. All these bring together a dynamic, consistent and ever-learning startup ecosystem that makes it easy for new entrepreneurs to take the plunge," he said.
In November 2012, global research firm Startup Genome had ranked Bangalore among 20 influential startup ecosystems around the world. Bangalore had scored its best rank in Mindset Index, measuring entrepreneurs' high risk appetite, strong work ethic and ability to overcome challenges faced by startups.
Ravi Gururaj, chairman of Nasscom's product council, says there is no question that Bangalore has innovated tremendously. "Most people tend to think of products when they think of innovation. But there is also innovation in business processes and models — that's the kind of innovation Bangalore has done for the global software industry. Now, we have a high-potential product innovation ecosystem emerging, with a lot of folks feeding off each other, and the emergence of investors and successful entrepreneurs," he says.
Bangalore's close link with Silicon Valley is a major contributor to its innovation culture. AnMIT Technology Review article quotes AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Information, as saying: "Where global technology centres have successfully developed — as in Bangalore — it's been because people 'marinated' in Silicon Valley and then returned home to start companies."
Sanjay Anandram, venture partner with Seedfund, notes that Bangalore's entrepreneurial culture can be seen in the activities of networking organizations like Open Coffee Club, Barcamps, Startup Saturday, and Mobile Monday.
VentureIntelligence estimates that startup incubators in Bangalore can incubate and mentor up to 60 companies a year, almost twice the number Delhi does.
According to Anandram, Bangalore is still capital starved and there is very little local money available to entrepreneurs. "The exit scenario for investors is abysmally poor, and policies are not favourable to entrepreneurs," he says.
Skill city
Global research firm Startup Genome had in November last year, ranked Bangalore among 20 influential startup ecosystems around the world Bangalore had scored its best rank in Mindset Index, measuring entrepreneurs' high risk appetite, strong work ethic and ability to overcome challenges faced by startup companies.
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