Nasscom aims "10,000 Start-ups" in next ten years

The National Association of Software & Services (NASSCOM) today announced the launch of "10,000 Start-ups", a program aimed at incubating, funding and supporting 10,000 technology start-ups in India over the next ten years.

The program is supported by Indian Angel Network and supported by Google, Microsoft and Verisign and will aim at fostering entrepreneurship, building entrepreneurial capabilities and providing robust early stage support through incubation, mentorship and angel funding.

The program will focus on 3 core pillars to achieve the above goals.

First, evangelize and create awareness about technology entrepreneurship as a preferred career option. Second, engage deeply with aspiring entrepreneurs through digital/social channels and start-up support groups to create entrepreneurial capability at scale. Third, incubate and facilitate funding of 10,000 start-ups through partnerships with some of the leading incubators/accelerators and angel networks in India.

10,000 Start-ups will also extend support to incubators / funding partners in the form of industry connects and co-working infrastructure and a start-up kit consisting of hosting credits and other technology and business tools valued over $25,000.

Key partners already committed to the 10,000 Start-up program include: Consulting partner (Zinnov); Angel partners (Chennai Angels, Harvard Angels, Hyderabad Angels, Indian Angel Network, Mumbai Angels, and Silicon Valley Bank);Accelerators (91Springboards, IAN Incubator, Kyron, Microsoft

Accelerator, Tlabs, The Hatch, The Morpheus, Venture Nursery); and Outreach partners (Headstart, NextBigWhat, and Yourstory).

Som Mittal, president NASSCOM, said "10,000 Start-ups aims to catalyze the technology start-up ecosystem by 5X and create a significant national impact on employment, GDP, innovation and entrepreneurship indices. This is one of the largest initiatives that NASSCOM is undertaking and will be vital to realize the industry vision of USD 300 billion by 2020".

Saurabh Srivastava, founder, Indian Angel Network said, "IAN is very excited about the 10,000 Startups initiative and hopes to bring all angel investors together to provide the most key ingredient to make this program a success - seed capital and mentoring to convert ideas into enterprises from people who have "been there, done that."

Rajan Anandan, VP and managing director, Google India said "At Google we are very excited about the possibilities that India represents and are committed to extend all the support to make this initiative a roaring success. We will work very closely with NASSCOM and all the players in the ecosystem to boost the technology innovation rate in India."

Bhaskar Pramanik, chairman, Microsoft India said "We will continue to work with the startup ecosystem of India, both on our own, and in partnership with industry bodies like NASSCOM. We believe that disruptive technologies and opportunities in the Indian market supported by this collaborative initiative will propel technology entrepreneurship in India to the next level."