Rajasthan, in many ways, is the home for entrepreneurs and innovative thinkers. Millions of young minds with brilliant ideas, new-age thinking and extraordinary skills are ready to take ahead the start-up drive. Leveraging this quality of the business-brains of the State, the State conceptualised an integrated startup platform called iStart, writes Elets News Network (ENN).
iStart Rajasthan is a one-of-its-kind, end-to-end startup development platform to foster innovation, create jobs and facilitate investment. The unique initiative aims to nurture entrepreneurship. It not only provides a prodigious platform to the investors but has also created a competitive environment among the youngsters working for startup initiatives. The platform also provides easy access to knowledge exchange and funding to new ideas.
- Platform Launch: August 18, 2017
- Start-ups registered so far: 700+
Services to help the Start-ups reach new heights:
- Act as a one-stop solution for Start-ups, Incubators, and VCs for ease of doing business and assessing all benefits & offers by the Government
- Help Start-ups connect with investors, accelerators, and incubators
- Helping investors, accelerators and incubators discover curated, high-potential Start-ups
- Mentoring to help Start-ups improve their chances of success
- Content, workshops, and resources to help entrepreneurs
- Help Start-ups to connect with the Government for seed funding or larger capital investments
- Provision of 500 crores by State Government for Matching funds to Start-ups; including separate provision for Women & Green IT Start-ups
Programmes under Rajasthan Startup Ecosystem
QRate: Qrate is the only startup rating mechanism in the country, accepted by all leading venture capitalists and investors. It is an assessment programme which provides a detailed report on the start-up’s potential and investment worthiness. Much like a health report from a diagnostic lab helps you identify problem areas and take steps to improve your health, the scorecard and assessment report provides start-up founders actionable insights to help them strengthen their business plan, and improve their chances of getting funded. Under the programme, boot-camps are organised to refine product, strategy, business plans, and market position of start-ups and enhance their limitations. Worth mentioning here is all start-ups in Rajasthan are Q-Rated.
Categories of QRate cards
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Signature
Student Startup Exposure Programme was implemented to create a strong entrepreneurship pipeline among the youth of Rajathan.
iStart Nest: Government of Rajasthan’s incubation centres are the only incubators in the country providing free incubation to emerging Startups. iStart Nest is designed to help start-ups gain traction through deep mentor engagement, rapid iteration cycles, and fundraising preparation. iStart Nest offers stateof- the art facilities at its incubation centre with a wide range of resources and mentoring from industry tycoons. iStart Nest works with an extensive network of investors, accelerators and mentors to help entrepreneurs launch and grow the innovative companies that are building Rajasthan’s future.
Challenge for Change: Challenge for Change is an initiative wherein organisations are provided with an opportunity to partner with the Government of Rajasthan and play an important role in empowering the State to be the Digital-sthan of the country.
The youth, working professionals and start-ups can share their innovative idea or can provide an ingenious solution for existing challenges floated by the Government and bring change that will benefit the masses. It’s a dream come true for young entrepreneurs to have direct order of up to Rs one Crore. In this one of a kind initiative, the young entrepreneurs can directly work with the Government without following the traditional tendering process. Start-ups are neither required to furnish any EMD, nor any minimum years of prior experience or minimum turnover is required.
The major objective of this initiative is to invite IT solutions for various citizen-centric services by the Government and recognising & promote the potential of the young brains.
Rajasthan Stack: Rajasthan Stack is essentially an integrated platform which offers multiple services to sort out the technology requirements of start-ups. It is a one-stop destination for all the e-governance and technological requirements for the residents of the state as well as for budding entrepreneurs. Each service, resource, application, and infrastructure offered by the Government of Rajasthan can be accessed for free. The idea is to encourage start-ups and provide them ease of doing business, thereby paving the path for a concrete startup infrastructure in the State. The platform is open for start-ups at the national level and offers a stack of APIs that would otherwise require much hassle to get access to and work through.
Bhamashah Techno Hub: Bhamashah Techno Hub is country’s largest incubation centre which will house more than 700 emerging start-ups of Rajasthan. This world-class incubation centre will be a one-stop solution for all the entrepreneurs to get amenities like free space, connectivity, easier funding, mentorship and exposure & much more.
The incubation centre does not charge any kind of fee from start-ups as well as entrepreneurs and provides free facilities unlike other incubation centres of different cities. It will be the biggest incubation centre as compared to existing operational hubs of India. Bhamashah Techno Hub will provide a complete support system to emerging entrepreneurs. From assisting them to pitch their ideas, to providing mentorship and connecting them to potential investors and venture capitalists, Bhamashah Techno Hub will act as a launching pad for innovators. This 1,50,000 sq ft of incubation space will be entirely dedicated to entrepreneurs and for their development and coordination with the world-class facilities such co-working space, connectivity, easy funding, mentoring and advisory support all under one roof.
Bhamashah Techno Fund: Bhamashah Techno Fund of Rs 500 Crores for start-ups has been introduced to give an open sky to the potential start-ups of the state. The fund would be used for start-ups of the State for their growth and all-round development and to levitate the start-up community of Rajasthan to the highest pinnacle in the Country. Out of the 500 crore, Rs 100 crore is dedicated towards women entrepreneurs and RS 50 crore for Green Startups. The launch of Bhamashah Techno Fund has motivated the start-up generation of the state to initiate their own ventures with the support of Government. Bhamashah Techno Fund has been disbursed to eight start-ups within 10 days of its launch and 15 more Startups have been funded recently in May 2018.
Qrate is the only startup rating mechanism in the country, accepted by all leading venture capitalists and investors. It is an assessment programme which provides a detailed report on the startup’s potential and investment worthiness.
Student Start-up Exposure Programme: Student Start-up Exposure Programme was implemented to create a strong entrepreneurship pipeline among the youth of Rajathan. Through the exposure programme, the State Government aims to send 100 selected students from the state to an allexpense paid residential learning programme in Silicon Valley.
The programme is open to any student pursuing higher education in any college of the State of Rajasthan. The top 100 selected students from the State will be hosted by Menlo College in Menlo Park, Silicon Valley. Over the course of two weeks, they will learn various aspects of building a tech product startup from renowned experts in the global start-up ecosystem. The participants will receive mentorship to build their prototype and pitch it to prospective investors in the Silicon Valley and gain feedback from them. During the tenure of the two-week programme, students will also get a chance to acquire on the job training at some eminent organisations and interact with successful founders and other key professionals.
Number of applications received so far: 10,000+
Such recent initiatives by the Department of IT & Communications, Government of Rajasthan certainly open the doors for budding entrepreneurs and students to make their entrepreneurship dream come true. These programmes will not only prove to be an excellent learning experience but will also motivate participants to become a job creator by starting their own venture and not lure behind corporate jobs.
Undoubtedly, with the launch of all these initiatives, Government of Rajasthan is developing a digital infrastructure to promote & facilitate entrepreneurship in the State. These technological insertions are boosting the economic standards of the state and boosting emerging Startups. Rajasthan has transformed into a “Start-up Leader” of the country with the robust, effective, efficient and active digital infrastructure – paving the way for truly transforming the Rajasthan State to a DigiSthan.
