The Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) will focus more on mentoring and supporting startups than positioning itself purely as an investor-focused event, a senior Karnataka government official said on Wednesday.
N Manjula, Secretary in Karnataka’s Department of Electronics, IT, Biotechnology and Science & Technology, said the summit is intended to help early-stage founders, particularly those working in deeptech, understand how to present their businesses and communicate their products effectively to investors.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Manjula said the summit would provide startups with guidance on pitching and explaining their product features, rather than simply bringing investors and startups together.
“The BTS aims to give mentorship and advices to startups rather make it as an investor summit event. We want to train these new startup leaders on how to pitch and help them to explain their product feature to the investors.”
Karnataka plans ₹200-crore deeptech fund
Karnataka has also created a ₹200-crore deeptech fund of funds and is approaching different investors to contribute to the initiative.
According to Manjula, additional contributions could help build an overall investment pool of around ₹500-600 crore. The larger fund is expected to strengthen financial support available to deeptech startups establishing operations in Karnataka.
As part of the initiative, the state government plans to provide a ₹1-crore grant to eligible startups setting up in Karnataka under the deeptech fund.
BTS to promote collaboration between states and academia
Beyond startup funding and mentorship, the Bengaluru Tech Summit is also expected to facilitate collaboration between different states as well as academic institutions.
Manjula said the platform can help organisations and institutions share knowledge and technology while learning from one another.
Such collaborations could support technology transfer and create opportunities for startups, researchers and academic institutions to work together.
Data centres and power efficiency
The Karnataka government is also focusing on challenges faced by data centres, particularly power availability.
Manjula said the state is encouraging data centres to adopt power-efficient technologies through incentives and other forms of support.
She also said concerns over water consumption in data centres are expected to ease as newer facilities increasingly adopt technologies that require significantly less water.
Overall, the state’s approach combines startup mentorship, deeptech funding, technology collaboration and infrastructure incentives as Karnataka seeks to strengthen its technology ecosystem.
