Nasscom picks 25 Indian start-ups for US exposure

A year into its '10,000 startups' programme, India's information technology industry body the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has decided to take 25 start-ups, chosen from among over 7,000 applicants in the first phase of the initiative, to the US, in order to give the budding entrepreneurs global exposure.

The programme, called Innotrek, aims to enable start-ups to get first-hand experience of the product ecosystem in a developed economy, give access to global venture capitalists, and an opportunity to interact with big tech firm representatives.

Participants would be taken on a three-city tour, Nasscom officials said in Bangalore today.

Recounting the programme's achievements over the past year, the industry body said that it had, over this period, processed in two batches over 7,000 start-up applications, indicating the huge start-up interest and potential in the country. Another 3,000 applications had already been received for phase-II, NASSCOM said.

Nasscom president R Chandrashekar said a major development was the launch of the Start-up Warehouse in Bangalore to create a micro-ecosystem where start-ups and entrepreneurs could work together, share their learning and best practices with each other.

Nasscom's start-ups programme was started in March 2013 with the support of Google, Kotak Mahindra, Microsoft and Verisign.

On the anvil are programmes that will focus on nurturing entrepreneurship among women such as 'Girls in Technology'.