IIT Bangalore and Peesh ventures join hands to accelerate IoT startups

PUNE: The International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIIT-Bangalore) and Peesh Venture Capital (PVC), a NASSCOM investment partner, have entered into a strategic partnership to accelerate and fund India's Internet of Things and Mobile App start-ups. The goal of this public-private partnership is to produce successful Indian mobile app companies from India.

The initiative will seek to combine IIIT-Bangalore Innovation Centre's incubation facilities and knowledge ecosystem with PVC India-focused Rs 310 crore venture capital fund that invests in entrepreneurs with disruptive ideas.

The partnership between IIIT-Bangalore and PVC was formalised at a recent event held IIIT-Bangalore on the IoT-to-Mobility Apps for community excellence programme. This programme has been sponsored by the Government of Karnataka's Vision 2020 initiative that aims to jumpstart the mobility focused entrepreneurial ecosystem in the state.

"The precedent set by the success of Flipkart and Ola and the recent surge in acquisitions of Indian companies by U.S.-based firms like Facebook and Twitter, has inspired the imaginations of millions of India's technology workers and college students," said Peesh Chopra, Managing Partner of PVC and Investor in the Indian Angel Network.

A recent draft policy brought out by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) on the Internet-of-Things market envisioned that the IoT market would be worth $ 15 billion by 2020. As per the policy draft, the central government's allocation of Rs 7060 crore towards the building of 100 smart cities will lead to massive innovation in the IoT industry.

National Association of Software & Service Companies (NASSCOM)