NASSCOM, Tamil Nadu ink MoU for start-up warehouse in Chennai

The National Association of Software & Services (NASSCOM) today announced the inauguration of its first warehouse in Chennai today.

The MoU in this regard was signed between Department of Information Technology, Tamil Nadu, acting through the Electronics Corporation of Tamilnadu and NASSCOM in presence of Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalitha over video conferencing.

The warehouse will spread across 8,000 sq ft and can house up to 50 startups allowing them to learn, work, and accelerate their companies. It will nurture nearly 200 entrepreneurs to foster innovation under one roof. A co-working space like this is necessary in order to boost the startup ecosphere of the city.

The entrepreneurs will have a list of benefits which could help polish their entrepreneurial skills as well as polish their marketing ability including; connect sessions, early stage mentoring, access to resources from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM cloud, Kotak etc, said the IT industry body.

The selection would be finalised by a selection committee comprising of stakeholders from the government as well as the industry, viz. Government of Tamil Nadu and NASSCOM.

Chennai, said to be one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, is home to more than 20 Indian companies that have a net worth of more than $ 1 billion. The cultural capital of the south is amongst the major upcoming start-up locations of the country. The city is emerging as the SaaS Hub as it has a large base of B2B SaaS product companies triggered by the success of few startups supported by right set of domain talent, said NASSCOM.

Jayalalitha said that Chennai has a strong entrepreneurial culture and has been a great inspiration to other cities as well.

"We definitely want to back this culture and support these entrepreneurs in every possible way. We are extremely pleased to be partnering with NASSCOM to scale up the entrepreneurial growth of the city. The city is emerging as an important location for the start-up ecosystem and we hope that this initiative will bring a new dynamism to its entrepreneurs."

Rajat Tandon, Vice President, NASSCOM 10,000 Start-ups in a statement said that over the years, Chennai has been home to a lot of promising startups.

A start-up warehouse is a premium co-working space introduced by 10000 Start-ups in August 2013. It incubates start-ups from a diverse range of verticals. The co-working space allows early-stage technology start-ups to work for 6-12 months during which start-ups will get showcased at select NASSCOM events and other events of partner organisations.