Information and Technology (IT) giant Google signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Karnataka government to help start- ups in the state to scale nationwide. 

Bengaluru is often called a start-up hub, and is home to more than 40 out of 101 unicorns in the country. 

Collaborating with the Karnataka government, Google will be offer mentorship programmes to start-ups in non-metro cities. With the ‘Google Career Certificate Course’ the tech giant eyes to make the candidates' job ready with digital skills. 

Under this MoU, Google plans to boost start-up drive in both metro and non-metro cities. It will help start-ups acquire strong tech infrastructures and business practices to scale up.

Additionally, the global tech giant will also work with women-led start-up companies across tier 2 and 3 cities in collaboration with the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS). The company will be offering essential training and mentorship programmes on product strategy, leadership and marketing to the women founders.  

Addressing the collaboration, CN Ashwath Narayan, Minister for Higher Education, IT, BT, Science and Technology and Skill Development, Government of Karnataka, said, “Karnataka has been at the forefront of the startup revolution. As we move forward, we want to enable a collaborative and inclusive digital environment for startups to grow and thrive. I am sure this collaboration will also support many of our entrepreneurs and innovators from the emerging tech clusters of Beyond Bengaluru.”

Praising the start-up drive in India, Karthik Padmanabhan, developer relations lead of Google said, “India has a flourishing start-up community, yet not all founders have equal access to capital, support networks or mentorship. These are critical resources that can help the start-up ecosystem to continuously learn, innovate and evolve. Through our collaboration with KITS, we want to strengthen the support for the local start-up ecosystem, enable equal representation for women and level the playing field across the state,”