Smart City Accelerator and Innovation Centres To Be Opened In India Soon

University of California’s Innovation Acceleration Group has partnered with Quantela, a global tech firm, to set up Smart City Accelerator and Innovation Centres in India.

To address the challenges faced by governments, corporates and startups on Smart cities, the Innovation Acceleration Group of University of California, Berkeley has partnered with global tech firm Quantela to set up Smart City Accelerator and Innovation Centres in India. 

This partnership was announced in New Delhi at an event in the presence of Mr. Deepak Bagla, Managing Director & CEO – Invest India, Mr. Mark Searle, Managing Director, UC Berkeley Innovation Acceleration Group, Mr. Manav Subodh, Director, Smart Cities India, UC Berkeley Innovation Acceleration Group, Mr. Sridhar Gadhi, Founder and CEO, Quantela and Mr Sanjay Jaju, Joint Secretary, Department of Defence Production.

This initiative known as the Barkeley-Quantela Accelerator is an opportunity for startups to build and grow in the field of Smart Cities. It will provide extensive mentorship and guidance to selective startups. It will teach them about innovation developments designed to identify business opportunities, validate product ideas through Investment Readiness Levels, engage with potential customers, build scalable business models, and manage team dynamics.

The accelerator will be divided into three phases. First phase will include three days onsite training from Berkeley instructors in August 2018. In the second phase, five months online lectures and office work with trainees would be provided. Last phase would be a demo day and investor meetings for selected startup at UC Berkeley campus in April 2019.

Mr. Deepak Bagla, Managing Director & CEO – ‘Invest India’ said, “The Indian Government’s initiative to create more than 100 smart cities is unprecedented in the World and provides immense opportunities for tech start-ups. The unique partnership between UC Berkeley, Quantela and Invest India will help Indian start-ups that operate across the entire technological spectrum such as those from smart IoT to smart mobility and smart power that are critical for smart cities.”

“More importantly, Start-up India Hub with its pan India membership is likely to help entrepreneurs in not just the metros but tier-2 and tier-3 cities of India. Such partnerships play an invaluable role in transforming India from a consumer of technologies to a provider of technologies – not just for India but for the World”, added Bagla.

Mr. Sridhar Gadhi, Founder and CEO, Quantela said, “We are extremely glad to partner with Berkeley for the innovation program. Our aim is to create a start-up ecosystem focused on creating solutions to curb the growing urban challenges.”

Quantela provides Artificial Intelligence based smart city platform to help cities deal with the challenges of urbanization and become proactive rather than reactive. Its mission is to revolutionize the operations and management of cities by making autonomous cities a reality.