The Karnataka Government under its Elevate programme, run under the Start-up Karnataka initiative of the Ministry of IT-BT and S&T, has short-listed 77 start-ups for funding up to a maximum of Rs 50 lakh per start up.

Launched in 2017, by Karnataka, Elevate is a startup initiative to identify the top innovations in the state. It was launched with name 'Elevate 100' and eventually to Elevate 500, wherein the state government will identify the top 500 innovations in the state.

The programme, in its second year, witnessed over 600 applications from across the State from a variety of tech startups. This initiative is expected to identify and empower innovators who can provide solutions to the most pressing problems that India faces today.

Of the 600 start-ups enrolled in a multi-city pitching event, 250 start-ups were finally short-listed. After this, the jury has selected 77 start-ups for funding.

The start-ups are from Mysuru, Hubbali, Mangaluru, Kalaburgi, and Bengaluru and they are from different sectors like biotech, healthcare, agritech, fintech, logistics, SAAS, urban design and smart cities, and e-commerce.

The Karnataka Minister for IT-BT and S&T, K J George, said: “This initiative will provide an opportunity for young people with brilliant ideas to scale up their solutions. And by helping these tech geniuses reach their potential, we hope that the State of Karnataka will also be able to scale new heights when it comes to technology.”

“A lot of entrepreneurs have ideas that are great - but what can help them really shine is the right guidance from the right people. That is also what we will be providing at the incubator at Elevate 2018,” said Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, and Department of IT-BT.

"The right funding at the right time is important for start-ups, and so is the right mentorship. Through Elevate, the Government of Karnataka will ensure that innovators in the State are not lacking in either,” he added.

In first year/season of Elevate, Karnataka government claimed that it has funded 61 startups across sectors in April-July'17.

Earlier this month, Priyank Kharge, who's now the minister for social welfare of Karnataka state, had said that the state government is working to have an "innovation legal framework" for startups in the state, which will address the problem of no proper legal guidelines for startups like Uber, Ola operating in the state.

In March this year, the then IT/BT minister, Priyank Kharge, had announced a slew of new policies around innovation and the IT/BT department has been renamed as the Department of Innovation. A new entrepreneurship scheme was also announced, under which Rs 30,000/month would be provided to any entrepreneur for a year while they incubate their idea with Karnataka's startup cell.
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