ASTARC Group, a diversified business entity, plans to invest $5 million in Indian start-ups.

Kishore Musale, CMD, ASTARC Group, told the media that the company has increased its corpus from $2 million last year to $5 million this year. “We will be making this investment across 10 companies this year,” he added. ASTARC will fund start-ups in agri-tech , pharmaceutical, biotech and other tech-focused sectors.

“Along with seed investment, we will provide mentorship and connects with other ecosystems, similar to what is followed in Silicon Valley,” said Salil Musale, Executive Director, ASTARC Infrastructure. Start-ups setting up base there will be mentored by academicians as well as entrepreneurs, according to Musale. The company plans to set up a technology cluster in the Hubli-Dharwad region, with an investment of around Rs. 500 crore.

The technology cluster will incubate companies from India and others such as Australia, China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the UK and Finland. This cluster is expected to come up in 18 months over 200 acres , close to IIT Dharwad, according to company officials. The company believes that in the next few years, the cost of doing business in Bengaluru will go up and will prompt companies to move their R&D operations elsewhere. Power availability is good in the region. There are five universities in Dharwad, providing for an educated workforce, said Salil Musale. Such clusters are starting to see traction.

For example, in Bengaluru, Nasscom has a mini cluster for start-ups as a part of its 10,000 Startup programme. Similarly, private ventures like Bhive Workspace, a place where start-ups are provided with amenities to work, last year saw 40 start-ups joining them. According to Yulia Aslamova, its marketing manager, these spaces enable collaboration between different kinds of ventures and even if they fail, they can learn from each other quickly.

Source: Business Line