Cisco announces LaunchPad to accelerate innovation ecosystem in India

Cisco LaunchPad is designed to help startups, its authorised channel partners and developers scale their solutions, address new markets and build digital businesses. 

 

Cisco’s finest teams will mentor startups and developers on how to help create digital solutions to enable enterprise customers, service providers and other enablers in the public and private sphere to connect the next three billion people and 50 billion devices through digitisation, matching appealing ideas with business expertise and connecting engineering talent with investors and customers. 

 

Cisco will also provide a space at its Bengaluru campus with access to a suite of Cisco technologies and free grants to startups chosen to work at its campus.

 

Amit Phadnis, President, Engineering and India Site Leader said: “Imagine the innovation you will create when you provide global scale to the best ideas of the world’s youngest startup nation and second biggest developer community. We have an unprecedented opportunity to digitize the next three billion people in one-third the time it took to connect the first three billion. Through Cisco LaunchPad we want to unleash the next generation of disruptive ideas and help turn the entrepreneurs of today into the business leaders of tomorrow."

  

Underlying its commitment to digitization, Cisco already runs Cisco Digitization Acceleration and Cisco Investment programs in India.  

 

KS Vishwanathan, Vice President, NASSCOM, said: "Innovation and investment are the key drivers of the Indian economy, leading to jobs, growth and long-term prosperity. India is a hotbed of entrepreneurial talent and Cisco LaunchPad will be a tremendous accelerator for startups to develop digital solutions that reach a global market.”

 

L. Ravichandran, President and COO, Tech Mahindra said: "Digitization is disrupting every industry and that is especially true in the energy sector. We are working closely with Cisco to bring the power of digitization to millions of people. Cisco LaunchPad is an excellent platform for Tech Mahindra to help solve some of the complex emerging market problems like the energy management, healthcare access and intelligent manufacturing. We are also committed to the Digital India and Make in India initiatives taken up by the government of India.”

 

Ravi Gururaj, Chair, Founder & CEO, QikPod.com, said: "Cisco LaunchPad is a powerful example of how the world’s leading companies can provide robust platforms that help promising India startups and developers benefit from deep customer insights, locally relevant products and global scale. We look forward to collaborating with Cisco to ensure the success of this terrific initiative.”