Startup ecosystem improving in eastern India, West Bengal: Nasscom

The startup ecosystem in eastern India, particularly West Bengal is improving, NASSCOM (East) chairman Sanjoy Chatterjee said here on Wednesday.

NASSCOM, the premier trade body of IT and ITeS sector, has so far incubated 221 start ups in the region so far, he told a press conference here.

It set up the warehouse for mentoring the largest start up ecosystem in the eastern part of the country seven years ago.

Out of the 221 incubated start ups, 79 were funded, including 49 with the second series. These start ups included both technology and non-tech ones in the MSME and large enterprises space.

"The start up ecosystem in the east, particularly West Bengal, is improving.A large number of IT and ITeS firms are going to start operations from the city," Chatterjee said.

Besides NASSCOM, the other major incubators in West Bengal are IIM Innovation Park and IIT Kharagpur among others.

Elaborating on NASSCOM's efforts in Bengal, he said it will hold the first Bengal Entrepreneurs Summit on Technology in the city on January 19 and more than 400 start ups are expected to attend the event.

Among the participants will be start ups from the tech, IoT, blockchain, data science and fintech, besides venture capitalists and angel investors, he said.

Currently, nearly 16 start ups are being mentored at the NASSCOM warehouse and many of them remotely, Chatterjee added.