Stating that Mumbai city has lived its time as the business capital of the country, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis urged entrepreneurs to shift their focus to a “new city” that will be built near the new airport in Navi Mumbai. The city will be thrice the size of Mumbai and function as a “thematic city” that will accommodate the needs of the businesses, said Fadnavis at the Mumbai Tech Week (MTW) event on Friday.
During an interaction, the Chief Minister agreed that most tech companies have moved to Bengaluru and Hyderabad due to the high cost of living in Mumbai that make it difficult for start-ups to set up offices.
“Before 2014, we did not create infrastructure and so the cost of living and hiring went up and so people went to other cities. With current infrastructure and the creation of Atal Setu sea link we have linked Navi Mumbai to Mumbai and Navi Mumbai is a magnet. Most tech companies are coming up in Navi Mumbai. It is also the data centre capital of India with 65 per cent of data centre capacity. We will soon launch the first M-hub there as well. This will be an incubator for start-ups, comparable to ones in Bengaluru and Hyderabad,” said Fadnavis.
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The Tech Entrepreneurs Association of Mumbai (TEAM) that organised the MTW event will act as a knowledge partner to the government in the creation of this city. According to TEAM Founder Aakrit Vaish, the innovation city will be up and running in the next 2 years and provide an inclusive place for start-ups to get benefits. TEAM also announced TEAM Angels, a founder-led investment collective, for founders to pool capital and invest in Mumbai-based start-ups. The initiative will provide capital, mentorship, and access to industry networks to backing Mumbai’s early-stage start-ups headquartered in Innovation City.
“We call it an investment collective rather than investment fund. A deal by deal capital call similar to angel syndicates. The cheque sizes can be anything from ₹50-70 lakhs to ₹5-7 crores cheque sizes. We want to increase supply of start-ups,” said Vaish.
Maharashtra signs MoU with Meta
Aside from the innovation city announcement, Fadnavis also announced an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Maharashtra and Meta to integrate AI into governance in the form of an AI-powered ‘Aaple Sarkar’ initiative. Further, the Maharashtra State Innovation Society (MSInS) partnered with TEAM to strengthen the AI ecosystem and drive economic growth through joint initiatives.