Lodha Group and Zone Startups India launch Palava Accelerator

PUNE: Real estate developer

Lodha Group

,in association with

Zone Startups India

(ZSI) announced the launch of the

Palava Accelerator

.

This program will provide a test-bed to emerging technology

startups

to conduct their pilots at Palava, a privately-developed greenfield smart city located in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

30 startups will be identified every year through an application process. Conducted in partnership with ZSI, the accelerator operated by Toronto-based Ryerson Futures, the startups will go through a four-month acceleration program.

Lodha Group will be investing in Palava Accelerator from its flagship Startup Investment Fund for Real Estate and Smart Cities which has an initial corpus of Rs. 50 crore.

Shaishav Dharia, Regional CEO, LodhaGroup said, "Palava Accelerator will aim at invigorating economic growth of Palava, bringing the first set of jobs within the city thereby making walk-to- work a realty for the citizens of Palava. Through the program, Palava would provide entrepreneurs an opportunity to work in the city and with the city management body, provide mentorship with reputed mentors in these fields, provide access to investors and a stimulating environment to work in. We are hopeful that this initiative will encourage startups to create disruptive ideas, technologies for the real estate sector and take government's smart city mission a notch higher."

The Palava Accelerator aims to work with 30 startups in a year, on a non-cohort based model, of which 8 to 10 would work out of Palava’s center at any given time. The first set of companies will be announced in mid-November.

Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Director (India), Zone Startups said, "Partnering with Lodha Group on the Palava Accelerator is an exciting opportunity for us. It helps us expand our corporate accelerator and innovation work in India beyond

FinTech

, and further strengthens our presence within the Indian startup ecosystem. We strongly believe that a thriving startup hub helps build cities ground-up, as we have seen globally. More so, such a program, co-located with a growing, new-age city, acts as a solid test bed for numerous consumer tech startups."

This is the sixth accelerator program that ZSI will be setting up. Other initiatives over the last three years include, ZSI, empoWer, Gateway91, Rise Accelerator and Thought Factory Accelerator. Under the agreement, Zone Startups will manage the Palava Accelerator program, as well as lend its program expertise in building an ecosystem of partnerships, nurturing developer talent, conducting bootcamps and workshops, and build a strong entrepreneurial hub in the region, and adjoining Palava.