Bengaluru tech summit to celebrate city-founded Unicorns

Bengaluru: Innovation deliberation and encouragement platform Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS), scheduled from November 18 to 20, will commemorate and celebrate Unicorn founders, who took advantage of the city's enabling atmosphere in their entrepreneurial journey.

"In order to celebrate these Unicorn founders for their achievements, we have conceptualised and instituted for the first time, the Bengaluru Impact Awards," said Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for IT, BT (Bio Technology) and S&T (Science and Technology) Dr. Ashwath Narayan in a statement on Tuesday.

Narayan said Bengaluru's favourable ecosystem led to the rise of Unicorns, effectively placing the city on the global map.

In start-up and venture capital circles, unicorns are start-ups commanding a minimum valuation of $1 billion.

Flipkart, founded by former Amazon employees, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, in 2007 in Bengaluru is one of the city-founded Unicorns.

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) IT Exports awards and Smart Bio Awards are the other BTS awards.

Consisting of sessions in four tracks under Smart IT, Smart BIO, Global Innovations Alliance and Impact, the summit is being organised under the guidance of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddiyurappa and a Vision Group, consisting of industry captains from across business verticals.

The 2019 edition will focus on disruptive technologies among others and feature a Robotics competition for the first time.

"One of the new additions this year is the Robotics Competition - R2- RoboRecharge Robotic Premier League. Students from all over Karnataka will be a part of the biggest robotics championship to be held in India," said Narayan.

The Deputy Chief Minister also announced that the state government is instituting a mechanism to identify brilliant school children in Karnataka families, to pair them with suitable mentors for life and career guidance.

"One of the major reasons for doing the same is that it would increase the participation of Kannadigas in the technology sector," added Narayan.

As many as 11,000 visitors, 3,500 delegates and 300 exhibitors are expected to attend BTS 2019.

Among several next generation technologies, the summit will also feature discourses on genomics, 5G and Blockchain, the statement said.