The Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society, (KITS) and the Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka has announced a partnership with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) at the formal launch of Phase II of two of C-CAMP-KTech flagship innovation programmes, one in the agriculture domain and the other in the startup acceleration for scale-up of Karnataka’s rapidly growing biotech startup community.

At the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2023, Minister of IT, BT & Rural Development, Priyank Kharge and Dr Ekroop Caur, Principal Secretary, Department of Electronics, IT & BT, Govt of Karnataka launched the Agri Grand Challenge II with problem statements relevant in plant pest and disease mitigation, post-harvest loss, cash crops processing and dairy farming domains.

Further, C-CAMP with the support from the Department of IT, BT, and S&T, Govt of Karnataka has initiated the Karnataka Startup Advancement Programme (K-SAP) BIO 50 for giving Karnataka based startups in the life sciences a global edge.

Kicked off in 2018, K-SAP BIO 50 is an integrated deep-dive mentorship programme that provides technical and business handholding, entrepreneurial skill and knowledge development and access to networks to life-sciences startups at the early stage. In Phase I of K-SAP, C-CAMP has accelerated 5 cohorts of 50 startups addressing challenges in domains of healthcare, agri science and agri-technology and environment at the interface of social systems. 

Announcing the objective of Phase II, Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, Director-CEO, C-CAMP said, “In Phase II, C-CAMP will move towards scale up support of startups at the early and mid (venture-funded) stages through fast-tracking milestones and closing gaps in the last mile to market."