Noted real estate developer Lodha Group has launched the Palava Accelerator in partnership with Zone Startups India (ZSI). The programme will offer a testing foundation for growing tech-based startups and will help them conduct pilot tests at Palava which is a privately owned greenfield smart city located within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region or MMR.
30 startups will be chosen every year through the application framework. The accelerator will be operated by Ryerson Futures which is based in Toronto. The startups will undergo a four-month acceleration programme. The Lodha Group will invest from its Startup Investment Fund for Real Estate and Smart Cities in Palava Accelerator. The fund has a starting corpus of Rs.50 crore.
According to the Regional CEO at the Lodha Group, Shaishav Dharia, Palava Accelerator is aimed at encouraging the economic development of Palava, creating the first lot of jobs within the city and making the walk-to-work concept a reality for residents. Palava will offer opportunities to residents to work here and obtain mentorship from reputed people in these fields. There will be access provided to investors and this initiative should incentivize more startups for creating new technologies for the real estate sector with a view towards adding to the Smart Cities mission of the Government.
8 to 10 startups are expected to work from Palava at any point of time and the first set of companies will be declared around mid-November. ZSI has already established several initiatives including the Thought Factory Accelerator, Rise Accelerator, empoWer, ZSI and others. It will offer expertise in building this entire startup ecosystem based on developer talent, partnerships, bootcamps and workshops and the like.
