Odisha Pitches To Billionaire Tim Draper To Open ‘Draper Startup House’ In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneshwar: Startup Odisha Executive Chairman Dr Omkar Rai and Billionaire Venture Capitalist Tim Draper mulled over the prospects of escalating the growth of Startups and entrepreneurship in the state.

Both met in Cuttack and had a comprehensive discussion on the prospects of fostering entrepreneurship and on the possibility of establishing a ‘Draper Startup House’ in Odisha, an official press release said on Monday.

Tim Draper lauded the efforts of the state government in supporting the startup ecosystem. Bitcoin billionaire investor Tim Draper, known for his early bets in break through tech companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Hotmail, Skype, etc. also backs startups in a big way. Discussions have begun between Tim Draper’s team and Startup Odisha on the modalities of how to take it forward.

Rai said the startup ecosystem in Odisha is growing by leaps and bounds capitalising on the strength of both traditional and modern sectors. Odisha is ranked among the “Top Performer States as per the Startup Ranking 2021 given by the Government of India, he said.

“To further spur the growth and support the startup ecosystem, we had a discussion regarding establishing a ‘Draper Startup House’ in Odisha. We have received a positive response and have started discussions on how we could work together. A ‘Draper Startup House’ has been established in Bengaluru and with the potential that Bhubaneswar holds in the Startup Ecosystem, the next destination can likely be Odisha’s capital.” said Dr Rai.

Draper Startup House’ supports startup entrepreneurs across the world, with a vision and mission to one million entrepreneurs by 2030. Draper Startup Houses are in about 25 cities around the world and Draper is expecting to move that to 50 this year.

Tim admired the efforts of Startup Odisha and said, “Giving Incubation support to Startups is a very important job”.

Startup Odisha has taken several initiatives in the recent past like Startup Odisha Yatra, Startup Xpress to promote grassroots innovations and entrepreneurship among the students. Also, Odisha Startup Growth Fund (Fund-of-Funds) for supporting startups to scale. Startup Odisha has also initiated the concept of “Campus Ambassadors” ~ where Startup Odisha in its attempt to directly reach out to the students across campuses, and in its bid to be pervasive throughout educational institutions, universities, colleges, B-schools, etc., has identified some bright students as Campus Ambassadors who apart from being prospective startups would also add value to the Startup Ecosystem of Odisha by inspiring, sensitizing, and orienting their peers to be part of startups and encourage them for entrepreneurship.

“Odisha government has extended all support to the Startup Ecosystem in the state and has developed O-Hub, an Incubation center that sprawls over 3.8 lakh sqft in Bhubaneswar,” informed Dr Rai.