Karnataka weighs compute subsidies and funding help for women-led startups after founder feedback

Karnataka is weighing new support for women-led startups, from subsidised computing power to capital and government contracts. The push follows a state-run meeting in Bengaluru where founders made the case 2

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. Nothing has been announced; the measures are under consideration 2

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The signals came out of a Women Entrepreneurs' Mixer held by the state's Department of Electronics, IT and Biotechnology ahead of the 29th Bengaluru Tech Summit 2026 2

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. That department handles the state's startup and technology policy. It gathered women founders and ecosystem leaders working in tech, DeepTech and biotech 2

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. Officials were responding to concerns the founders raised at the event, particularly around access to computing power 2

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The compute ask

Vuha AI co-founder Priyanka Gangishetty, whose company makes smart cameras for industrial use, asked if the state could subsidise GPUs, hardware or training facilities. "I think anybody that's in the AI space needs a lot of compute GPUs," she said 1

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That ask prompted the follow-up. Officials said proposals for subsidised computing and shared facilities would be examined 2

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. Secretary Dr Manjula N also asked Prof Debabrata Das to look at whether further compute subsidies could flow through the proposed AI Hub 1

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The hub, and the shortage behind it

The vehicle the secretary pointed to is a ₹35 crore AI Hub proposed at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore 1

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. Das, who is associated with it, said hardware costs, particularly memory and GPUs, have gone up roughly fourfold over the past year 1

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. The hub also plans an "AI Living Lab" where startups could book slots to use computing resources and test their solutions 1

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For the state, two complications sit against the request. The IndiaAI Mission has allotted 62,000 GPUs to date, but per one report their utilisation remains marginal, and they reach startups through the national channel rather than the state 1

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. Das also cautioned that compute capacity and memory availability are global constraints that could persist for another year and a half 1

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Money already committed, gaps still named

The state is not starting from zero. ELEVATE Shakti 2026 selected 63 women-led startups for ₹23.19 crore in committed grants 1

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. The broader ELEVATE programme has backed more than 400 women-led startups since 2017, committing ₹118.98 crore, per the department 1

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. The state also runs several other women-startup programmes, including WEscalate and BioWise, with committed grants totalling more than ₹142 crore 1

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Founders at the mixer flagged what the grants do not cover: the jump from early-stage funding to commercial growth, where products can need years of R&D before anyone deploys them 1

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. On the market side, Karnataka Digital Economy Mission chief Sanjeev Kumar Gupta said the body could connect women-led startups with manufacturers and large enterprises 1

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. He pointed to the Government First initiative, which offers pilot funding of up to ₹25 lakh so startups can test solutions with government departments 1

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What else is on the table

Other voices broadened the ask. A robotics and manufacturing founder requested shared manufacturing facilities 1

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. Taslimarif Saiyed, who heads the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms, pointed to physical AI capabilities at the non-profit ARTPARK at the Indian Institute of Science 1

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. He also flagged datasets at government-supported centres of excellence 1

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. Dr Manjula said the state is drawing up a policy to open government data to companies according to their needs 1

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Everything under discussion, from compute subsidies to shared facilities to data access, sits at the examination or preparation stage, and the department has approved none of it 2

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. Until one of those examinations produces an approval, the extra support stays on paper.