China’s Alibaba Group and Bengaluru-based mobile and analytics solutions company Globals will establish a startup incubator, that will focus on mobile internet and mobile commerce.
Globals is founded by Suhas Gopinath at the age of 14, in a cybercafe. He currently serves on various boards such as ICT Advisory Board of the World Bank Group, Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, Social Peace Foundation, IIT Bombay Entrepreneurship Cell, and more.
He is also the Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and holds a diploma from the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University. He told media sources that both groups felt the need for an incubator that was focused on mobiles. “It also becomes easier to mentor the startups, and find the right set of funders, if you have a focused incubator,” Gopinath said. Currently, most incubators in India are generic ones.
Gopinath said the idea for the incubator came from Guru Gowrappan, COO and head of product and marketing at Silicon Valley-based Quixey, a search engine for apps, in which Alibaba is an investor.
These moves are in sync with Alibaba’s focus, which is moving rapidly to mobile. Jack Ma, who is worth $30 billion, had earlier invested in PayTm as well.
Gopinath told media sources that a few startups have already been identified. “We hope to start by May-June.”
