Rakesh Verma, India’s original digital map data product maker and the founder of MapmyIndia, a Make in India, Deep-Tech company which specializes in Maps, Navigation, Tracking, Analytics, GIS, GPS, IoT & location technologies has pledged INR 1 Crore towards strengthening the Incubation and Innovation ecosystem. Well-known for its students and alumni startups, 17 of BITS alumni-led startups have raised $700 million in past few months. MapmyIndia will further support promising student entrepreneurs by mentoring and advisory, workspace, seed/angel funding and incubation to help accelerate their ideas.“I am indebted to BITS Pilani, a generous giver, my almamater has played a key role in shaping me personally and professionally. And it gives me great pleasure to be part of this unique initiative – BITS Pilani Incubation and Innovation Centre (BPIInC). In this pandemic hit scenario we will churn out job creators rather than seekers – a class of professionally Aatmanirbhar students via Mentorship, guidance, funding and incubation. BPIInC will be a legacy builder, one that will have a lasting impact on the future generations of the bright and talented alumni that will walk through the hallowed precincts of this great institution, says Rakesh Verma, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, MapmyIndia, a BITS alumnus, class of 1972.

Prof. Souvik Bhattacharyya, Vice-Chancellor, BITS Pilani, said, “What MapmyIndia did in 1990s, despite a lack of support system really inspires us at BITS – it’s our commitment and ambition to support innovators on the campus with the resources they would need to be successful. With Rakesh’s pledge, we are moving a step closer to our intended goals.”

This initiative comes close to the heels of the recent path breaking partnership between MapmyIndia and ISRO to create India’s indigenously developed most advanced geospatial services, as a shining example of public-private partnership to enable Aatmanirbhar Bharat, and the Government of India’s historic announcement of the opening up of geospatial industry to bring the benefits of geospatial to the entire economy and society. MapmyIndia is quickly making moves to leverage them advantageously by speeding up innovation and increasing the output of the Indian geospatial sector.

Prof. Arya Kumar, Dean, Alumni Relations, added, “BITSian entrepreneurs and the alumni network has been widely acknowledged as one of the most helpful innovation networks, with support available to anyone with a viable idea. Rakesh Verma has been a long-standing contributor to this network, and his collaboration with the incubation efforts at BITS will help scale outcomes to newer heights.”

The funds from MapmyIndia shall be used for augmenting the upcoming Incubation and Innovation Centre at the Pilani Campus being built at the cost of Rs. 15 Crore – a 20,000 sq. ft. space for innovation labs and co-working spaces for enabling students and faculty with their ideas to change the world.

About BITS, Pilani
BITS Pilani, established in 1964, is an institute of eminence and offers undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral program in Engineering, Sciences, Pharmacy, and Management from its four campuses at Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad, and Dubai. It also offers Work Integrated Learning Programmes for working professionals. It has more than 150,000 alumni across the globe from its on-campus and WILP programmes.

About Rakesh Verma and MapmyIndia (CE Infosystems Pvt. Ltd.)
Rakesh Verma, a visionary had predicted in 1995 that almost 80% of all data will have a location element to it and today the impact of location technology is there for all of us to see. A pioneer of location technology in the country Rakesh founded MapmyIndia, India’s leading digital mapping & location-based deep-tech company. For his achievements Rakesh has received many awards and recognitions from the governments, media and institutions. These include – Chair, FICCI committee on Geospatial Technologies – 2020; Distinguished BITS Alumni – 2020, Leader, FICCI Business Delegation to Croatia accompanying Hon’ble President of India in 2019; Member Think Tank, Framework for a National Policy on E-commerce, GoI-2018; Geospatial Leader of the Year- 2018; 50 BITSian achievers in the last 50 years recognition by BITS Pilani-2017; Harvard Business Review Case Study “Customer funded highly effective business model”-2014, Member National GIS Core Group, Planning Commission, Government of India-2012, World’s GPSBusinessNews.com-2007, NASSCOM Showcase Company for IT Innovation in India – 2005.

MapmyIndia is a 100% make in India organisation and winner of the Government of India’s Aatmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge 2020. MapmyIndia pioneered digital mapping in India in 1995, and since then has built India’s most comprehensive, accurate and feature-rich digital map data set down to address and urban building level detail pan India, covering all villages across India, and the entire road network of the country.

MapmyIndia has also built a whole suite of location-based technologies, applications, APIs, IoT solutions and has capabilities across the map APIs, navigation solutions, tracking systems, IoT & Telematics solutions, GIS and geo-spatial analytics solutions, big data, AI/ML, computer vision, cloud computing, edge computing, consumer apps and enterprise SaaS, and IoT devices and gadgets that it delivers to individuals, government organisations, businesses, automotive companies and app developers. With its vast experience and expertise, MapmyIndia provides platforms and solutions for citizens, residents and local, state and central government authorities towards Smart Cities, Digital Door Number Address Systems, Urban Planning, Urban Transportation & Mobility, Emergency Response, Road Safety, Smart Governance, Swacch Bharat, Grievance reddressal, Traffic Management etc.