E-commerce giant Alibaba Group, together with Bengaluru-based mobile and analytics solutions company Globals, is reportedly planning to establish a startup incubator in the city that will focus on mobile internet and mobile commerce, reports the Times of India.

"We met Jack Ma (Alibaba founder) and his team in Delhi on Monday, and we came to an in-principle agreement on the incubator," Globals founder Suhas Gopinath told Times of India.

Gopinath said in the report that both groups felt the need for an incubator that is focused on mobile, since e-commerce, which is Alibaba's focus, is moving rapidly to mobile. "It becomes easier to mentor the startups and find the right set of funders if you have a focused incubator," Gopinath told the Times of India.

Gopinath also said that 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.

According to the report, a few startups have already been identified to be part of the incubator. "We hope to start by May-June. It will be a one-year programme, and we will have five startups in the first batch. We want to help these ventures scale aggressively in India and across the world," Gopinath was quoted in the report as saying.

Selected startups will also receive seed funding. A fund is being established with participation from multiple funders, including Alibaba.

Recently, Jack Ma met PM Narendra Modi to discuss building B2B e-commerce platforms that can take farm goods, handicrafts and products of small enterprises to global buyers.

Gopinath said in the report that Alibaba would provide mentors and bring its technology and other business expertise to the incubator. He said he was also hoping to receive assistance from the Karnataka government. "If we get that, we would be able to scale faster," he added.