Startup Village Celebrates Second Anniversary

TechnoparkToday.com>>  April 26: The Government of Kerala will sponsor the visit of at least 10 student entrepreneurs to the Silicon Valley this year as part of the SV Square programme of Startup Village, and by August set up a permanent centre in the US to facilitate these visits, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy announced today.

The Startup Village to Silicon Valley (SV Square) programme which was launched to give young innovators a first-hand experience of the world’ best entrepreneurial ecosystem has been among the most successful initiatives in the two years of the Kochi-based business incubator.

“When the five students briefed the Cabinet after their return from the Silicon Valley last year, we saw the transformational power of this initiative,” the Chief Minister said while speaking at the second anniversary celebrations of Startup Village here. “The students who went were not the same when they returned; their newly found confidence and energy was astounding.”

“They firmly believe in their ability to change Kerala’s economy and industrial landscape in the future and the government is backing this belief and their confidence by funding the visit of ten participants, or more, if required, this year,” he said.

The level of support of entrepreneurship in Kerala is unparalleled in India, said Mr. Chandy pointing out that all state departments have been instructed to set aside one per cent of their budget, collectively amounting to Rs 500 crore, solely to support entrepreneurial ventures.

The second anniversary celebrations held alongside Startup Village’s monthly Community Gathering of hundreds of entrepreneurs was attend by Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Infosys Executive Vice Chairman and Startup Village’s Chief Mentor; Mr. P H Kurian, Principal Secretary Industries and IT and Ms. Aruna Sundararajan, Managing Director, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation.

Mr. Kurian said the Kerala’s IT policy envisages creating 3,000 startups by 2020. “Startup Village which supports 600 firms currently, has already helped us achieve 20% of that goal,” he said. “We are on course to meet our target maybe by 2018 and some of these companies will hopefully be by then the ‘billion-dollar’ firms we dream of.”

He said the state government is planning to organise a meet of Kerala-based angel investors in the next couple of months to connect them to start-ups looking to raise capital. “There are plenty of individuals right here in Kerala who have the money and who are eager to back the next generation of entrepreneurs. We will bring them all on to one platform through the Kerala Zone Angel Investors meet.”

He said a total of 15 acres of land has been allocated to create a ‘mini Silicon Valley’ in Kochi, an area that will be known in the future as the Silicon Coast.”
Kris Gopalakrishnan lauded Startup Village as an initiative that was ‘unique’ in its concept. “What makes the Startup village different from other incubators in the country or around that world is that, for one, it has a very high proportion of students and youth. And secondly incubators in places like Silicon Valley are about the money, but Startup Village is a collective movement transforming the community and mindsets. There is a spirit of adventure and evangelism not seen anywhere in the world.

He also pointed to the rise of Startup Village as an international brand whose progress is being followed globally by everyone from the World Economic Forum to the United Nations.

Mr Gopalakrishnan also urged Startup Village to branch beyond IT, electronics and telecom to sectors which urgently need entrepreneurship support, such as healthcare, medicine, agriculture and agro products.

Ms Aruna Sundararajan dubbed Startup Village ‘one of the most positive things to come out of Kerala in a decade’. “The current wave of start-ups that Kerala is witnessing, signals a radical change in the deep-rooted cynicism of the people in the state.” She said the valuable contribution by the Startup Village team and its members was that they are not just creating tech solutions, “it is their willingness to take up entrepreneurship to other domains to find challenges to Kerala’s problems such as that of water management, management of urban spaces and agriculture.”

Startup Village Chairman Sanjay Vijayakumar said one of the positives from Startup Village’s rise as a global brand was the changing image of Kerala among investors. “People outside the state are often apprehensive about the viability of starting a business in Kerala. But we have proved it can be changed.”
Sijo Kuruvilla George, the CEO of Startup Village gave an overview of the incubator’s achievement in two years. He said the three key challenges they will look to address this year are: infrastructure to support growth, business mentoring and market access for which a programme would soon be rolled out; and early stage risk capital.

The best performing companies at Startup Village were honoured on the occasion.