New Record for Startup Village: 500 Plus Applicants in March 2014

The total number of applications at Startup Village touched 2,269 by March 31. 

TechnoparkToday.com>> April 8, 2014: Kerala’s dream of becoming a business startup powerhouse is inching closer to reality thanks to the success of incubators such as the Kochi-based Startup Village which received a record 527 applications in March from young entrepreneurs keen to set up technology businesses.

The near doubling of the number of applications over one month comes as the mobile-internet technology business incubator – set up under public-private partnership mode with strong support from the central and state governments – gears up to mark its second anniversary in April.  In February, 286 would-be entrepreneurs expressed interest in signing up with the incubation programme at Startup Village – a milestone easily surpassed in March.

Startup Village Chairman Sanjay Vijayakumar says the surge in the number of applicants is reflective of a socio-cultural change taking place in Kerala, as young people become more willing to take risks and chase their dreams and build a new world with new products that drive the future of humanity. “I think Startup Village has helped reinforce the idea that it is all right to take risks to bring an idea to life; and to create an ecosystem where failure is seen a prerequisite to learning,” he said.

The incubator currently supports 600 startups, out of which 216 have been started by students. Thirty-four of the supported companies are physically incubated at the Village’s campus at Kinfra Park in Kalamassery.

The success stories of companies nurtured by incubators such as Startup Village and Technopark TBI have played a key role in driving the entrepreneurship movement in Kerala. And the state government has actively promoted it, particularly through policy frameworks and infrastructure support.

A task force formed by the State Planning Board Vice Chairman Mr K M Chandrasekhar has now entrusted KSIDC Managing Director Ms. Aruna Sundararajan IAS, CII Kerala Chairman and Federal Bank CEO Mr Shyam Srinivasan and Startup Village Chairman Mr Sanjay Vijayakumar to come up with a roadmap to create a world-class startup ecosystem in Kerala. They are expected to submit their report by April 30.

When Startup Village was set up in 2012, its Chief Mentor Kris Gopalakrishnan, the Executive Vice Chairman of Infosys, predicted that the incubator will change the industrial climate in Kerala. “I believe that Kris, with his visionary foresight, was right in calling Startup Village a game-changer,” Startup Village CEO Sijo Kuruvilla George. “With the ecosystem we have here currently and our plans for the future, we hope to achieve our goal of becoming one among the top five destinations in the world to create a startup.”