KOCHI: Startup Village has started Fintech Studio Scheme, which provides new devices and tools for transforming their innovative ideas into reality. In the first phase of the scheme, in partnership with Federal Bank, 40 teams (each comprising five students) would be selected from colleges across Kerala. Every team will receive a ‘Startup Box’, which contains an iPhone 6, an iPad mini, Macbook Air, Nexus 5, Kindle, 1 terabyte hard disk, a Arduino Starter Kit, in addition to the company registration deed, a bank account opening form and an application form for the state’s Student Entrepreneurship Policy.
‘Kerala Startup Mission’, also known as Technopark-TBI, in Thiruvananthapuram, will be the nodal agency for the programme while the Startup Village in Kochi will be the implementing agency. The startups would receive full incubation support from Startup Village and financial expertise from Federal Bank.
“The Startup box is one among the state’s entrepreneurship-oriented initiatives for the financial year 2015-16. The initiative would also help students get world-class equipment for a digital technology startup,” says P H Kurian, principal secretary for industries and IT.
The first batch of the selected teams would have to work on the theme ‘Fintech’, which focuses on developing real-time technology solutions for the banking and financial industries. Each team is expected to develop a prototype of their idea/application within six months, starting from July.
Startup Village chairman Sanjay Vijayakumar said the need to create next generation jobs was becoming imperative as the state was heading towards a knowledge economy.
“Industry-institute partnerships would help drive high-technology into college campuses to spur creative innovations similar to Silicon Valley,” he added. Students would also be offered an opportunity to take up their ideas as their final year projects, as per the Technology Startup Policy and can incubate their firms at the Startup Village.