KOCHI: As Kerala’s nascent startup sector basks in the glory of the recent multi-million dollar acquisition of Kochi-based multi-bank payments firm Chillr by Sweden’s Truecaller, it has also brought to fore one shortcoming: Acute scarcity of quality engineers in the software product space.
Consider this: After its acquisition, Chillr will move its entire research division from Kochi (employing 20-22 people) to Bengaluru and double its staff strength to 150 (its marketing and other related business verticals are based in Mumbai).
“While the acquisition is a big positive for Kerala’s startup sector, the fact that the engineering division of Chillr is moving to Bengaluru is a big loss for the state. Almost 75 high-end jobs that should have been created in Kerala will go to Bengaluru,” said an industry veteran.Chiller founder and CEO Sony Joy said the fact that the company was started in Kochi and its product and engineering division was based in the city showed the founders’ confidence in the state.
However, he admitted that Kerala is far behind Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune in terms of the startup ecosystem, which includes availability of quality talent, cosmopolitan culture, easy availability of funds (angel funds, private equity), avenues for entertainment such as pubs, etc.“We have grown to a certain level from Kochi. In the next leg of our journey, we need global expertise, people with advanced engineering skills and a bigger distribution channel. This is not possible by staying in Kochi,” he said.
Kerala Startup Mission CEO Saji Gopinath said the argument that top-notch software product companies are not setting up ventures in Kerala as they find it difficult to attract quality talent is “not fully true or not fully false”.He pointed out that when Denver-based FullContact bought Kochi startup Profoundis in 2016 or New York Stock Exchange-listed Nielsen acquired Kakkanad-based Visual IQ last year, the companies chose to stay in Kochi and expand their operations. “The argument that we don’t have an ecosystem that spawns product development companies is overhyped,” said Gopinath.
Gopinath said Kerala has seen the emergence of companies such as SunTec Business Solutions, and its founder Nandakumar K, within the limitations in the startup ecosystem. He pointed out that it’s MNCs such as IBM and Texas Instruments that helped create a large pool of software product engineers in Bengaluru, and Indian IT companies played only a limited role.
‘a chicken and egg situation’
Sanjay Vijayakumar, chairman of Startup Village - India’s first technology incubator in PPP mode - pointed out the example of Chennai startup Freshworks, founded in 2010, which now has more than 1,000 employees and over 1 lakh clients. Despite not being based in Bengaluru - considered India’s Silicon Valley - Freshworks spawned several other startups with a base in Chennai. However, “it’s a chicken and egg situation,” he admitted. “We need a good pool of quality talent to attract companies to set up base in Kerala and expand. But, we will have quality talent available only if top-notch companies establish here.”