KOCHI: According to The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2024 released by a leading development organisation, the value of Kerala’s startup ecosystem has shown a compound growth of 254% between July 1, 2021, to December 31, 2023, compared to the July 1, 2019, -December 31, 2021, period. The global average is at 46%.
The extensive analysis is done with data from 4.5 million startups across 300 global ecosystems and over a decade of independent research. It has also placed Kerala fourth in the Asia ecosystem in the affordable talent category.
The report stated that reasons like government support in investment, the highest percentage of youth proficient in coding and the importance given to the digital revolution, etc, make the state a suitable place to set up a startup.
Speaking about the report, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, “The state has a very vibrant and growing startup ecosystem. It has been growing by leaps and bounds.” Since 2016, 5,443 startups have been founded, he added. “Of these 2,662 had started operations in the past two years and their products have entered the market.
Till 2016, there were only 300 startups. Also, after 2016, an investment of Rs 5,600 crore has been made in the startups in the state. The investment received by startups in the past two years is Rs 1,200 crore compared to Rs 207 crore received up to 2016.”
Taking to Facebook, Industries Minister P Rajeeve said, “In terms of the affordable talent index also our state has the fourth position in Asia. It should be noted that Kerala has made brilliant progress in the most authoritative report made by an organisation that studies around 4.5 million startups from across 300 global ecosystems,” he added.
Other notable achievements highlighted in the report are the Kairali AI chip developed by Digital University, Iris, the first AI robot teacher, and Visor, a generative AI platform, he said.