‘Lack of talent hurts product startups in Kerala’
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Startups involved in making software products are struggling to get good talent in Kerala which ironically is touted as one of the best in human resources, said experts. As many as eight startups which received substantial venture capital funding shifted base to other locations such as Bengaluru, owing to shortage of talents. Emphasising the role of product startups in creating an IT ecosystem in the state, Electronics and IT Secretary M Sivasankar said there is an urgent need to fix the situation.
“We need to develop engineering talents who meet the requirement of the industry. A course module on product design in engineering colleges is the first step in this direction.” the Secretary told reporters. He said the introduction of skilling modules through telepresence network to be set up in engineering colleges, could partly address the issue. The country has 10 startups with more than a billion dollar valuation. But the state can boast of none despite the sheer number of startups.
Product startups which typically offer a better salary package than a regular IT services company, are considered to be the future of digital industry. According to Arjun Satheesh of Carestack, a leading healthcare startup that received funding from the early investors of Facebook, shortage of good talent was a cause of concern during the scale up stage. The company based in Thiruvananthapuram has 120 people at present and has plans to at least triple the numbers by 2020.
Customer orientation, design thinking and engineering to scale-up, are some of the skills the product startups are looking among potential employees. “Chennai was able to create a startup eco system owing to the success of one startup called Freshworks. But we need enough talent to compete with the engineers of Silicon Valley,” said Chairman of SV.CO Sanjay Vijayakumar. Carestack has tied up with Startup Village Collective (SV.CO) to groom fine engineering talents.
Startup stats
Number of Startup investments in 2017- India (688), Kerala (3)
Amount of investment in 2017 - India (Rs 66,000 crore), Kerala, (Rs 127 crore)