KOCHI:The history of entrepreneurship in Kerala can be divided into two-before and after the advent of Startup Village. On April 15, 2015 Startup Village completes three years of its inception. The country’s first Public Private Partnership technology business incubator jointly promoted by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, Technopark and MobME Wireless, has played a pivotal role in changing the mindset of people not only in Kerala but also in the entire country.
In a short span of three years, Startup Village has clearly placed God’s Own Country on the Startup Map of the world. The village in Kochi has become a must visit spot for the leaders and investors from across globe.
“There is definitely a surge of Startups in Kerala as a result of the Startup Villages in Kochi and Kozhikode. Unlike other incubators, the Startup Village provides all basic services to the startups, including mentorship,” says Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and Chief Mentor of Startup Village.
Since its inception on April 15, 2012 until December 2014, Startup Village has received a total of 6,491 application requests. A total of 960(58 physical and 902 virtual startups) were incubated, of which 533 are currently active. Of the 58 physical startups, 56 are currently active, but two failed. Of the 902 virtual startups, 477 are active and 355 are inactive while 70 were aborted.
“The greatest moment at the Startup Village came when RHL Vision founded by Rohildev touched a valuation of `60 crore, that too at a lightning speed of just 22 months. We are very proud that we could support such a company. Companies like Mindhelix, Sector Qube and RHL Vision have together raised a funding of `2.5 crore. Definitely we have played a major role in making this paradigm shift to happen in the state. Now we have plans to launch digital platform to serve as knowledge resource centre by July,” said Pranav Kumar Suresh, Chief Executive Officer, Startup Village.
Design Animation Firm WowMakers was the first company incubated at the Startup Village and the company which got the first VC Funding was RHL Vision.
“The evolving entrepreneurial culture and the rising number of young business aspirants in the state has increased the necessity for a world-class infrastructure, funding ecosystem and a drastic change in the mindset of the people here,” says P H Kurian, Principal Secretary, IT and Industries.
Kochi Startup Village Milestones
■ April 15, 2012-Started operations in 5,000 sqft with Kris Gopalakrishnan as Chief Mentor
■ April 2012-Startups-Wowmakers and Mindhelix started.
■ May 2012-Total space increased to 15,000 sqft
■ September 2012-Student Entrepreneurship Policy declared
■ November 2012-Venture capitalist Asha Jadeja has joined in the board of advisers.
■ June 2013-Six startups raised funding at Weekend @SV
■ September 12, 2013-Kerala government declared it as Entrepreneurship Day
■ December 2013-Silicon Valley SV Square programme started
■ February 2014-RHL Vision (Fin) started first successful crowd funding campaign
■ September 2014-Startup Village in Visakhapatnam started in 20,000 sqft
■ December 2014- Startup Village started in Kozhikode
■ December 2014-Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Kalraj Mishra visit Startup Village.
■ April 15, 2015-Startup Village completed three years of its inception
Top Emerging Startups
Exploride
Founders - Sunil Vallath
Prasad Sasikumar
Product-Augmented Reality integrated Head Up Display. Exploride helps to guard against distraction by transferring the information you need from a Bluetooth enabled device to a transparent display in the windshield. It even lets you access the information by simple hand and voice gestures.
Reiwo Labs
Founders - Vimal Gopal, Praveen Sreedhar and Riswin MH
Product- Aerogas. It uses water as fuel and uses electricity to convert it to hydrogen
and oxygen and uses the energy thus produced to cook food. It produces gas as and when needed, so there is no storage of fuel. This makes it completely safe compared to LPG. It can also be integrated with solar power too.
Monkvyasa
Founder-Dinup Kalleril B
Product- Monkvyasa.com is a online astrology service website. Their vision is to make people live more easily by using the power of the internet. Astrology is part of the daily life for most Indians, but even in this internet era people can’t get astrology service via online. The company makes it possible. Monkvyasa’s greatest intention is to make astrology service easily available to people. The company is trying to bring all the best astrologers on to one platform.
IRET
Founders -Rethin Sylvester, Pranay Prem, Collins Samuel, Aswin M and Sreelal reghunath
Product- IRET Guitar enhancements is India’s first acoustic technology startup that specializes in manufacturing custom Stompboxes, Pedal-boards, Cajons and Amplifiers with a mission to provide high quality products at affordable prices to the Indian music scene. Built by a group of music enthusiasts turned engineers, the IRET team has gone through a rigorous two years of R&D to come up with these indigenous circuit board and technology that has been user tested by established artists of the industry.
Joconoi
Founder-Deepak Muraleedharan
Product- Joconoi creates games not for entertainment alone but also as a part of people’s daily life. Project ACSES (Alternate Creative Solution to Enhance Special needs) and Braining are products which have been envisaged with that ideology in mind. Project ACSES is a game with hardware solution for special needs children and adults with autism and learning disability. They can use this device and set of gamified therapy, syllabus sections to make their life better and easier. The designed hardware manipulates game environment using the biofeedback from the players. Content has been created by professionals.