Though Kerala is yet to catch up with its southern counterparts in the IT race, the start-up culture, fertilized by business incubators and driven by innovation is helping it scale new entrepreneurial heights.
The T-TBI which has groomed around 180 companies, have now ventured into cross-incubation by partnering with universities outside the country. So far, the start-ups incubated by the T-TBI have generated 4500 direct employment opportunities and help bring in a total investment of `134 crore.
The start-ups cumulatively contributed `44 crore to the exchequer. “Right from investing seed money to registration, hosting and mentoring, we provide all facilities for the start-ups. Also, we have an angel investor network by which we support our incubated companies. For cross-incubating companies T-TBI has entered into MoUs with foreign universities,” said K C Chandrashekharan Nair, MD, T-TBI. T-TBI a joint venture with Department of Science and Technology (DST), provides
funds routed from the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) and Technology Development Board.
“We provide seed funding ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh based on the merit of the project. Other then seed funding, we also provide up to Rs 75 lakh for innovative projects to develop the prototype,” said Chandrashekharan Nair. The incubated companies formed a strategic group last month - the Technopark Business Incubation Group (TBIG), which has ‘Growing Together’ as its motto. Rajesh Babu, vice-president, TBIG and CEO of the start-up Mirox Cyber Security said the group aims to support incubators and incubatee companies to expand their activities, improve themselves and overcome their initial and critical stages of development. “The group will work towards setting up sustainable model for rapid growth and maturity into a viable business enterprise,” Rajesh Babu said. The start-ups had won 30 odd national and international awards including the Red Herring.
Top 100 Global award and NASSCOM Innovation award. One of the companies Telmoco Development Labs Private Limited, a consumer electronics company founded in December 2011 and incorporated in March 2012 is now getting ready to launch its new tablet computer next month with a tie-up with a leading mobile network provider.
“We have partnered with industry leaders like iBibo entertainment, Fsecure Corporation (Finland), NeXT Education India, Accel Frontline Services Limited, etc. We have also signed MoU with P N Panicker Foundation for providing one lakh tablets computers for social empowerment and education,” said Nijesh C R, who founded the company along with Aadhith Bose, and Kalpa Radhakrishnan. The new infotainment tablet which targets the student community will feature CBSE and Kerala Syllabus content including Maths, Science, Social Science and English, Nijesh said.