KOZHIKODE: Anubha Sinha, a Mumbai-based entrepreneur, is a trendsetter among the entrepreneurial community in Kerala. At a time when youngsters from the state are planning to shift to Bengaluru for better infrastructure and venture capital or seed funding opportunities, Anubha has shifted her company from Mumbai to Kochi. “Kerala has more opportunities and the market here is more friendly,” she says.
“I moved to Kochi in 2015. We now have an office at Kathrikadavu. There are about 65 employees working in my company now,” she adds. Her company ‘Rays-3D’ has developed a tempered glass that helps people to see videos in 3D effect on their phone.
“Government support for startups is more in Kerala. The ecosystem offered by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) here is great. Even Google India MD Rajan Anandan had mentioned this in his speech while inaugurating the Internet And Mobile Association of India mobile incubator ‘Mobile 10X’,” she says.
She adds that her talks with the authorities of KSUM are progressing. “In fact, the authorities will be using one of our technologies, ‘hologram’, for their event #Future Summit to be held in Kochi in March,” she says.
Anubha says her company started functioning making 3D videos of popular Bollywood and Hollywood movies in Mumbai. “The screening of Sholay, Dam 999 in 3D was a hit. We had even got into the Guinness Book of Records for screening the Malayalam movie Pulimurugan at Aluva in April 2017. We had beat the record screening of Men In Black at Germany,” she says.
Afsal Salu, another entrepreneur from Kozhikode, has come to Kerala from Bengaluru. He is now running a startup ‘BestDoc’ in Kochi. “Kerala is now becoming a desirable place for startups. Many people I know are ready to come back and own an enterprise here. KSUM has become more accessible for entrepreneurs. The authorities have started asking entrepreneurs what more do you want. This is a positive change,” he says, adding that in the coming days, the authorities should try to open more to people from other states too.
“Here we have a monocultural society. One positive factor about Bengaluru is that people from across the country and even abroad are accommodated there. Kerala should now focus on developing a multi-cultural domain among companies and its workforce. This would attract more people,” says Afsal Salu.
KSUM CEO Saji Gopinath says Kerala is very open to entrepreneurs who are coming back.
“We are trying to meet their needs here such as market connect and so. Also, since they are trained and mentored they may be looking up for a scale-up. We also provide them with scale-up opportunities,” he says.
The KSUM is planning to organise programmes at the national and international level to attract more entrepreneurs from across the country or even abroad, he says.“But it will take some time. We are on the change,” he adds Gopinath.