KOCHI: The announcement to provide funds to the tune of Rs 2 crore per applicant as financial assistance through KSIDC under the Chief Minister’s Special Assistance Scheme for at least 100 startups and MSMEs has come as a boon for the ecosystem in the state, feel experts in the sector.
“The budget is a consolidation of the fact that the ecosystem is firmly established not only in the state but also nationally,” said S R Nair, mentor, startups. According to him, there are three stages of growth for a startup -- start-up, stand-up and scale-up.
“In Kerala, a majority of the startups are in between the start-up and stand-up levels. For those at the stand-up level, they need a huge amount of funds to reach the scale-up stage. Normally, these funds come in from angel investors and venture capitalists. But the process is very lengthy and time-consuming. So, the announcement to provide Rs 2 crore per applicant under the scheme for those startups that have come up to the scale-up level will be a big assistance for them,” he said.
The budget shows that the government has recognised the need for a startup to scale up, he added. “The government also doesn’t want the startups to stay put in the Tier-I cities. Hence, it has allocated funds to set up startup-incubating facilities in the smaller cities,” said Nair.
“The budget also shows the government’s intent to move into manufacturing. It wants the startups in the state to shift to manufacturing. But its success is doubtful since manufacturing prospects in the state are very low. However, cluster-based hardware manufacturing SMEs is a possibility and the government can give it a try,” said Nair.