THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Striving to create a stronger hardware startup ecosystem and to ensure greater participation of women, the Kerala Startup Mission has reserved for women five of the 10 seats in its annual six-month learning programme. Titled Fab Academy, the programme aims to promote young innovators in the fields of robotics, machine learning, 3D printing and the Internet of Things (IoT).
This is the first time the Startup Mission is setting aside five seats for women in the certification course conducted since 2016. The latest one will begin in January in association with professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). While their sessions will be held online, the innovators can make their prototypes in the fab labs. The academy will train them at the Super Fab Lab in Kochi. A fab lab is also functioning in Thiruvananthapuram, while 20 mini fab labs are functioning at various engineering colleges in the state.
Kerala Startup Mission project director Karthik Parasuram told TNIE that the initiative has received a good response from women. “They are enthusiastic about applying for the course. This time, we have reserved five seats for women with the help of either scholarships or corporate CSR funds. Of the 29 applicants so far, 11 are women. The MIT will screen the applicants before a final list is prepared,” Karthik said.
He pointed out that the programme helps youngsters focus on hardware or non-IT startups. “The main advantage of the programme is that there is no age bar. Even a 14-year-old boy graduated from the programme, in 2019. Here, talent matters the most.”
Most of the candidates take the scholarship route to do the course which has a fee of Rs 5 lakh. The Startup Mission believes there are many more women entrepreneurs who want to develop hardware products, and the mission wants to give them a platform to showcase their talents and products. The Startup Mission also aims to double the number of hardware startups in the state in the coming years.
Kerala Startup Mission business development head Ashok Kurian Panjikkaran said hardware startup registrations have seen an increase. “A greater number of women are now showing interest in developing hardware. This is a good trend,” he said.
According to Startup Mission data, 1,694 of the more than 4,000 startups that have been registered over the past four-and-a-half years are non-IT ventures. Of them, 600 -- the highest -- were agri-tech startups, while the rest were from sectors like IoT hardware, robotics and biotechnology.