4. Introduction:
In January 2013, Startup Village and the Kerala government launched an
initiative called SVSquare.
Every year, we select promising young entrepreneurs from India and send
them on an all-expense paid trip to the U.S.
Our aim is to expose our youngsters to the legendary startup environment in
Silicon Valley.
We hold our community gathering on 3rd Saturday of every month. The event
is held at our campus in Kochi and we showcase latest products by our
startups to prominent entrepreneurs, investors and mentors who visit from all
over the country.
We want our students and founders to hobnob with some of the biggest
names in India’s business community, learn from the experience of wellknown entrepreneurs and connect with investors. Started in July 2013,
Devlooop is one of our biggest education campaigns. Our aim is to create
1000 professional app developers by the end of this year.
The program is open to college students all over the country. Most recent
5. Startups:
These young entrepreneurs have surprised everyone with their innovative ideas and
energy.
Support:
Our partners provide a wide array of services to our startups at a heavily discounted
rate.
Mentors:
Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and the most successful IT entrepreneur
from Kerala, is the chief mentor at Startup Village.
We have many more business leaders as our mentors.
Started in July 2013, Devlooop is one of our biggest education
campaigns. Our aim is to create 1000 professional app developers by the
end of this year. The program is open to college students all over the
country. Most recent graduates in India are not job-ready. We want to give
them practical skills and boost their chances of getting a great job.
6. Startup Village offers regular and virtual
incubation. The companies that opt for regular
incubation work in our Kochi campus. The startups that opt for virtual incubation can use our
address for business communications. All
companies get the following perks:
7. Tax Exemption
Companies in incubators recognised by the The National
Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board
of the Department of Science and Technology are eligible for
service tax exemption for 3 years and up to 50 lakh of
revenue.
Startup Village Angel Fund
Our companies are by default selected to make a pitch
presentation to Startup Village Angel Fund. This Angel Fund is
backed by some of the biggest names in India's business
8. Consulting Service by KPMG
We provide initial tax support services to start-ups.
Free advice is provided from an Indian tax and
regulatory perspective.
9. IP Strategy by Inolyst
Our start-up teams can avail of IP services by Inolyst at
a heavily discounted rate. Two hours of personal
consultation is provided to every start-up individually by
the founder of Inolyst on IPR / innovation and licensing.
10. Hosting support by Amazon Web Services
Startup bootcamp launched
2014-01-17
Along with the launch of phase III of Technopark,Kerala
government proposes to set up Startup Boot camps in all its
educational institutions including colleges and higher secondary
schools.Interacting with over 2500 youth over Google Hangout,
Chief Minister of Kerala,Sri Oommen Chandy announced that
these Boot camps will be set up in all colleges of Kerala within a
month.
11. Legal services from GyanMagnus
Our start-ups will get legal tips at a discounted rate.
GyanMagnus Associates is reckoned as the trusted
specialist adviser in Corporate Finance, Tax and Corporate
Law.
Legal services from Tree of life Associates (TLA)
TLA supports start-ups from idea stage to
commercialization on a pre-emptive and proactive basis.
12.
13.
14. Birth of the village
The idea of Startup Village was conceived in 2008 by
Sanjay Vijayakumar and his team (the group also founded
MobMe, a start-up in Kerala), students in the College of
Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.
"When we started, we had informed the DST we would
incubate 48 companies in five years.
But the response from the student community was
immense. The initial project was charted for five years.
Within 12 months, we have fulfilled all our commitments
and would submit the project completion report to the
government," said Sijo George Kuruvilla, chief executive of
Startup Village and co-founder of MobMe.
Startup Village, registered as a not-for-profit organisation,
started operations in 2012 and received grants worth Rs 5
crore. Of this, Rs 2.5 crore came from the government,
15. S.Gopalakrishnan- co founder
S Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and chief mentor of
Startup Village, says, "During one of my visits to
Technopark in Kerala, I met a team of youngsters who
wanted to create a company out of Kerala. They formed
MobMe. Today, the same team wants to create an
ecosystem for students in Kerala."
The 5,000-sq ft incubation centre in the park has four halls
that house 13 companies.
On a wall of the innovation room (one of the halls) is a
portrait of Gopalakrishnan, along with an inspirational
message for the innovators of tomorrow: "We started Infosys
in a room of about this size; it is your turn now."
Startup Village is the first centre in the country and the
second in the world to have 1 gigabit-per-second
16.
17. Pradeesh Chandran
With plans to create 1,000 product firms in 10 years,
Startup Village in Kerala is set to leave a mark on India's
IT landscape.
As you enter the 240-acre Kerala Industrial
Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) HiTech Park at Kalamassery near Kochi, the Kerala
government's focus on the sector is apparent.
At a small facility, some distance into the park, a group
of youngsters is working on a revolution.
The Startup Village, a facility in the KINFRA Park, is a
public-private partnership model technology incubator. It
is promoted by the department of science and
technology (DST) under the central government,
18. Image: Minister of State for Communications & Information
Technology Sachin Pilot at the Startup Village office.
19. Merely a year into operations, it has around 600
applications and about 200 companies are on
incubation mode here. Of these, students account for
66.
In the next 10 years, the incubator aims to create 1,000
start-ups out of Kerala. Though the centre is open to all
across the country, those running it hope a company
created here would also have operations in Kerala.
The centre has helped many start-ups such as
MindHelix, WowMakers, Yummybay, Finahub and
Asimov Robotics make a mark in the market.
MindHelix, founded by Kallidil Kalidasan, 24, has
already become part of the US-based Alchemist
Accelerator Programme for enterprise product start-
20. Ecosystem:
Infrastructure partner Kerala Industrial Infrastructure
Development Corporation is constructing 1,00,000 sq ft of
infrastructure space; an additional 20,000 sq ft is ready. For
student start-ups, the infrastructure is provided free of cost for
a year; for the rest, the fee is Rs 1,000 per seat.
Another initiative by the centre, in partnership with the Rajeev
Motwani Foundation, is SV Square, which provides start-ups
and students from Kerala access to Silicon Valley experience.
A Startup Village team has also visited the UK.
"A start-up from Kerala is now selected for a US-based
accelerator programme. With our 'Startup Village to Silicon
Valley' programme, we are sending students to the Valley.
These are some signs of what we are trying to achieve," says
Sanjay Vijayakumar, chief executive of MobMe and chairman
21. Image: Sijo Kuruvilla George, CEO, Startup Village (L) and
Sanjay Vijayakumar, chairperson, Statup Village.
