Startup Village is an initiative launched in 2013 by the Kerala government to promote entrepreneurship. It selects promising young entrepreneurs each year to visit Silicon Valley for exposure to the startup environment there. Startup Village holds monthly community gatherings in Kochi to showcase products from local startups and connect entrepreneurs with investors and mentors. It also runs education programs to train college students in skills like app development. Startup Village provides its startups with discounted services and support from partners in areas like legal assistance, hosting, tax consulting and more. It is headed by CEO Sijo Kuruvilla George and chaired by Sanjay Vijayakumar, with Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan as its chief mentor.

1. WELCOME TO
STARTUP VILLAGE
COMPANY
Presenting
by
-Gnan Champions

3. -
Walt Disney

4. Introduction:
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In January 2013, Startup Village and the Kerala government launched an
initiative called SVSquare.
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Every year, we select promising young entrepreneurs from India and send
them on an all-expense paid trip to the U.S.
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Our aim is to expose our youngsters to the legendary startup environment in
Silicon Valley.
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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.
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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,
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Devlooop is one of our biggest education campaigns. Our aim is to create
1000 professional app developers by the end of this year.
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The program is open to college students all over the country. Most recent
graduates in India are not job-ready.

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. 
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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

7. 
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Consulting Service by KPMG
We provide initial tax support services to startups. Free advice is provided from an Indian tax
and regulatory perspective.

8. 
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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.

9. 
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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.
TLA offers start-ups free inception advice, discounted

11. Birth of the village
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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, while
the private sector accounted for Rs 2.5 crore.

12. S.Gopalakrishnan- co founder
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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
connectivity.

14. 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

15. Image: Sijo Kuruvilla George, CEO, Startup Village (L) and
Sanjay Vijayakumar, chairperson, Statup Village.