Kerala aims to have 15,000 start-ups by 2026: CM Pinarayi Vijayan

Kerala is working towards a four-fold increase in the number of startups by aiming to take their total to 15,000 in the next five years, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Sunday.

To realise the plan, the government will set up technology labs and incubators that will play a critical role for nascent firms to transform the state into a knowledge society, he said after inaugurating a pioneering digital hub by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) at Kalamassery, 15 km north of the city.

The cluster, in over 2 lakh square feet of built-up space, is billed as South Asia's largest development centre. The digital hub houses a healthcare incubator, design incubator, Center of Excellence (CoE) for Mouser Electronics, investors hive, design studios, co-working spaces, and an innovation centre.

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"To realise the plan of 15,000 startups, the government will set up technology labs and incubators that will play a critical role for nascent firms to transform the state into a knowledge society," said Vijayan.

"We are particular that shortage of funds should not stand in the way of conversion of a brilliant innovative idea into marketing reality," he added.

KSUM offers interest-free loans to startups. Venture funding with a corpus of Rs 750 crore will be made available. Besides venture capital worth Rs 250 crores is anticipated from financial institutions such as Kerala Bank, KSIDC, KFC and KSFE.

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Minister for Industries P. Rajeev said the government was determined to forge with its plans to motivate the state's young entrepreneurs.

"We are giving focus to the semiconductor sector and are in talks with companies in Belgium," he said.
Founded in 2006, KSUM is Kerala's nodal agency for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities.

The digital hub comes at a time when Kerala is giving extra focus on building the end-to-end process from ideation stage to prototype stage of a product, capitalising on its unique combination of assets.