-Gnan Innovators

Welcome to startup village company

Presenting by

- Walt Disney

“THE BEST WAY TO GET STARTED TO STOP TALKING AND START

DOING”

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 well-known 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 graduates in India are not job-ready. We want to give them practical skills and boost their chances of

getting a great job.

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.

Startup Village offers regular and virtual incubation. The companies that opt for regular incubation work in our Kochi campus. The start-ups that opt for virtual incubation can use our address for business communications. All companies get the following perks:

Tax ExemptionCompanies 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 FundOur 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 community.

Consulting Service by KPMGWe provide initial tax support services to

start-ups. Free advice is provided from an Indian tax and regulatory perspective.

IP Strategy by InolystOur 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.

Hosting support by Amazon Web Services Startup bootcamp launched2014-01-17Along 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.

 

Legal services from GyanMagnusOur 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 fees and deferred gratification.

THE SUCCESS STORY

OF KERALA STARTUP

VILLAGE

Birth of the villageThe 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.

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 connectivity.

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) Hi-Tech 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, Technopark (Thiruvananthapuram) and the private sector.

Image: Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology Sachin Pilot at the Startup Village office.

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-ups.

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 of Startup Village.

Ecosystem:

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