Startup Village

Startup Village
Public-private partnership
Industry Not-for-profit business incubator
Founded April, 2012
Headquarters Kochi, India
Website www.startupvillage.in

Startup Village is a not-for-profit business incubator based in Kochi, Kerala, India. Started in April 2012. In January 1, 2016 Kerala Startup Mission took over the physical space of the iconic Startup Village at Hi-Tech Park in Kalamassery.[1] The organisation aimed to launch 1,000 technology startups over the next ten years and start the search for the next billion-dollar Indian company.[2] It focusses primarily on student startups and telecom innovation. It is India's first[3] incubator that is funded jointly by the public and private sector. As of October 2013, Startup Village has incubated 450 startups. The promoters of Startup Village are Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Technopark, Trivandrum and MobME Wireless. Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and an IT entrepreneur from Kerala, is the chief mentor at Startup Village.[4] From January 1, 2016 role of MobME Wireless Solutions, the industry partner of Startup Village since its inception in April 2012,is limited to that of a provider of the Digital Incubator Platform on www.sv.co.[1]Sv.co is currently available only for student entrepreneurs who can join the program by a nominal fee.

Administration

Sanjay Vijayakumar is the present Chairman of Startup Village. Sijo Kuruvilla George was the first Chief Executive Officer of Startup Village until June 2014. Pranav Kumar Suresh, Chief Operating Officer took over from Sijo Kuruvilla George as Chief Executive Officer in July 2014. Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and the most successful IT entrepreneur from Kerala, is the chief mentor at Startup Village.[5]

Notable companies at Startup Village

Incubation program

Startup Village provides members with workspace, high-speed Internet connection, legal and intellectual property services and access to high-profile investors. Companies can also apply for the Startup Village Angel Fund that has been approved[8] by SEBI. They also have access to all the workshops, networking events and contests at Startup Village. Every month, Startup Village holds a community gathering where would-be entrepreneurs can connect with investors, technology innovators and famous businesspersons. Interested founders are asked to come for an open house session[9] that is held every Saturday at Startup Village's Kochi campus to connect with the team and brainstorm with other like-minded people. They can then apply online if they wish to enrol for the incubation program. The Startup Village is in process of setting up a similar incubation facility in Andhra Pradesh.[10] Various companies such as iTraveller and Fin Robotics, which were incubated in the Startup Village, are now graduated companies and have received several rounds of funding. [11] Startup Village aims to launch 1,000 technology startups over the next 10 years and start the search for the next billion-dollar Indian company. We want to be India's number one startup destination.[12]

Developer 1000 program

While India churns out more than five hundred thousand engineers every year, only 20 percent are readily employable. In order to equip youngsters in India with the best programming knowledge and make mobile technology fun and accessible to many students and future entrepreneur, Startup Village has rolled out an initiative called Dev-1000-P (pronounced Devlooop), through which they aim to create 1000 professional app developers by the end of 2013. This program is open to college students.

SVSquare

In January 2013, Startup Village and the Kerala government launched an initiative[13] called SVSquare. Every year, the Startup Village panel would select promising young entrepreneurs from India and send them on an all-expense paid trip to the U.S. The aim is to expose Indian youth to the legendary startup environment in Silicon Valley. This will also give them a chance to interact with some of the famous tech gurus and entrepreneurs in the world.

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/23/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.