Kochi: Young entrepreneurs in the state have something more to cheer: IT industry’s apex organisation National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) is opening a startup warehouse in Kochi. It is also opening an office in Kochi, which is fast developing as a startup destination.
The startup warehouse where people can walk in and present their ideas before a jury will come up by August on the Infopark campus with the support of Technopark Technology Business Incubator (T-TBI), IT and industries principal secretary P H Kurian said here while launching the second edition of the Nasscom product conclave on Friday.
Entrepreneurs can submit their applications online along with a one-minute video of their ideas. The warehouse board, formed of technocrats and State government representatives, will follow standard operating procedures and judge the ideas and select applicants.
The selected entrepreneurs will receive startup kits and credits given by Nasscom member companies, apart from their mentoring services.
Nasscom senior director K Purushothaman said the government has already handed over a 6500 sq ft building for the project.
The organisation has been running a similar warehouse in Bangalore for the last two year and had got around 6,000 applications, which included those from Malayalis, last year.
Four batches of 20 each had so far graduated from the Bangalore facility after spending six months each.
At the conclave, the jury selected five product startups which were given time to showcase their products.
Mr Purushothaman said Nasscom will open its second office in Kerala in Kochi. “We want to engage more with the fast growing city,” he said. “Kerala is the second state after Maharashtra where we have two offices.”
Nasscom has already conducted Startup 20:20, a three-day entrepreneurial promotion programme on college campuses, in Thrissur and Kozhikode and is planning to conduct it in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi from July. The programme seeks to help participants with ideation and development of an idea into the prototype, along with mentoring sessions by chiefs of member companies.
