Kerala Tourism | India's first start up village in Kinfra Park in Kalamassery near Kochi

India’s first start up village at Kinfra Park in Kalamassery – Telecom Innovation Hub

Kinfra Park in Kalamassery, Sijo Ruruvilla CEO - Startup Village, start up village at Kochi, startup incubators in Silicon Valley

India’s first start up village, will be come up at Kinfra Park in Kalamassery near Kochi. It is India’s first public-private partnership (PPP) set up on a 15,000-square feet space. The startup village which is modeled on technology startup incubators in Silicon Valley will be launched in February this year and the first batch would be inducted in April.

The Startup Village, also called the Telecom Innovation Hub, will serve as a telecom business incubator, and is a joint initiative of the NationalScience and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, the Department of Science and Technology, Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, and mobile communication solutions company MobME Wireless. An agreement in this regard was signed between MobME CEO Sanjay Vijayakumar and Kerala Infrastructure Development Authority (KINFRA) Managing Director S Ramanath.

The startup village is envisioned to provide all the facilities and services required to support student entrepreneurs. Infosys cofounder and co-chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan will be the ‘Chief Mentor’ of the incubator, interacting and mentoring the student entrepreneurs.

It will aggressively rope in support from the NRK community and high net worth individuals for nurturing the startup ecosystem in Kerala. The campus will have a full 4G network and advanced telecom labs and will also provide all services including legal intellectual property, accounting, fully furnished office spaces, video conference rooms and virtual office services required for a student to start a company even while in college, said Sijo Ruruvilla, CEO – Startup Village.

This would be made possible through association with leading companies in the telecom sector by setting up telecom innovation zones that bring the latest technology platforms and products to the start-ups in the incubator before their release in commercial markets.