More seed funds for incubation centres, says official at Kerala Innovation Festival
Kochi / July 25, 2025
Kochi, July 25: The Union government is making moves for stronger seed funds and more incubation centres to increase opportunities for nascent companies across the country, Startup India Head Mamatha Venkatesh said today.
The effort comes in addition to the financial allocations of the IT Ministry, the top official revealed, inaugurating the pioneering Kerala Innovation Festival organized by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) in the city.
“The beneficiaries should be careful while utilizing the funds,” she noted at the opening of the two-day event in the Digital Hub of KSUM in suburban Kalamassery. “Startups in various sectors can get help from other departments, too.”
Terming Kerala's startup ecosystem as the country’s “most vibrant”, Ms Venkatesh said the state alone secured 100 per cent registration under Startup India. “One should make full use of the Centre’s GeM (Government e-Marketplace), the Rs-one-lakh-crore Fund of Funds and the Credit Guarantee Scheme,” she exhorted. “It is a matter of pride that 48 per cent of the startups in the country are founded or co-founded by women.”
State Planning Board member Ms Mini Sukumaran said the representation in women workforce continued to stand “very low” despite a steady rise in the number of girl students in the higher education institutions of Kerala. “This gap is a challenge. The state government is taking urgent steps to resolve this,” she observed. “Also, the Planning Board has given various suggestions and schemes to the government to make the gender budget more effective.”
KSUM Chief Executive Officer Shri Anoop Ambika said the nodal agency will implement more mechanisms for angel funding to startups in their infancy. “Currently, Kerala has four angel networks. Success of more startup ecosystems will inspire angel investors,” he added.
TiE Kerala President Vivek Krishna Govind said the state’s startup ecosystem enjoyed a “buzz like no other” in the country.
The KIF features more than 100 eminent personalities from diverse fields, including film industry, music, technology, fintech and social enterprises.
Speaking in the various sessions at the event will be IT Special Secretary S Sambasiva Rao, Infosys Co-Founder and CII-CIES Chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan, actor-producer Nivin Pauly, actor-director Dhyan Sreenivasan, actress Nikhila Vimal, producer Sophia Paul, Is My Trip CEO Rikanth Pittee, Brahmins Food India MD Srikanth Vishnu, Matrimony.com Founder Murugavel Janakiraman and VKC Corporate House MD VKC Razak, besides others.
The July 25-26 event, which aims to further ignite the imaginative capacities of nascent companies, highlights KSUM’s ten years of journey (since the Technology Startup Policy notified in 2015) that has transformed the state from a budding ecosystem into a globally-recognized model of inclusive and impact-driven innovation.
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