Startup Village
Startup Village is a not-for-profit business incubator based in Kochi, Kerala. Started in April 2012, the organisation's aim is to launch 1,000 technology startups over the next 10 years and start the search for the next billion-dollar Indian company. It focusses primarily on student startups and telecom innovation. It is India’s first 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, Technopark, Trivandrum and MobME Wireless. Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and an IT entrepreneur from Kerala, is the chief mentor at Startup Village.
Administration
Sanjay Vijayakumar is the Chairman of Startup Village. Sijo Kuruvilla George was the first Chief Executive Officer of Startup Village until June 2013. Pranav Kumar took over from Sijo Kuruvilla George as Chief Executive Officer in July 2014.
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 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 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.
Developer 1000 Program
While India churns out more than five lakh 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 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.