Till now Bangalore was the silicon valley of India, where people who set up their startups and work towards achieving their goal. But lately, another city from Kerala has been catching up in this respect., the Startup Village in Kochi has launched a digital incubator for students startups – Start In College, making it the first of its kind in the entire world.

  This has been the vision of the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Kris Gopalakrishnan (co-founder of Infosys).

• This incubator which took almost a full year to be build has been flooded with applications from not just Kerala but from across the country as well. They have received over 1000 applications for this digital incubator.

• The main motive behind this step :-was to ensure that people from even tier 2 and tier 3 cities get a shot at materializing their dream. It is easier to find mentors and facilities in a metropolitan comparatively. So , with this step, they hope to bridge this gap and level the playing field.

• Startup Village is India’s first PPP model technology incubator and has supported more than 500 start-ups and helped create 3,000 jobs during its first phase 2012-15. With SV.CO, Startup Village will scale up by reaching out to five million students in 3,500 engineering colleges across the country.

• The state will fund 1,000 startups every year with Rs two lakh for converting ideas to prototypes. The best prototypes will be given Rs one crore interest free loan to convert the prototype into a successful startup.