The Kerala Startup Mission and the Department for Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Backward Classes have begun the ‘Start-up dreams’ project to provide support to entrepreneurs from these sections of society.
The project is now functioning out of the department’s office at Ambedkar Bhavan in Mannanthala.
Fourteen entrepreneurs from various districts, who were part of the first batch, will move out of the office to their independence spaces this month.
The first three months of the programme consists of an initial mentorship training through which the aspirants are made to understand the expectations of the entrepreneur world and the things they have to get done in the beginning stages.
In the next stage, the companies started by the entrepreneurs will be incubated at Ambedkar Bhavan.
Representatives of Startup Mission and the department provide the required guidance and support during this stage.
Funding support will also be provided.
Eight out of the 14 companies, who will move out independently, have already entered the market and started generating revenues with their products.
Products
The products developed by the companies here include electronic wheel chair, water meter, water management device, amphibian robot, geo-spatial mapping product, e-commerce application, home automation and gate technology, and paper bag making.
The electronic wheel chair has already got orders from countries overseas like South Korea. The water management device has secured orders from DMRC for Kochi Metro. A survey for Manikkal grama panchayat has already been completed using the geo-spatial mapping product. The product is also being used for the Scheduled Caste Welfare department.
One of the startups from here will move to the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation’s space in Palakkad.
According to the Startup Mission authorities, most of the young entrepreneurs here have been able to stand independently within two years of coming here.
Following the success of the first batch, applications have been invited for the next batch of entrepreneurs.
