Has Startup Village lived up to the hype?

As the telecom incubator migrates to the virtual platform, not all within the industry are impressed

As Startup Village, the country’s first public-private-partnership-model telecom incubator, migrates to the virtual platform, questions are being raised whether the poster child of the State government’s entrepreneurship development programmes lived up to the hype.

Set up jointly by Mobme Wireless, a mobile technology company, and Technopark TBI (now, Kerala Startup Mission) with the Department of Science and Technology’s (DST) financial assistance of Rs.2.50 crore in 2011, the Startup Village now shifts to the virtual world, claiming that it has exceeded the target of 48 start-ups well before time and to overcome space constraints.

But not all within the industry and the government are impressed. Joseph C. Mathew, IT Advisor to former chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan, has called for a white paper on the Startup Village.

He considers the shift to the virtual space a bailout after leveraging government funds and space. “They haven’t even achieved what Technopark managed in incubating successful companies. They did try to get hold of government land during the previous Left Democratic Front government’s term but was turned away,” he said.

Mr. Mathew also challenged Mobme to come clean on their IPO plans and challenged them to make public the result of the evaluation done as a prelude to going public.

Pranav Kumar Suresh, CEO of Startup Village, said the IPO plans were shelved after the company managed to mobilise private funds.

Another industry player, who did not want to be named, wondered how Mobme was selected for the DST project and why Technopark TBI partnered it. He said the DST approval was secured on the strength of incubating experience and the assets of Technopark TBI.

‘Not a sustainable model’

A senior government official said the Startup Village failed to put in place a sustainable model. “They had a pretty lenient screening process, which helped them show greater numbers, but at the cost of sustainability, making further progress difficult,” he said. The official said virtual incubation could be effective only up to a point, after which entrepreneurs need real space for working out ideas.

Mr. Suresh claimed that the emergence of globally acclaimed products from Startup Village-based enterprises was testimony of its success in popularising entrepreneurship in the State.