Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), the state government’s nodal agency for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities, has joined hands with NXTGN Startup Factory of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, for creation of a world class ecosystem for deep-tech startups in Kerala through collaboration in technology, product development and mentorship.

NXTGN Startup Factory is a consortium of major German universities, with corporate partners and a venture capital fund support of close to ₹10,000 crore. “This consortium of universities has lot of advanced research IP lying with them. The idea is to see if we can access it through our collaboration and let our startups refine that IP through use cases”, says Anoop Ambika, CEO, KSUM.

Stating that India is good at application level development as compared to basic research Ambika hopes to take something which is already on the shelf. “Let’s say give me the technology, lets create a startup, you take equity in that startup, lets refurbish this research and take it to a next technology readiness level (TRL) level and let there be some use cases”, Ambika said. “India is a huge market and Germans are very good at material science. So let’s create something which is of value. India can be a great market. That is the opportunity that I see. So, on one side you have IP, capital and corporate association, and this side we have talent, and market. It is knowledge collaboration”, Ambika added.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between KSUM and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany aims at developing around 300 startups in both in Germany and Kerala, with the collaboration facilitating funding and other support for deep tech startups.

A steering committee and a working group will be formed to carry forward the collaboration with participation of the government, the state’s startup ecosystem and German startup ecosystem.

A significant feature of the partnership is its focused efforts to create a sustainable talent pipeline from the premier institutions and colleges in Kerala that would bring out innovations, which will redefine Kerala’s industrial ecosystem, besides creating a lot of job opportunities.

Kerala has close to 15,000 registered startups of which 7,600 are approved by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).