Thiruvananthapuram: Touted as the next major leap towards fuelling the growth of startup companies, Accelerator for Electronics Technologies (ACE) was launched at Technopark here on Monday. It is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the state. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the facility in a virtual meeting. The facility is expected to turn Technopark into a preferred location for electronics startup companies.
“ACE would help startups to grow up as sustainable enterprises. Kerala continues to be the state with the best IT climate in the country, which is demonstrated even during the time of the pandemic,” said the chief minister in his inaugural speech.
ACE, as a joint initiative of Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), is expected to develop itself as a leading accelerator in the country’s electronics technologies. This will nurture the development of high-tech startups in electronics and allied disciplines. The accelerator would be complementary to the KSUM-supported incubator in electronics technologies established in Kochi with the assistance of the Union ministry of electronics and IT, the chief minister pointed out.
CDAC would mentor the startups for a specific period by providing them access to the new facility’s physical and intellectual infrastructure. Mandated to facilitate software infrastructure that support the research and development of high-end electronic systems, tools and services, the 50,000sq.ft facility would provide 1,000 direct employment opportunities immediately, said the chief minister.
Pinarayi said that restrictions to check the spread of the coronavirus have not impeded the prospects of Kerala’s growth in the IT sector. “There is a large demand for KSUM’s scale-up space in Technopark, with 20 startups having already been allotted space recently. The plug-and-play space will be offered at subsidized rates. The Future Technology Lab will catalyze the accelerator programme,” he said.
While KSUM is the state’s nodal agency for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities, CDAC is a premier research and development institution under the Union ministry of electronics and IT.
CDAC executive director Shri Magesh E said the autonomous scientific body was keen to partner with any rising startup in Kerala to take the entrepreneurs to the next level by guiding them till hitting the market with their product. K Mohammed Y Safirulla, secretary, IT & Electronics, government of Kerala, said in his welcome speech that Kerala currently has 3,000 startups and a space of 4 lakh sq.ft for them.