The Role of Incubation Centres in Kerala’s Startup Ecosystem

Abstract

Startups have got a vital role to play in the future of India by creating innovative solutions to country’s challenging issues and also by generating large scale job opportunities for upcoming workforce. The Government has recognized the importance of startups in the economic development of the country, and therefore they have come with various revolutionary measures to create a conducive ecosystem for startups. Today, a new pool of talented youngsters are building their own business empires and made India the third largest startup base in the world. Along with Union Government various State Governments also have made their state level policies to support the startups in their respective states. The State of Kerala was the first among them to have its own startup policy. Apart from the government, there are many other institutions in a startup ecosystem which support startups viz incubators, accelerators, educational institutions, research institutions, investors, etc. The proposed paper aims to study the role played by the incubators in nurturing startups in the state of Kerala by analyzing the facilities provided by such institutions to startups and also evaluating the benefits of taking incubation support. The primary data required for the study will be collected from 60 startup founders and 6 incubation managers from the six incubators functioning in the state.