Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 7 (KNN) In a bid to promote Kerala’s start-up ecosystem, the state government along with other angel networks has made commitments to invest Rs 18.4 cr in Kerala-based early-stage start-ups. 

At the ‘Seeding Kerala’ conclave organized by the Kerala Start-up Mission (KSUM), Kozhikode-based Sparks Angel Network announced an investment of Rs 8 crore in the State’s start-ups, while Kerala Angel Network announced Rs 5 crore investment.

Other investments were brought in by Phoenix Angels, a sum of Rs 3.5 crore, and Rs 1.45 crore is set to come from a pool led by start-up founders.

GSF Accelerator revealed that it would invest Rs 40 lakh in 2018-founded Humblx, a real estate start-up based in Kochi, according to a report in Hindu Business Line.

As per reports, the major amount of investments were directed towards Saas (software as a service) sector (41.7per cent) followed by hardware (20.8 per cent), healthcare, fintech and artificial intelligence (8.3 per cent each), and D2C (4.2 per cent).

Addressing the inaugural session of the event virtually, Rathan U. Kelkar, Secretary, Electronics & IT, Govt. of Kerala said, “The State is dynamic in its pertinent policies, keen to listen to feedback and looking forward to supporting new-age industries in the start-up ecosystem.”

KSUM CEO Anoop Ambika said, “Kerala is seeing an electronics revolution where start-ups will channel their energies more towards IT-enabled products as well as services in place of the brick-and-mortar industry.”

“For the growth of industry, we need investment, infrastructure and intelligence. While we have the last two factors sufficiently, the start-up ecosystem in our state requires a decent inflow of funds. Unlocking potential investments can boost our start-up ecosystem,” he said.  (KNN Bureau)