Kerala Ties with Airbus for Startup Accelerator in Thiruvananthapuram
Soon within few days after announcing the launch of its latest cohort of its 4th Bizlab accelerator batch, Airbus Group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kerala state government for setting up BizLab in Thiruvananthapuram city of Kerala.
Under the MoU, an Innovation Centre will be set up here which will be the nodal body for planning and executing all the activities to help startups in the state. The MoU was inked between Siddharth Balachandran, Airbus Bizlab India and Saji Gopinath, CEO, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Aerospace Innovation Centre in #Kerala at Trivandrum – A significant step towards reality. Kerala Government signs a MoU with Airbus BizLab, a global aerospace accelerator part of the Airbus group. @CMOKerala @airbusbizlab @Gutbruno @SidRdy @Csanth @ShashiTharoor @Airbus pic.twitter.com/LczeQIMSc4
— Kerala Startup Mission (@startup_mission) November 17, 2018
With this, Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala will second Bizlab center in India after Bengaluru and fifth globally. Airbus Bizlab already has four startup accelerator sites globally — Toulouse (France), Hamburg (Germany), Bangalore (India) and Madrid (Spain).
“We are confident that this partnership with Airbus Bizlab will help the industrial ecosystem of Kerala. It will up-skill the local youth and enhance employability,” said Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan.
Besides accelerating startpus in aerospace field, the proposed Airbus BizLab site in Thiruvananthapuram will also provide support and mentoring for startups in Kerala and conduct regular workshops and discussions with experts from the aerospace and defence sectors.
Additionally, Airbus will also identify opportunities for Kerala to adapt aerospace technologies across sectors and bring all the relevant Airbus teams and startups to demonstrate technologies.
This year, KSUM, the nodal agency for entrepreneurship & startup activities in Kerala, has partnered with several global business houses in varied industries. in June this year Kerala partnered with aotomobile major Nissan, which already set up its first digital innovation hub in India in Technocity, Thiruvananthapuram. The Nissan Hub is for research and development in electric and autonomous vehicles.
Most recently, KSUM has invited request for proposal (RFP) from SEBI-accredited alternative investment funds (AIFs) under its ‘Fund-of-Fund’ (FoF) scheme to invest in the startups from Kerala and thus meet the fund requirements of fledgling technology enterprises.
Also, to incubate and promote startups in the satellite and space technology sector, a space tech park is also coming up in Thiruvananthapuram and for this Kerala has already tied up with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in March this year. The one of its kind Space Park would likely to be up and running by June next year. An MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the two will be signed soon.
Source: IndianWeb2
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