State Budget will Boost Kerala Startup Ecosystem: KSUM CEO

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
The State Budget for 2025-26, presented by Finance Minister K N Balagopal in the State Assembly today, will impart a further momentum to the state’s robust innovation ecosystem.

Overall, the State Budget has earmarked Rs 517.64 crore for the IT sector.

The proposals in the budget to develop Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and promote fintech enterprises will open up new opportunities for startups, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) CEO Anoop Ambika said.

“The budget proposals align well with the state’s transition into a knowledge-based economy, a remarkable journey in which the innovation ecosystem is expected to contribute immensely,” Anoop said.

As pivotal drivers of the future for high-value operations relating to diverse verticals, GCCs will throw up challenging opportunities to tech-driven startups to capitalise on the huge potential offered by Research & Development, Advanced Analytics, Product Management and digital transformation.

It is significant that the budget has also identified the immense opportunities the Fintech segment promises for startups as companies rely on technology and cloud services for providing financial services to users.

The budget has allocated Rs 5 crore for establishing GCC parks including facilitating basic infrastructure and for preparing feasibility reports. An amount of Rs 2 crore has been allocated to conduct an international GCC conclave in this year.

Fintech includes start-ups, banks, non-banking financial institutions and cross-sector institutions. It is estimated that technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), open source software, server-less architecture, software as a service (SaaS) and hyper automation will carry forward Fintech development in the next few years.

Projects will be formulated by bringing together financial institutions such as KSFE, KFC etc. in these activities. An amount of Rs. 10 crore is earmarked for the development of Fintech sector.

Besides, Rs 10 crore has been allocated for KSUM to set up Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) cluster and additional Rs 10 crore has been allotted to the fund-of-funds scheme of KSUM.

It was also announced in the budget that startups will be given loans for setting up co-working space and Rs 10 crore has been allocated for it. An amount of Rs one crore has been earmarked for conducting Agentic Hackathon. The Freedom Square project of KSUM has been given Rs two crore and the proposed Emerging Technology Hub project of KSUM at Technocity here has got Rs 5 crore.

Rs 90.25 crore has been earmarked for the various activities of KSUM under Young Entrepreneurship Programme across the state.

KSUM, established in 2006 under the Kerala government, works for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state.