IIMK LIVE & CSL Ink One-of-a-kind Agreement to Boost Startups in Maritime Sector
Game-changing tie-up between an IIM startup incubator and Miniratrna PSU in maritime sector Startups to get upto Rs.50 lakhs as seed grants and Rs.1 Cr as prototyping grants and equity funding at the scale-up stage
Kochi: In a massive boost to the startups in the maritime sector, IIM Kozhikode’s (IIMK) business incubator Laboratory for Innovation Venturing and Entrepreneurship (LIVE) and Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) have joined hands together to launch a start-up framework. This framework envisages to augment Government of India’s initiatives to develop an ecosystem in India for supporting the startups in Maritime sector from the technical, regulatory, financial, and marketing points of view by bringing the stakeholders together. Director IIMK Prof. Debashis Chatterjee and Chairman and Managing Director CSL, Mr Madhu S Nair were witness to the agreement signed between Prof. Rajesh Upadhyayula, Executive Director, IIMK LIVE, and Mr.Deepu Surendran, General Manager (C-SAS), CSL.
Under this initiative, startups can get upto Rs.50 lakhs as seed grants, Rs.1 Cr as prototyping grants and equity funding for start-ups at the scale up stage. IIMK LIVE will act as an implementation partner of this initiative and will provide incubation, mentorship, training to startups selected under this program.
Speaking on the tie-up between IIMK LIVE and CSL, Prof. Debashis Chatterjee added “This collaboration will be an ideal platform for young and talented entrepreneurs to develop products and services in the marine space with financial support, mentoring and backing provided jointly by IIMK LIVE and CSL. Our Innovation center LIVE has been at the helm of transitions for many successful early-stage startups and we foresee a renewed thrust on ‘innovation’ in maritime sector with this game-changing collaboration.”
CMD CSL, Mr Madhu S Nair who was also present at the event said “We are hopeful that this initiative by CSL will catalyse the growth of marine start-ups which will augur well for the country, as we move forward aiming at leadership position in new and emerging technologies in this space. As an initial step CSL has already declared a corpus of Rs 50 Crores. We are also happy to have IIMK as our partner in this endeavour”
Start-ups selected under the scheme would have to be committed to working on innovation, improvement of products, processes or services, and present a scalable business model with a high potential of employment generation and wealth creation. The amount disbursed under this scheme to start-ups can be used to meet its operational expenditure and capital expenditure which include working capital, purchase of fixed assets and other expenses.