In a bid to achieve the ambitious goal of “establishing 10,000 startups in the next four years”, StartupTN, an agency under the Tamil Nadu government, is planning to set up startup incubation hubs in tier II and III districts. Startup incubators are organisations run by private or public institutions that offer multiple forms of support for fledgling entrepreneurial ventures. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin inaugurated three startup incubator hubs virtually in Erode, Tirunelveli and Madurai on August 3.
TNM spoke to Arun Roy, IAS officer and Chairperson of the StartupTN organisation about the upcoming incubator hubs and how the government plans to achieve its ambitious goal of “establishing 10,000 startups in the next four years targetting socio-economic development.
What will the regional incubation hubs do?
Currently, more than 60% of the startups in Tamil Nadu are centred around Chennai and Coimbatore. The three regional startup hubs in Madurai, Tirunelveli and Erode will work towards creating regional mentor and investor networks, incubator and entrepreneurship cell networks and corporate engagements. They will also organise events like hackathons, ideathons, startup contests and facilitate pitching before investors. These hubs have also lined up events to inspire, educate, ideate, incubate and scale startups from their catchment areas.
The startup framework document released on August 3 says that ‘transforming incubators into powerful institutions of socio-economic change is StartupTN’s priority.’ How will this be done?
The framework is not just a ranking mechanism but a tool to transform incubators into powerful institutions of socio-economic change. This will be done by helping incubators understand their current level and provide them necessary support to mature to the next level. Incubators that need support will be connected with experts and mentors from well-established incubators and stalwarts to step into the next maturity levels.
This exercise is to raise the bar and set high standards to make incubators ready to cater to the fast growing requirements and expectations of startups, without neglecting any sector. Incubation centres will not only be the focal point for tech driven startups and creating unicorns but also for non-tech startups, focusing on generating employment in tier II and III districts.
How will the incubators bring technological advancement to tier II and III districts even though they are going to be located in Chennai?
One of the key objectives of Tamil Nadu Startup and Innovation Mission (TANSIM) is inclusive entrepreneurship at the grassroot level across the state. Though Chennai has a higher concentration of incubators, there are similar facilities across Tamil Nadu, making it the state with the highest number of incubators in the country. The government is establishing the Rs 75 crore facility for StartupTN in Chennai not only because it is the capital city, but since it has the largest startup ecosystem in the state. However, we are also concentrating on tier II and tier III districts. Launching three regional hubs in Madurai, Tirunelveli and Erode before establishing the facility in Chennai is testimony to our commitment.
Is the incubator going to be modelled on the Telangana (T Hub) model? If not, how will it be different?
The Rs 75 Crore State Startup Hub Centre to be established in Chennai is not only an incubator. Incubation will only be one of the activities of the state-of-the-art facility. TANSIM is working on strengthening the entire startup ecosystem of the state by empowering all the stakeholders, rather than being on the forefront of all these activities.
Striving hard to emerge among the top startup ecosystems in the country and globally, we will not only follow the best practices of other states but also come up with high benchmarks when it comes to incubation and support to startups. We are studying different models while devising our own thought process to accommodate all the sectors and provide different types of incubation and in-house acceleration models.
Hyderabad and Bengaluru have established themselves as ‘startup capitals’. Did Chennai lose out on time to establish itself as a startup capital? How will the city make up for the lost time?
Bengaluru or Hyderabad models are inspiring and will certainly guide us. Tamil Nadu might be a little late in certain aspects but the state is India’s leader in SaaS (Software as a Service) and also has the best incubators in the country such as the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras. We need to project our existing ecosystem better. Tamil Nadu has all the components required to build an ecosystem that can compete with other top mature startup ecosystems in a short timeframe. We are more focused on establishing a Tamil Nadu startup ecosystem rather than an ecosystem focussing only on metro cities.
Will there be continued support even after a start up company has reached a more mature stage? If yes, how?
Mature startups have enough access to resources and support systems. Unicorns cannot be created, they emerge. But, we will ensure there is a conducive ecosystem for all startups regardless of their stage, especially through our ease of doing business and MSME (Micro Small and Medium Enterprises) facilitation initiatives.
Startups, especially tech, are still a male dominated space. Are there any special initiatives that will be undertaken by StartupTN to make it more inclusive?
Trends are changing. Sixteen out of the 31 early stage startups that received Rs 5 lakh each as seed grant fund under our TANSEED (Tamil Nadu Startup Seed Grant Fund) scheme on August 3, had a woman as founder or co-founder.
The first step in bringing women to pursue innovative and tech driven startups by identifying them and organising specially designed programmes for them and for college students. We are working towards bringing back talented former women employees from the IT sector who are now homemakers. We are also planning special drives to connect them with women-centric incubators, accelerators and funds. The regional startup hubs will be used for this purpose as well.
The startup framework document also mentions that mature incubators will act as an ‘entrepreneurs’ community hub’. How will this be facilitated?
Mature incubators have the ability to connect all the stakeholders of the startup community. One of the attributes of the matured incubator is the establishment of a strong mentor network and providing a platform for startups to interact with them. Mentors include technical, financial and startup facilitators who have the required experience and knowledge which the startup is looking upon. ‘Entrepreneurs Community Hub’ will comprise early stage entrepreneurs and the above mentioned stakeholders who can have regular interactions within the community.
StartupTN will encourage incubators to establish this platform and mentor network to be recognised as ‘matured incubators’. Startups who approach StartupTN will also be connected with the right incubator. We will also connect investors and mature startups who are present regionally with the incubators for better collaboration.
One of the goals of StartupTN is to establish 10,000 new startups in the next four years. Apart from regional hubs, what else will help the state govt achieve this target?
Regional hubs are only one of our multi-pronged approaches to reach the goal of establishing 10,000 new startups in a four-year period. We have planned a series of initiatives and projects such as sectoral accelerators, incubator initiatives, fab labs, investment conclaves, open innovation, startup circles, industry forums, startup launchpad, startup support services, a startup learning portal in Tamil and mentor networks to achieve this goal in terms of quantity and quality.