Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) has signed an agreement with the business incubator of IIM, Kozhikode (IIM-K), Laboratory for Innovation Venturing and Entrepreneurship (LIVE), in a move to support start-ups in the maritime sector.
The idea of such a framework is to develop an ecosystem in India for start-ups in the maritime sector from the technical, regulatory, financial and marketing points of view, according to a press release. IIM-K LIVE Executive Director Rajesh Upadhyayula and CSL General Manager (C-SAS) Deepu Surendran signed the agreement in the presence of IIM-K Director Debashis Chatterjee and CSL Chairman and Managing Director Madhu S. Nair.
Under the initiative, start-ups can get up to ₹50 lakh as seed grant, and ₹1 crore as prototyping grant and equity funding at the scale-up stage. IIM-K LIVE would act as an implementation partner of the initiative and provide incubation, mentorship, and training to start-ups selected under the programme, said the release.
“Our innovation centre LIVE has been at the helm of transitions for many successful early-stage start-ups, and we foresee a renewed thrust on innovation in the maritime sector with this game-changing collaboration,” said Mr. Chatterjee.
“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 positions in new and emerging technologies in this space. As an initial step, the CSL has already declared a corpus of ₹50 crore,” said Mr. Nair.
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 release added.
