KOCHI: The Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) have signed an agreement to support startups in the maritime sector. This programme is expected to provide a platform for young and talented entrepreneurs to develop products/services in the marine space with financial support provided by CSL, a release said here on Sunday.
Under this initiative, startups can get up to Rs.50 lakhs as seed grants and Rs one crore as prototyping grants. There will be equity funding for startups at the scale-up stage.
The agreement was signed between Prof. V. Kamakoti, director, of IIT Madras, and Deepu Surendran, general manager (C-SAS), CSL. “IIT Madras will act as one of the implementation partners of this initiative and will provide incubation, mentorship, and training to startups selected under this programme,” the release said. The institute will invite applications online twice a year to identify startups for funding under seed funds, pilot grants, and equity investment schemes. This is part of the startup engagement program ‘USHUS’, launched by CSL to augment the government of India’s initiatives to encourage and develop an ecosystem in India for supporting maritime startups from the technical, regulatory, financial, and marketing points of view by bringing the stakeholders together.
Startups 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 for employment generation and wealth creation. The amount disbursed under this scheme to startups can be used to meet their operational and capital expenditures, including working capital, purchase of fixed assets, and other expenses.
Prof. V. Kamakoti said “Management of the maritime sector is increasingly becoming automated, posing interesting challenges to the creative minds. The current partnership shall undoubtedly lead to many innovative Atmanirbhar solutions.”
CMD Madhu S Nair who was also present at the event said “As an initial step CSL has declared a corpus of Rs 50 crores for our startup engagement program ‘USHUS’. We are also happy to have IIT Madras as our partner in this endeavour.”
Original News Link
https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/2022/nov/06/cochin-shipyard-ties-up-with-iit-madras-to-support-startups-in-maritime-sector-2515574.html
