Kerala Startup Mission has been ranked as the world’s top public business incubator by the UBI Global World Benchmark Study 2021-2022 of Business Incubators and Accelerators, marking a major endorsement of its role in turning Kerala into a vibrant start-up hub.

Secretary (Electronics & IT), Kerala, Rathan U Kelkar, and KSUM CEO Anoop Ambika, jointly received the honour for KSUM at the UBI Global World Rankings 2021-2022 event held as part of the World Incubation Summit in Ghent, Belgium.

UBI Global is a Sweden-based innovation intelligence company and community founded in 2013 in Stockholm.

‘Data-driven approach’

“KSUM’s incubation programmes demonstrated exceptional value for client start-ups, value for the local ecosystem, and overall attractiveness as a programme. Following a rigorous data-driven approach, we assessed and benchmarked incubation organisations across the world,” said Head of Research at UBI Global, Joshuah Sowah.

Also, the study is in tune with the multiple facets of the international incubation ecosystem and illustrates critical challenges and opportunities the participating organisations face, he noted.

Kelkar said this global honour aid in bringing more investment to Kerala’s start-up sector. This would also bolster the start-up mission’s efforts to excel further.

The State government’s policies have played a significant role in revving up Kerala’s entrepreneurship spirit. This has helped the State to build a successful start-up ecosystem that motivates people to thrive in the sector, Kelkar said.

Robust ecosystem

Securing the top most position among the business incubators of the world is a big recognition of KSUM’s efforts in creating a robust ecosystem and for its various incubation programmes. This remarkable achievement of KSUM will provide further impetus to its activities in building the world’s best start-up ecosystem in Kerala, Anoop Ambika said.

KSUM’s innovative programmes including the virtual incubation programme, ‘Fail Fast or Succeed’ (FFS), physical incubation support provided for start-ups at various stages, and the systematic funding mechanism for start-ups that offers grants from ideation stage to market acceleration have all played a key role in getting this momentous global recognition, he added.

Back in 2019, UBI Global recognised KSUM as world’s No. 1 public business accelerator.

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